A picture taken earlier this year in Srisailam

30 years ago

There can be no greater soul or person than your father who made you what you are, and my salutations to my father MKR on this great day which I cannot forget in my life.  

Dear friends and relatives.

I am very much tempted to write this blog because technology has enabled us a lot to record things for posterity and immediate benefit to those who care to read. This day thirty years ago, precisely March 12, 1983, my father shed his mortal coils and reached the place of Eternity and Bliss as God/Mother desired he should. I was hardly 30 years old and had not settled down in life though I had a job for five years in the Indian Express as a budding sub-editor, after being placed by him under the care of Shri CPS, fondly called as Master. In 1978, I happened to raise my family and subsequently with Divine Grace was blessed with my son and daughter. All that before I could even to some extent realise the personal, social, emotional, economic implications of a full family.
It can't be said that it was too early for my father to leave as he had already completed 75 years and discharged almost all his duties in spite of having to choose a freelancer's career half way through his life with three sons born late in his life. He had married off two of his daughters when I was a small baby.
He knew only his commitments to his profession and nothing else, and was reminded dutifully about other tasks to the family by my dear mother every now and then. He did not know how to lavish love and care on relatives who visited him because his world was different from anyone's else, we normal beings. So nearly 25 years he spent with his sons and that is the period about which I am aware of because I was not born till May 1953. It might seem to many from the surface that he did not express fully and openly his love and affection as immensely as do parents of today right from the moment a child is born. You cannot also say that he was very cold and as hard as a rock in familial relations. He had his own priorities which ordinary mortals could not fathom rightly. But his genius bordering on a superhuman existence and eccentricity enabled him to assess all individuals who interacted with him. He would cultivate only those whom he wanted/liked.  It was difficult to get into his good books for anyone for that matter.
Mr M K Ramamurthy, sorry I have not mentioned his name so far because still I feel I do not have even a spec of his greatness to claim genealogical benefits. But among the three sons he had in the later part of his life, I had the boon or benefit or rare opportunity to interact with him because he depended on me for nearly 15 years to get his despatches typed, to be sent to the Economic Times or Deccan Herald by writing which he eked out a portion of his living. My mother saw to it that he paid a pocket money of Rs 100 a month  in those days for that shabby job I did (called typing because I could not follow his subject or possess the required vocabulary.Thus he taught me many things.)
His stock market insight got him a better portion of his financial assets just as the property he purchased out of his savings to settle down in Gopalapuram (just before my second sister got married). He did not raise any loan or pay EMI! Of course, in the years that followed he managed his finances with an OD bank account. But he never shared his cares/worries with anyone in the family and so no one knew how he managed those things we call crises ( of any variety).
I should say that if he had make a frank written statement of his achievements on the personal front my father would have had a lot to record as disappointments. First, the marriage of a daughter (third one) failed and she came home. The eldest son did not graduate or settle down with a decent avocation, and even I, the second one, did not show signs of great potential for achievement by then. His third son who managed to scrape through with his BA degree was placed in an advertising agency and till my father exited this world he did not have anything to regret because of his last creation. The history of my younger brother, after my father's time, better need not be recorded because of its bitterness for everyone.
The fact that my father had a little hearing difficulty enabled him to devote all his attention to reading books, journals and newspapers and keep acquiring knowledge and creating publishable reading material out of his incredible intelligence and the solid education he had received in the British raj, the Madras Christian College.
He most often did not bother about who was around him and whom he should pamper, at least in a small measure by present day standards of acceptable social behaviour. He lost his mother at a very tender age, missed his family life with father due to his hostel education and career in a distant land like Calcutta and interacted very little with his brothers and sister due to developments after the passing away of his father. However, his relationship continued on even keel with his sister who passed away months after him.
His association  with the Mail newspaper in Madras, the Statesman in Calcutta and the Indian Express, Madras, the Indian Finance (he served this journal before and after his Express stint) and later on with the publications of the Times of India Group like the Economic Times and Deccan Herald in Bangalore till he breathed his last enabled him to create published material which he and we have failed to collect and keep a record in hard copy. Today I am very much ashamed for this negligence. That the children did not learn enough or much from him for their life and career was yet another disappointment for him. I should admit that here.
Apart from being a journalist par excellence with unparallelled memory of history and economics (Indian and world), (he was called a walking encyclopedia by his friends and colleagues) , he was very  pious all my years with him and he joined my mother in Japam and Pooja every day, and he was a great admirer and follower of the Paramacharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam.He used to visit him every year a number of times, and had audience with him on many occasions. The Mahaperiyawal recalled his association with my father when I went for his darshan a few years later. That he was a Srividya Upasaka must have earned my father the right position in Devi's Sripuram for Eternity.

I had gone out of Chennai for a family wedding in Palani and before I could return on a Saturday morning to type is weekly stock market review for Deccan Herald (on March 13),he chose to sleep forever and far away from us. As such his last despatch could not be typed. No one could read his handwriting, and he used to dictate his articles to me whenever I sat for typing. I could not decipher anything he had scribbled. Only two stenographers in his lifetime could type my father's articles and even they would have a quota of mistakes which he corrected in the draft.
He prefered buses and cycle-rickshaws and never zipped past in cabs/cars though friends offered him that luxury. He never got trapped in opulence.
But my father's blessings and noble principles of living within one's means and simple living/high thinking, reading a lot to learn more and spread more knowledge, etc., continue to guide me, and I shall cherish all that till the call comes for me one day from the Lord.

I wish to offer my best and most dedicated Pranams at the Lotus feet of My dearest father this day with all the love I failed to show when he was with me, and he has to pardon me for all that I did not do to rise up to his expectations and be an independent man by the age of 30 by which time I had rushed to complete the constitution of what in my later life became my family. For my part, I could not in right measure assess and reciprocate the love he had for me. True love unexpressed and unreciprocated that was the equation between him and me as father and son.

R Swaminathan, March 12, 2012

Shreyas on his grandmother's lap in Chennai

An ancient banyan tree of Mosur family falls

From: swaminathan ramamurthy <swamynathan55@yahoo.com>
Subject: A requiem for my periyamma
To: "g sudhakar kaduveti" <sxganapa@hotmail.com>, "kaduveti vidhya" <gvidhya_6@yahoo.com>
Cc: "chandrasekar wiiprowallah" <chandrasekar.swami@wipro.com>, "Gayathri Bharatwaj" <gayubharat@yahoo.com>
Date: Thursday, 5 March, 2009, 7:56 PM

An ancient banyan tree of Mosur family falls   But its strength will remain for years in the close relationship of the kith and kin that descended from it. My beloved and most revered Bala Periyamma is no more. Tears are not enough and even words won't do to describe the noble qualities we saw in her _ patience, tolerance, showing poise in love and affection to one and all of her descendants.   The courage and conviction with which she withstood all her trials and tribulations may not be known to the present generatrion but they certainly need to be told to the next generation so that they realise that it is very rare to find a person of that stature and pristine purity and glory for generations in India or elsewhere.   An embodiment of silence but stern views, an affable person in all situations, unlikely to get provoked that easily, winning the praise of almost all who will come in contact with her. But she always would put forth her viewpoint in all clarity and with no ambiquity so that there is no ill-feeling in any one. It is difficult to dislike her or her decisions.   She became great and famous not because of the number of children she brought to earth but because she was able to raise them to become  good persons who in turn brought up accomplished children, and also hold them together for years and until she shed her mortal coils. (Please remember the void that was there in my periyappa's life after the first marriage failed. She mended the situation at the earliest and in the best possible manner. Accepted a stoic and spartan existence in a village of little comfort of those days and lived there for over three score years.)   Only a person like Mr LAV Raghavan, my eldest athimber, will be able to recount today vividly the circumstances in  which she toiled but flourished with a great finish.The unexpected departure of her husband did not demoralise her, nor did the demise of two sons years back ( the first (Mr Ekambaram) in spite of a heart surgery and the second  (Mr MKB ) was a sudden one) shatter her much and for long. The resilience you see is unbelievable and unparalleled in any family.   To us in the Gopalapuram family, she was Bala Periyamma. I loved her very much because I liked her approach and attitude to people of whatever worth or importance in life. And she liked me also ,equally in great measure, as I was in attendance for all family functions.I had gone to see her in late October and will miss her hereafter.   Always stunned I was (in the wake of circumstances in our family that led to its disintegration in recent times) how the Kaduveti people were able to hold on to their original properties for decades and also raise the children to fruition and also brought to us stories of success of the Mosur family scions abroad. I am not stating this out of any jealousy but out of sheer astonishment and perhaps dismay that it is not being replicated in several other households. It was possible due to her best wishes and blessings. The beginnings are always small but the achievements need to be great. that requires determination, total commitment and sheer hard work and above all sweet will. The sweet will is what I saw in abundance in my Periyamma. May her soul rest in pace.   In grief,

Little known aspects of Kamakshi temple

Sri Kamakshi Amman temple in Kanchipuram was buzzing with activity, swarmed by devotees from near and far, during the recent Navarathri festival. I visited the temple not only to offer worship on one of the special days for Devi but also to get clarifications from some authentic priest in the temple for some doubts I had and also to find out the little known aspects of  the Amman. I went there wondering whether a Devi described as “Unnatha Kartha” can be frightening in her appearance to the sincere devotees.

Someone had recently confused me into thinking that the original Kamakshi was in the Adhi Kamakshi Amman temple outside the famous temple I was visiting. Another person had told me that  Kamakshi was originally a Ugra Swaroopini, and that Adi Sankaracharya, after establishing Sri Chakra (in front of the main deity) personified her as Shanta Swaroopini. According to my friend, during the days of Adi Sankara, the presence of the Ugra Swaroopini was felt outside the temple precincts, and Sankaracharya had appealed to her not to leave the complex. He further pointed to a tradition in which the Utsavamoorthy of  Kamakshi takes leave from Sankaracharya, at his shrine in the inner prakaram, each time she is taken out in procession.
I approached Neelakal N Ramachandra Sastrigal, a 70-year plus hereditary priest of Kamakshi temple, to collect special details about the temple and the Goddess . He recalled a stanza  from the Dhyana  sloka in Lalitha Sahasranamam: “Shree vidyam shantamurtim sakala suranutam Sarvasanpatpradatrim .” He highlighted the “Shantamurtim” aspect of the Devi, and said the Adhi Kamakshi Amman temple was being touted as original for reasons best known to the campaigners.
“Lalitha Thirupura Sundari dwells here as Goddess Kamakshi, in a posture offering penance, with four hands with Pasa, Angusa, sugarcane bow and flower arrows. The Amman is always graceful and protects the devotees with Her eyes. Her name Kamakshi itself signifies Saraswathi and Lakshmi aspects are in her eyes.”
He further said Kamakshi is enshrined in Padmasana posture in the sanctum sanctorum and is referred to as  “Parabhrama Swarupini”, seated with Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Eswara and Sadasiva.
The Sri Chakram installed in front of the Devi  is offered archana and poojas. There are no shrines for Ambal  in any of the shrines for Shiva in Kanchipuram. “As the supreme Shakthi, Her writ runs everywhere in Kanchipuram.”
Immediately surrounding the sanctum are small shrines for Ardhanareeswarar, Soundaryalakshmi, Kalvar (who has been mentioned in the hymns of Tirumangaialwar) and Varaahi.
The sanctum where Kamakshi idol is installed is called Gayathri Mandapam and has 24 pillars, standing for 24 letters of  the all-powerful Gayathri Mantra. On the right side of the Gayathri Mandapam, there is a sannadhi for Varahi and Arupalakshmi and Santhana Ganapathy, and we can see Santhana sthambam covered by a silver plate. Dasaratha consecrated the Santhana Sthambam in the Gayathri Mandapam to pray to be blessed with children. Sri Kamakshi is the family deity of Rama and his descendants. The Kumkumam prasadam of Kamakshi  is offered first to Arupalakshmi with prayers and is taken from her feet by the devotee for adorning his forehead, according to custom and practice in this temple.
One of Sri Ramachandra Sastrigal’s sons,  Syama Sastry, (he  is one of the priests in the temple now), gave me rare details about  a work “Kamakshi Vilasam” which contains all information about Kanchipuram, its boundaries (avaranas), etc., and the Kamakshi Amman temple, its relationship to other temples surrounding it. He spoke at length about Kamakshi Vilasam.
In Kamakshi Vilasam, there is a vivid description of the glory of Sakthi Kamakshi, and the sanctity and distance of temples of Shiva, Vishnu, Sakthi, Ganesha and Karthikeya situated around the Amman temple .
The sanctum sanctorum of Devi in all Shiva temples beyond Kanchipuram is described as “Kamakoshtam” in Silpa Shastras. Even the deities in those temples are referred to as Kamakoti. The 14^th chapter of Vilasam has explanations for points shrouded in mystery in other Puranas. Kamakshi Vilasam contains all the information buried in Agama and Silpa Shastras, and details about the temples in Kanchipuram,  the sayings of ancient Saivaite savants, and elucidates points made by them.
In the Kamakshi temple, poojas are performed according to Sowbhagya Chintamani, believed to have been  written by Sage Durvasa. Chintamani  describes Kanchi as delineating  the Akasa swarupam of Devi while explaining the five kshetras of Sakthi that embody the five elements (like Chidambaram is associated with Akasa swarupa of Shiva).
In Lalitha Ashtotrasatanamavali, Kamakshi Amman is hailed as “ Kamakotimahapeetasthayai Namo Namaha.”  In Lalitha Trisathi, she is  extolled as “Kameshwari” and “Kamakoti Nilaya.” She is called “Trikoota” and “Kamakotika” in Lalitha Sahasranamam.
Only priests belonging to two Gothras (Kausika and Bharatwaja) are performing poojas in the temple now, and there was a time when the priests belonged to six Gothras. But all those from the other four Gothras left Kanchi  to worship at the Bangaru Kamakshi Amman temple in Thanjavur.

Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 3:43 PM

Chithirai is still fancied

NEW YEAR

Chithirai is still fancied

R Swaminathan
Do you accept the first day in Tamil month Chithirai as the beginning of
the new year, this time Vikruti? Or do you prefer to swear that we should
go by the diktat of the TN government that January 14 (Thai Thirunaal) is
alone worthy of celebration by the Tamils? It was clear on Wednesday that
still many prefer to continue with the April start.
The Tamil Nadu government had declared that from 2009 the Tamil new year
would be celebrated on the first day of Thai coinciding with Pongal
festival.  To placate the old timers,  it was said it will be called
“Chithirai Thirunaal.”
In the Brahmin community, a new year is ushered in with the performance of
tharpan (offering of ablution) to ancestors. To specify when and why the
offering is made, the Brahmin devout clearly mention that they are doing
it to their forefathers on the occasion of Vasanta ruthu (spring season),
Mesha Masa, and the name of the year also figures here, as Vikruti. When
they do the same offering in January they extol the arrival of Uttarayana.
 An archaka of a leading Kanchi temple pointed out that we should
distinguish between months in which category Chithirai falls and the
Uttarayana which begins in mid-January. For the year, we should go by the
months and not the movement of Sun.
The customary reading of almanac in most temples was there yesterday. May
be, official functions would be kept for January 14. When the new year is
in April in many northern and eastern states, not to mention countries
like Nepal, Burma, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Thailand, will the diktat be
taken back by the government? This can’t be answered now.

Date:    Wed, April 14, 2010 8:06 pm

Landlords no longer rule the roost

The new scenario in Thanjavur:

Landlords no longer rule the roost

Thanjavur mirasidars have lost their holdings, their fiefdom has shrunk
and their political clout has severely diminished. Thus with their past
erased and prospects in the political arena ruined, they are keeping their
fingers crossed, looking at the heavens (not for rain this time) but for
the final call from the Creator.

I feel we need to highlight the totally changed and different scenario in
the erstwhile composite Thanjavur district, once considered the granary of
south India, where the landlords who wielded tremendous power controlling
politics and economy of the state, are groping in the dark for their
identity and future. The district once boasted of a number of land lords
with huge holdings, employing cheap labour, minting money when the rain
god blessed them like anything and the river water was available in
plenty. They lived in the district farm houses, with families, mostly
undivided ones, taking care of the property and commanding respect in the
nascent Indian democracy. The peasant revolution pushed them into the
nether world. The rulers too have learnt how to rubbish the blackmail of
the land owners.
Due to the advent of Communism in pockets of the  East Thanjavur as it was
called then, and the increasing awareness among farmers  that they are
just being exploited and paid lowly wages, and the change at the helm of
affairs in the Chennai Secretariat after the general elections now and
then, the landlords began to see their downfall and many fell like by the
roadside in no time.
Today, we see only a handful of them, but their holdings have got largely
decimated and their focus is dissipated _ and they have lost interest in
the agrarian business in which they once flourished. They have realised
that paddy or sugarcane cannot bring them prosperity and the labour will
not be at their beck and call any more, ready to accept the meagre wages
and toil on the land for endless hours day or night. The fragmented
holdings do not permit a feasible practice of modern farming methods.The
net profit has also become negligible.

We can  send a team of journos to the district and visit the landlords in
person, talk to them about their claims of glorious past, the listless
present and the hopeless future they face. The old generation is living in
distant memories, the dwindling present group is in despair and confusion,
trying to identity itself with this party or that party and tries to make
hay while the political sun shines. That is how we see election-time
defections, skirmishes and enormous liquidation of property to fund the
process of getting elected at some level to represent the people and pick
up money from even the shit and stand to be counted or mentioned in
vernacular paper's news briefs.

Then we see the vast expanse of agricultural lands giving way to
engineering colleges and medical institutions where politicians see scope
for making easy money and engage their benamis. The education wind mills
are tirelessly working in several TN districts, and Thanjavur is no
exception.No solution has been brought to the Cauvery imbroglio and thus
irrigation can no longer come to their aid.


A few bright brilliant people who are descendents of the old landlords,
who used to be called mittadars and mirasidars, have moved out of their
villages to big cities and towns, and have even settled in overseas
countries trying to squeeze money out of their paper degrees earned in
Indian colleges/ universities.

They sometimes try to see their ancient moorings, unable to forget their
love for the land their ancestors owned or the grand village festivals
which they gave them some importance in the local  history of their
villages and bloated their ego. Try to send some money to the remaining
elders in the villages . But the  truth is the land has become barren due
to neglect and repeated failure of monsoons, tremendous shortage of power
and hefty increase in wages and total change of attitude among workers to
time and work. We never know when the remaining handful of mirasidars will
be gone and the history of the state will be totally forgotten, and
rewritten for posterity with little or no trace of the fertility of soil
or brains that once stood for Tamil culture and civilisation.


Swaminathan R
Date:    Thu, April 22, 2010 6:59 pm

An ancient banyan tree of North Arcot family has vanished.

On Thu, 21/1/10, swaminathan ramamurthy <swamynathan55@yahoo.com> wrote:

From: swaminathan ramamurthy <swamynathan55@yahoo.com>
Subject: How i miss my mama.
To: "vsgopal2 gopal2" <gopal53@gmail.com>
Cc: "chandrasekar wiiprowallah" <chandrasekar.swami@wipro.com>, "Gayathri Bharatwaj" <gayubharat@yahoo.com>
Date: Thursday, 21 January, 2010, 18:57

Dear Raja and Gopal, An ancient banyan tree of North Arcot family has vanished. My humble salutations to that noble soul VS (Sundaraja mama, as he was known to us. /Sorry I am deliberately misspelling his name V. Soundarajan). I am very sorry that though we were planning to meet him some time ago we did not set apart any time for that. It will be a permanent bloton us  for having missed that opportunity.The remorse will linger for ever. But your father's strength _ he was everything to your Athai (Pattu Periyamma, herself a victim of several catastrophes and personal disasters in her young years like the passing away of her husband, and son Chandru) and the three sons <Raja<Nagarajan< Gopal<_ will remain for years and years in the close relationship of the kith and kin that have descended from him, and bind each one as no other glue can. Your beloved and most revered father and my mama  is no more. Tears are not enough and even words won't do to describe the noble qualities in Him _ patience, tolerance, showing poise in love and affection  to one and all of the relatives. Always ready to help those in need of his assistance. Remarkable memory of small details decades old. A remarkable quality I found in him in my young days was the way he put up with the eccentricities of my father.I cannot avoid mentioning that here.He was a silent admirer of my father and my eldest uncle Munuswamy of the famous Annamalai University. The courage and conviction with which he withstood all his trials and tribulations may be known only partly to the present generatrion, but they certainly need to be told to the future  generations so that they realise that it is very rare to find a person of that stature and pristine purity and glory for generations. But your children who interacted with him know very much how they loved each other. Memories will last their life time, I am certain. An embodiment of silence but stern views, an affable person in all situations, unlikely to get provoked that easily, winning the praise of almost all who will come in contact with him, he always would put forth his viewpoint in all clarity so that there is no ill-feeling in any one. It is difficult to dislike him or his decisions. Your closeness to him in undeniable. He was immensely spiritual but his religiosity was limited when it came to the question of display. In fact, when you were living abroad with your family we all were praying that you should get back and be with him on his last day on Earth. God has been kind to you and us in this regard.. He never became great and famous during his association with the Gemini Lab  but he brought to earth two good persons who in turn have brought credit to the family, and also held the members together for years and until he waited to shed his mortal coils in Uttarayana. He accepted a stoic and spartan existence, a rare quality to find these days. He never had big ambitions and lofty aims to lead a luxurious living. Pomp and grandeur were not in his dictionary. Only a person like you  and Raja will be able to recount today vividly the circumstances in which he toiled but flourished with a great finish. He was a guide and philosopher to Vijaya and Revathi _  an accepted and always acceptable father (inlaw). The resilience you will see is unbelievable and unparalleled in any family. You will have his best wishes and blessings to you and your family members. The beginnings are always small but the achievements need to be great. That requires determination, total commitment and sheer hard work and above all sweet will. The sweet will is what I saw  in abundance in your father. A father is irreplaceable in life but, as men, we are mortal. Our heartfelt condolences to everyone in your family. I miss my mama....... May his soul rest in peace. In grief, R.swaminathan.