Childhood days – 5
In the subsequent vacations, my cousins – P.Subramanian - alias Ramani (son of my uncle Sh.Padmanabhan) and Balakrishnan – alias Balu (Son of my aunty Smt.Kamakshi) also joined me. We went to many places around the town. We spent most of the time in the local park.
We discussed about many subjects and day-to -day- developments and what we all will be doing in our future studies. We never discussed politics.
Balu has been to many countries – as his father Shr.Ramanathan was attached to the ministry of foreign affairs. He helped me in my hobby of collecting stamps. Ramani read a lot of books and was showing the sign of becoming a sort of an economist.
I wanted to become an electrical engineer, as I had flair for it. I will tell you, how this was encouraged by my grandfather as well. During this vacation, I was staying back while my cousins left me due to their other program – scheduled by their parents.
One night, my grandfather woke up to the noise of the only available table fan and yelled that the fan was behaving like a drunken person.( This is exactly true) I was very happy to try and oil the fan and do a sort of clean-up / service to it.( This is a very heavy fan by USHA make from Calcutta) a very good fan of its time.
So, soon I had my morning routines done, I quietly, took the fan to the open area behind the house. This place was shady and breezy as well. I took some coconut oil and cotton from my grandmother, and told her that I will just clean the fan. She cautioned me to un-plug the cable and then does the job. It seems some one had died among one of our relatives who touched a live cable of a switch – hence the caution.
I removed all the removable parts to access the oiling points. I could feel the felt near the metal bushes were dry and I soaked then with coconut oil. Besides, I also took the metal parts out and cleaned with soap solution. Finally, gave a clean wipe and switched it on.
There was no noise at all! I tested it on all three speed levels and still there was no noise. I placed the fan again where it was normally kept.
This success encouraged me to do something else. – To clean all the lamp diffusers and bulbs. I took the stool which helped me to reach out to the bulb and lamp shade. One by one I cleaned all the four lamps. Bulbs were of 25 watts each and lamp shades were of ceramic coated metal. It was painted white inside and green out-side.
in the evening, the lights were switched on. My grandfather was shocked to see the bright light from the lamps and jumped on me yelling that I have replaced the lamps for higher wattage. He never thought, I had no money for buying one nor I knew if he had any stock of higher wattage bulbs. I told him what I did. He took the stool, removed one bulb and looked at the writings on it. He was satisfied to find the bulbs were not replaced.
In the evening, he asked me to switch on the fan and complained that the fan is not working. He was so used to its noisy performance; he doubted very much if the fan is really working. Then I increased its speed and told him what I did. Then he was very happy and told me to inherit this fan upon his disappearance from this world. Believe it; I have this fan (more than 60 years since its manufacture) with me in working condition.
I had only one more vacation, before joining the college for higher studies. During this one, me and my cousin Ramani, lost our holy thread while taking the dip in the local pond. Usually we never cover our bodies after the bath. On this day, we had to cover but had only one towel between us.
I took the risk, and told Ramani to cover his body while I walked exposed. As we entered the house, my grandfather asked me, why were late and anything went wrong. Saying these words, he examined my body – only to discover the holy thread was missing. Immediately, he clarified with Ramani if he has his one intact. But he got shock of his life when he found his one was also missing. He then summoned our family priest, and asked him to provide us with new holy threads.
I was blamed for this careless incident and was grounded from going to the pond. But, were, allowed to go to temple after taking bath at home.
There were other incidents which are of not much importance.
Years passed, I went to Engineering College. I came on vacation only twice during this period. These vacations were different from the past. My grandfather looked at me with great respect. He provided me with lots of good guidelines to survive in this world. Told me of how my life will go for the rest of the years and cautioned me on certain engagements / involvements. Whatever he predicted and cautioned me, all has come true till date and I’m aware of what is in store for me in the next few years.
Only thing, I clarified with him was, why he did not believe that I will come thru’ from my pre-matured birth. He told me that there was only a scant possibility – due to positions of certain planetary alignments, but later all became favorable in sparing my life. He also told me that I was blessed by the past karmas especially some one in the family had performed (in the previous life) AGNIHOTHRI YAGAM and I got the benefit of it.
I met him only in 1971, while he was under treatment for piles. He was -in fact to be operated in a nursing home (Sunder Nursing Home) in Salem and was staying with my uncle Sh.Padmanabhan. he could not be operated due to his health condition then.
Then he was shifted back to native place N.parur and was there till his death in the next (11.30PM on 13-11-1972) year. My brothers and sisters looked after him closely during his last few months and were frequently visited by others who could not be close to him always, due to their individual commitments.
From the time I was employed, I managed to send him Rs.50.00 regularly. My first remittance from my first salary was sent to him (Rs.100.00) along with a registered letter. He wrote to me regularly till he went into coma two weeks before his death. I have all his letter cards, involving such things as the weather, plant condition in the house, information about neighbors, his encounters with trouble causing boys – who came to take away flowers from our garden and so on. At times, he will point out my mistakes in the letters and write to me of the correct version. Despite his being unwell he always spared time for all of us, new generation children.
Many times during his conversation, he mentioned about certain difficulties in his life at the hands of others – especially when he had to live away from his family for a brief period before returning to his native N.Parur. He told me of his brief notes in his diary which I never saw till after few years of his death. I read it many times and learned about him more than I learnt, from his own mouth.
I shall write the contents some time during the course of the coming months. Presently, I’m not adding any pictures at present, and will do so later after sorting the available ones, appropriately.


V.Sivasubramaniam
01-04-2009