Pollachi trip-6 & last: Our super-seniors

They don't recall when they met last - my mother and Balanna. They grew up together in Pollachi; are both 90 plus, super-seniors of the surviving Pollachi clan. Balanna is my mother's cousin - aunt Balanna-athhai's younger son. The elder one was Sarmanna. They all lived under the same roof in a joint-family, of which Chakrapani Iyer was the head.
Balanna who retired as head constable of police in Sathyamangalam lives with his son Kalyanam in Podhanur. He moved in there because of health problems associated with ageing, and because he had nothing going for him in Sathy.
Balanna lost his wife Muthamma 20 years back. Many of his police colleagues and cronies in Sathy are gone.A conversationalist with a flair for political talk, Balanna used to be lively company, sought after by friends. And the worst thing that can happen to such a person is losing friends, and being left with no one to relate to in the very place you have spent a life-time.
Kalyanam, retired railway official,takes good care his father, but he can't fill in the void left by his mother. Nor can he be expected to fill in for Balanna's thinnai-petchu friends,with whom he talked politics and shared social gossip.

If anything, Kalyanam's relationship with his father is reverential. He confessed to being a respectful son, still apprehensive of his father; afraid to have his say in his presence. Fathers in Balanna's generation were disciplinarians who didn't believe in friendly familiarity with their children. Abhyum Nanum was not Balanna's style when it came to bringing up children.
Kalyanam and his wife seated on their ancestrol oonjal - a swing that was part of living-room furniture in old agraharam houses. The swing, a favourite of his mother, is among the things Kalyanam brought with him after they sold their ancestral house in Sathy.

Kalyanam recalled my visit to the Sathy house decades back, as part of a marriage party on way to Mysore. The van we hired halted at Balanna's, where we had snacks. Kalayanam remembered that he had arrived at Sathy barely a few hours earlier in the morning from Cittaranjan, where he was then employed, at the locomotive works. He had taken leave to be able to join the barat to Mysore. The year:1971. Occasion - my wedding.
In this jaded photo salvaged from the wedding album Balanna is seen seated second from left; and his wife Muthamma, standing right behind him (as in life, so in photo).Their son Kalyanam is on the back row. Maybe he can figure out where; I can't,for sure - are you the one with a child in arm, Kalyanam ?If you are still with the group photo, the person to Balanna's left is his brother Sarmanna,and his wife standing behind. Nine of those in the group photo are now no more. They include Mrs and Mr Sarmanna.
I found the photo at their son Chandran's house in Machinnampatti, Pollachi. He was a kindly soul - Sarmanna; his life was a struggle, working in a cafetaria or desi equivalent of a fast-food joint. Whenever I, usaully with uncle Rajappa, happened to pass by his eating house on Pollach bazar street Sarmanna insisted on inviting us in for coffee and jelabi(which he knew was my favourite)
For all his struggle Sarmanna's daughter and sons have risen in life. Daughter Saraswathi, who retired from Tehsildar's office, is a multi-talented person. Besides composing lyrics for devotional songs, ably rendered in concerts by her twin-daughters - Jayshree and Vijayshree, known in musical circles as Kovai Shree sisters - Saraswathi does water colours, and sketches.Sarawathi and her husband Vaidhyanathan share their Ganapathy house in Coimbatore, with their only son Muthuraman and his hard-working wife, school-teacher and my niece, Kalpana.
Kalpana and her son Mukesh were mighty pleased to meet their patti (my mother) and her Bhagya chitti when we dropping in at their place in Coimbatore on our way back to Mysore.
Mukesh has a feel for the beat as he demonstrates his skill with mridhangam.Kalpana,like most mothers,would like Mukesh to develop extra-curricular interests.. Which is why she sends him for mridhangam coaching on Sundays.Mukesh confesses to his preference for dancing, fast-paced and foot-tapping kind popularised by our movies.