Saraswati, a singer in our clan

Recorded this video clip during our recent visit to my cousin Saraswati's place at Ganapathy, Coimbatore. In most households we tend to take for granted the talent within our family. I knew Saraswati has a flair for music, but I thought she generally went for filmi gaana. And I was aware she dabbles in writing  lyrics set to  popular movie tunes.
But it didn't occur to me, until our recent visit to her place,  to ask Saraswati about her interest in music. When I mentioned that her music can be shared with others through YouTube  Saraswati readily agreed to sing for us this soulful number on Muruga,

Looking for his family roots

 Late P Rajagopal Iyer, son of Padmanabh Iyer, from Sulakkal, did his schooling at Pollachi, and later, his HSC at Pachaippa High School, Chennai (1942-43).
His Bangalore-based son, Shanthakumar, would like to hear from anyone who knows someone in Pollachi or Sulakkal who might have some info. on his grandfather's family that once lived and had farmland at Sulakkal.
We reproduce excerpts from an e-mail he sent us:

I wish to introduce myself as Shanthakumar, a Chartered Accountant working as CFO of a reputed company in Bangalore. I have been reading your blog and thought you could help me in re-connecting to my family.I have written to you twice earlier but did not receive any reply from you.
My father late P.Rajagopal Iyer, hailed from Sulakkal, Pollachi, but due to some dispute, cut his ties with his family and settled down in Mysore for a long time. He had done his schooling somewhere in pollachi and had done his HSC/SSC in Pachaippas' High School, Chennai some time during 1942-1943 range (He was born on 29th December 1929).
He had four sisters, all elder to him, and an elder brother Vaidhyanathan who died young. My grand fathers' name was Padmanabh Iyer. He died in 1989 without telling us much about his family. Former Maharashtra Governer Mr.C.Subramaniam's was a familiy friend of my fathers' family
I visited Sulakkal sometime in 1997. I was directed to a nearby village ( Vadakkipalayam ?) where a woman recalled there was, in their village, a Padmanabha Iyer working for postal department. He was Telugu-speaking.As I recall my grandfather (Padmanabha Iyer) was a railway contractor and also had some agricultural lands in Sulakkal (arecanut).
I don't have a photo of my Grandfather.I enclose a photo of my father during his younger days.

Shanthakumar.R.P
shanthakumar_r_p@yahoo.com

Sadabishekam : a re-wedding at 80

If you are 80,  and stay married still  (to the same person) ; and if your grown up children and their kids wish it, you are entitled to Sadabishekam -   wedding celebration,  all over again,  with the pomp and  ceremony  of the real thing.
 My uncle Padmanabha chittappa and Sambu sitti had the credentials , and  got re-married the other day at Pollachi, their home town, in   in the presence of over 300 invitees.  It was an occasion for a grand family re-union ; it was a happy  congregation of three generations of  the  Pollachi family.
I could sense my uncle relishing every bit of  the experience ; and my sitti complied  with the stress and strain of the rituals cheerfully, despite her poor health.  The rituals  included a ceremonial cold water shower,  when three generations of relations line up  to pour pots of  water over the Sadabishekam couple.  The water pouring ritual continued for several minutes, as  sitti-chittappa’s   relations turned up in strength to participate in the proceedings.
A sadabishekam ceremony entails  nearly all the rituals of the first-time wedding  minus the honeymoon. The first time , it was the couple’s parents  who conducted the marriage.  It is chittapa-sitti’s children, and their children who did the honours  this time around. Parents of both – sitti and chittappa -  were remembered on the occasion.  I wish I had asked chittappa how it was for him, when he married my sitti  the first time. A framed and faded wedding photo,  black & white,  hangs on the living-room wall at his Pollachi home. They had no video camera those days.  In refreshing contrast this time,  everyone with a cell phone was seen taking pictures at my chittappa-sitti’s Sadabishekam.
My  Take on the sadabishekam  is uploaded in  YouTube.

Cross-posted from My Take by GVK