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

Photo Sunday:Computer

Grandson Sidharth working(meddling with) my laptop.The desktop image is that of Sidharth's parents with kid brother Nikhil, photographed at Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco.
Look up Photo Sunday for more on the theme - Computer.

Cross-posted from Bitten by the Photobug.

Sambu Sithi's Wedding Day 51

We hadn't planned this ; frankly,I didn't even know that Tuesday last was Sithi's wedding day,until her daughter Vasanthi told us, during our recent Pollachi visit. That was when we thought of celebrating. Sithi-sithappa, have been married for five decades plus.
Shopping for a cake, Lakshmi found it at Kannan Departmental Store. We asked the shop assistant to inscribe this message - Sithi-Sithappa, Wedding Day 51. Raghav and Balaji persuaded grandma to cut the cake, and fed her a piece. So did Sambu Sithi's daughter-in-law Jayashri, and daughter Vasanthi. Son Babu captured the scene on his cell-camera.
Sitthappa - Padmanabhan - was not in town. He had a date with grandson Manikantan in Trichy. An engineer with Reliance Group in Bathinda, Manikandan was on official visit to Trichy, and he wanted his mother and grandpa to meet him there. We wanted Sithi to cut the cake, even though her husband wasn't in town. She hadn't done this ever before. Padmanabha Sitthappa had a cake-cutting birthday last year, his first in 78 years, at Sharjah residence of his eldest grandson Karthik.
Sithi who didn't go with him to Dubai missed out on the cake-cutting. So we thought of making her wedding day a cake-cutting affair.

Balaji's mango

My young friend Balaji, with his cousins Raghav and Janani,tossed into the hedge in front of their house, the seed of a manago they had shared nearly a decade back.Balaji,then a school-goer in knickers,is now doing B Tech in computer science.The seed he sowed has grown into a full-fledged tree; and started bearing mangoes. On a recent visit to my native Pollachi in Tamilnadu I was pleased to see this fruit-bearing tree in front of my Sambu Sithi's house, and heard the story. Balaji (seen in the photo), his cousins Janani and Raghav are Sambu aunt's grandchildren.

Sister Baby in Mysore

We thought we were on time, but the train - Cauvery Express - had arrived 20 minutes early. Sister Baby was waiting at a virtually deserted Platform 4. She collected her baggage and started walking (limping) towards us as she spotted me approaching her from the other end of the platform.

We - wife and I - got held up at the ticket counter which had long queue.Automatic platform-ticket vending machine accepts only five-rupee coins. Maybe they can upgrade it,to a ticketing machine that accepts higher denomination currency notes, and also dispenses small change by way of balance. I have seen such gadget at BART stations in California. And they have a bank of ticketing machines at the station entrance, to cater to rush-hour traffic.

If an upgrade in Mysore is not feasible, they could set up money-changer kiosks (allotted to the handicapped or other deserving sections), where one could exchange higher denomination currency for appropriate coins.
We could do with more such vans. Presumably, those who need the services of 'helpline cart' phone a designated number. The system assumes that 1)you have cell phone handy, and 2) you know the number to be dialed.

Couldn't the railway authorities (or those sponsoring the public service) arrange to have free house-phone installed at convenient points in platforms and other parts of the station complex? This would be a big help for those of us who don't use cell phone. And there are still a suprising large number of rail passengers who don't have cell phone.