Friends, I have been taken for an easy ride on April 1 on a number of occasions from my early days. But my computer ‘Blue Light’ did the trick on March 31 itself, when after blogging and while previewing the whole thing, it went off as it happened twice before. My friend tells me that the person (technician), who first loaded the Windows 98 version and then the XP version over that, had used an unauthorised and corrupt disc and consequently all the botherations. He suggested that I get a licensed version and use it. That is where the matter stands now.
When I blogged about early days of the great writer and engineer late Sri Sujatha, one blogger ‘Pistha’ mentioned that I should write more on Srirangam and my early days.This has triggered my desire to again share with all of you, my experiences, in this nostalgic journey. Earlier I carefully avoided writing about myself ,and mentioned only my association with people and places which I mentioned. Now I wish to elaborate a bit which might include my own part in this dramatic part of my early life.
It was the year 1948 and I was in the senior intermediate of National College, Trichy. We were a big group which included a few seniors doing their I. B. Maths and IV.B. economics and our Cricket Association called ‘Kamala Nehru Union’, included a few from St. Joseph’s also. It was at this time that we came to know Sri Jawahar Lal Nehru, our first PM, was to visit Karaikkudi to attend the marriage of Smt. Umayal, D/O Dr.R.M. Alagappa Chettiar at Kottaiyur nearby and then lay the foundation stone of CECRI. Dr. Alagappa Chettiar had made elaborate arrangements to receive him by creating an air-field at Kottaiyur, a huge pandal at Karaikkudi, drinking water and buttermilk supplied free to all visitors etc. and we were very excited and decided to go in a group of 10 people. It was not so easy a decision as we thought, since we required permission from our parents/guardians, funds to go and also some wire-pulling to be as near as possible to the rostrum. Some of us managed upto 4 Rs. and some 2 to 3 Rs.
We approached our physics lecturer Sri Vedantha Desikan, whom all of us fondly called SV and Sri Srinivasa Raghavan, our maths lecturer, known in short as SSR (who became a principal later), who advised us to meet one Srinivasa Iyengar, a DTS of S.I.Ry. (South Indian Railway). Fortunately for us, since my father was in a senior position in the signal and telecommunication dept. in the Railways, it was arranged. He patiently heard us and said that we could first go to Kottaiyur by previous night’s train, walk to and wait near the new air field, see Mr. Nehru and other dignitaries and immediately proceed to Karaikkudi by the special train that was to come from Trichy, carrying the retinue of officials from Delhi, Madras and Trichy, with 2 saloons attached to the train. He insisted that we do get tickets and travel. He instructed a Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) to accompany us and help.
We almost choked, holding our breath when we saw a beautiful and youngish looking PM with his characteristic ‘Sherwani’ and ‘Achkan’ alighting from the steps. There was a huge chorus of ‘Bhaarat Maata Ki Jai’ and ‘Nehru Zindabad’ which was people who had come from far shouting with joy, though only a small gathering of officials and people from Kottaiyur, Chettinad and Karaikkudi were present. Since Sri Nehru was to arrive later at Karaikkudi after attending the marriage, we left by the special train to Karaikkudi and waited under the hot sun eagerly.
He did arrive along with Dr. S.S. Bhatnagar, Secretary of Science and Technology, who in his inaugural speech said, ‘truely Dr. Alagappa Chettiar is a modern ‘Bageeratha’ in bringing water to Karaikkudi which is dry and water starved’. He went on to describe how they were all pessimistic and even frowned when proposals came from Dr. Chettiar as the Chemical Research Institute needed enormous quantities of water. He said, brushing aside the objections of scientists and officials, Dr. Chettiar imported German rigs, shuttled between Delhi and Karaikkudi and finally at great depths tapped sweet potable water and brought them out with 2 ‘Artesian’ wells.
The whole gathering rose as one man to say ‘Alagappa Chettiar Vaazhga’ and ‘Karaikkudiyin Dhaagam Theertha Karnan Vaazhga’. Controlling his emotions, Dr. Chettiar outlined his plans to make Karaikkudi a ‘learning city’ with colleges and schools and also improve the civic conditions of the city. Sri Nehru, who was garlanded with a huge rose garland, put the garland on Dr. Chettiar’s shoulders and hugged him. He lavishly praised Dr. Chettiar for his interest in education and munificence. We were able to quench our thirsty throats, but nothing was available to eat. Two small hotels in the town near ‘Kallukatti Theppam’ had already exhausted their stock. The small IRR stall in the station also was closed.
We returned late evening to Trichy Junction and there a ‘surprise’ was waiting for us. One of our friends, Sri P. Ranganathan, whom we all called fondly as ‘Baabuli’ and who was also the captain of our cricket team had earlier, before we began our trip, informed his father, who was the manager of the IRR at Trichy Junction about our probable return time by train and he was waiting with hot meals for all the 10 of us. Starving from 6 am to7 pm with only a few cucumbers to eat, it was a feast for us and when asked about the charges, my friend’s father Sri Parthasarathy Iyengar replied that he has already debited it to his pay account.What great men are these!
(More to come)
P.S. We learnt later that Sri Nehru had instructed his officials not to keep Dr. Chettiar waiting for long and to inform him immediately whenever Chettiar arrived to see him. Besides when once, Dr. Chettiar hurriedly tried to wear his hand gloves, when Sri Nehru suddenly came out of his room, Nehru stopped him, shook hands with his bare hands, hugged him and took him to the guest house. Even today when I think of the bonhomie amongst our friends and the munificence and greatness of the people I saw, met and talked to, I feel very sad to think where had they all gone today? What had happened to us? Are we so materialistic? Even admitting that it is a fast world of competition and fight for survival, have we forgotten the humaneness inherent in our blood?
Early Days of Krishnaswamy 