My elder brother A R Narayanan

Birth and education of brother A R Narayanan

I am not sure whether he was born at Cherukunnu, mother's maternal grand parents' place or Arangotukara, our own native place. He had most of the qualities of father like short temper, rage and to some extent vindictiveness. He was a fighter against social injustices. His elder brother's used to tell him not to take up the fight too far. After completion of primary education in our village (in our uncle A R Krishnan's school) he went to Trichy in Tamilnad for higher education. My eldest sister Lakshmi Srinivasan's family was there and my eldest 2 brothers were also there with sister for studies. Brother Narayanan joined E R High School and completed his S S L C  there. Since he was the boldest in our family father wanted him to be a doctor. Father wanted to send him to London for medical studies. He had already an engineer son, the eldest brother late A R Raman. Brother Narayanan after school went to Madras for college education. I think my eldest brother Raman was there for his engineering studies at that time at Madras. Brother Narayanan joined the Jain's college or Pachaiappa's college for studies. I am not sure of the college. I have to confirm and correct. As he was interested in social work, he was spending his spare time to attend to the social activity in some slums there. Eldest brother tried to dissuade him and father also tried to dissuade him without any success. It was a disappointment for father as he had a hope of one of his son becoming a doctor was shattered.

Services of brother Narayanan

If I remember correctly, brother went before completion of college studies to Bombay where the 2 eldest brothers were already staying. He was staying in the house of brother Krishnan. He joined them and got a job in a Foreign Pharmaceutical company which was making Aspro or Anacin. I do not remember the company name. There he had some problem on some issue of injustice and quit the job. Then he joined another MNC engineering Co. Here too he had to fight for social justice and had to quit.  He got a job in LIC as a typist. In those days LIC used to give one increment extra for typing job and people used to prefer to be typists instead the post of assistants for the one increment. He got involved in trade union activity in LIC and was a very active and a militant leader of All India Insurance Employees' Association (AIIEA) which was supposed to be a wing of the then unified Communist Party of India (CPI). He became the Bombay unit secretary or Joint secretary. He was the most active member and activist of the union at that time and will go to any extent for the cause of the union's issue. Those days managements of all institutions including LIC wanted to discourage trade unionism and used to award punishments whenever they get chance. LIC got lots of chances to punish brother as he was extreme and several of his increments were cut from salary and was getting a very low salary. But due to his sincerity for the cause many of the officers had sympathy and respect for him. Due to his influence he was able to help me in getting a job in LIC as I had passed the written test of LIC for the posts of Assistant and typist. Though I was learning typewriting and shorthand for more than 2 years I could not type proficiently and without mistakes. I got the job of assistant which was a blessing for me in the later years. In the beginning there was an increment extra for typist post, which I could not get, later it was changed into an one time amount of Rs 10 / 15. Conversion from typist to assistant was almost impossible up to 20 years of service. Since I was appointed  as assistant I had no problem of conversion.

Differences in Union

Though my brother Narayanan was sincere to the core, he was considered as an extremist in the union and some of those who are shallow but could impress the general employees came to higher posts than my brother. He got disillusioned by this and not only left the union activities but also was like an anti unionist. He concentrated in his career and got conversion to assistant's side and got promotions and became an officer in an important department of LIC at the time of his retirement. Even now he has some respect in LIC.

Marriage of brother Narayanan 

He married Smt Rugmini from a neighboring village from ours known as Kadangode near to a town Erumapetti.. Since he was a union leader at that time both brother and wife were treated by the LIC employees very highly with lot of respect. They have 3 children 2 daughters Rama (Rema) and Geetha and 1 son Sridhar. Rama is an MCA graduate from Symbiosis, Pune one of the most prestigious institutions in IT technology education. She is married to R Ravichander who was at the time of marriage in Germany and later went to USA.  Both Rema and her husband are in New Jersey,  USA. Sridhar is also a MCA from the same institution where his sister Rema completed her education. He was also in USA for some time but came back to Mumbai, India and is with his parents now. The third child Geetha is a graduate and is married and settled in a nearby flat of her own in Andheri near to sea shore. All the three have children. Sister in- law is house wife. Brother and sister-in-law had been to USA many times in the past when their eldest daughter and son were in USA.

Housing Society activity

He had a vision of forming a housing colony of LIC employees. Once he came out of the union he had ample opportunity and time for other work and he floated the Ramya Jeevan Co-operative Society Ltd. There were several members registered with his society for house. Bombay is a place of flats, but brother wanted a house or at least duplex bungalow instead of flats for members. He finalized and bought land for the membership existing at that time. But there were several hurdles and the project was getting inordinately delayed. Therefore many members withdrew their membership. When he finalized the land purchase the price was low in the area. During the delay some development took place in the area. A good Christian hospital established in the area with a convent school and the Sathya Sai Baba trust established an ashram of Sathya Sai Baba very near to the place. Then some of the ministers and high officials started settling down in the area and the cost of the area shot up very high. Since many members resigned, the Society had excess land and they disposed off the extra land to the developers. With the proceeds of the sales he arranged independent bungalow for each of the remaining members of the society. The total contribution of each member might have been only like nominal amounts for which they got an independent house with some compound. Each of the remaining members got a property worth several lakhs. For this housing project he had undergone tensions and nightmares. Once some of the neighbors tried to encroach by trying to establish a religious institution in the land and he got it evicted the same. As is the case with Indians some of the people who take benefits from somebody or institution will try do maximum harms to the person who gave the benefit or facility, he had also to suffer such problems.

Before starting this housing society, he was a member in a society at Mulund another suburb of Bombay. His salary was less and his loan entitlement was less. I had not completed 5 years of service to become member. This society also took some time and in the meant time brother started his own society. He then took his share of money invested in Mulund society and transferred the fat booked there to my name. He suggested to me to join his society. Since I had already one flat booked at Mulund society and was not having much money for the property there I declined the offer though he said that he will help me to some extent financially. He now disposed off his independent house and bought a modern flat for the money and has shifted to there one year back. I have visited once before occupation and once after occupation of the flat. He is now fairly well off and his children are settled down as mentioned above. I am very much grateful to him for the helps he had given me.

Homeopathy Scientific System of Medicine