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.

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Chakkali Madham

Chakkali Madham is the name of my ancestral home in the twin villages of Arangotukara (Arangode)/Ezhumangad. I do not know when the house was built and by whom. But my grandfather (father's father) was there and my father and his brother and sister were borne in that hose. That much I know. When my father and his brother grown up and had children, they thought of separating and portioning the properties they had as at that  time. The Chakkali Madham the original ancestral home went to my uncle (father's elder brother) Late A R Krishnan. A portion on the west side of the property a  vacant, land with 3 -4 mango trees and 4 - 5 jack fruit trees and 2 palm trees and few other trees were given to my father as his share.

The entrance to the property would have been facing South if a house was built there. Probably my father did not want a house facing South and he was in a position to buy another property. So he bought a compund of about 61 cents across the vacant land with a pathway in between the newly bought property and the vacant land received by him as ancestral property share. The house in the acquired place was an old thatched house in disrepair. He renovated and expanded the house to be identical to his ancestral home facing East though the entrance to the property is facing North. The new house (renovated one) was called as the Chakkali Puthan Madham to distinguish it from the original ancestral property known as the Chakkali Madham.

My uncle (father's elder brother) married to a lady, Ponnammal from one of the Palakkad gramams (villages) by name Thathamangalam (Rishinadamangalam). They had 3 sons Late A K Ramaswamy, A K Narayanan, A K Venkatachalam and 5 daughters Late A K Lakshmi (peria echumu to distinguish from my sister A R Lakshmi Srinivasan - chinna echumu). Peria means elder or big and chinna means younger or small and echumu is the pet version of Lakshmi. Their other 4 daughters are A K Anghichi Sundaram, late A K Seetha Gopalakrishnan' Late A K Janaki Raghavan and Smt Rajam Mani.

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Chakkali Puthan Madham

Chakkali Puthan Madham is the family name of my family house in the twin village of Arangotukara (Arangode)/Ezhumangad. It is a branch of the original ancestral home  known as the Chakkali Madham . On partition of the ancestral property my uncle elder brother of my father got the original home the Chakkali Madham. A portion of the compound was given as his share to my father. That portion was utilized by father t cultivate ginger (inchi in Malayalam) and the compund was known as the Inchi Kollai (Ginger land). Father did not build a house in that  property. He bought a compound with an old house just across the the path way on the Southern side of the Inchi Kollai. He renovated the old house almost identical to that of the ancestral house. Since it is the new addition, this house was named as the Chakkali Puthan Madham to distinguish it from the Chakkali Madham.

Father and mother shifted to the new house with their 3 children at that time. This house was bought and renovated immediately on birth of the 3rd child of our parents, A R Krishnan. My late uncle, father's elder brother's name is also A R Krishnan. This anomaly is due to the fact that the grandparents name will be given to the grand children. Hence mostly there will be more than one person with the same name in the families of Iyer community.  Hence the age of Chakkali Puthan Madham was the age of my elder brother lat A R Krishnan.

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My Grand parents - late A R Raman and late Lakshmi Ammal

My grand parents from father's side. Grand father - father;s father was late A R Raman. Grand mother - father's mother was late Lakshmi Ammal Rama Iyer. I have not much knowledge about them. I have not seen them. Grand father was the administrator of a very rich land lord. He died when his third child, my father late A R Ramaswamy Iyer was a small kid, leaving the family to fend for themselves in poverty.

According to my knowledge they had 3 children. Eldest son was Late A R Krishnan (my uncle - father's brother). 2nd son was my father late A R Ramaswamy Iyer. There was one daughter.



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My self Arangotukara/Ezhumangad Ramaswamy Ramanathan

My father's name is late A R Ramaswamy Iyer and mother late C S Seetha Ammal

I am A R Ramanathan born on 24-5-1939 in Chakkali Puthan Madham in a village by name Ezhumangad in Thirumittakode Panchayath, Ottappalam Thaluk, Thrithala Constituency, Palakkad District of Kerala. But that portion of the village where our house is situated is more popularly known as the neighboring village Arangotukara or in short for Arangode which is in Thalapilli thaluk, Chelakara Assembly Constituency of Thrissur District of Kerala. This position is because these  2 villages are acquiescent to each other with common infrastructure. I am from the family of Chakkali Puthan Madham. Originally there was only Chakkali Madham the ancestral house of my grand father. Grand father died when father was very young leaving the family in poverty. My father late Ramaswamy Iyer (alias Rama Iyer) is the youngest of 2 brothers and one sister.

I studied in the village school founded by my uncle late A R Krishnan, up to 7th standard. In one year either from third to  4th or 4th to 5th standard, on the day of promotion the class teacher came to the class and announced that those who passed can go to the next class and others can remain in the class itself. All along the teachers used to announce the names of the passed students. Any how as I am not smart or slow in understanding I lost one year. My mother will be upset and angry on failure of any of her children. But I do not remember as to how she took the news of my failure. While studying in 5th standard I formed one Balasamajam of children and students of our village. I was not knowing the meaning of the word Balasamajam. However, there were also children more aged than me and who were studying in the nearby High Schools. The Samajam's main work was cleaning the sub road from the main road to the temple, decorate the temple compound with buntings and frills of coconut palm's tender leaves which will be golden cream in colour and palm leaves of the dates palm trees during the Dassera festival of the temple. Another work is cleaning the village cum temple pond of the weed.

From the school we wanted publish a magazine on monthly or quarterly basis. Only one issue was brought out. It was hand written one written by one of my class mate, late M Ramanunny, whose handwriting was excellent. He was a brilliant student with lot of extra curricular activities like elocution proficiency, extempore speech and some sports though he was frail. After his study he went to Delhi and I had met him at Delhi long back.He died at a very young age. During the school vacations my eldest sister and children will come home with brother in law. Brother in law and sister may stay for a day or so and go to Guruvayur which is the place of brother in law. The children will be with us and those days were our good days as my mother and father who used to be strict with us will relax many conditions for their grand children and we also get the extra freedom with them. During one year's vacation, mother decided to send me to Ooty where my eldest sister Lakshmi Srinivasan's family is shifted as brother in law got a transfer from Trichy. Mother arranged to send me by bus to Ooty from a nearby town (Pattambi) to our village. She arranged to board me on bus and buy the bus ticket for me through one of our servants. He did his duty very well though he was an illiterate laborer. I had no idea what is to be done at Ooty. However, 2 policemen came and took me to sister's house. Now what I presume is that after boarding me in the bus the servant would have sent a telegram to brother in law and accordingly brother in law would have sent the police men to bring me home. I spent the entire vacation at Ooty. I think at the end of the vacation brother in law arranged to send me back to my place and I reached home. I do not remember the return journey clearly.

High school study at Varavoor High School

After 7th standard I had to go to High School. Before the school started my eldest brother late A R Raman had come from Madras. From Madras he was to go to Bombay for job and on the way he came to the village. I asked him to take me with him for higher studies. He explained the position and was not knowing anything about Bombay and persuaded me to join the Varavoor High School and bought one stainless steel (stainless steel has just started and was not available freely) lunch box, a duck back rain coat (rain coat will not be seen in the villages where umbrella made of bamboo sticks and palm leaves are the norms) and an instrument box of ultra modern make. I got satisfied with these items as I thought that I can flaunt these items in my village and the villages on the way to school. The school was about 9 - 10 km and walk is the only mode of conveyance at that time as bus was the only conveyance and there were no services to suit the school timings. I failed in the first attempt in SSLC. Next year I passed with 1st class. After the school studies I went Bombay for college education. We used to go in groups to school. There will be several distinctive groups going in the same route. We will play mischief on the route.  During mango season we will pluck bunches of tender mangoes which cab be carried in the lunch box and bag without staining the books.

After School education

 After school education I went to Bombay (now Mumbai) for college education. My three elder brothers at Bombay tried to get admission in a good college, Ruia College in Matunga, after virtually begging. Since my 2 elder brothers were good students in their days with high marks, the principal of the college reluctantly agreed to take me, He warned my brothers that I may not be able to cope up with the standard unless some coaching is arranged for me. Some how since I was not basically very much interested in academic studies, I did not discuss anything with brothers as to whether I find it difficult to catch up with the study or not. I failed in the First Year Science exam and the college did not want me to continue there. They issued TC and I joined a newly opened college in Central Bombay by name Ruparel college. But before the classes started, I had to go to native village to look after our shops as father alone could not manage the same with agriculture.

My return Home from Bombay

Father wanted help to run the family shop in the market area. He used to be busy during agricultural season which will be about 6 months in a year spread over and will not be able to attend the shop. I was staying with the 3 elder brothers at Bombay for college studies. Since I was not very much interested in academic studies I took the opportunity and offered to go over to native place to look after shop. Till that time the shop was managed by one of my elder brothers late A R Subramanian. Due to the strict and dictatorial way of father, brother could not withstand and left native place without informing anybody about the plan and place. I took charge of the shop and was bringing it to good shape. In my spare time I organized a sports and recreation club by name Union sports club to promote sports among the youth of the village. My father do not like sports activities as he considers it as play against life and also under the suspicion that I was spending some money for the activities.  So the disharmony started and he was becoming unbearable to me. In the meantime the brother who was looking after the shop earlier came back. I wrote to my brothers at Bombay stating that I wanted to come to Bombay not for study but for job. They replied that I can go over to them. It was a shock to father. He was under the impression that I will not go away. He tried to persuade me with pleadings and inducements for my continuing at native place. I did not agree and went to Bombay.

Return to Bombay

After reaching Bombay, I informed my brothers that I wanted to go for job. On the next day itself there was a walk in interview for a clerical job. I was selected and joined the job in M/s Rashtriya Metal Industries, Andheri, Bombay. I had some problem with the management. Persons who joined later and was learning work from me was given higher salary and I protested. Since no relief was given left the job and joined another private company by name M/s M S Patel & Co, Saki Naka. There also I had similar problem like that of previous company. I discussed with the G M and MD but only temporary remedy.  By the time it was 4 months I got a call from LIC where I had applied, wrote examination and interview. Though the salary was less by Rs 10/- I joined LIC after resigning from the previous company. First 4 years I was a model employee in quantity, sincerity and punctuality in work and attendance and was selected as one of the very few for a new department, the General Insurance Department of LIC. If there was any overtime given to any section in the department I was sure to be called. Later some employees of other sections hinted that because of me some of them are deprived of over time. I promptly stopped over time work not only of other sections but of my section too. Later I was forced to be active in representing the grievances of some colleagues about the discrimination by the officer concerned. This antagonized the officer and he started ignore me as far my work is concerned and tried to put the clients against me. Slowly I was pushed to being active in the Union activity. During this time I wrote some insurance diploma examinations of Federation of Insurance Institute (FII). This Institute was affiliated to the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) of London. After passing the FII courses, if a fixed amount, at that time I think it was around Rs 250, was paid a certificate from the CII also will be given and can use both the certificates. But I did not apply for the same as I did not feel it as important at that time. I do not know whether it was good or bad. Anyway it did not affect me. I got one promotion on the basis of the examinations and also some increments in salary.



Being continued....

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