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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Lakshmi Srinivasan - my eldest sister

My eldest sister's name was Lakshmi. She was married to Late R Srinivasan. My sister was born at grandmother's place at Cherumunnu. her husband, my brother in law Late R Srinivasan was born at Guruvayur in Thrissur District of Kerala in India. Sister got married at the age of 13 as was the custom those days o get the girls married at young age. Brother in Law Srinivasan was an employee of police department of Tamilnad. He was placed at Trichy at the time of marriage. Later he has worked in Ooty, Coimbatore, Velur and Madras. He retired at Madras. He died at Madras after a brief period of illness. Sister Lakshmi died at Chennai during 2010.

They have 5 children. 3 daughters and 2 sons. Eldest daughter is Rajalakshmi. She was born in Arangode. She is married to Sri V Narayanan, an engineer, was an employee in a private company in Chennai. He is now retired. The have 2 children. Ramesh and Sudha. Both of them are married and have 2 children each.

Next is also daughter Saroja. She was married to Sri K G Subramanian of Thrissur. Subramanian was employed in a private company working in Bombay. He passed away abut 18 months back. They have 2 children. Vinod is son and is employed in a private company. He has completed C A. He is married t a Doctor. Now they are settled down in Bangalore. They have on daughter.
Next is a son Sri S Ramamoorthy. He is an engineer. He was working in BHEL. He took voluntary retirement. He is married to Bhageerathi (Geetha). She was employed in P S U bank. She took voluntary retirement. She is running a charity home for orphaned senior citizen. The institution is about 3 km from their residence at Ambattur. The had one son who died in US about 3 years back. Daughter Jayashree is engineer and is employed in Chennai.
Next son is Ramakrishnan alias Mohan. He is married and have 2 daughters. Uma is the name of his wife. Elder daughter name is Rohini. 2nd daughter's name is to be updated.
Third daughter is Usha. She is married to C S Viswanathan. Viswanathan is an engineer and was in service in a P S U. He is retired. They are settled down in Anna Nagar, Chennai. They have daughter Vidya married to Bhushan and have one daughter Sanjana.


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My uncle late A R Krishan Iyer

 Uncle and aunty

To my knowledge my father had one elder brother and a sister. The elder brother's (my uncle)name was A R Krishnan Iyer. He was a very mild, gentle and pious person unlike my father who was short tempered. Aunt - Ponnammal was a very aggressive lady with some mischievous tendency. My mother had to suffer to great extent because of her. Her deaths were mysterious. Aunt had diabetes and other health problems. In the last stage she was unwell for few days. One day suddenly she became still and every one thought her to be dead. The local doctor (LMP) came examined her and declared as dead In the villages in olden days there was a practice to cut a mango tree if it is available in the compound on the death of any member of the family to cremate. In every house there will be more than one mango tree. At least a branch will be cut for cremation purpose. Some went to call the priest of the family who is about 5 - 6 km away. All arrangements were made ready for taking the body for cremation. When the rituals were to start she suddenly sat up and started weeping and telling her experience just before her getting up. She said that she was taken to Yama's place and Yama told his assistants that it is not yet time for hear death and she should be sent back to the earth. Accordingly she was sent back. She was feeling that she had been very difficult in her life for others and repented for the same and wanted to correct herself. She became a changed person from that incident. After that incident she was alive for about 2 years when she passed away.

Children of uncle Krishna Iyer

Uncle late Krishnan Iyer had 5 daughters and 3 sons. I do not remember the order. However the eldest one late Lakshmi is daughter. Those days marriages were performed when the girl cross 11 years and before 13 years. She was married off and after that there was not much information to me about her. They had children. I have seen her one daughter who was in the ancestral home for some years. Another daughter of uncle  is alive and might be about 90 to 95 years of age. She is at present in Chennai with her nephew. She is bent and her posture will be like that of figure 7. Her husband Sundaram Iyer died about 2 years back. He was a railway employee. His native place according to my knowledge is Lekkidi near Palakkad.  He became senile and had to be under strict watch or else he would run away like children. They had no issues.

After these 2 daughters, I think uncle had 3 sons by name A K Ramaswamy, A K Narayanan and A K Venkatachalam.

Late A K Ramaswamy was the eldest son. He was employed in the National Grindlays Bank in their Indian Head Branch at Bombay. He was staying is one of the oldest society buildings (Sriram society) in Andheri a suburb of Bombay. He married late Ananthambal from the neighboring village, Desamangalam. They had 1 son A R Krishnan and 1 daughter Vanaja. Son studied engineering and got job in USA and is still in USA. He is married but I do not have details of his children. I think he married from a nearby town Shornur. His sister was married and was staying near to her parents at Andheri. Vanaja had to suffer in her life and died at a comparatively younger age. Both Mr and Mrs Ramaswamy died at Bombay within a gap of about 2 years from each other.His son Krishnan has told me recently when we met at Thrissur at the wedding ceremony the grand daughter of his uncle and my cousin A K Venakatachalam that he owe his becoming an engineer to his cousin uncle, my eldest brother late A R Raman. This bother was his role model and he has also helped him in the studies.

Late A K Narayanan was with his father at Biminipatnam helping to manage the hotel. Uncle Krisha Iyer came back to the village giving full charge to his son Narayanan. Narayanan managed the hotel for some more time and he gave it to one of his brother-in-laws Lat Gopalakrishnan who was one of my maternal uncle. Cousin Narayanan Married Smt Parvathy of Chelakkara a town in the same district.They have 2 sons both were helping their uncle (father's younger brother) one at Bombay and the other at Bangalore. Cousin Narayanan died few years back. After leaving the hotel business to his brother in law he settled down in native place and was looking after the agriculture and other properties of that family. The ancestral house had a large compound of about two acres of land. The front portion facing east and the house also facing  east went  to father's elder brother, uncle Krishna Iyer. The back side portion, about half of vacant the land went to my father as his share. The entranc to that land was from South and probably due to that fact father did not build a house there, but bought an old house with land of about one and half acres. Father renovated the old  building with the mud walls and thatched roof into a bigger one without demolishing the old walls. He fortified the walls, expanded on all the 4 sides of the old one and removed the thatched roof into tiled roof with solid wood frames fixed on to the walls. This renovation was done at the time of the birth of my 2nd eldest brother A R Krishnan and the age of the building was the age of the brother. This building and the attached and was parallel to the ancestral portion of land given to father as his share. There is a road running in between these two properties of father. The uncle's family used to ask for the land behind their house but is of father for themselves as they felt that father have made property for his own and this vacant land is used for cultivation ginger crop whihc is an yearly affair but was a continuation of their property. Hence this portion of the property was know as the ginger land. Since it was a portion of the ancestral property father died not want to part with it.

My mother had leukemia and had to be taken to Thrissur which is about 30 km from our village. Father has to go with her and to assist him cousin Narayanan used to accompany them to Thrissur. Mother was ill for about 1 month at home and then taken to Thrissur. There she was diagnosed of having the leukemia problem and had to be given blood transfusion. This happened during late fifties and the blood donation was considered as a very bad thing and people never used to volunteer. But the cousin's blood matched with that of mother and he volunteered to donate and blood transfusion was done. But it was useful only for short period and eventually mother died soon thereafter. Then father appreciated the gesture of the cousin in giving blood to mother and gave the land portion of the ancestral property to this brother as a gift before father's death. Though Narayanan was our cousin only, he was like a real brother attending to the needs of help for father during mother's illness and later when father was ill.

Next is child of uncle is another son Sri A K Venkatachalam. He was working in a watch company neat V T Station in Bombay. During his work he came in contact with the persons from Geneva. Those days 99% of the watches were Swiss made. After going to Geneva cousin Venkatachalam got a Government job there. He was also having some business and is well off. He married and wife is from Chennai. They have two sons A V Krishnan (Ramani) and A V Raghavan (Ravi). Both the sons are in business and are based at Geneva. Both the sons are married and are having one daughter and son each. The spouses of both are in office job in Geneva. Since he gets pension from Geneva he has to stay for a minimum of 6 months in a year at Geneva. He keeps traveling between Geneva and India.

After that there were daughters. One is by name Seetha (who was married to one of my maternal uncle late Gopalakrishnan). He joined his brother-in-law Narayanan in the hotel business at Biminipatnam. After cousin Narayanan left the hotel, it was given to the brother-in-law Gopalakrishnan. Mr Gopalakrishnan died at Biminipatnam and after some years his wife Seetha died. They have 2 daughter and 3 sons.

Next one is a daughter by name Janaki and married to Rghavan a teacher cum land lord from a nearby village, Muringhtheri. I have not much details about them.

Next is also daughter married  to Mani Iyer from Thrissur. He was employed in the PWD. They have 3 daughters and 3 sons. One daughter is the daughter in law of cousin Venkatachalam.

 Family was in poverty

My grandfather (father of my father and uncle Krishnan) died at young age leaving the family to poverty. Uncle and my father had to start working at a very young age and were working as cook and my father was uncle's assistant and in a big landlord's house near to our village at a salary of Re 1 and 0.50 respectively. Those days this was a big amount. However for the family maintenance help from others in the form of vegetables, fruits, milk etc were available in those days as people consider helping Brahmins as an auspicious deed. When father grew up he went out for work. After his partial successes in some places he and his brother started a hotel in a Biminipatnam near Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. After few years being together father left the hotel to his brother and went to a town Parvathipuram in Andhra near Orissa border. Uncle Krishna Iyer managed the hotel at Biminipatnam for some years and gave charge of it to his second son late A K Narayanan.

Ezhumangad aided upper primary school

My uncle Krishna Iyer was an uneducated person. But he started a primary school in the village and was one of the best primary schools in Kerala. After few years the school was made as an upper primary school and the Kerala State Government was giving aid and it became aided upper primary school. As he was out of station for work and lack of administrative experience he appointed a manager who was also a teacher in the school. The manger suggested for General Power of Attorney for himself as it was difficult for him to get the signatures on the documents to be submitted to various authorities. The GPA was given and later he tried to establish his right of ownership of the school. After his death it went to one of his successors. Even now the school is observing the annual death date of my uncle as the founder's day. Thousands of students have passed out of this school many of them went for higher studies and many had come to high positions in various walks of life.

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My Grand parents from Mother's side

Maternal grand parents My mother's father was late C S Subramania Iyer.He was from a village by name Chenagad, near to Ottaplam Town in Palakkad District of Kerala state in India. Mother's mother was late Parvathy Ammal of Cherukunnu, near Kannur town. Homeopathy Scientific System of Medicine

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 parents - Late A R Ramaswamy Iyer & Late C S Seetha Ammal

My parents were Late A R Ramaswamy Iyer and C S Seetha Ammal.

My father late A R Ramaswamy Iyer (full name - Arangotukara Rama Iyer Ramaswamy Iyer)

My father's birth place was Ezhumangad/Arangotukara. His father's name was Late A R Raman. My parents were in the ancestral home Chakkali Madham. Grand father died when father was very young. father and his elder brother the 2 sons of grandfather had to go for labor when they were very young as their father died when they were very young and the burden of maintaining the family fell on their shoulders.  

His brother being elder he went for employment in a big landlord's house, Nareri Mana as a cook. My father joined him as his assistant. But the landlord used him to be the bodyguard or companion to his son who had to go to Thrissur for studying in school. Since father has nothing else to do during the school time, he also attended the classes up to 3rd standard. 

Since father was ambitious and wanted to raise his family's financial standard, he went to the then Penang. He had to return as he had Malaria fever. After treatment he went to 2 place called Aranhtangi and Thiruthurapoondi in Tamilnad and used to sell Tea in the Railway platform. Since his income was very limited as there used to be only one or 2 trains during the whole day, he gave the right of the trade on the platform to his assistant. He then went to Bhimilipatnam in Andra Pradesh. His brother joined him and after sometime he left the hotel to his brother and went to Parvathipuram a border town between Andra and Orissa. Though the town was very small in the forest area, it was a big center for trade of spices and people used to visit. He had a good business and started earning money. He repaired the ancestral house bought an old house next to the ancestral one and renewed and expanded the one. He also bought a plot for his sister and built a house identical to that of his brother's and his. My father had 7 sons and 4 daughters.For the daughters he gave education up top the primary school level as our village school was a primary school. when the eldest sister was studying and later became upper primary school and the other 3 daughters could study up to 7th standard. In those days girls were not sent to schools normally . For his sons he did not have any limit for studies except that they should not fail or they should decide that the education is enough. But only the 2 eldest brothers and the youngest brother completed graduation. The eldest brother became an engineer. All others have passed S S L C and some attended some classes in colleges but did not complete any degree course. The last brother also completed graduation. I have also completed only S S L C as I was not bright or interested in academic qualifications.

He died after a brief illness of about a week related to the old age.  He died at the Christian Mission Hospital the best hospital at that time in the nearest town center Thrissur from our village Arnagotukara.

 My mother Late C S Seetha Ammal (full name - Chenagad Subramanya Iyer Seetha Ammal)

My mother was a very mild and decent lady who used to take trouble to avoid trouble for others. She is personification of patience and tolerance. She was a quiet and capable lady. She being mild and tolerant others in the joint family created problems by others. Her father was from Chengad a village in Ottapalam Taluk very near to the Ottapalam town in Palakkad District. Her mother was from Cherukunnu, near to Kannur Town in Kannur District. My father was busy making money for the family to be lifted up from poverty. The money saved by father used to be sent partly by money orders and major portion he used to be carrying with him when he come personally to the family. Mother used protect the same and use diligently. She had brought up 1 children almost single handedly as father used to be outside till the last 2 years of my school studies. Thereafter father came and settled down in our home. Father had bought some landed properties for cultivation of paddy, vegetables, fruits plants and trees etc. She used to mange the whole properties till he came and settled down. In those days ladies of upper caste never used to go outside their houses except to go to their relatives. 

She died of blood cancer. She was under treatment for about 1 month intermittently for blood cancer. 

Parents had 11 children

Late A R Lakshmi Srinivasan

Late A R Raman

Late A R Krishnan

Late A R Subramanian

Sri A R Narayanan

Sri A R Ramanathan

Smt A R Parvathy Parameswaran

Smt A R Sarada Krishnan

Smt A R Rugmini Anantha Narayanan

Sri A R Venkatachalam

Sri A R Sarvajith

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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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