breaking the law

Kakka Raman and Vishnu Pattar Break the law.

Kaakka Rama Iyer had a very close friend by name Ananthakrishna Iyer.. Some say that Ananthakrishna Iyer had been in Ceylon for sometime and there was another school of thought that he was a peon in a British company which did business in slaughtering animals and exporting the flesh. Whatever it may be the man had become very pious when he landed up in our agraharam, but he had no place to live. So Rama Iyer gracefully volunteered to offer the Iyer number two the privilege of occupying the open thinnai of Kakkais house as a dwelling place. Ananthankrishna Iyer sported a very huge oordhwapundram (naammam) and in the performing his make up operation was a sight to see. The village urchins would crowd around him while he deftly pasted namakkatti on his palm and drew and big U on hide wide forehead, followed by a long red line in the internal bisecting area using thirummannu.. And one the makeup was finished, he looked just like Mahavishnu and hence the village people always called him Vishnu Pattar when he was not present within earshot.

Kakkai and Vishnu were a professional pair. They always went together for partaking in Sraadhams or getting Dakshina or dhaanam on good or bad occasions.

One day they went for Sraadham in Pallipuram village. It was almost five miles from our village. You must remember it was almost 45 years ago and there were not many buses and the Laurel and Hardy could not afford to pay the busfare also. They had to cross an open railway line near palakkad town railway station and the successfully negotiated Lakshman Rekha in the morning during their onward Journed. But while returning after sraadhdham, they again crossed the railway line and was accosted by a railway policeman. The innocent Brahmins did not know that crossing the railway track and making the railway premises as a thoroughfare was a punishable offence. Had they told the policeman that they did not know the law and apologized, he would have left them go. However in their innocent haughtiness, they told him to mind his business and that they were not afraid of any police, especially railway police. The enraged policeman booked a case against them for trespassing and gave a summons directing them to attend the sub-magistrates court one week later and let them go. The poor Brahmins could have given some wrong names abd address and got away with it but they were too innocent.

On the day of the great trial the duo, clad in soman and uthareeyam, Mr Vishnu sporting naamam and Mr Raman filling his forehead with three broad white lines of Viboothy, presented themselves in the Court very early in the morning. The magistrate arrived in due course and seeing two Brahmins standing in the courtyard (the magistrate was also an Iyer), said that there was no sraadham or tarpanam being conducted in the court. The Brahmins said they had been booked by railway police and there was a case against them.

Finally the case was called, and R and V presented themselves in the dock. The magistrate asked them whether they had committed any offence for which they stated in union that they had done nothing but had only crossed the railway line. Even at this stage they were not aware that this was an offence. The magistrate could have let them free had they sought partdon. But they would not do it because they could not dream of any crime being committed by them. Ultimately the Magistrate reluctantly fined them eight anna each.

And once the fine was ordered, the two poor Brahmins could leave the court only after paying the fine and eight anna each was far beyond their capacity to pay. They were pleading with everybody requesting that they be allowed to go. Nothing worked.

Finally the magistrate came to know of it and he did a very wonderful thing. He took a one rupee coin from his own pocket and asked the court clerk to issue the receipt for the fine to Mr Kakkai and Mr Vishnu. May be Vishnu rode the Kaakkai vahanam on that day.

--
।श्रीकृष्णो रक्षतु।
|śrīkṛṣṇo rakṣatu|
Have a nice and happy day
with profound respect and warm regards
K V Ananthanarayanan

blog   http://kanfusion.blogspot.com/

कृष्णात् परं किमपि तत्वं अहं न जाने"

kakka raman and abisravanam

KAKKA  RAMAN  AND  ABHISHRAVANAM

Have you heard about the abhishravanam?  At least till about some thirty years ago, in the houses of affluent pattars,   when  there was ceremonial  offering of food to the learned Brahmins on Occasions like Sraadhdham etc.,   a large number of laukeeka Brahmins will be invited to sit  in a separate place within  the earshot of the elite purohitas partaking in the ceremonial  feast  and chant some manthras and sookthas   (such manthras were also called abhisravana manthras). The loukeekas whose level  of knowledge of the vedic sookthas and  chants was big zero ( this includes our hero kakka rama also)  would have learnt such chants by just having heard it being uttered  repeatedly by many of their professional  colleagues and it was an exercise of parrot-like  repetition.  Besides some poor Brahmins who could not get to chant the verses in spite of all earnest attempts  and  the new entrants to the profession who were yet to memorize the abracadabra  would also sit in the group and either move their lips   or just utter some inarticulate words ensuring that the voice was kept so low that others would not know what  these   people were uttering.  The ordinary onlooker's impression  will be   that  the elite scholars were chanting something in deep meditation.  Anyway this exercise was  carried through because the abhisravana pattar  would be also given some dakshina  (may be four annas or if they were  lucky enough eight annas).  If they were extremely lucky, they may be offered a meal also as samaaradhana , after the ceremony. It was the convention  that any Brahmin could come and sit in the group even without being  invited  and he also received the dakshina.  So, the crowd in those days could be quite huge and some pompous householders who wanted to show off  their devotion in religious matters  would use all means at their disposal to restrict the number of abhisravana pattars  to keep in control their expenditure by way of dakshina.  In some cases the pattar of the house would closely watch the poor Brahmins chanting  and with great dexterity, would  identify the hapless   lipmovers and new entrants and openly insult them and ask them to get out..instead of dakshina  the poor soul would be abused with the words like, "Peera pattarey, enna oye, neer pulinguru, pulinguru ennu japikkarathukku omakku naan kaasu tharanamaa?   Edatha kaali pannum . (to translate –"you wretched pattar,  you are chanting something repeatedly like "pulinguru"  [the tamarind seed---please just note,  the word is magical, when you repeat the word silently moving your lips there will be very hectic lip movements creating  a profound impression on the person who is watching],  instead of the manthras and for this have I to pay you money?  You immediately get out of here). 

Now this is the background of a funny but costly tiff between our hero and  a  so called prominent grihastha in our agraharam.  

The prominenent pattar was  a  " mookkillaa rajyathey murimookkan rajaavu" ( in the country of people without noses, the solitary man who has a small lump in the place of nose will be honoured as king)  of our agraharam.   One cannot but be skeptical about  his credentials as a devout  Brahmin.. the mama had at least on public sambandham (it was a practice among prominent pattars to have affairs—not exactly marriage, with ladies of communities like nairs and ambalavasis in addition to their own submissive mamis)  in which he sired quarter of a dozen of nair  children in addition to his near a dozen progenies   through his  Brahmin sahadharmini…and  his overtures to greener pastures even in the upper middleaged status of his life had earned him the fame as a local don juan.  But he wanted to flaunt his affluence by celebrating religious ceremonies  etc., in the most noisy way with the least  expenditure. On one such occasion,  our Kakka Rama Iyer was the victim of a similar tonguelash  as mentioned  above, and this was all the more insulting to our hero because the grihastha  concerned  was a relative of the grama vaadhyar (the village priest) and this incident created some serious loss in our hero's  profession for livelihood which included attending  such religious ceremonies  and receiving the pittance of dakshinas involved.  Our hero, by nature is very good-natured but his pride (whatever it is) and his means of livelihood (a still more obscure thing) were affected and  he was  raring to get even with his tormentor.

Our hero got his opportunity.  The vaideekas and loukeekas  of almost  all the agraharams around kalpathy  usually met every day  in front of Kshipra ganapathy temple  just Opposite the famous muniappan  kada(shop)  at the ther mutti (the place where the celebrated  car(Ratham) of Viswanathaswamy is parked on days other than the three days of the car festival.) and exchanged notes, and the loukeekas  would be invariably present because it was here that they were informed about  their job opportunities  for the succeeding days, whether it was some pooja , sraadhdham, hiranyam,  etc.  The main vaadhyars chalked out the duty roster for the lesser mortals,  and these were ocaasions where they  exhibited their superiority and suzerainty over the latter souls. One heartening feature in the whole process is that the noble vaadhyars of those days never demanded a kickback on the daksinas received by junior vaadhyaars or loukeekas, whose cases were referred to by them,

  It was on one such  day  and there was a sraadhdham in the house of the VIP  pttar of our agraharam  who had become the enemy of our hero.  As luck would have it, our grama vadhyar was not present  for the summit of the day and  snatching the opportunity, our hero spread the hush and anonymous news  that there was a sraadhdham  at the house of …Iyer and for abhisravanam,   the dakshina would be five rupees per head  and many vaideekas were specially attending...   Remember fiver rupees forty years ago was a very substantial sum.

The Sraadhdham  day dawned.    By  9 AM one could see a long parade of vaideekas  (and also loukeekas)  most of them clad in pompous somans and angavastrams , sporting prominent viboothi pattais or pattai namams,  making a beeline  to the house of the VIP grihastha..  The grama vadhyar who was present in the house and was preparing the day's schedule for the sraaddham and the VIP pattar were both surprised at the flow of such an elite crowd to the household.  The professional colleagues of the grama vaadhyar informed him in whispers that they had all come for the abhisravanam  and they knew how important it was since the dakshina was  five rupees per head.   The duo, the VIP pattar and the grama vadhyar were  flabbergasted  for  a moment.   A  wrong news has been spread.  However the fact remained that there was sraadhdham there and there was abhishravanam also.  And  the scholars who had come were all very learned, and at least to  save his face the VIP pattar could not deny the news.  The mama had to shell out five rupees each to at least the elite vaideekas, and the number of such persons in Palakkkad at that time was quite substantial.

Kaakka   Raman had taken revenge for   his disgrace.

Vocabulary 

Sraadhddham   the annual death ceremony in honour of dead parent. Done every year on the same         Tithi(the solar phase) and month of death 

Loukeeka Brhahmanan  the Brahmin who assists in ceremonies but does not have the complete knowledge of mantras and prayogas as the vadhyar

Dakshina  money given as remuneration or gift for participating in religious ceremonies

Samaradhana    Group meals

Grihastha   One who is living in a house in agraharam, especially the head of the household. Now it can be applied to anyone running a family   anywhere in the world.

Agraharam    In an agraharam the houses are arranged in two straight rows opposite one another and at the farthest end of the street there will be a temple.  An aerial look at the formation will  give the picture of a garland with the temple at the place of pendant.  See  the aerial photo attached

Sambandam  High caste people like pattars and namboodiris having marital or extra marital relationships with ladies of not so low casted…the ladies will be usually from nairs or ambalavasis. The children born will take the lady's caste/

Sahadharmini   ones own house mami (the wife properly married to )

Vaadhyaar  The learned person who leads in conducting religious ceremonies

Grama Vaadhyar   In good old days a vadhyar was assigned the charge of a whole agraharam in conducting the religious ceremonies. His authority as the Guru was immense.  He was virtually a family member of all.

 Sekharipuram Agraharam Double street with Lasksminarayanaswamy temple at the left  end.

kakka ramam and upanyasam

KAKKA RAMA IYER AND UPANYAASAMS

About  40  to 45  years ago it was an annual festive event for lovers of puranas and such divine lores, that some great Scholar from tamilnadu  like Sengalipuram  Anantharama Dikshithar, Manjakkudi Rajagopala Iyer, Santhanagopalachariar, Sivanantha Vijayalakshmi, …the list will be long,  would be invited to Palakkad to give discourses  on some purana, Itihasam  or Bagavath gita  and other Vedantic subjects.  Usually the venue would be the front of Thiruvangattappan sannadhi at Vadakkanthara, or somewhere near Nurani. ( Nowadays the Brahmana Sabha arranges similar discourses but there is special chairs arranged for persons who pay money and cold frowns reserved for people who just linger around to hear the discourse. )

                  Old and middle aged mamas and mamis would walk long distances to assemble  at the  venue of discourse.  I was very young, the age range between 9years to 13 years and   Sri Raman would take me also along with him to hear the discourses.  One reason may be that he is visually impaired and there should be someone to keep his company and the timings  usually were from 8-30 in night to the midnight.  Somehow, I was a dreamy fellow and I loved to attend such discourses.  But  Rama Iyer, as a matter of special  consideration for my late night vigil  and long walks, would purchase for me some" naaranga mittayi" for one and half annas, and hand it over to me with an advice  that I should just keep  the mittay  in my mouth without biting it so that it will dissolve  slowly in the mouth and keep me awake during the discourse.  Anyway, as far as I am concerned  the sweet was gobbled  up immediately on receipt.  However  basically  I never felt sleepy and listened and learned the nuances of Ramayanam and Bhagavatham at that age because I attended such discourses.   I used to attend the discoursed  with keen attention but the hero will doze off within minutes of start of the discourse and usually I would have to wake him up at the close.

                    The  roads we had to negotiate were  very unfriendly  and  negotiating  the return path to Sekharipuram, our native village, was a really arduous task.  There were no street lights and the way was  infested with stray dogs, donkeys,  old horses which had lost their utility as cart pullers and added  to  this various reptiles. 

                    It was true that a lot of mamas and mamis will be walking back to the  various villages, but  our hero was obviously slow and I was compelled to fall in steps with him. 

There was a place called Kuppavandipura where the  carts carrying the entire dirt  of  Palakkad were parked  and this place was also the rendezvous of donkeys and street dogs.  The place would instill mortal terror in me, a boy of ten years, but the hero was nonchalant, always.  From  this point we had to  take a diversion to our village   through a lonely mud track.  Usually  no one else would  be near us as others would have walked home faster.   There was one tree called etti maram  en route  and a Cobra was supposed to be occupying the bottom of the tree.  Once a boy from the village was bitten by the reptile  during day time recently and he had also passed away.  So it was always a nightmare to pass through that terrain even in full day light, then what  to say about being there at midnight!.

             On one such occasion  I was on the brinks of tears of  fright, when fortunately  an old  paatti  was also returning  after upanyasam  along with her two  daughters.  The  threesome had fallen behind their group because  it seems one of them had the urge to urinate and so wanted all people to pass on. After achieving  their purpose the paatti and the two girls were coming along behind us and the patti was in  her vocal best  swearing  at the two daughters by two  unparliamentary words   (1)&#####& and (2) #&&&&&&#,  and the old woman was repeating  these two words like some manthra.  So to console me and allay me fears, Our hero told me " enthukku bhayappedanam  konthey namma koodey   1)&#####&  um  (2) #&&&&&&#,  irukkaley, pinney   antha jagajilly pattiyum,  paampu ivalayellam  kandal  nalu nalakku sekharipuram  pakkamey varaathu" ( my child, why should you be afraid,  (1) and (2)  are keeping company with us along with that witch of a paatti, so  if the serpant  sees  these three  it will not come anywhere near Sekharipuram for at least four days

The  naranga mittay, kathakaalakshepam  and the  paatti and daughters  are all part of my memories of Sri Raman.

Naranga mittay   a sweet solid piece of sugarcandy mixed with lemon flavor—it was so cheap those days that you would   get  about twenty of them   for 10 paise  that is one and half anna.

Kakka Raman and Vishnu Pattar  Break the law.

Kaakka Rama Iyer had a very close friend by name Ananthakrishna Iyer.. Some say that Ananthakrishna Iyer had been in Ceylon for sometime and there was another school of thought that he was a peon in a British company which did business in slaughtering animals and exporting the flesh.  Whatever it may be the man had become very pious  when he landed up in our agraharam, but he had no place to live.  So Kakka Rama Iyer gracefully volunteered to offer  the Iyer number two the privilege of occupying  the open thinnai of  Kakkai's  house as a dwelling place. Ananthankrishna Iyer sported a very huge oordhwapundram (naammam) and  the performing of  his make up operation  was a sight to see.  The village urchins would crowd around him while he deftly pasted namakkatti on his palm and drew and big  U on his wide forehead, followed by  a long red line  in the internal bisecting area  using  thirummannu..  And once the makeup was finished, he looked just like Mahavishnu and hence the village people always called him Vishnu Pattar when he was not present within earshot.

Kakkai and Vishnu were a professional pair.  They always went together for partaking in  Sraadhams or  getting Dakshina or dhaanam on good or bad occasions. 

One day they went for Sraadham in Pallipuram village. It was almost five miles from our village. You must remember it was almost 45  years ago and there were not  many buses and the Laurel and Hardy could not afford to pay the busfare also.  They had to cross an open railway line near  palakkad town railway  station and they successfully negotiated  Lakshman Rekha  in the morning during their onward Journey. But while returning  after sraadhdham, they again crossed the railway line and was accosted by  a railway policeman.  The innocent Brahmins did not know that crossing the railway track and making the railway premises as a thoroughfare was a punishable offence.   Had they told the policeman that they did not know the law and apologized, he would have left them go.  However in their innocent haughtiness,  they told him to  mind his business and that they were not afraid of any police, especially railway police.  The enraged policeman booked a case against them for trespassing and gave  a summons  directing them  to attend the sub-magistrates court one week later and let them go. The poor Brahmins could have given some wrong names and address  and got away with it but they were too innocent.

   On the day of the great trial the duo,  clad in soman and uthareeyam, Mr Vishnu sporting naamam and Mr Raman filling his forehead with three broad white lines of Viboothy,  presented themselves in the Court very early in the morning.  The magistrate arrived in due course and seeing  two Brahmins standing  in the courtyard  (the magistrate was also an Iyer), said that there was no sraadham or tarpanam  being conducted in the court.  The Brahmins said they had been booked by railway police and there was a case against them.

  Finally the case was called, and R and V presented themselves in the dock.   The magistrate asked them whether they had committed any offence for which they stated in unison that they had done nothing but had only crossed the railway line. Even at this stage they were not aware that this was an offence.  The magistrate could have let them free had they sought  pardon of the court. But they would not do it because  they could not dream of any crime being committed by them.  Ultimately the Magistrate reluctantly fined them eight  anna each.  

And once the fine was ordered, the two poor Brahmins could leave the court only after paying the fine and eight anna each was far beyond their capacity to pay.  They were pleading with everybody requesting that they be allowed to go.  Nothing worked.

 Finally the magistrate came to know  of it and he did a very wonderful thing.  He took a one  rupee coin from his own pocket and asked  the court clerk to  issue the receipt for the fine to  Mr Kakkai and Mr Vishnu.    May be Vishnu rode the Kaakkai vahanam on that day.

--
।श्रीकृष्णो रक्षतु।
|śrīkṛṣṇo rakṣatu|
Have a nice and happy day
with profound respect and warm regards
K V Ananthanarayanan

blog   http://kanfusion.blogspot.com/

KAKKA RAMA IYER AND UPANYAASAMS

About 40 to 45 years ago it was an annual festive event for lovers of puranas and such divine lores, that some great Scholar from tamilnadu like Sengalipuram Anantharama Dikshithar, Manjakkudi Rajagopala Iyer, Santhanagopalachariar, Sivanantha Vijayalakshmi, …the list will be long, would be invited to Palakkad to give discourses on some purana, Itihasam or Bagavath gita and other Vedantic subjects. Usually the venue would be the front of Thiruvangattappan sannadhi at Vadakkanthara, or somewhere near Nurani. ( Nowadays the Brahmana Sabha arranges similar discourses but there is special chairs arranged for persons who pay money and cold frowns reserved for people who just linger around to hear the discourse. )

Old and middle aged mamas and mamis would walk long distances to assemble at the venue of discourse. I was very young, the age range between 9years to 13 years and Sri Raman would take me also along with him to hear the discourses. One reason may be that he is visually impaired and there should be someone to keep his company and the timings usually were from 8-30 in night to the midnight. Somehow, I was a dreamy fellow and I loved to attend such discourses. But Rama Iyer, as a matter of special consideration for my late night vigil and long walks, would purchase for me some” naaranga mittayi” for one and half annas, and hand it over to me with an advice that I should just keep the mittay in my mouth without biting it so that it will dissolve slowly in the mouth and keep me awake during the discourse. Anyway, as far as I am concerned the sweet was gobbled up immediately on receipt. However basically I never felt sleepy and listened and learned the nuances of Ramayanam and Bhagavatham at that age because I attended such discourses. I used to attend the discoursed with keen attention but the hero will doze off within minutes of start of the discourse and usually I would have to wake him up at the close.

The roads we had to negotiate were very unfriendly and negotiating the return path to Sekharipuram, our native village, was a really arduous task. There were no street lights and the way was infested with stray dogs, donkeys, old horses which had lost their utility as cart pullers and added to this various reptiles.

It was true that a lot of mamas and mamis will be walking back to the various villages, but our hero was obviously slow and I was compelled to fall in steps with him.

There was a place called Kuppavandipura where the carts carrying the entire dirt of Palakkad were parked and this place was also the rendezvous of donkeys and street dogs. The place would instill mortal terror in me, a boy of ten years, but the hero was nonchalant, always. From this point we had to take a diversion to our village through a lonely mud track. Usually no one else would be near us as others would have walked home faster. There was one tree called etti maram en route and a Cobra was supposed to be occupying the bottom of the tree. Once a boy from the village was bitten by the reptile during day time recently and he had also passed away. So it was always a nightmare to pass through that terrain even in full day light, then what to say about being there at midnight!.

On one such occasion I was on the brinks of tears of fright, when fortunately an old paatti was also returning after upanyasam along with her two daughters. The threesome had fallen behind their group because it seems one of them had the urge to urinate and so wanted all people to pass on. After achieving their purpose the paatti and the two girls were coming along behind us and the patti was in her vocal best swearing at the two daughters by two unparliamentary words (1)&#####& and (2) #&&&&&&#, and the old woman was repeating these two words like some manthra. So to console me and allay me fears, Our hero told me “ enthukku bhayappedanam konthey namma koodey 1)&#####& um (2) #&&&&&&#, irukkaley, pinney antha jagajilly pattiyum, paampu ivalayellam kandal nalu nalakku sekharipuram pakkamey varaathu” ( my child, why should you be afraid, (1) and (2) are keeping company with us along with that witch of a paatti, so if the serpant sees these three it will not come anywhere near Sekharipuram for at least four days

The naranga mittay, kathakaalakshepam and the paatti and daughters are all part of my memories of Sri Raman.

Naranga mittay a sweet solid piece of sugarcandy mixed with lemon flavor—it was so cheap those days that you would get about twenty of them for 10 paise that is one and half anna.

Kakka Raman and Vishnu Pattar Break the law.

Kaakka Rama Iyer had a very close friend by name Ananthakrishna Iyer.. Some say that Ananthakrishna Iyer had been in Ceylon for sometime and there was another school of thought that he was a peon in a British company which did business in slaughtering animals and exporting the flesh. Whatever it may be the man had become very pious when he landed up in our agraharam, but he had no place to live. So Rama Iyer gracefully volunteered to offer the Iyer number two the privilege of occupying the open thinnai of Kakkais house as a dwelling place. Ananthankrishna Iyer sported a very huge oordhwapundram (naammam) and in the performing his make up operation was a sight to see. The village urchins would crowd around him while he deftly pasted namakkatti on his palm and drew and big U on hide wide forehead, followed by a long red line in the internal bisecting area using thirummannu.. And one the makeup was finished, he looked just like Mahavishnu and hence the village people always called him Vishnu Pattar when he was not present within earshot.

Kakkai and Vishnu were a professional pair. They always went together for partaking in Sraadhams or getting Dakshina or dhaanam on good or bad occasions.

One day they went for Sraadham in Pallipuram village. It was almost five miles from our village. You must remember it was almost 45 years ago and there were not many buses and the Laurel and Hardy could not afford to pay the busfare also. They had to cross an open railway line near palakkad town railway station and the successfully negotiated Lakshman Rekha in the morning during their onward Journed. But while returning after sraadhdham, they again crossed the railway line and was accosted by a railway policeman. The innocent Brahmins did not know that crossing the railway track and making the railway premises as a thoroughfare was a punishable offence. Had they told the policeman that they did not know the law and apologized, he would have left them go. However in their innocent haughtiness, they told him to mind his business and that they were not afraid of any police, especially railway police. The enraged policeman booked a case against them for trespassing and gave a summons directing them to attend the sub-magistrates court one week later and let them go. The poor Brahmins could have given some wrong names abd address and got away with it but they were too innocent.

On the day of the great trial the duo, clad in soman and uthareeyam, Mr Vishnu sporting naamam and Mr Raman filling his forehead with three broad white lines of Viboothy, presented themselves in the Court very early in the morning. The magistrate arrived in due course and seeing two Brahmins standing in the courtyard (the magistrate was also an Iyer), said that there was no sraadham or tarpanam being conducted in the court. The Brahmins said they had been booked by railway police and there was a case against them.

Finally the case was called, and R and V presented themselves in the dock. The magistrate asked them whether they had committed any offence for which they stated in union that they had done nothing but had only crossed the railway line. Even at this stage they were not aware that this was an offence. The magistrate could have let them free had they sought partdon. But they would not do it because they could not dream of any crime being committed by them. Ultimately the Magistrate reluctantly fined them eight anna each.

And once the fine was ordered, the two poor Brahmins could leave the court only after paying the fine and eight anna each was far beyond their capacity to pay. They were pleading with everybody requesting that they be allowed to go. Nothing worked.

Finally the magistrate came to know of it and he did a very wonderful thing. He took a one rupee coin from his own pocket and asked the court clerk to issue the receipt for the fine to Mr Kakkai and Mr Vishnu. May be Vishnu rode the Kaakkai vahanam on that day.

kakka raman and abhisravanam - Google Docs

kakka raman and abhisravanam - Google Docs

Tarangini- Kakka Ramam Intro

Introduction: Kakka Raman, the great soul

- K.V Ananthanarayanan

This is the first part of a series of articles based on real life occurrences of certain Pattars that we believe, would be immensely inspirational to everyone, especially the younger generation.

*****

In our lives, you often come across people who leave a deep impression on your persona, influencing your thought processes, your actions and knowledge for years to come. I had the good fortune of knowing some such people during my lifetime, and I am writing this series of real life anecdotes of one such person, Rama Iyer, who left a lasting impression on me when I was just a child growing up in a typical agraharam setting, a life not many people in the younger generation have experienced. Rama Iyer had another name to him. He was called “Kakka Raman” because he had squint eyes and even those eyes were practically blind with short sight.

The first thing I heard as an incident in his life was really poignant and profoundly touching. He was a boy from an utterly poor family, and his mother passed away when he was seven years old. On the day of his mother’s death, he had no idea as to what was happening in the house. Many people had assembled; the mother was sleeping, maybe sick. Suddenly, someone brought some ghee and poured it in a broken coconut shell. For Raman, ghee was a very scarce delicacy. So, with his half blind eyes, he looked around to see whether anyone was paying attention to the ghee kept in chirattai* in the corner. When he was fairly sure that nobody was watching him, he stealthily took the ghee container and swallowed the whole ghee. You know, this ghee had been brought for the funeral rites of Raman’s mother.

As I have it said before, this is a real story, and if Raman were alive today, he would be about 100 years old. He passed away 14 years ago. I know Raman because he was my mother’s own maternal uncle and my own dear mamaappa. He used to go as a loukeeka* for sraadhdham chaappadu and he would get clothes like mundu, uthareeyam etc. He had married my mother’s elder sister and he loved me like his own son. In my childhood days of utter poverty, the clothes brought by him served as my mundus. When he used to get mallumundu*or gaada*, it would be used to stitch our underwear, periyamma’s and amma’s ravukkais* and my sister’s pavaadais. He never wanted anything for himself. He happily gave everything he used to get, by way of dhaanam or dhakhshina to others. I learned greatness of giving from that great soul.

Pattar’s Dictionary

chirattai: Coconut Shell

loukeeka:a Brahmin who partiakes in ceremonies and many vedic functions but is not a qualified vaadhyar….vaadhyaar is qualified in vedas and is well versed in conduting the ceremonies and commands lot of respect as the family guru, guide and maybe philosopher

mallumundu or gaada: very cheap rawc otton cloth manufacturedin mills….mallumundu is bleached and gaada is unbleached

ravukkais: the prototype of the blouses worn by ladies… the ladies four or five decades ago wore it, usually it would be stitched by the ladies themselves with a needle and thread.