Pulacode Veeraraghavan Visweswaran - My dearest friend and elder brother

Pulacode  Veeraraghavan  Visweswaran - My dearest friend and elder  brother

By

P.R.Ramachander

       When I was  about 8 years old  , due to the Razakkar  movement in Hyderabad  , me along with my  little sister   , brother   and mother  moved back  to my native place , Chelakkara. Being brought   up in a town, every body looked very strange to me. One day my father   brought  home  a young , white   and very thin boy who was   3-4  older than me  . His  laughing face    and innocent out look of life  made him my friend immediately. My father told me that he   was also studying in my school and  that boy was   his incle’s son.   Next day  Veeramani mama   came   to our home   and took me and my sister    to their village   which was called Pulacode .  Mama had some skin problem   and to a young boy  like me  he looked strange . He was   the son of one of those   richest  person in our  village  , well known as  Pulacode  Rama Pattar but  fate  somehow took away all the riches that he inherited.When I saw him  , he was  able  to maintain himself only because my father  was sending him  money every month. .We were both treated  as royal guests and  enjoyed our stay in Pulacode . Along with him there   was his sister Cauvery , My father’s chithi  . Visweswaran then became a regular visitor to my place.   After  few months my father   informed  me  that his uncle is no more   and he is taking Visweswaran   along with him to Hyderabad   to work in his hotel.  I did not  know  the implications much at that time.

     A few years later  my father   took my mother   who was very sick to Hyderabad  . Me and my sister  were left  in care   of another   family in the village  .Later when my mother came back cured , she told me that  Visweswaran took care of her   in the hospital completely  ,  A few years later  I went to Hyderabad to study in English  Medium School  . Visweswaran was working in our hotel.  I was staying with Visweswaran along with several boarders , who were all  middle aged men. My only friend of my age   was  Viswesawaran.  The next four years  we both grew  up together , went to same pictures , went  to the zoo together , went to Golkonda   fort together,  learnt how to fly kites together , learnt how to spin tops together, ate  food together  in different hotels on weekly holiday   of our hotel . Four years  later my father   had to sell the hotel   and go back to our village .My father   arranged   for the marriage   of his sister with his uncle in Trichy   ,Visweswaran started    working for his uncle in Trichy.  It was at this time  my mother  underwent another operation  in Trichy and it   was again my Visweswaran   who looked after my mother.  After   three more years  I  joined for my studies  in Annamalai   university   and had to travel through Trichy    four times a year  , I enjoyed those unforgettable visits to Trichy   and at one time  I came to know  that Visweswaran left Trichy  and had gone to Madurai  .He wrote to me  that  most of the days  he could eat only temple Prasadams in the noon and nothing else . At that time Sri A.R.Sethumadhavan   who considered my father as Guru came to our native place  to get my father’s blessings   for starting a hotel at Vizag,   I suggested to father   to send  Visweswaran to Vizag and he started    working in Hotel Ooty, there   , It was at this time that  I started studying in Calcutta.   Again during vacations I could spend lot of time with my friend. Once when he was admitted to hospital  due to  Jaundice ,  I went to Vizag from Calcutta   and took him to my native place  . He was cured  and returned back  to Vizag . He was made a  partner  in that big hotel  and later started  his own business. There   was  nothing in the world that   he did not know about me and there   was nothing I did not know about him.  .After  studies I was appointed   as a gazette officer  in a  small village near Mangalore  . At that  time  my father arranged for marriage  of Visweswaran with Mohanam who was  my sister’s class mate   and my play mate   when I was a child . They lead a  happy life   and every year  both of them  used to come to Vittal. Visweswaran had a daughter followed by a son. I got married and I also had   a boy and a girl. At that time  I got  transferred   to Rajamundry.  Almost every month we used to meet each other  , By that time,  my younger   brother got married   and settled  in Mumbai.  By his influence  , he arranged for the marriage  of Vsweswaran’s daughter . By that time Visweswaran   had  struggled and educated his son.  Visweswaran    and Mohanam shifted    to Mumbai. They were  struggling really hard. It was at this time that  the son of Visweswaran  got employed in USA.  One of those   unfortunate days Mohanam breathed her lost  . In spite of very severe back ache   I reached Mumbai travelling in a Bus  . We cried togather    a lot  ,This was   fourteen years back .Once Visweswaran asked me to write poem on his Mohanam  so that   he can paste it below her picture  ,I did it.

I advised  Visweswaran to get his son married  , almost  immediately   after  his dear wife’s death   and he agreed to it   and the marriage was celebrated   within a year of her death.

      The USA govt did not  give VISA to Visweswaran   to visit his son. Possibly   no one knows  except  my family and my brother’s family   about the struggle called life   that he underwent then on. His  kidney started failing   and he breathed his last about  3 years back .

      The only person whom I can call   as my own elder   brother is no more there. All  my cousins used to call him Ammanchi  and  for my nephews and my children he was  Bheema Mama, His infectious smile which used   to keep me happy , now  remains  only  as a dream .Though  no one notices  , within my heart  I cry for my greatest friend. The cane chair that he painted, the Dosai Kal which he   got cut and almost   everything  in my  home reminds  me of him. Tears   flow  from my eyes , when I see   them. When my wife   wants  to repair  or paint some thing, without realizing I tell her  , “Visweswaran   will come soon and   do it.”

My elder  brother   definitely   must be in heaven   and I am sure  he makes  it a habit to bless   his younger brother Raja . His daughter   who is in Mumbai considers me as her  father’s brother  and  never fails   to call me   every month . I also consider   herself as my elder   daughter .Life goes on. Rarely God sends such angels  like  Visweswaran   to this world .His greatest contribution is that   he added   joy and happiness     in the life  of  many  people  of this world.Had he been alive next year  he would be celebrating   his 80th Birthday.