Dedicated to Prof.C.V.Subbarama Iyer ,
former Principal of
University College ,Trivandrum who was in hushed tones referred as
Professor in my village Chelakkara.
By
P.R.Ramachander
Prof.Subbarama Iyer
Parents of Prof.Subbarama iyer
(My father's uncle and Aunt)
Sixty years back , I was a very inquisitive and intelligent
student who was unfortunately poor ,
without anybody to guide
me in my intense effort to climb up the difficult
mountain of achievement .Many
angels came at appropriate times as
beacon lights to guide me in my path of
progress . One of them was Prof .C.V.Subbarama
Iyer , who was my father’s cousin (maternal aunt’s son) who had returned
back to settle down in the village
Chelakkara where I was living at that time. I would like to write here about
this very great selfless and learned
human being .
My grand
father (the uncle of Prof.C.V.Subba Rama
Iyer) who belonged to Puducode lost all
his property and was searching for means to sustain himself and his family .
He had five sisters , living in
different parts of South India and Kamakshy
was the eldest sister. She and her
husband Vengam Pattar invited my grand
father to settle down in Chelakkara. They
helped my grandfather till he died at a
young age and later they did all that they could to help the family that he left behind.He had
left his widow and a son and three daughters. My father Kunjuraman was that son.
He was
the only Ammanchi to all children
of the family of Venkam
Pattar and was called as Ammanchi
(maternal uncle’s son) by all of them.
Subbaraman was the eldest son of Venkam Pattar and Kamakshi.
He had the thirst for education,
In the local village school , there was
only first three standardS. After finishing them, Subbaraman , who would
have been 8 or 9 years old had to walk 8 miles to the middle school in the morning and return by walk the same
distance in the evening . After the middle school , he moved to Trichur to study in the High School. Though we know that he studied in C.M. S.School in Trichur, we do not know how he supported himself . The father of the
well known late Cartman Ramaswamy , Sri
I.G.Srinivasa Iyer was his contemporary
there .
Somehow
Subbaraman decided that he would study in
St.Joseph’s college Trichy (which
was the nearest college giving post
graduate education.) .The train service
started during those times from
Olavakode only and buses used to run
with firewood as fuel (I have travelled in such buses in 1948) .None of us
again know how Subbaraman travelled to Trichy . He
chose to do Post Graduate
degree in Mathematics . During those
days only very intelligent people
used to study Mathematics. Since there was no one in his family to advise
him, possibly he was advised by one
of his High School teachers. After he
completed his education he worked as a
school teacher in Cherthala and
Changannoor of the Travancore kingdom
and later joined and started his college
career as a tutor and then as a Lecturer
in University College, Trivandrum( then known as Maharaja’s College),
which was as famous as the Presidency College, Madras . All his
life he worked there .
Venkatraman, his eldest son was fascinated by his father’s profession and studied upto Ph.D
and chose his father’s
profession. Prof Subbaraman
by working all his life as a
teacher in one of the top post
graduate colleges in Kerala
earned lots and lots of wealth in
the form of students and friends who worshipped him. After
his retirement he was much sought after by managements of other private
colleges, but he was not lured by the offers. He wanted to settle down in his
native village which did not have any of the facilities he enjoyed in
Trivandrum. But nevertheless he saw
to that all his five sons and daughter got good education and were all well
placed in life. Both father and son were committed and
dedicated to their noble profession and
they never amassed wealth by private tuition or writing text books, though they
were approached by several bodies in this regard.
A major
reason behind this was that Prof.
Subbaraman wanted to help his
fellow human beings and make his village Chelakkara a very
glorious village . I am giving
below some of his social activities which made my village a better place to live in . These information
has been collected from his various
family members:-
1.
Repairing
and overhauling the huge compound
wall of the village temple :
I
understand that around the later half of
the 1930s, death occurred to the
small daughter of Prof Subbaraman. This affected him very much and at that
time he had come during summer
vacation to stay along with his other
family members to the Chelakkara
gramam. At that time the huge
outer wall of the Narasimha murthy temple of the Gramam was in a dilapidated
condition. The local people requested the Professor to help them rebuild the wall. Prof Subbaraman put his heart and soul in this matter
, raised funds from his friends
and relatives apart from his own donation
and got it repaired . The major donors for this
job were Rama Iyer
, the brother- in -law of his
younger brother and his partner Munshi
Lal , who both were running a hotel
in Mysore. The grateful village engraved their names on the pillar
of the western gate of the
temple.
2.Till 1947, Chelakkara
village was under the
Cochin Kingdom .There was a
small anchal office(post office) , a police station apart from the School ( which had grown in to a High School by that time). Prof Subbaraman felt the absence of
Telegraph facilities in the
village because , due to very late
information about the death of his
parents , he could not reach in
time to perform the death rituals of
both his parents,.So after independence when CHelakkara came under the Travancore-Cochin state . with the help
extended by his friends and students
Prof .Subbaraman brought to
Chelakkara the telegraph facility
and within another one year with the help of Sri Ramakrishnan who was
a senior officer in telephones he
brought the telephone facility also to
Chelakkara.
3.He was also the working force behind getting electricity
to Chelakkara Village . At that time, a student of
his called Sri Ramaswamy
Iyer was a high ranking official in the Electricity Department . Though the nearest
electric pole was at Vazhakode
which was several miles from Kerala , Sri Ramaswami Iyer saw to it that electricity was brought to Chelakkara . It is interesting to know that
, the consumer no.1 was given to Srinikethan ,the house of Prof.Subbaraman at that time.
4.It was Venkam Pattar the father of Prof .Subbaraman who was responsible for widening the roads
on the eastern and western path ways
around the temple .There is sufficient documentary evidence to point out that with his funds he purchased the land from other well meaning
persons and gave it for the
public good.
5. Prof. Subbaraman also took a leading part
in widening the path from Kakka
Thodu to the Banyan tree near
Bhoothankottu Kulam so that ,
a. There was adequate space
there for the Velichapadu , chendai and other paraphernalia which used to start from under
the banyan tree to the vela
Purappad of Anthimahakalan temple, which
even today is a great festival of the village .
b. The Brahmhins pall bearers
could carry the dead bodies of other Brahmins without much
problem to the cremation ground which was
near the Chelakkara Thodu,
6 The Chelakkara
Village pond called Bhoothankottu kulam
(Supposed to be dug by ghosts)
was in a very dilapidated condition. Since the entire village depended
on that tank for bathing and washing clothes , Prof SubbaRaman toiled very hard to get it completely cleaned and
repaired , mainly
collecting funds from his students, friends and other co –villagers apart from his own contribution.
7. He took a very leading part in bringing a Govt. Hospital
to Chelakkara. Funds were raised with his own contribution as well as from the
public .Till that time the nearest Govt. Hospitals were either at Ottupara
or Pazhayannur.
8. For a few years he was the President of Chelakkara
Brahmana Samooham. He also used to take
a leading part in the conduct of Vaikunda Ekadasi in the Temple.
When once I visited
Chelakkara ( from Secunderabad)
for vacation, my mother took me
to visit Prof Subbaraman and introduced me to his
two sons who were approximately
of my age .He showed me his immense
collection of books and gave me permission to
borrow any book that I want from there.I who was accustomed to play carrom
board in Secunderabad ( I had
participated in a state tournament there
when I was 11 years old) found that
they had a Carrom board in his house also .Then I started visiting their home daily
to borrow books and play carom as well
as chitchat with his two sons who were my friends. It was at this time, I
read Mahabharatha (book of 5 volumes
with about 10000 pages) , Bhagavatham,
several books on Vedas and several
books on mathematics from the treasure like library of the Professor.
I had to return to Chelakkara after completing my
SSLC in Secunderabad due to force of circumstances , At that time my family was in financial doldrums and my father had almost decided to put me in the local typing school . At that
time Prof.Subbaraman who was a cousin of my father persuaded my father to provide me with higher
educate . He said that he will provide
help to our family in as
many ways as possible . Again after
completing my Intermediate in Sree Kerala Varma College, Trichur , it was
he and his son Prof.C.S, Venkatraman (Thankanna to me) who managed to get me admission for a Post Graduate course in Annamalai university and again it was he who
persuaded my father to send me to Calcutta to specialize in Statistics . When my sister’s marriage was celebrated during my studies , it was he who gave sufficient loans to my father .
Looking back
into my life , I feel that this great man who had
only kindness and love in his heart was responsible for making me . Prof Subbarama Iyer , his wife (ammini athan Manni) , Prof
Venkataman and our dear Thankanna
Manni have all bid farewell to this world. Even at this
age of 75 , my eyes get filled
with tears when I recollect about
them. I am what I am and my siblings are what they are due to my parents who
sacrificed all their pleasures for educating us . But it was Professor Athan (my father’s Athan) , his wife Ammini Athan Manni, my dear Thankanna
and the the great lady Thankanna Manni who guided me and my parents and gave us encouragement at every step in our struggle to go up.
In their memory I
am shedding tears of sorrow and thank God for providing me(us)
with these selfless relatives , what I am now . I do not know how
to express my gratitude to him.
I am deeply grateful to my Athan Kuttis Sri.C.S..Balarama murthy and Sri C.S.Balasubramanyan (sons of Prof.Subbarama Iyer) and Sri Babu Subbaraman, Sri Rajan and Smt Brinda (Grand children of Prof.Subbarama Iyer ) who edited whatever I wrote, supplied facts unknown to me andmade possible for me to do the dedication to the great Professor
1 comment:
very touching and fascinating to read
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