My friend and
classmate Kalakkad Sundaram Natarajan –Who played an important role in my life
By
P.R.Ramahander
After I completed my post graduation in Annamalai
University, (1960) I was lucky to get admission in the Indian Statistical
Institute, Calcutta. On the day that I had to start to Calcutta, I received an
appointment order as Statistical assistant in National Sample Survey in
Trivandrum. I knew that I should accept that because the financial condition of
the family was not good. But my great father told me that I should study
further, because I was getting stipend. He said he will manage the affairs of
the family for two or three years more. The first problem to be solved was
dress. For the five years preceding, I was wearing only white Dhothi and White
shirt. I along with my father felt that I should at least have a few pants.
There was no tailor in my village who could stitch pants. The time left was
short. Father had a very close friend Sethu mama , who was running a hotel in
Vishakapatnam en route. My cousin Visweswaran was working in his hotel. I got
down there by one train and within a day, a few white, poor looking pants were
stitched at lightning speed. Next day I reached Calcutta. I had not spoken in
the phone till then and for the first time was forced to call the warden of the
hostel to get directions. That gentleman was speaking a benglish accent. Some how,
I reached ISI. I stayed there in the hostel for the next one year. I made many
friends. .
Sri Kalakkad
Sundaram Natarajan a son of
school teacher Sundarm Iyer of Thirunelveli, became one of my closest friends there. It was
through him that I became friends with other
Tamil and Malayalam
speaking people who were in ISI hostel
. (For example
DR.K.R.,Parthasarathy, who
joined the mathematics s
department of IIT , Madras, Sri T.A.Anathaswamy Row who
joined Brakes India Limited Madras . DR.Balasubramanian who joined later
as
professor in Christian college , Madras , One Mr.Krishnan who was a
great sportsman and joined ,IIM , Calcutta for further
studies, Dr.G.Narayana Murthy of
Batlakundu who settled down in Mumbai, Dr.N.C.Chidambaran and DR.Panchapakesan who both settled
down as professors in USA , then
itself, DR.SWaminthan who went to Canada
and settled down there , DR.P,S.Nair(still
a face book friend) , DR.T Sankaran Kutti , Dr.Subramanyam Swamy who is now
Rajya Sabha MP and so on and on)
,Though I became friends with all of them ,I was specially attached to
Sri.K.S.Natarajan and I always think , he played a great role in making
me what I am today.
After one year , when he had vacation , we
both had saved some money from
our stipend and we wanted to buy
some presents to our family members ,We went to
Ballygunge and waited it Rash Behari avenue for some
time and located a
Tamilan Brahmin mami . We both told about our problems and she helped us
. I remember that during
those times Calcutta Karandi was
famous and we bought one each, That Mami also directed us to a shop selling Saris . I remember we bought one each., Both of us went to Delhi
from there some time in July . Our North Indian class mates in New Delhi scared
us by saying that unless we buy a suit we both will die in winter . We were
wondering what to do and fortunately
met a senior of ours called Sri.V,Gopalan. When we told about our problem, he said he was very much alive after passing through a winter wearing a
half swetter. That time we were getting slightly more stipend. I
remember we purchased one each of a rexine brown suitcase and one each of a reversible double coloured pull over.
Life went on. I
specialised in Biometrics of tree crps and my friend rose to very high positions in Census
commissioners office.
My friend Kalakkad Sundaram Natarajan is a face book
member like me and has settled down in
Madras and I have settled down in Bangalore. Our friendship as
on today is nearly sixty years old.
My deep sense of
gratitude my friend
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