Sivadas Ponnathil- My friend of the past 60 years

Sivadas  Ponnathil- My friend  of the past 60 years

By

P.R.Ramachander

  Among my face book friends , if I do not consider  my brother , sister  and Cousins,

Sivadas Ponnath  has been my friend for the longest time  .I know him  for  the past 60 years as a very very  close friend. In  1958  I shifted to  Annamalai university hostel  and there I met Sri C.K.Nalina Babu , who decided that I am an unfinished sculpture and that  he can make  me   really great.At that time  being very poor and very badly dressed ,I was completly sunk in Inferiority   complex. Babu slowly taught me that  I was a  gem of a person with capacities far more greater  than all   those people   who were making fun of me .It was at this time of my life that  One Day P.Sivadas   who was Babu’s close friend in Cochin came to  our university seeking admission in M.Sc (zoology) .Babu without any difficulty  got him admission  to the course  and needed urgently to fill up a form  where   the Father of Sri Sivadas  had to sign.He simply called me and asked me to put a signature in that  form.When I told him, it is illegal , My Babu told me that it would become illegal only if  father of Sivadas complained that  it was not his signature.I agreed   and Babu started   calling me Guardian of Sivadas. Sivadas   as a child had  acted in a Malayalam film and was a very  good singer of Malayalam  film songs.Within next two years we  both became very close friends. Since I did not have alarm watch, it was a job of my friend Sivadas  to wake me up early morning .Since I used to sleep very soundly, Banu asked him to throw pebbles in to my room  through window to that.  I left the university  and proceeded  to Calcutta and then  to Delhi to specialise in Statistics. Sri Sivadas   continued  in the university  to complete his Ph.D.When I as in Delhi  Sri Sivadas came for a CSIR scholarship interview and stayed with me  in our hostel. I still remember he Brought a bottle of  Nellikkai  picles along with him. After the inter view  I showed him round Delhi . After  one more year , I needed   to get admission for M.Sc Zoology   to my brother  ,I sent him to meet my friend Sivadas at Annamalai university.When my brother   was juust  wandering in Trichy station to catch  train to Chidambaram,Sivadas   who was also there  recognized him as my brother without any difficulty.Sri Sivadas then jointed Bational Ocenographic Lab and I  went to various places   where my job took me .About 15 years back  I again met him in Bangalore  in our Common friend  Chandran;s house.From then on we do have a semblance  of correspondence but from 2008  , we  have  regular  exchange of news as Both of us are  active in Face Book. May God bless  my friend of more than 60 years.