My Rasa Mama (sri A.P.S.Iyer )

My Rasa Mama (sri A.P.S.Iyer )

BY

P.R.Ramachander

.A.P.S.Iyer  (called  Rasam In home and to me My Rasa  Mama)  ) was my maternal uncle . He was the elder brother of my mother. His full name was Ayalur Parameswara Iyer Subramanyan Iyer . Like all the lads of very poor families of Kerala , my extremely brilliant uncle had to leave his education and go for working in a hotel when he was a very young lad . When the world war started he joined as a civilian clerk in the military. This took him to Rangoon when the British were fighting with Japanese during the world war II . The Japanese over ran Rangoon and my uncle again reached back India. At that time tea was not a popular drink in South India. The Lipton company was trying to popularize it. My uncle got a job of a demonstrator with them. It was at this time that I was born. My earliest photo as a baby , which I treasure , was taken along with this uncle in a photo studio in Secunderabad. It was at this time , that India got independence. By this time my uncle had his own hotel in a place called Bhongir, near Hyderabad .When the king of Hyderabad refused to secede to India, there was big communal war in Hyderabad.. My father who was running a hotel in Secunderabad preferred to stay there. It was my uncle A.P.S.Iyer who brought me, my mother, sister and younger brother to Kerala. Since we did not have a house in Kerala, he took us to my maternal grand father’s place in Ayilur. After  a few years I  went back  to secunderabad   to study  in English medium school. Every wekk  , my uncle used to come to our hotel and sta with us.He taught  me lot of things in life and I also used to go to  Bhongir, to stay   with him and mami  almost every month. Though both of them are not there  I remember them always  .

   Like his Father he too was  a great Bhaktha  of Pazhani Murukan.  After   death of his father  , he too started  to  Visit Pazhani during Thai Poosam , every year . He also presented  Ayilur  Krishna  temple  with Permanent lamp and he used to present   sufficient oil  to the temple , so that  the lamp   was burning always

      My great uncle who used to wear Khadi due to his great thirst for knowledge and recognition ,studied , Urdu, Sanskrit and law even when he was running the hotel at Bhongir. He used to write Urdu poems , give lectures on several religious topics and was one of the very few Kerala Iyers who was a master in the art of Padakam (A musical narration of religious stories in Malayalam). He was also possibly the only Kerala Iyer who was imprisoned for agitating for the separate state of Telengana in 1968. He was also one of those great people of Hyderabad who used to help any Iyer in trouble coming to him. He was one of those founder member of the Subramanya Samajam of Hyderabad and was president of the Samajam till his death for a very long time. He had once told me that a letter addressed to him as A.P.S. Iyer, Andhra Pradesh reached him correctly .Possibly he should have been called “ Andhra Pradesh State Iyer”. With tears in my eyes I acknowledge the great contributions that he had made in my life.

In 1954 for one year   when my father  had sold our hotel  and gone back to our village  , he  was my local guardian  in my SEcunderabad school .Being free to do anything I wished  I did see  few pictures like Avvayar  again and again.That month my  marks took a slight dip . I had to take  signature  in my  progress report  from my uncle.He saw  it  and was annoyed  and told  me that  I  am spoiling my studies  by seeing  too many pictures  several times .This annoyed me a lot  and I promised  my uncle   that  I will not see  any more  cinema  till I completed my education

 I stuck to my promise  and never  saw  any pictures  for another  16  years ie till  I got married. It was at this time that  I progessed  a lot  and at the age  of 23 , I got a gazetted  officers post  in an ICAR institute. I believed  that one of the reasons , for  the great   results  I got , was my uncle A.P.S. Iyer  ie my Rasa Mama. At this age  I feel sad  that  I never  told him this.Hope  he wil be reading this blog from heaven .