People who have influenced my life -A.P.S.Iyer of Hyderabad , My uncle.

 People who have influenced my life -A.P.S.Iyer of Hyderabad , My uncle.

BY

P.R.Ramachander

I am thinking of writing about some people who have influenced my life and who are no more in this world .A.P.S.Iyer my maternal uncle comes to my memory first. . 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 six months we went to our own native place in Chelakkara , when our father purchased a house there. From then on for the next 4 years I studied in Kerala . My father then thought that it would be better if I studied in Secunderabad. So I leaving my mother and siblings in Kerala started to live in his hotel there. My uncle used to come every week to our hotel for weekly purchases. Several times I remember that I used to accompany him to an ice factory near Plaza theater of those days. I remember several times great intellectual discussions with him. Being a pet child of my father, who was extremely well read , I became a book worm. I also got terribly interested in seeing movies in Cinema theaters. After 3 years , my father had to sell off the hotel . He had told the man who purchased our hotel that I should be given free accommodation and food in that hotel for one more year , so that I can complete my matriculation in Secunderabad itself . My uncle was my local guardian who used to look after me , sign my progress reports etc. Due to being independent I started seeing too many movies and once my rank slipped from one of the top two to below ten. My uncle bombarded me and told that it was all because I was mad about movies .Being very sensitive and greatly upset I told him that, I will not see any more movie till I achieve what I want in life. For the next 16 years I did not see any movie even if it was screened free in the theaters of the university. Today looking back , I think I am what I am because of my uncle who showed me the correct path at the correct time.

A few more words about him. 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.