Arcot Aththai aka Srimathi Jayalakshmi Chandhrakantha Sarma The youngest of the three sisters of Neelanna Thaathaa was named Jayalakshmi and since she lived in Arcot her appellation in general became Arcot Jayam. All the three sisters well loved by all ythe children of the clan but the first two were rather feared and respected, but in the case of Arcot Aththai the element of fear was totally absent. She was so hearty and affable that it was very difficult to be afraid of her, though there was no dearth of respect or affection at any point of time. Like Vichalikka, she was slightly darkish in complexion but with well chiselled features and a very slim and well built body structure she was quite beautiful like a statue of a Goddess in one of our temples. She was quite nimble in her working ways and the coffee making part of the hospitality used to be hers whenever there was a function in the family and she was around. Though she was a reasonably frequent visitor, she maintained herself upto date in knowing the details as to who liked and what and who did not like what and served food to all as per their liking. Aththai’s Kichchalikkai uppu urugaay was very famous and every year during the season she used to send me some pieces of that. Aththimber used to bring Makkan peda from Arcot a dish that was famous all over the world and was geographically linked to Arcot and all the kids in the house used to love it. She was married to Sri TB Chandhrakantha Sarma of Tennambattu who was in rice marketing business. Even in those early days they were practicing forward trading in commodities like rice and ground-nut. When they were married they were quite flourishing and the business was good. But after independence the business started slackening and he lost a lot of money and was living perennially on borrowed money. On one occasion someone came and told my grand father Sri MRV Aiyer that the creditors were taking civil recovery measures and the house in Gangadhareswarar Kovil street Arcot was to be auctioned off. As he did not want the family to be out of the house, with no roof over them to protect he repaid the loan amounts and the mortgage re written on his name and made it a condition that the property cannot be sold without his or his heir’s consent. This some how ensured that Aththai and Aththimber had a roof over their head till their end. Aththimber died in Arcot itself and was cremated on the Palar River bed. It was after Krishnamoorthy Anna’s death so I had to attend the funeral with Kamakshi Manni & Betty. But aththai died in Madras after some treatment in hospital for her sickness. During her final days before going into the hospital she was at Ambattur with Vichaliakka. Aththai had two sons, both gems. The elder son was Sri C Lakshmikanthan. He was such a favourite son of Aththimber that when as a child he cried asking for a tricycle like the one some neighbour’s child had, aththimber such took the bus to Madras and came back the next day with the tricycle. He had finished his schooling at Arcot and then was trying for some job in Madras. Slowly he realised that his pasture was not Madras and he migrated to Delhi where he was on many odd jobs. Then he joined Birlas in the Air conditioning Corporation. He was their liaison person engaged in chasing files and papers in the various Government offices for the Company. He was so very successful that he established very proximate relationship with a number of Senior Government Officers and even some politicians, particularly from Madras / Tamilnadu for whom he used to make all arrangements in Delhi for their comfortable stay there. He also had extensive contacts with the Film and theatre fraternity of Madras. Those days it still had its originality and was not called Kollywood. V enus Krishnamoorthy, Sri Rathnam Aiyer, Mani Ratnam, Venkatesh were all in his guest list at some time or other. Sivaji Ganesanconsidered CL to be one of his closest friends. I still remember attending the shooting for the song “Chinnaj chiriya vannap paravai wennaththai solluthammaa” in Kunkumam with Thulabaram Saradha and Sivaji Ganesan in lead roles. Also around that time Sivaji Ganesan Saroja Devi starrer box office hit ‘Puthiya Paravai’ was on the sets and if I remember correctly CCL did some shots as Sivaji’s dummy in some sequences in the film. CL was such an adorable person that when I first went to Delhi I took to him & I spent quite a lot of time there and became friends with some of his Colleagues there like Ramachandhran aka Guruji, Jayaraman and there was one Prem Sigh Prem who used to claim that he is going to be the next Dev Anand in the Bollywood filmdom. He took me to the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha when the house was sitting and also to the Rashtrapathi Bhavan and Mogul Gardens. We used to spend a lot of time together. I had been to Hotel Ashoka in Delhi with CL and that was y first entry in to a 5 star hotel. Alao he had arranged a pass for me to see the Repubic Day parade and the Beating the retreat ceremony. Because of CL I became popuylar in the Mani Aiyer Mess in Karol Bagh. CL & his brother CVM were living there in a room. Again it was with CL that I went to UNI Canteen of Sri Iyer as also the Deli Tamil Sangam and the Madrasi Association of Karolbagh. Subsequently he married Achchamma aunty and after a few years went and settled down in Canada. He is a very popular Tamil figure in London, Canada. During my visit to the American visit in 2010 I spent a couple if days with him and aunty and his grandchildren. Great thing is his two sons are also in same friendly and lovable mould. Ravi comes out with some very interesting posts on the Facebook. Both the sons live in the US of A somewhere in Boston. Aththai’s second son Vasantha Madhavan was another interesting and friendly person. He also finished his schooling in Arcot and came to Madras to end up finally in Delhi. He was working in UNICEF and was quite a popular man there. He was also very friendly and lovable. Again I came to be friendly with him when I was in Delhi in 1962 immediately after the Sino Indian Border dispute.We used to spend a lot of time together. Those days he was in a barsathi with some other friend in the 7A block of WEA Karolbagh. He was married in wallajah and had two children the daughter is Sridevi Hannah in the ace Book and the son is Sriram. The son and daughter are somewhere in the US of A if my information is correct and uptodate. CVM had a long innings in the UNUCEF and was a very popular man in the establishment. He got transferred to Madras and was working from Madras. During one of his official visits to Karnataka the vehicle in which he was travelling on was involved in an accident and he was badly hurt. May be that was the start of the sinking in his health or may be not. But he had been suffering because of very poor health from that day of the accident till almost his death in Devaki Hospital in Mylapore. Both Aththai and Aththimber came to Abhiramapuram and stayed with us during the crucial period till after his death. They very much wanted to perform the final rites in the Hindu way, but his wife insisted that he should be buried in a Christian Burial ground. Thus he sleeps for eternity in the Christian cemetery on the St Marys Road Mandaveli, very near the present Mandaveli Railway station on the MRTS. After that both aththai and aththimber were broken in spirits and lived a mechanical life until their death. In this I-me-my generation, it is very difficult, why impossible, to see such loving and lovable couple.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 14:11:28 +0000
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