Adyar & Me

I had shared the news that my article titled `Adyarum Naanum (Adyar & Me)` in Tamil had appeared in the Kalaimagal magazine`s Diwali issue this year. For those who cannot read Tamil among my FB friends, I am reproducing below the English version of the article. The article describes my long association with Adyar, a popular residential area consisting of many colonies. I have been a resident of Sastri Nagar, one of the colonies forming a part of Adyar, for the last 49 years.

Adyar & Me

by R.V.Rajan

A few weeks ago a team from Federal Bank accompanied by executives from their advertising agency landed in my home. As a resident of Adyar for the last 49 years, they wanted to know what it meant to me and the highlights of my long association with Adyar. I was told that this was being done as a part of `I am Adyar. Adyar is Me` campaign that celebrates people and their culture in Adyar. This gave me an opportunity to go down memory lane.

It was on my first official visit to Chennai in 1967, I had to visit Sastri Nagar in Adyar, responding to a dinner invitation from the Branch Manager of my company. I remember that I had to cross a narrow one-way iron bridge over the Adyar river connecting Gandhi Nagar and the areas beyond, with the city. A traffic constable was stationed to allow vehicles from either side to go over the bridge alternately. My Branch Manager’s house was one of the dozen independent houses in the area, with plenty of open space all around. I was told that during the rainy season, the entire area would be flooded and Sastri Nagar would look like a lake dotted with houses! I never imagined that within seven years I would move to Chennai and settle down in Sastri Nagar, a beautiful little colony with lovely houses built by retired bureaucrats, upcoming businessmen, and a few professionals. By the time I moved to Sastri Nagar, the area had seen some development, with more independent houses.

 
Besant Nagar, lying between Sastri Nagar and the beautiful Elliots beach, was fast developing, with a complex of Housing Board flats serving different strata of society. For all our daily necessities we had to go to Besant Nagar or walk up to Lattice Bridge Road (LB Road). Laxmi Sagar, the Udupi Restaurant dishing out delicious South Indian snacks, was the only restaurant serving the entire area and it was located (and continues to exist) diagonally opposite Adyar Telephone Exchange. Today, Adyar, with several well-developed colonies, has a choice of multi-cuisine restaurants offering Indian, Chinese, Italian, Korean, Japanese, and Continental flavours. You can get everything- from `pin to elephant`- in Adyar today.

 
In the last two decades, greedy builders have managed to tempt the owners of the beautiful houses to go in for joint development of plots, with the result that Sastri Nagar has become a concrete jungle. This is true of many other colonies in Adyar. Many of the streets are witnessing the appearance of commercial ventures in a primarily residential area, transforming the profile of the locality. My home, which is one of the few independent homes in Sastri Nagar, was a peaceful place tucked inside a small lane facing the colony’s only Corporation playground. Today, we are surrounded by multi-storied apartments on three sides leading to a feeling of suffocation.

I will, however, not think of leaving Sastri Nagar because of its strategic location. Just a ten-minute walk from my home to the lovely Elliot’s Beach where I can watch the sun rise and breathe fresh air every morning. It is another matter that I go for a walk in my car! Though I have been walking on the beach road in Besant Nagar, popularly known as `Bessy` among the younger generation for the last 49 years, I had never bothered to befriend strangers crossing my path in the old days. It would at best be a courteous `Hi` and `Bye` to some acquaintances I bumped into! It was only after I had completely come out of my active professional life that I started cultivating new friends during my walks because I was not in a hurry to get back home.

The two groups of walking friends I am now associated with consist of people who are in their seventies or eighties. It is a mix of retired professionals from the private/public sector, bureaucrats, and even educators. Every morning the groups meet at a fixed time – exchanging the latest gossip in town or the political situation or a few jokes. Jokes at the expense of some members are not uncommon. You can judge from the boisterous laughter emanating from the groups from time to time that everyone is having fun. I make it a point to spend 60 minutes between these two groups every morning and indulge in some throaty laughter considered good for the mind and body. Laughter a day keeps the doctor or the `blues` away! A brisk walk followed by a dose of healthy laughter and a good cup of filter coffee sets the right tone for the rest of the day for me. I come back fully charged to spend an active day ahead; which also involves interacting with a whole set of new friends I have made in the literary world as a writer/author. One of them is Kizhambur Sankara Subramanian, the editor of Kalaimagal.

I first met Kizhambur when I went to hand over a short story in Tamil written by my late wife Prabha, twenty-five years ago. However, I got closer to him only after I started the Prabha Rajan Talent Foundation ( PRTF) in memory of my late wife Prabha, which has conducted a few literary contests in association with Kalaimagal. His association with Tamizh Puthaga Nanbargal of which I was one of the founders, cemented our friendship. I am grateful to him for inviting me to contribute this article for publication in this year`s Diwali issue of Kalaimagal.       

Is it Trust in God or Faith in God?

I am a god-fearing man who believes in total surrender to the Lord. Though I am no good at established rituals I do have some of my own. After finishing my morning ablutions I start playing devotional songs from Youtube. Songs like Venkateshwara Suprabhatham, Vishnu Sahasranamam etc. While these are going on in the background for about sixty minutes I get to work on my PC.

Every morning after a bath I go to the small puja room in my home, clean up the place by getting rid of the old flowers and replacing them with new flowers. I offer a couple of bananas and a small silver cup with fresh milk as Neivedyam and light up the two small silver lamps. After that, I recite a few slokas- some from memory and some I read from a booklet. The process takes me about 30 minutes. I find the whole experience blissful.

What do I call my belief in god- Trust in God or Faith in God? I referred to Google Knowledge to find out. This is what it says.

Trust- to believe that someone is good and honest and will not harm you, or that something is safe and reliable

 Faith means putting your trust in God and having confidence that he will not fail you.

They say that God constantly tests his ardent devotees more than he tests the non-believers to

 ensure that the devotee constantly remembers him. This has been very true in my life.

 The toughest test that the Lord gave me involved my son Balaji. He was just a year old and as per family traditions, we had to get his first Mundan at Tirupati on a chosen date.

 

Accompanied by my parents, when we were on our way to Tirupati, my son developed a fever

 and severe cold which got worse that night. The next morning, when I was ready to leave for

 Kalyanakatta (common hall) and the holy pond, my father, the cautious man that he always is, was furious with me. He insisted that we cancel the whole ritual or alternatively bring the barber to the lodge and give the child a bath in hot water at the Lodgings where we were staying. I stood my ground and told my father that my prayer involved getting the shaving ceremony done at the common hall followed by the child taking a holy dip in the pond. After a heated argument when my father realized that I was not going to give in, he let go but refused to join me.

 

With fear in my heart, but with total faith in the Lord, I went through the rituals as per my plan. After dipping the feverish baby in the pond three times, I came out and quickly wiped him off and dressed him up in warm clothes. When my wife placed her hand on the baby’s forehead to see if his fever had risen, she was surprised to find there was none! In spite of going through the ordeal, Balaji was smiling at us! I felt that the Lord was smiling at me and telling me, “You have passed yet another test, young man!” Not only was the fever gone, but Balaji’s cold disappeared as quickly!  What I did may be crazy but that is what implicit faith in the Lord makes you do sometimes!

 

(I have narrated a few more such experiences in Part Three titled `My tryst with God` in my autobiography titled `Courage My Companion`)

 

 

When Crocodile Craved for Chocolate & Chips

A fascinating book for kids written by my `storyteller` daughter Sowmya Srinivasan and beautifully illustrated by my younger brother Srinivasan & Pushpa`s daughter Shilpa and her nine-year-old daughter Janani. Though the book is meant for kids, I found the story interesting and the illustrations fascinating. Congratulations to the trio and hope they come up with more such joint ventures in the future. God Bless them

I am reproducing below the story of the Book's journey as communicated by Sowmya herself:

“ Way back in 2019, I wrote this story for a bunch of 1st and 2nd years, to inspire them to eat healthy. Somehow I knew the protagonist had to be a Crocodile! I then sent it across to my artist cousin Shilpa in the US, hoping she would illustrate it. Surprisingly her daughter Janani, on her own accord, quickly pencil sketched the entire story in one sitting! Janani was 9 years old at that time. Shilpa then painted each of the illustrations using watercolors and it was finally all done! Then of course with the help of Story Weaver (an online and free publishing platform from Pratham) we uploaded the images along with the text and voilà, our book was ready in 2023!
The journey has been long, but so worth it. I hope my readers like it as much as we enjoyed creating it”

Those interested in reading the book can download the book by clicking the link
https://storyweaver.org.in/stories/582091-when-crocodile-craved-chocolate-chips
For those who find it difficult to read online, a few printed copies are available with Sowmya and me. Connect with us by Whats App – Sowmya 9731570615 Rajan -9840392082

Any kind of help any time service

One of the biggest worries for any senior citizen is the fear of falling & getting injured.  However careful he or she is it can happen anytime. It happened to my walking friend, 92-year-old Sundaram, a few weeks ago. An NRI parent whose only daughter is settled in the USA, he stays with his wife in a flat in Besant Nagar.  Like most NRI parents he has to fend for himself for all his requirements.  However, during the lockdown in 2020, his daughter entered into an arrangement with an  Elder Care  Service provider to give any help the couple wanted any time of the day.

It was a Sunday. After his meal at the dining table when he went to the washbasin in the kitchen to wash his hands he slipped and fell. He couldn`t get up. His frail wife could not lift him up. As the neighbours were not available, with help from a nearby vendor he was lifted and seated in a chair. His wife remembered her daughter`s instruction to contact the service provider for any help.

A telephone call brought one of the co-founders and her partner from the service provider within twenty minutes. They  took charge of the situation, summoned an ambulance, and got Sundaram admitted to a nearby hospital. At the hospital, they discussed with the doctors and once the fracture was confirmed they admitted him and appointed a 24/7 caregiver. They  did not disturb Sundaram`s wife.  She was at home and they kept her and their daughter informed of the doctor’s view and surgery plan. Luckily for Sundaram, the next day the senior surgeon discovered only a hairline fracture, surgery was performed, and a steel plate was inserted. While friends kept in touch with his wife to give her moral support, it was the caregiver who was attached to Sundaram 24/7 until he returned home five days later when he was able to walk around with a walker.  They have continued with the same caregiver at home too and organized physio for a full recovery. Needless to say, Sundaram`s daughter from the USA was closely monitoring to ensure that her father was well taken care of despite her physical absence. As well as she would have taken care of him if she had been present.  A promise made by the service provider which they kept up.

Sundaram confirmed that in the last three years, the services provided by the service provider called Sakhi4life were exemplary. Both he and his daughter who takes care of the bills, are very happy. Registered as a company by three ladies with extensive corporate experience Sakhi4life offers support, care, and companionship for aging parents with the same kind of respect and effort that the absentee children of such parents would provide them. It could be as small as ordering a meal on Swiggy or a car on Uber or arranging a celebration with friends, and they are just one call away for every need. Sakhi Counsellors are trained to help seniors in managing their daily chores, payments, legal, medical, technical, financial, or government requirements; dealing with vendors and household staff on their behalf, and most importantly, companionship. In other words, they can provide any kind of help that the elders require at any time of the day.

 According to Sundaram`s daughter, the payment terms are reasonable. She told me that a few of her friends with NRI parents have used the service and are happy. Sakhi4life offers customized package deals based on the specific requirements of the elders needing their care. While I am aware of many `Anytime patient care`  service providers, this is the first time I came across an `Any time, any care` service provider in Sakhi4life which is modeled on similar elder care bodies like Aaji Care in Mumbai, Porosh in Kolkata and Kites in Bengaluru.

Anyone looking for such a service in Chennai can visit the website- sakhi4life.com for more details.