Four cities in 10 days

It all started with the invitation to address my school's ( SIWS)Alumni Association on 21st January, at the school in Wadala, Mumbai. I decided to combine it with a visit to Shirdi, Pune, and Hyderabad. I am not confident about traveling alone these days. So I was happy when my daughter Sowmya volunteered to accompany me-it was a big moral and physical support. I had decided to use the direct flight from Chennai to reach Shirdi but from Shirdi to Pune/Mumbai I opted for the road route to avoid the hassles connected with train travel.

In Shirdi, we had a great darshan of Sai Baba thanks to the ever-friendly guide Babu Rao of Vasant Kamal travels. On our way to Pune, we visited the Shani temple at Shani Shignapur. Shani Shignapur village is famous for the fact that no house is ever locked as the villagers feel secure with the protection provided by Shani Baghvan. Closer to Pune we visited the Mahaganpathi temple at Ranjangaon known as one of the Ashta Vinayaga temples located in Maharashtra. I visited all the Ashta Vinayaga temples with Prabha 15 years ago.

At Pune, we met Nadkar and his wife Muktha, friends from my Round Table days in Mumbai ( 1968-71), and of course Pradeep Lokhande of Rural Relations, one of the founders of the Rural Marketing Association of India. While Nadkars entertained us with a delicious Maharashtrian lunch at Shreyas restaurant, Pradeep and his wife took us to Vaishali restaurant, very popular as the biggest restaurant serving delectable south Indian dishes for dinner in Pune. I was happy to learn that not only had Pradeep become a grandfather since I last met him but also quietly performed the marriage of his second daughter.

In Mumbai, my host was Sundaresan and his wife Leela. Though I reconnected with Sundaresan, my schoolmate, after 53 years at a reunion 12 years ago, we have become close friends and I feel very comfortable staying with them whenever I am in Mumbai. This time it was no different.

My talk at the Alumni meet was a resounding success judging by the response I got from the teachers and students of the SIWS college in the audience. I was delighted when the Principal of the college promised to help in getting my novel `Durga Nivas` based on my experience of living in a chawl, translated into Marathi & Hindi. I hope her enthusiasm is followed by action.
The Second Grand Annual Day celebrations held the following day at the school auditorium witnessed eight alumni being conferred the Distinguished Alumni Award. ( I received my Award at the first Grand event held in 2017). The award function which was anchored by Nagesh Alai with aplomb was followed by an entertaining dance programme by a professional group and a music session in which many old students displayed their talents for singing old film songs in Hindi and Tamil. The meeting ended with a simple South Indian meal provided by a well-known caterer in Mumbai..
While in Mumbai I visited my 84 years old cousin Gopal and my old boss and dear friend- 92 years old Vijay Menon. It was Vijay when he became the Secretary general of AMIC, an NGO headquartered in Singapore, devoted to promoting mass communication in the Asia-Pacific region, inducted me as a Country Representative of AMIC in 1984. Later I was roped into the Board of AMIC Singapore and was also responsible for establishing an Indian office of WAN-IFRA, a world body devoted to the development of Newspapers. While my main profession took me to the villages of India, my role as the MD of IFRA INDIA saw me visiting many cities across the world. I am always grateful to Vijay for opening up a whole new world to me.

I also met my good friend Swamy, who was the Manager in charge of the memorable `Enga Veettu Super Star- Philips` campaign for the electronics division of Philips in Rural Tamil Nadu, which my agency conceived in 1997-98. A successful campaign that brought Sam Balsara of Madison fame to our doorstep for a collaboration. It was nice going down memory lane with Swamy. A brief visit to my brother`s daughter`s house in a posh apartment complex in Parel was the icing on the cake.

From Mumbai, we flew to Hyderabad to visit my younger brother Srinivasan who was recovering from a setback in his health, & his wife Pushpa, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award from a professional body of audiologists, yesterday.

My experience of visiting Prabha's 92 years old Chithi ( mother`s younger sister ) at a Retirement Community in PUNE deserves a separate post.

I returned to Chennai in high spirits with loads of blessings from my elders and divine grace from the Gods but accompanied by a severe cough that my family doctor diagnosed as an allergic cough- nothing to worry about!

Prabha Rajan Talent Foundation celebrates its 10th Anniversary

The 10th Anniversary of Prabha Rajan Talent Foundation ( PRTF), started by me in memory of Prabha, was celebrated yesterday (15th January 2023) at TAG Centre owned by my good friend R.T Chari. It is at the same venue four other earlier anniversaries were celebrated.

The special feature of this year`s event was the presentation of the `PRTF-ROLE MODEL` Award to 95 years old Kanakam Sharma, who started writing short stories in Tamil at 90 and became a published author of a book of short stories by 93. She is continuing to write. The second person to receive the award was 78 years old Jaya Krishnan. She started writing in Tamil after she turned 70. She already has two books on spiritual subjects to her credit and the third one is on the way. The citations were read by Mythili Seshadri.

The next event witnessed 81 years old Kumudha Srinivasan realizing her dream of publishing her first book of short story in Tamil. Kizhambur Sankara Subramanian, the editor of 91 years old Kalaimagal magazine, received the first copy from the Chief Guest. The three ladies proved that age is no barrier to pursuing one`s passion.

This was followed by Ravi Tamilvanan of Manimekalai Prasuram handing over two books of first-time authors sponsored by PRTF to the Chief Guest. After this cash prizes were distributed to the winners of the short story competitions held by Ladies Special and Kuvikam magazines in association with PRTF. A book containing prize-winning stories in the PRTF-Kuvikam contest was also released by the chief guest.

The meeting started with a melodious invocation song sung by Madhura Muralidharan followed by an emotional welcome address by Kavitha Srinivas. In his address, Rajan recalled the continuous support that PRTF has received from Kizhambur, Editor of Kalaimagal magazine, Ravi Tamilvanan of Manimekalai Prasuram, Girija Raghavan, Editor of Ladies Special magazine, Diwakar of Compuprint and R.T.Chari of the Tag group for the activities of PRTF right from its inception.

The chief guest, celebrity writer Sivasankari in her address congratulated PRTF for the excellent work it was doing in encouraging talented women. Her inspiring speech was listened to with rapt attention by the packed audience, estimated at over 150. The meeting ended with a vote of thanks by Sowmya Srinivasan followed by the National Anthem

A folder containing the details of activities of PRTF for the first ten years was distributed to the guests
The meeting, which started sharp at 6.05pm and ended sharply at 7.35, was anchored with aplomb by Girija Raghavan better known as the `one woman army`.

 

 

A Tenth Anniversary Tribute

  PRABHA RAJAN ( 27-7-51  to 05-01-2013)

CELEBRATING MEMORIES

Prabha was born on 27^th July 1951, as the youngest of four siblings. Her father, a senior Manager with the TVS group, passed away when he was 31 years old leaving behind four children of ages ranging from 20 days to 7 years. Prabha, who was only 20 days old never saw her father. Prabha and her three siblings ( Two elder brothers and the eldest sister) were brought up by their single mother with support from the TVS group. All of them received a good education with Prabha`s senior elder brother passing his Chartered Accountancy with distinction. It was a close-knit family with little exposure to the outside world and hardly any socializing.  An average student, Prabha studied up to graduation level at SIET college in Chennai. She never enjoyed studies but was a voracious reader of Tamil magazines &  books. She was fond of film music of those days, which she could recall much later when she became a popular social singer at parties.

I was married to Prabha in 1972 when I was 30 years old and she was only 21. It was an arranged marriage. As a  successful adman and a Round Tabler, I was very active in social circles. In the initial years of our married life, I was indeed shocked to find that she did not fit into my social circles because of her problem communicating in English.  I have described in detail her trials and tribulations on this score in my autobiography and how she came out of it through sheer determination and hard work. 

Though a reluctant starter, Prabha was a fast learner.  Once she got on to something she would put her heart and soul into the job.  Whether cooking meals for a small family of 5 or a party of 40 people,  maintaining her garden with hundreds of plants with love and care, attending music classes and learning new songs, or handling any assignment given to her by the neighborhood Ladies Club or the Inner Wheel Club, she proved to be a very dependable and dedicated worker. Her passion for doing things perfectly earned her a lot of admirers.

Prabha was a fearless person.  No bad news, no calamity, or even a simple accident affected her composure. She was very bold and had been a nemesis for any crawling or slithering creatures that dared to enter our independent home. She was also not a sentimental person judging by her reactions to several situations that I had seen.

Prabha was an intellectual of sorts! Not many people have had the opportunity to see her wax eloquent on Hindu religion, Mythology, Tamil literature & Carnatic music. Her memory and knowledge of these subjects were very good.

All these talents were hidden for the first sixteen years of our marriage when she was bringing up our children while I was very busy building a successful career and very active in social organizations. While I thought everything was going well with Prabha and me, an explosive letter she wrote to me in Tamil, opened up my eyes to the reality and what I did with the letter and how my `out of the box` action became a turning point in her life is already well documented.

Post that event Prabha became an accomplished writer in Tamil and after receiving some training in communication skills in  English she became active in the neighborhood Ladies Club and  Inner Wheel Club of Madras South, which opened up a whole new world to her. She became the 31^st President of the Inner Wheel Club of Madras South.

Prabha`s transformation, from an introvert with low self-esteem to a person who became self-assured and confident was complete. She began to enjoy participating in many social activities. She became so popular in social circles that a stage reached where instead of her being referred to as Rajan`s wife I was being referred to as Prabha`s husband. She became the dream girl that I wanted to marry but she was not in the initial years of our marriage. I began to fall in love with Prabha in her new Avathar. I was truly proud of her progress in life

Prabha was a good wife, a caring mother, a dutiful daughter-in-law, and an affectionate grandmother.  Prabha was also multi-talented.  Apart from her writing and singing abilities, I found her to be also a good storyteller.  Given an opportunity, she could also act or dance. She exhibited a childlike enthusiasm for a lot of things.  When our travels took us to historical places, she would like to know details about everything on display.  You would find her religiously reading all the explanatory boards on display.

Unlike many women I know, she was not a gossipmonger and could get along with anyone because of the simplicity and transparency in her dealings.  Most certainly she was not a cunning person but could be too naive sometimes! Though she was like the proverbial mouse to the outside world she was a tigress at home! I should know! Maybe her children also know of that side of Prabha.

On the negative side, I would say that the obsession she had for maintaining the fairly big house we had, spic and span, sometimes drove everyone, especially me, to go crazy.

Anyone or anything that intruded on her daily routine created tension in her.  While it was an excellent quality to be focused on, sometimes it created explosive situations between us.  However, we had an unwritten understanding that we would never carry forward our anger arising out of a situation to the next day.

 If I have led a very fulfilling life and have a sense of accomplishment, realizing most of my dreams. I must acknowledge the role played by Prabha in my life. If I had a role to play in making her come out of her shell and helped her talents to come to the limelight, I was only doing my duty as she did hers.

Thank you, Prabha for everything.   And pardon me if I disappointed you with some scores!