I Thangam returned home after seeing Vaithy
off. It was to be the first of his many visits abroad. A few years earlier, a Pan Am flight had
crashed while landing at Dum Dum Airport, killing several persons, and she was
apprehensive. On his way back, Vaithy
stopped over in London, and met his paternal uncle and his family for the first
time. It was a memorable meeting for him, having grown up with his Periappa’s
family and having had virtually no contact with his extended family.  |
| Vaithy's uncle (second from left, seated) and his family. |
There were other
visitors too. One of Thangam’s cousins, Sundararajan joined Vaithy’s firm. He
brought his young family along, and Thangam soon became very attached to them. He
had three young children, and Chuppam and Dorai found new play-mates.
That winter, Vaithy
took them all to Digha, driving his family in their newly-acquired, used Ambassador
Mark II [i]
Sundararajan and his family joined them by bus and they spent a week together,
the children frolicking on the beach. Even Vaithy took to the waves, swimming
even though the water was a bone-chilling twenty degrees. It reminded him of
the days when he would swim in the village pond. It was their first holiday
outside Palghat, and it would set the tone for later visits.
 |
| Sundararajan and his family. |
 |
| P. Lal |
It was around this
time that Vaithy was introduced to a young writer at Calcutta Club. One day, he
asked Vaithy if he would like to meet his mentor. It was the beginning of a
close relationship with P. Lal,[ii]
who was then busy transcreating the Mahabharata
and publishing fascicules of them. Vaithy became fascinated, and took on
the job of co-ordinating with the saree weavers whose creations adorned the
jackets of the hand-set, hand-bound masterpieces.
After Dorai turned ten,
Thangam began attending City College,[iii]
to study for her B.A. in
Philosophy. She had taken her Matric and
Inter exams in previous years, but had to interrupt her studies, to take care
of the family. The time had now come to complete them, and Vaithy encouraged
her. They hired a full-time Oriya house-keeper. Nandu had been in the employ of Mr. Kapoor, and
would remain with them for many years.
II One day, Thangam returned home from work, feeling dizzy. She sent for
some aspirin, but her pain worsened. It was Nandu’s day off, and she went into
the kitchen to make some tea. There, she collapsed, bleeding profusely. When
she came to, she was lying on the sofa, and Mrs. Pahadi from the first floor
was mopping her brow with a cold towel. She looked calm. “I have told Mr.
Pahadi to ring your husband, the door was open, so when Dorai came home, he
found you. The children are all downstrairs, don’t worry. Please don’t move. Do
you want some water?”
Vaithy was in Tribeni,
and came home late in the evening, and the office had been unable to reach him.
He was met by Nandu and Mrs. Pahadi. “Mr. Pahadi could not wait any more. He
called Dr. Biswas and he rang the nursing home and they sent an ambulance.”
When Vaithy reached
the nursing home, he was ushered into the waiting surgeon’s room, who was
visibly irritated. “What is your name? Yes, yes! Why are you coming so late? Is
this chiriakhana [iv]
Your wife was in emergency, emergency! We had to operate. Emergency! First you come late, then you want to make
case on nursing home? Yes? But, she is all right. We had to make emergency
scraping and make blood transfer, but congratulation, mister, we saved the
other child. You are becoming father again. How many children? Good, good. Today,
she will stay here. Tomorrow morning, doctor will come for check-up and decide.
Please sign the form for operation at reception.”
The child that was
born to them was premature, and died a few hours after she gave birth. Thangam’s
intuition had turned out to be correct. She would not be a mother again. She
plunged head-long back into her studies.
III Kannan left to study in Kharagpur that year,
Papa would go to Pune, to become a doctor a couple of years later. Thangam graduated
with Honours. She discussed applying for a teaching job with Vaithy, and
changed her mind. Instead, she gave private tuitions. Within a year, she was
offered a job as a substitute teacher, and she accepted. For the next ten
years, she would teach, while she juggled her duties as a wife and mother.
A year later, Vaithy
met Shireen Sonawalla when he went to attend a week-end course for managers.
She was an officer at the bank where his firm had their main accounts. She was
intelligent, had a sense of humour, and shared his interest in books. In the
coming years, their intimacy would grow, and Vaithy would see her as a source
of solace and encouragement.
 |
| Meena at her arangetram. |
 |
| Chuppam at her arangetram. |
Later in the year, on
a misty winter evening, Vaithy arranged the arangetram[v]
of Meena and Chuppam . The proceedings
at a packed Pavilion Hall l[vi]
were delayed for a few minutes, after Chuppam caught stage fright, and had to
be coaxed on to the stage. Vaithy had invited all their friends, and the chief
guest was the Commissioner of Excise and Customs. The girls were a bit unsure during the shabdam [vii] and
varnam[viii]
stages of the concert, but by the time they were into the thillana,[ix]
the audience was spell-bound, and it all ended in a rousing ovation.
Text by: Shankar A.
Narayan Photo credits: Prem Kumar, Karlos
Deville, Rosalin Solomon, Ashwini Priyanka, Kumari Aparna and Fotki.
- [i] The Ambassador Mark II was introduced in 1962. It featured a totally redesigned grill, interior and dash-board.
- [ii] P. Lal started Writers’ Workshop in 1958. He began transcreating the epic Mahabharata in the 1970s, and by the time he died, he had published all 100,000 verses, the most complete in any language.
- [iii] Sivanath Sastri College was established in 1961 as the South City campus of City College, and is dedicated to women’s education.
- [iv] Zoo.
- [v] The first public performance by a Bharatanatyam dancer. A test for the guru and the disciple.
- [vi] The Pavilion Hall auditorium at the Rabindra Sarovar complex in south Calcutta.
- [vii] A Bharatanatya item which includes both nrttya (dance) and abhinaya (facial expressions), but the abhinaya is restrained in the beginning, and only expressed gradually.
- [viii] In this item Bhratanatyam dancers are tested for their capacity to perform both abhinaya and nrttya. It includes many complex steps and expressions.
- [ix] Usually the last item in any Bharatanatyam performance.
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