Karanavar’s Reminiscence

A Karanavar is the senior-most uncle of joint families of yesteryear who followed the Marumakkathaayam tradition (matrilineal system). The present Karanavar of Ningileri Tharavad is Sri Ningileri Thayillath Vasudevan Nambiar. As he is completing his 90^th nakshatram birthday (Ayiliam) today let us offer him a Navathi Pranamam by recalling past incidents and experiences that he remembers.

This memoir is narrated by his nephew NT Unnikrishnan. I am jotting down these recollections of Uncle with the idea that they will be fascinating for the coming generations as they provide glimpses into the people, places, and social practices of the society of 70 years back during the end of the British rule in India. I have also added some historical facts to the narrative (shown in highlighted Boxes) to provide the right context and background.

Wg.Cdr. NTV Nambiar (Retd.) is presently the only living member of eight siblings. Though he has normal age-related memory loss and sometimes can’t recognize even his close friends and relatives, he has sharp recollections of his childhood days. It is like tugging a thread of an old tapestry – the whole thing comes out effortlessly, when you ask him a question about his service, school, or college days. He describes various incidents about his father in such detailed manner as if they took place just yesterday.

His parents Sri K Kelu Adiyodi (1885-1981, 96y) and Smt. NT Meenakshi Amma (1900-1952, 52y), had eight children; they are in order NT Madhavan Nambiar (1916-1990, 74y), NT Padmavathi Amma (1920-1992, 72y), NT Padmanabhan Nambiar (1922-1996, 74y), NT Padmini Amma (1924-1987, 63y), NT Kamalakshi Amma (1928-2009, 81y), NT Vasudevan Nambiar (b1930), NT Chandramathi Amma (1932-2002, 70y), and NT Sulochana (1939-1946, 7y). NTV Nambiar, joined the Indian Air Force in 1950, was commissioned on 3^rd Oct 1964, and retired on 1^st Apr 1983. He got a Commendation medal of Honor from the Chief of the Air Staff Air Marshal H Mulgaonkar on 15^th Aug 1977.

His eldest brother NT Madhavan Nambiar, after serving for many years as the Principal of Guruvayurappan College, Calicut retired from service as the sub-registrar of Calicut University. It was his elder brother Madhavan Uncle, who served as the local guardian for his school admission at Vellore, Tamil Nadu and provided his date of birth for the school records as 15^th Mar 1931 after some mental maths. That stuck as Uncle’s official DOB since then. After retirement Uncle discovered his real DOB, which was 9^th Apr 1930, from a jataka-kuripu maintained by Padmavathi Valiamma!

Vasu Uncle’s father, late Sri K Kelu Adiyodi, served as a Magistrate in the Malabar District of Madras Presidency, British India. He was born in 1885 and passed away on 1^st April 1981 at the age of 96. Valiachan retired from government service in 1945 at the age of 60 years as ACTO (Assistant Commercial Tax Officer), Cannanore (now Kannur). During his tenure as a Magistrate with the British Government he had served in almost all Taluk courts of Malabar District. Valiachan’s father-in-law was Ayiliath Narayanan Nambiar, who was a famous District and Sessions Judge at Thalassery, the then Headquarters of the District Judges of North Malabar.

Early School Days

Vasu Uncle studied 1^st standard (1936) at Koyilandy, where Valiachan was posted. There he went to a Chalyar (the name of a community) school along with Radhetathi, (wife of late Dr Ayiliath Krishnan Nambiar, Payyannur) whose father was a DYSP and staying diagonally opposite to the Magistrate’s house across the railway line. That time the police department was headed by a British gentleman who used to visit the Magistrate's house on duty. Uncle fondly remembers this ‘white’ Uncle lifting him up, tossing him in the air, and performing his exercise routine! Much later Uncle married Dr AK Nambiar's sister Ayiliath Saraswathi Nambiar in May 1953.

During Valiachan’s stay in Koyilandy, my mother (NT Padmini Amma) and her younger sister Kamala Elayamma, used to complain that the sandy road to the school was very hot, as they walked barefoot in those days; but no one took their complaints seriously! One day their mother, Meenakshi Valiamma had to walk to the railway station to take a train to Tellicherry and she personally experienced the scorching heat of the sand while covering the short distance. On her return, the first thing she did was to ask Chandu, the handyman, to call the cobbler and make leather sandals for everyone. Thus the three kids got their first pair of sandals! The girls had V-shaped straps and the brother had cross straps for the sandals. Chandu was a very strict disciplinarian and he used to warn the kids not to make any sound in the kitchen while eating. Later Valiachan helped Chandu to get a peon's post in the government service. Chandu after retirement used to visit Valiachan regularly at Padmalayam, Kuthuparamba.

When Valiachan was transferred to Cannanore, Uncle studied in the 2^nd and 3^rd standard at Mooliyil school there. Valiachan’s next posting was at Ottappalam where Uncle studied in the 4^th standard. There they stayed in the Magistrate’s bungalow which had one gate to the main road and another gate to the adjacent compound housing the court building. As there was no electricity in those days, there used to be a manually operated contraption of a fan, called punkah, in the courtroom. It was in the form of a rectangular piece of bamboo mat, covered in a white piece of cloth, and hung from the ceiling (see photo) that would swing to and fro, as someone sitting in the adjacent room rhythmically pulled the cord attached to the fan by a pulley. A peon, called the punkah wallah, was specifically employed for this task and Uncle, as a child, remembers occasionally taking over this 'fun task' from the peon, of course making sure that the peon will not get an earful from Valiachan as he would be busy at work in the adjacent room!.

Vasu Uncle, Kumar Uncle, and Ramachandran Uncle had studied together in Kuthuparamba School situated adjacent to the present court. There, Uncle remembers Keloth Gangadharan Ammoman, who was in the 8th standard, singing the school prayer song in his loud sonorous voice which reverberate throughout the school.

Uncle had second rounds of schooling at Ottappalam in the 6th standard and at Cannanore in the 7th standard (1944). This time at Cannanore he studied in the Municipal High School situated adjacent to the court. One day his father told him "I am going to send you to Madhavan. Hereafter he will take care of you." Soon he was put in a train and travelled alone when he was barely 13 years old! Madhavan will meet you at Katpadi Junction, he was told. At that time his elder brother, NT Madhavan Nambiar was working as an English Lecturer at Voorhees College, Vellore and Valiachan was about to retire from the government service.

At Vellore

Uncle studied in Vellore for four years (1945-1948) in Voorhees High School, till 11th standard. In the first year he had to learn reading and writing of Tamil as it was the medium of instruction in the school. But, by the second year, English medium classes were started as lots of non-Tamilians had arrived in Vellore that year as evacuees from Burma (now Myanmar).

That year, in 1948 the first SSLC examination after India’s Independence was held and to everyone’s chagrin the question papers were leaked. Till then the printed question papers used to come from England and this was the first time the question papers were printed locally. During the annual vacation Uncle had gone to Kuttipuram where Valiachan was working as the Manager of Kadathanad Kovilakam. When a re-examination for SSLC was conducted Uncle had to go to Vellore again to appear for the exam. After finishing the school Uncle joined the Intermediate course at Voorhees College, Vellore. On completing the Intermediate course in 1950 he joined the Indian Air Force.

While at the Voorhees college, Uncle heard an interesting story from the college peon. His elder brother NT Madhavan Nambiar, after completing his MA from Christian College, Madras in 1938 (when Valiachan was serving at Ottappalam) had come for an interview for a Lecturer’s post at Voorhees College Vellore. The peon mistook the rather youngish looking 22 year old for a student and tried to shoo him away saying that all student admissions were closed for the current year! Imagine the peon’s plight when he saw the young man appointed as a teaching staff there!. From Vellore, Madhavan Uncle had gone to SD College, Alleppy as Professor of English and later to Guruvayurappan College, Kozhikode as the youngest Principal ever appointed there.

Another incident Uncle recollects is about Sreedharettan (late CS Nambiar, my Science Teacher at Kuthuparamba High School and winner of the President’s National Award for Teachers) who was working as a Demonstrator at Voorhees College and also as the warden of the hostel. Sreedharettan along with Padmanabhan Uncle had completed BSc from Annamalai University, Chidambaram, where he was an active student leader, in spite of his slightly handicapped leg! Uncle was a keen hockey player and one day Sreedharettan, on seeing him play barefoot, bought a pair of brown canvas shoes for him – his first pair of shoes!.

Flying Days

Uncle has many stories to tell about his flying days as a Signaller in the Indian Air Force. One story I remember particularly well is about a young bright Air Force pilot, who was selected to fly VIPs and was assigned as the pilot of then India’s Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. The VIP pilots had to renew their flying certificates every six months through a rigorous test. One Mr. Menon was the senior Air Force officer who administers the flying test. He wanted to teach the young brash pilot, who was a little arrogant and very proud of his abilities, a lesson. The test was in a twin-engine aircraft and the pilot along with the Senior Officer took off from the airfield. In the middle of the flight the senior officer switched off one engine and commanded the young pilot, “please take over”. Without batting an eyelid, the young man switched off the other engine also and told his senior officer, “Sir, you are the expert, please take over!”. The story goes that the senior guy started literally sweating and finally had to beg the young chap to take control of the dangerously downward-arching aircraft!