Autobiography of Adhyatma Ratna Kumbakonam C N Guruswami Sarma-Chapter 12 -Mummy Matilda

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

ADHYATMA RATNA KUMBAKONAM C N GURUSWAMI SARMA (1900-1968)

CHAPTER 12

MUMMY MATILDA 

I forgot to narrate one incident about my being put in school at Madurai even before I was taken to Melur. There was a small school, a primary school run by an American Mission in the same street in which I lived. One Mr Joseph was the head master at that time in that school. He used to come and see my father reminding him that he was trained by my father and he owed everything to him. One day, vijayadasami, if I remember correct, my sister took me to that school and left me with that Mr Joseph. He told others that i was his Inspector's son and fondly made me sit on the table. He was talking something to all the boys when his luxurious moustache's ends wagged. it took my fancy and I slowly put forth my little arm and caught the ends. He laughed. said he loved me and called me naughty boy and a child and in half an hour time he packed me to my house thus ending my glorious beginning of an attempt at education. All people laughed at home when the man who brought me and deposited me at home recounted the incident graphically. But at Melur, the chances of schooling brightened up. There was one Mr. Walters, an American Missionary at Melur who was living in a bungalow near the main road outside Melur. He had a motor bike with a basket attached and he used to visit my father almost on alternate days and he was supposed to be learning Sanskrit or something from my father.  He undertook to take charge of me. I was given a pair of shirts and trousers and he took me to his home. I was living for two or three months with him (Ref 1) and his wife. Mummy Matilda brought me up along with her two daughters Grace and Julie. bathed me and taught me to eat bread and butter on the table and play with them in the garden. She bathed me and dressed me up and put me to sleep. I had great fun going round the big garden attached to the house and running with the girls and playing hide and seek and what not. I began quite early to speak in English and could read easily. Blocks for letters and tiny readers with big pictures made me do things and learn easily. I was so proficient in english that the missionary one day carried off , with pride, a letter written by me to my father in english. By about three or four months they left fro America as they said and promised to return and take me also with them. I used to dream about what things would be like there. I learnt about ships, trains, big buildings, rivers, oceans etc all shown to me in pictures. They left presenting me with fruits, Jams and dresses to last for a life time and I came back to melur house where I found everything exactly opposite to what I had been made to like in that Bungalow. The choice of living with my father made me forsake the odd ways of living what I had learnt. It seemed to me that it was more reasonable to simply dress up in Pudukkottah chaya veshtis (சாய வேஷ்டி) a couple of which I possessed but when I went to school I went in my suits and well combed up luscious raven black hair adjusting the hairdo which I had learnt with my erstwhile loco-parentis.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   Editor's note:

1. A non RCA Protestant mission called American Madura Mission running schools and hospitals in Madurai, Melur , Dindigul, Aruppukkottai etc existed from from 1840 in Tamilnadu but we do not have the details of the missionaries who served it. So we cannot ascertain the period in which Mr. Walters served in Melur. It is somewhat difficult to imagine circumstances in which a conservative brahmin family of nineteenth century accepting the invitation from an American Missionary and sending their only male child to be staying with his family for two months. One possibility is Mr Walters could have offered it as the Guru dakshina for his learning Sanskrit as indicated in the chapter. Such an offer could have been agreed in view of the benefit it will bring to the child namely English education on which my grandfather's father perhaps laid great importance. it is seen that after his return, my grandfather was allowed to wear the suits and trousers which show the accommodation for western attire by the family though they might have been strict in other matters. Probably, they were preparing for the transition which was coming anyway.
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