Autobiography of Adhyatma Ratna Kumbakonam C N Guruswami Sarma -Chapter 25- The New beginning in my life

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

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

CHAPTER 25

THE NEW BEGINNING IN MY LIFE

From the uncongenial but pompous show of living at Pudukkottah, my next stop was Chigleput. My brother-in-law and my sister were keeping house in an unpretentious locality a cul-de-sac called Easwaran Koil street. They were sub tenants in an old house along with a Vakil's clerk and his sister in law who was keeping the house for him and owned the house. My father also stayed along with us. I was admitted into The Native High School about one mile from the house situated on the banks of a lake called Gundur lake. (Ref 1) The life at Chingleput opened my eyes to many things in the world. 

My sister and my brother in law were tenants in a portion of that house owned by a Golconda Telugu Brahmin vakil Gumastha, a widower to boot by name Kuppu Rao. His widowed sister in law Kutti ammal as she was called kept house for him. They were very kind to us and the child of my sister, a daughter, was fondly brought up by them.I had to go a mile off the house to the school where I soon gained friendship of a number of boys. Most of the teachers hailed from Tanjore and other districts in the south and they had a sympathy for the boys who left their native places for some reasons not of their making and come and study at chingleput. The teachers taught us well and gave us not only a good training but created a taste even in the beginner standards for good language and literature. It was not a dictation process but our memories had to be trained well that we must repeat the best passages for which we were applauded. I well remember how in our infant minds one sentence  in one of the English readers  " It is better to tread the mill and do manual work than to driving the goose quill quite on a fools' cap",Even in my infantile fancy pictured for my future vocation, anything except the post of a clerk in an office. I must pay tribute to one Ramachandra Iyer my master who licked me to shape and I was assigned to duty of bringing him the tiffins from his house. His wife was so frugal that even in those days of plenty she fried a number of vadais in a spoon with a big base (வால்  கரண்டி) Usually I had a bite after my master had finished his tiffin. It was a labour of love and I was only wishing that my master would put me on more errands so that I might prove my faith and respect for him. His brother one Venkatrama Iyer was more ostentatious but equally affable. No doubt they used the rod on occasions but such occasions were few and far between. The Headmaster before whom the boys stood with admiration with huge open eyes was a majestic person. he had a noble mind. His subordinates were his friends rather than inferiors. One thing must be said to their credit. Every one was spotlessly dressed with a long coat, white Dhoti and turban all snow white with a large caste mark on their foreheads. By their mien and behaviour, they were examples to follow in our lives. The schooling for 3 years in that school pruned me a lot.I overcame my liking for solitary musings over my ill fated beginnings in life and started to rub shoulders with boys of my age whom I soon began to emulate. I was in a few years the top boy in the class but I was too docile to be dominant. I was not a personality in the school but was a figure that could not be left unaccounted. Truth is that we did not have much sports activity in that school. An athlete was not hailed as a hero sans his academic achievements. There was neither a mass drill, nor cricket but there was stress on gymnastics in parallel bars horizontal bars etc. I was of a very weak physique and I always shunned that training for the mere reason that I was too weak for those. I wondered at the feats being performed by my senior students and never missed an inter school foot ball match. in the Gundur lake grounds opposite to the school with a hill on the offing giving a background to the school and with a vast expanse of the lake in front. The school was a lovable quiet place apart and away from the din of the town. I liked its sylvan setting and used to admire alone of an evening when the sun was hiding himself behind the hillock and when the golden rays of the slowly sinking fiery hemisphere shot out and spread allover the western sky. It almost seemed as if one count the number of rays that were being emitted Suddenly the whole western sky was getting pale blue reminding me that it was time for me to run home lest my aged father and my guardians should worry on my account. The home coming and cleaning and lighting the hurricane for the house or the evening visit to the Siva temple and study for half an hour or so and carrying my sister's daughter (Ref  2) right round and tutoring her to speak which she lisped to my pleasure were all the routine for the evening. At the temple, I used to fell that I ought to request God for so many things but soon the thought will arrive in me as to what I am to ask of God. - the return of my deceased mother who had created a great void in my life - as I never thought that I had to worry about anything in my life. The complexities of money did not touch me. My world was small but sufficient and sufficiently showy to give me a place in the boyish society.My needs were attended to and I was fed without need to weep when hungry until some one took pity on me which I had experienced during the last one or two years or I had to partake of food with a lot of insults poured on me as to how I was a despicable vermin at the feeder's hands and how that they had to do this for the old man who had done a lot to whom they probably owed their station and financial position. Any way, my wants were few my brother in law's brother Sundarramama Iyer his wife my mother's sister and his sons one of them employed in the hospital and was to soon enter the service. I used to admire him for his physical strength though he chilled me by his piercing look from two small eyes in a broad space. His sister Padmasani who was already my friend and then shared her sweets with me through the communicating window of the two houses. My brother in law used to come late at 7.30 or 8 PM and it grew very dark. I used to be standing at the door steps thinking that such waiting will make him come early. Chingleput was a nice place even then with a big Railway station with a lot of traffic. It had a number of mission schools, courts and busy lawyers and litigants. it was the high way to holy places like Tirukkalukundram and Mahabalipuram. The city lacked good drinking water and every evening, the women accomapanied by urchins and small girls used to walk to a fresh water lake called Tirumalarayan tank  a mile and a half from our residence. That occupied a portion of the evening and by dusk when we returned, the temple bells used to ring and all of us used to rush in to have darshan and see the deepa aradhana. The day's programme concluded with a thrifty swab abd by 8 or 8 30 we were put to bed.

My school masters made me interested in studying books other than prescribed text books in teaching which they introduced a lot of stories and citations from other books which they named if we evinced interest in reading them. A lot of importance was , of course given to behaviour.  I was much above the standard because of what had happened to me in my early years-as narrated before-.  It was much fun and interest for me to get those books and read. The habit started in my third form and I am grateful to my early mentors eho imbibed this thirst in me  so early. I took to extra study with relish and Mccaulay and Scott were my favourite authors. I tried to adopt the style of the former though the mode of expression of the latter attracted me. Regular attendance at the school and long walks to home tired me by the evening. I did continue sandhya and recitation of slokas meticulously and regularly interspersed with carrying of my sister's daughter a chubby child to the temple for the sayarakshai darshan. This routine of my work pleased me but not for long. I had no domestic work entrusted to me and .found some evenings time hanging heavily on my hands. I was once taken by my aunt's husband who was also brother of my brother in law  to see the reformatory schools. there young boys assiduously clad were asked to do various kinds of work. weaving, metal working,and gardening. They were given some schooling also and were allowed to play games in the opposite playground with the watch man around them. They appeared to be happy but by 6 PM they were shut in and locked. I could not understand how they happened to be there.
(The notes abruptly end here and my best efforts to trace any written material which continues the narration failed. It is presumed that my grandfather probably stopped writing due to some reason.) 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------     Editor's notes:
1. The Native High School was started in 1877 by Shri M E Ramnujachariar and Shri M E Srirangachariar. In 1884 it became a full fledged high school. from 1901 to 1911, Shri M E Srirangachariar was the headmaster. His photo is given below. In 1929, the school was taken over by RC Mission with the recommendation of the Education department and was renamed as St Joseph's High School. The school exists today by that name and a photo of the school as it is today is seen below.


School as it is today

Shri M E Srirangachariar and Shri M E Narasimhachariar who were the head master when my grand father studied in the school between 1909-1912.

2. The girl child mentioned here was the only daughter of  Chellammal, the eldest of the family. This girl named Tripurasundari was married to my grandfather when she was 13 and when my grandfather was 20. She died shortly after the marriage.  My grandfather was crestfallen and on that day wrote in his diary in black ink the following poem by Shelley called Ode to Skylark which has philosophical overtones.  
"Hail to Thee,blithe Spirit !
Bird thou never wert,
That from heaven or from near it
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art".
PS:
In a year he remarried Krishnammal Ammal  my grandmother which was a succesfull marriage of 47 years. They had four sons. The second of them Sangeetha Jyothi Shri C G Pattabhiraman B.A. B.T is my father 
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