My Thatha (Grandpa)

We all have our favorite childhood memories and favorite people too… Just think who are the lucky few, who come top in your list…. Yes my THATHA (Grandpa) is the first on the list always… Kind of a tribute/homage to that great SOUL. My Grandpa was popularly known in our circle as ‘Cashier Mama’ our Muthu thatha…. Yes, his name was K P Muthukumaraswami…. Muthu in Tamil means pearl….

He was neither my father’s dad nor my mother’s dad. He was a maternal uncle of my Dad. He did not have any kids, so my dad was fostered by him. 

He was a gold melodist in Math in the early 1900. He served the British when they were ruling India, then. He had a good command of the English language and always had worthy proverbs/phrases and idioms in his speech. He always narrated small stories with morals in them. Also had good knowledge of Tamil literature. I believe he pushed the same in my father and me.

Every summer vacation, he used to take only me to the ‘Moore market’ (Permanent Garage /Yard Sale or Flea market kind of place) to get used storybooks – new storybooks were expensive then too…. He pressed hard in me to read the works of Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Jane Austin, and many other works…. Not the original, all abridged versions ONLY. Not sure, how my brothers were left out in this game…. This word ‘abridged’ I carry from him, so you can reflect how many storybooks I read out of pressure initially - which changed into pleasure. This exercise I passed /pressed on my son here, made him read a lot of storybooks from the library. 

Thatha made me read both the Indian epics Ramayanam and Mahabaratham in Tamil. As you all know Ramayana is an epic that demands us to be good. But Mahabaratham is an epic that warns us, telling us what will happen if we are not good. He also made me read ‘Kural Oviyam’ by Kalaignar Karunanidhi. 

Not only English /Tamil, but he is the one who wanted me to learn 3rd language Hindi national language of India, and made me take the exams through ‘Hindi Prachar Sabha’. To learn the language faster and retain it, made it point to watch only Hindi movies on TV, Doordarshan then. Also, this culture caught up to see all the Sharukh Khan movies, until my marriage. After marriage, I had to translate, hence stopped it. 😀 This Hindi helped us when we went to Shirdi and Mumbai recently.

Here in the USA we get a summer workbook grade-wise, which we buy for our kids. During my school days, we never had such books. Yes, my thatha took me to his favorite place ‘Moore Market’ to get Math books from various publishers. During summer vacation, his favorite activity was to take me to the temple in the afternoon after lunch, we sit and practice math problems together. If I were to do this at home, he knew I will be distracted by my brothers and others. In the afternoon the temple is locked, he had special permission to be there inside the temple and the guards knew us very well. We used to practice the math sums/problems on a slate (small handheld blackboard) and chalk - validate the answers. Never waste paper too - eco-friendly then, more old-school. 

 My thatha gave much importance to education. Below is a poem which he always says in Tamil

 வெள்ளத்தாற் போகாது, வெந்தழலால் வேகாது, வேந்தரால் கொள்ளத்தான் முடியாது, கொடுத்தாலும் நிறைவொழியக் குறைபடாது கள்ளர்க்கோ மிகவரிது, காவலோ மிகவெளிது, கல்வியென்னும் உள்ளத்தே பொருளிருக்க, உலகெல்லாம் பொருள்தேடி உழல்வதேனோ!

This means education is something that cannot be

• Washed by flood 
• Burnt in Fire
• Seized by a king/dictator
• Reduced when shared
• Stolen by bandits 
• And there is not much security.

 Once you get the wealth called education, you need not go around the world searching for other wealth. 

He loves to drink coffee with milk and sugar, any number of times in a day. I still remember that night, he said he was sick and wanted only coffee. He was so weak, he could not drink by himself, asked me to feed him little by little, as he was lying on his bed. Although in my teens, I took it as fun and fed him, not knowing that was his last coffee. He was 84 when he left us. 

 Last but not least advice is not to change one’s personality. An old monk was near a lake, found a scorpion in the water. Out of compassion, wanted to help the scorpion. Spontaneously jumped in to save and try to remove it, but scorpion not realizing stings the monk. He drops the scorpion into the water again. Again tries to help, the scorpion again stings the monk. As the scorpion continues to sting the monk, but he kept helping the scorpion, each of them did not want to change their personality - like even a burnt shell, maintains its whiteness - சங்கு சுட்டாலும் வெண்மை தரும்.

 Without kerfuffle I believe, with only my thatha’s blessings, I was able to write and post this.

                                                             Thank you.