R. Raghunathan (R. R.) was born in 1934 to P. A. Ramaswamy Chettiar & Ranganayaki. His father had been the younger brother of the popular P. A. Raju Chettiar. Ramaswamy Chettiar was known for his guts and he had served as the President of Sri Kannika Parameswari Devasthanam. He had put in lot of efforts to develop the Coimbatore Arya VysyaNagai Vyaparigal Mahasabhai from the year 1923. Ramaswamy Chettiar passed away early and his kids were brought up by his eldest brother, P. A. Raju Chettiar with lot of love and care. Both Raju and Ramasamy had been brought up with care and discipline by their mother, Subbulakshmi.
R. Raghunathan (R. R.) was born in 1934 to P. A. Ramaswamy Chettiar & Ranganayaki. His father had been the younger brother of the popular P. A. Raju Chettiar. Ramaswamy Chettiar was known for his guts and he had served as the President of Sri Kannika Parameswari Devasthanam. He had put in lot of efforts to develop the Coimbatore Arya VysyaNagai Vyaparigal Mahasabhai from the year 1923. Ramaswamy Chettiar passed away early and his kids were brought up by his eldest brother, P. A. Raju Chettiar with lot of love and care. Both Raju and Ramasamy had been brought up with care and discipline by their mother, Subbulakshmi.
The family had made it big through their enterprise P. A. Raju Chettiar & Brother. Both the brothers built the palatial ‘Raju Bhavan' on Vysial street. Ranganayaki Ramaswamy was an affectionate mother and she was quick-witted. She was known for giving nice ‘nick' names to people. The mother of P. A. R. Viswanathan & Raghunathan stayed along with her brother-in-law, Raju Chettiar & Co-sister Rajalakshmi for decades.
Raghunathan studied in Union High School and was known to be humorous like his mother. He had been bestowed with good looks. Studies did not matter much for him. He was given all the love under the sun by his elder uncle P. A. Raju Chettiar. People considered Viswanathan and Raghunathan to be the second and third sons of P. A. Raju Chettiar. All of them lived together under one roof until 1977.
P. A. R. Krishnan & P. A. R. Damodaran (sons of P. A. Raju Chettiar) grew up with their cousins in the same house. Raghunathan grew up with his brothers and had his fun while growing up. He joined his family business – ‘P. A. Raju Chettiar & Brother – Swarna Maligai' during his teenage years. Raghunathan was close to his sisters-in-law and was known to be a frank and outspoken person. He was very fond of movies.
Raghunathan got married to Sarawathi of Madurai in the year 1953. Both of them were in their late teens. Saraswathi happened to be the elder daughter of P.S. A. Ramaswamy Chettiar of Madurai. Saraswathi & Raghunathan led a happy marital life for about five decades. They lived in the first floor of ‘Raju Bhavan' and were known to keep their room the cleanest in town.
The large bedroom had a nice verandah, a dressing room & toilet which had been fitted with an electric fan. The unit comprised of two bedrooms. One was perhaps to be used during the afternoon &the other was the bedroom for the night. The couple were fond of dogs and they had a few of them –one ‘Rossy', a Pomeranian dog was perhaps their favorite.
These dogs had toys, carts, collars, well-kept rooms, and were fed well. They were maintained on the first floor of the silver shop -P. A. Raju Chettiar son. Saraswathi was known to play with them everyday. She would do things perfectly. Be it making a ‘kai murukku' or tying a strand of flowers, perfection was the key. The couple had lots of cars and toys for the kids at home. They would take the kids to their room, make them play with the toys regularly. All the toys were kept very safely.
The room had a refrigerator, telephone, and a nice music system. Saraswathi Ammal learnt music along with her co-sister, Lalithabai, Indrani & Shantha for several years. She would wear matching jewelry and would always be prim & proper. Attention to the needs of her husband would be to the maximum. So much so that she would use a long spoon to remove the chillies in the uppuma during his tiffin time. Saraswathi had a good handwriting. Her song notebooks were kept well.
She used to write for her niece, Nirmala regularly. Nirmala had been born an albino and her vision was not great. Sarawathiwrote all her music notes in ‘big alphabets' for Nirmala when she learnt under Vedamami.
Saraswathi was deeply religious & she learnt ‘Ashtapadhi'. A Radhakalyanam was performed thereafter. The couple had been to Srilanka for their first holiday. They used to visit Chennai & Ooty often. In fact their Ooty holiday had been filmed in color. They had an 8 & 16mm projector for their private use.
Raghunathan would wear a silk jubba, and put on ‘imported perfume’. He had a large collection of rings, pens, toys, &other curios. Ragunathan had been particularly fond of ‘RADO' watches and he had more than 20 of them. Every model and innovation of RADO was with him. Of course his large emerald ring and the lovely ROLEX watch were equally unique. He was kind of a brand ambassador of RADO!
The couple had a total of 102 radios with them. Radios resembling a bread loaf, a doll etc., were part of their collection. Their staff ‘PanchaSeena' (Srinivasan) used to attend to the radio licenses. Saraswathi & Raghunathan celebrated their Silver Wedding Day at Hotel Pandian in Madurai (1978). It had been a grand occasion and all the photographs were done in color.
The Raju Chettiar family outgrew ‘Raju Bhavan'. Raghunathan & Saraswathi moved over to ‘Glass house’ on Bharathi Park road. The fancy house had been fitted with tinted glass and was huge. It had been endowed with a huge etched glass dining table, or grand piano, and a lovely guest house too.
Raghunathan & Saraswathihad a nice three day house warming ceremony. Hundreds of people were invited and musical concerts took place. The house came to be known as ‘Kannadi Maligai' and was a popular destination. Saraswathi & Raghunathan helped a number of orphanages those days. One Thandaneswaran Iyer was the bungalow manager for sometime. The house used to be full of people all the time.
‘Kannadi Maligai' was known as ‘Saraswathi Bhavanam'. It had a huge brass plate emblazoned with alphabets ‘PAR' on the gate. The compound wall had a nice twisted concrete coil which resembled a ‘twisted' Ribbon Pakkoda. The huge house had been built by one estate owner, Neelakanta Iyer. Raghunathan had purchased it from him & he lived there for a little over ten years. Later on, the couple moved to Madurai.
One has to talk about the car maintenance & the love for betel leaves. Raghunathan had two Ambassador cars to start with & they were the best maintained in town. The cars had fans, special cushions, gold keys & the best of tinted glasses. They had to be driven at a medium speed and the driver was not meant to slam the brakes in a hurry.
Raghunathan & Saraswathi would often watch movies in Coimbatore. Their extended family used to be with them. They used to get seats in order to ensure their privacy. The driver had to lock the car and wait during ‘movie time'. Saraswathi had a nice collection of jewelry. She was known to wear a dozen straight line gold bangles regularly. A nice flower & leaf diamond chain was part of her daily adornment.
The company, ‘Saraswathi Film Circuit’ was founded by Raghunathan. This company used to own a huge number of negative rights of movies those days.
Raghunathan was known for his love for snacks & betel leaves. A lady in the market used to supply tender betel leaves regularly. He had specially ordered for Pattu dhothis with a very thick border from S. P. Ramanathan of ‘Gopala Padma Vilas’, Salem. These dhothis had the best Jari border was a couple of inches thick. It was very unique. Extremely unique like the couple ‘Saraswathi & Raghunathan’ who were known to like fine things in life.
The family had made it big through their enterprise P. A. Raju Chettiar & Brother. Both the brothers built the palatial ‘Raju Bhavan' on Vysial street. Ranganayaki Ramaswamy was an affectionate mother and she was quick-witted. She was known for giving nice ‘nick' names to people. The mother of P. A. R. Viswanathan & Raghunathan stayed along with her brother-in-law, Raju Chettiar & Co-sister Rajalakshmi for decades.
Raghunathan studied in Union High School and was known to be humorous like his mother. He had been bestowed with good looks. Studies did not matter much for him. He was given all the love under the sun by his elder uncle P. A. Raju Chettiar. People considered Viswanathan and Raghunathan to be the second and third sons of P. A. Raju Chettiar. All of them lived together under one roof until 1977.
P. A. R. Krishnan & P. A. R. Damodaran (sons of P. A. Raju Chettiar) grew up with their cousins in the same house. Raghunathan grew up with his brothers and had his fun while growing up. He joined his family business – ‘P. A. Raju Chettiar & Brother – Swarna Maligai' during his teenage years. Raghunathan was close to his sisters-in-law and was known to be a frank and outspoken person. He was very fond of movies.
Raghunathan got married to Sarawathi of Madurai in the year 1953. Both of them were in their late teens. Saraswathi happened to be the elder daughter of P.S. A. Ramaswamy Chettiar of Madurai. Saraswathi & Raghunathan led a happy marital life for about five decades. They lived in the first floor of ‘Raju Bhavan' and were known to keep their room the cleanest in town.
The large bedroom had a nice verandah, a dressing room & toilet which had been fitted with an electric fan. The unit comprised of two bedrooms. One was perhaps to be used during the afternoon &the other was the bedroom for the night. The couple were fond of dogs and they had a few of them –one ‘Rossy', a Pomeranian dog was perhaps their favorite.
These dogs had toys, carts, collars, well-kept rooms, and were fed well. They were maintained on the first floor of the silver shop -P. A. Raju Chettiar son. Saraswathi was known to play with them everyday. She would do things perfectly. Be it making a ‘kai murukku' or tying a strand of flowers, perfection was the key. The couple had lots of cars and toys for the kids at home. They would take the kids to their room, make them play with the toys regularly. All the toys were kept very safely.
The room had a refrigerator, telephone, and a nice music system. Saraswathi Ammal learnt music along with her co-sister, Lalithabai, Indrani & Shantha for several years. She would wear matching jewelry and would always be prim & proper. Attention to the needs of her husband would be to the maximum. So much so that she would use a long spoon to remove the chillies in the uppuma during his tiffin time. Saraswathi had a good handwriting. Her song notebooks were kept well.
She used to write for her niece, Nirmala regularly. Nirmala had been born an albino and her vision was not great. Sarawathiwrote all her music notes in ‘big alphabets' for Nirmala when she learnt under Vedamami.
Saraswathi was deeply religious & she learnt ‘Ashtapadhi'. A Radhakalyanam was performed thereafter. The couple had been to Srilanka for their first holiday. They used to visit Chennai & Ooty often. In fact their Ooty holiday had been filmed in color. They had an 8 & 16mm projector for their private use.
Raghunathan would wear a silk jubba, and put on ‘imported perfume’. He had a large collection of rings, pens, toys, &other curios. Ragunathan had been particularly fond of ‘RADO' watches and he had more than 20 of them. Every model and innovation of RADO was with him. Of course his large emerald ring and the lovely ROLEX watch were equally unique. He was kind of a brand ambassador of RADO!
The couple had a total of 102 radios with them. Radios resembling a bread loaf, a doll etc., were part of their collection. Their staff ‘PanchaSeena' (Srinivasan) used to attend to the radio licenses. Saraswathi & Raghunathan celebrated their Silver Wedding Day at Hotel Pandian in Madurai (1978). It had been a grand occasion and all the photographs were done in color.
The Raju Chettiar family outgrew ‘Raju Bhavan'. Raghunathan & Saraswathi moved over to ‘Glass house’ on Bharathi Park road. The fancy house had been fitted with tinted glass and was huge. It had been endowed with a huge etched glass dining table, or grand piano, and a lovely guest house too.
Raghunathan & Saraswathihad a nice three day house warming ceremony. Hundreds of people were invited and musical concerts took place. The house came to be known as ‘Kannadi Maligai' and was a popular destination. Saraswathi & Raghunathan helped a number of orphanages those days. One Thandaneswaran Iyer was the bungalow manager for sometime. The house used to be full of people all the time.
‘Kannadi Maligai' was known as ‘Saraswathi Bhavanam'. It had a huge brass plate emblazoned with alphabets ‘PAR' on the gate. The compound wall had a nice twisted concrete coil which resembled a ‘twisted' Ribbon Pakkoda. The huge house had been built by one estate owner, Neelakanta Iyer. Raghunathan had purchased it from him & he lived there for a little over ten years. Later on, the couple moved to Madurai.
One has to talk about the car maintenance & the love for betel leaves. Raghunathan had two Ambassador cars to start with & they were the best maintained in town. The cars had fans, special cushions, gold keys & the best of tinted glasses. They had to be driven at a medium speed and the driver was not meant to slam the brakes in a hurry.
Raghunathan & Saraswathi would often watch movies in Coimbatore. Their extended family used to be with them. They used to get seats in order to ensure their privacy. The driver had to lock the car and wait during ‘movie time'. Saraswathi had a nice collection of jewelry. She was known to wear a dozen straight line gold bangles regularly. A nice flower & leaf diamond chain was part of her daily adornment.
The company, ‘Saraswathi Film Circuit’ was founded by Raghunathan. This company used to own a huge number of negative rights of movies those days.
Raghunathan was known for his love for snacks & betel leaves. A lady in the market used to supply tender betel leaves regularly. He had specially ordered for Pattu dhothis with a very thick border from S. P. Ramanathan of ‘Gopala Padma Vilas’, Salem. These dhothis had the best Jari border was a couple of inches thick. It was very unique. Extremely unique like the couple ‘Saraswathi & Raghunathan’ who were known to like fine things in life.