The Katteri Chettiar family lived in the Sukrawarpet area of Coimbatore. Nanjappa Chettiar and Chinnathambi Chettiar were the two brothers from this ancient family. They purchased 5 buses from the transport pioneer G.D.Naidu long ago. One more bus was also purchased and all of them used to ply under the name MCS - Mettupalayam Coonoor Service.
The Katteri Chettiar family lived in the Sukrawarpet area of Coimbatore. Nanjappa Chettiar and Chinnathambi Chettiar were the two brothers from this ancient family. They purchased 5 buses from the transport pioneer G.D.Naidu long ago. One more bus was also purchased and all of them used to ply under the name MCS - Mettupalayam Coonoor Service. The body building work was done through TVS at Madurai. Subsequently fuel arrangements were made with the aid of Anantharamakrishnan of Simpson & Co. Since fuel was a perpetual necessity, four pumps were established by the management of MCS and they were located in Coimbatore, Mettupalayam, Coonoor and Ooty. The fuel pumps were vending the products of Burmah Shell those days.
MCS used to run first class bus services between the barracks in Wellington and Coimbatore. A number of European soldiers were shunted those days. The second world war was the time when this service was at its peak. The bus movements were actually synched with the movement of airplanes and other modes of transport used by the services. The company maintained a high standard of hygiene during those times. The family of Nanjappa Chettiar and Chinnathambi Chettiar used to supply kerosene to the villages. They had a number of tanker lorries which were used for transporting the fuel meant to be vended in the fuel pumps under the Burmah Shell umbrella.
Eventually the MCS family consisting of Nanjappa Chettiar and Chinnathambi Chettiar had about 100 buses under the banners - MCS, TET ( Tirupur Erode Transport ) and Union Bus Service. The bus depot was located in Mettupalayam . MCS had its own workshop, service team in house. There were hundreds of people employed by the company. The family had an automobile spare parts shop known as Katteri Automobiles. They used to own a vast number of properties in Coimbatore and the Nilgiris districts. One C.R.Narayanaswami of R.S.Puram has chronicled a part of the MCS saga in his autobiographical sketch. Vast tracts of agricultural lands were also part of the family wealth. They were very close to a number of leading industrialists and G.D.Naidu was the closest among them. They used to know a lot of Europeans. The elder brother Nanjappa Chettiar was quite close to the movie man A.N.Marudachalam Chettiar. Both of them had been involved in the production of a number of movies including Sathi Leelavathi along with a number of associates.
The younger brother S.A.K. Chinnathambi Chettiar had been a student of the Union High School and he had learnt English under a tutor later. Arthur Hope, the Governor of Madras had given MCS a letter of authorization to operate a number of services. The buses used to handle the mail connected with the barracks at Wellington. S.A.K. Chinnathambi Chettiar was a religious person and he was involved with a number of temples. He was a major religious donor of his times and he was also on the board of a spinning mill for a number of years. The family had been in the business of textiles, trading of items like potatoes which came from the Nilgiris. They used to also participate in the property auctions of the times and had thus accumulated a lot of assets over the years.
A complete chapter can be written about the religious fervor of S.A.K.Chinnathambi Chettiar. His son G.C.Janardhanan gave an insight into the life and times of his father from his residence which resembles a temple.
" Father was a very pious man. He celebrated his Sashtiabdhapoorthi along with my mother Bagyalakshmi at Thirukadaiyur. A conch adorned with diamonds and rubies had been kept in the pooja at Thirukadaiyur. He was also a trustee for the Perur Patteeswarar Temple, Raja Street Ramalinga Sowdeswari Temple, Sukravarpet Baladhandayudhapani Temple. Arrangements for a kumbabishekham, an odhuvar, silver kavacham for Pachainayagi Amman and an emerald studded thirumangalyam for her were part of his contribution. He was also responsible for the Navagraha Sannidhi in the Sukravarpet Temple. A van was built for the purpose of undertaking pilgrimages. The family was always on a temple tour and had conducted memorable prayers at Tiruchendur. We stayed in Tiruchendur for nearly 15 days. Father had also made a lovely silver icon of Dakshina Kali and it is now in Jagir Ammapalayam. He made huge donations to all the temples visited by him. His Holiness Abhinava Vidyatheertha Swamigal, the Sankaracharya of Sringeri has visited our house more than fifty years ago. Father brought the Perur Temple elephant to accord him a reception and a pada pooja was performed in our house, " stated G.C.Janardhanan.
The buses belonging to MCS used to ferry people at the time of the Karamadai Ranganathar car festival and also on occasions connected with the Mettupalayam Bhadrakali Temple. The Manager used to be one Ramakrishna Iyer and the cashier was Doraiswamy Chettiar. S.A.K. Chinnathambi Chettiar was well known to the Southwick family of Ooty and had dealt with them on a few occasions. They were also involved with the Kundah project and had given a grand reception to the then Finance Minister C.D.Deshmukh. A grand welcome was accorded to Pandit Nehru at Mettupalayam by 2 PM.
Violin T. Chowdiah was quite close to the MCS family. It was due to this association that it had possible to attend the Dussera at Mysore and get an audience with the Maharaja of Mysore. They had offered prayers at the Chamundeshwari Temple on the advice of the Maharaja. It was on the request of Violin T. Chowdiah that a property at Ooty was given to Seetharama Rao, the owner o Hotel Dasaprakash. MCS had been a rich firm and the group had done cotton business among other activities. The promoters used to travel all over the country for work. The family car was a Pontiac and it was always part of the retinue which went on work or pilgrimage.
" Father used to get up by 5 AM., do pitru ( elders ) worship and go to the office opposite to Murugan Theatre. He used to stay there upto 12 PM , have lunch. After a short rest he will be in Mattupalayam by 2 PM. He used to be home after 8 PM and visiting Ooty once a week was part of his routine. His Mondays were reserved for visiting the Perur Patteeswarar Temple. Our family used to address the water supply for the Bannari festival every year. We were the first to offer trailer bus service in Coimbatore. The family had contributed gold at the time of the Chinese aggression. My father was a hands on person and therefore he was quite busy all the time, " added G.C.Janardhanan.
" Our family lost out due to the nationalization of the bus transport business after the state elections in the year 1967. The MCS group had mostly operated in the Nilgiris region and it was the first full sector to be taken over. A person who has seen a bad day should see a good day but the one who has seen a good day should not suffer. Our elders had done a lot of work in the past. However , we are not fully aware of the details fully, " mentioned G.C.Janardhanan whose family perhaps creates the best Navaratri Kolu in Coimbatore.
Transport businesses like MCS added wealth and oppourtunity to the people of this region. Coimbatore reached a pre eminent position in the world of commerce because of its good transport infrastructure.