Nallampatti Narayanaswamy ( 1904 - 1986 ) was born to Kuppulakshmi Ammal and Venkataramana Iyer. The village is located near Gobi and Perundurai. The grandfather was known as Nanjundeswara Iyer for the family had been residing in the kingdom of the Wodeyars and Lord Nanjundeswara happens to be the deity at Nanjangud near Mysore. An old legend is part of the family history. A snake came in the dream of one of the ancestors and stated that it would appear during his japam the next day. It stated that he should remove a thorn from its tongue. Therefore the ancestor was ready with some milk, water and tongs at the time of his japam the next morning. The snake appeared and he removed the thorn from its tongue. On getting relieved, the snake went around him three times and placed its hood on the floor seven times in succession. It is interpreted that it will not harm the descendants for generations to come. Thus the ancestors of N.V.Narayanaswamy had been blessed due to this act of kindness.
Nallampatti Narayanaswamy ( 1904 - 1986 ) was born to Kuppulakshmi Ammal and Venkataramana Iyer. The village is located near Gobi and Perundurai. The grandfather was known as Nanjundeswara Iyer for the family had been residing in the kingdom of the Wodeyars and Lord Nanjundeswara happens to be the deity at Nanjangud near Mysore. An old legend is part of the family history. A snake came in the dream of one of the ancestors and stated that it would appear during his japam the next day. It stated that he should remove a thorn from its tongue. Therefore the ancestor was ready with some milk, water and tongs at the time of his japam the next morning. The snake appeared and he removed the thorn from its tongue. On getting relieved, the snake went around him three times and placed its hood on the floor seven times in succession. It is interpreted that it will not harm the descendants for generations to come. Thus the ancestors of N.V.Narayanaswamy had been blessed due to this act of kindness.
N.V.Narayanaswamy did his schooling from the St.Micheals School in Coimbatore. Subsequently the brilliant student did his B.Sc ( Hons ) from St.Josephs Trichy. It was a custom to inscribe an M.A as the qualification if the student could get really high marks. Narayanaswamy was eligible to do so. He went to do a two year programme at the College of Engineering, Guindy and then went to the Indian Institute of Science ( IISc ) in Bengaluru. The aspiring youngster was an associate in the hallowed institution for sometime. Nobel Laureate Sir C.V.Raman was well known to him due to his service at IISc . He came to known as - N.V.Narayanaswamy M.A., A.M.I.E ., A.I.I.Sc. He married Nagalakshmi Ammal in due course and the couple were blessed with three daughters and two sons. N.V.Krishnaswamy, the brother had been associated with the leading criminal lawyer T. S. Balakrishna Iyer ( founder - Cosmopolitan Club ) and T.Narasiah whose house was at the entrance of the Tea Estate Compound. This nineteenth century property is now being maintained in a sterling manner by Lakshmi Machine Works.
Octavious Steel Company had been the Managing Agents for the Tinnevely Tuticorin Electric Supply Company and Narayanaswamy was their Resident Engineer. On learning that the Government of the day was recruiting engineers, he joined the Madras Government Service. His services were lent to a few municipalities and he served in Coimbatore and Madurai. In the year 1949, the Government absorbed the municipal engineers into its regular cadre and he was appointed as an Electrical Inspector based in Madras. The year 1952 saw him getting placed as the Superintending Engineer in the Electricity Department. Later on his services were lent to the Bihar Government in the year 1952. He moved to Patna and worked in Bihar until he retired in the year 1962. Narayanaswamy had served as the Chief Electrical Inspector and Superintending Engineer in Bihar . He bought a house for himself at Vincent Colony in 1962 and moved over in the year 1970. Until then, he stayed with his brother in Race Course ( Annalakshmi Restaurant compound ). In Coimbatore, he was a part of the Verandah Club in Cosmopolitan Club at Race Course and he was quite active. Narayanaswamy was an avid club goer and was a member of a number of social organizations through and through.
"Father was a connoisseur of Carnatic music. He could identify ' ragas ' with ease and his favourite raga was ' Reethi Gowlai '. The All India Radio ( AIR ) used to be vocal by 6 AM and he would listen to the English news read out by Melville De Mellow at 9 PM everyday. He was associated with the Rasika Ranjani Sabha, Guruguha Gana Sabha, Ramnagar Fine Arts Society, Purandaradasa Sabha and Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Father had attended hundreds of concerts. He loved to visit places. The weekends had been used to tour and people used to say that he knew Bihar better than any local person. He was very punctual and his food habits were consistent. A Place for everything and everything in its place was a principle for him. He was a strict disciplinarian and used to wash his clothes during his later years. Father used to accompany the Koniamman Temple car during the ' Car Festival ' and ensure that the wires were removed to ensure a hassle free passage for the car. He used to be equally keen to restore the electricity once the car had moved forward. Thus he had served from ' Thermutti to Thermutti ' during the Koniamman Car Festival for three years. Coimbatore was a small municipality those days and father used to take rounds in order to check on the electric lights on the streets. He had an electric clock made by GE ( General Electric ). It used to stop if there was a power outage. This would impel him to find out the reason for the outage and help him to restore the service. No one could lie to him. His car was a Morris ( MDC 634 )," stated the son Sundararajan who lives in the same house at Vincent Colony. Sundararajan has preserved all the items connected with his father and other ancestors. This former advocate ( was a junior of Meenakshisundaram Sastriyar ) and corporate executive continues to maintain his father's work case, visiting cards, wrist watch, cupboard and table clock ( a very old one which had been handed down ). The septuagenarian has to accoladed for also maintaining his father's name board and also the portrait of Gandhi which had been commissioned by his father shortly after the assassination of the Mahatma.
The daughter in law Lalitha Sundararajan has a lot of accumulated information. "I spent a lot of time with my mother in law Nagalakshmi Ammal. She lived until the year 2000. I used the time spent with her by recording bits of old information. Now my notes are helping all of us to connect with our past. Father in law was keen to eat the food that was served and never wasted a morsel even. Everyone had to eat the first serving of food even if they did not like it. However a second serving was never forced upon anyone. We had ensure that food was never spilled. He used to have a silver visiting card holder. My husband's elder brother Dr. Dasarathi had done his M.Sc from Patna University and he was a gold medalist. He had done his doctorate ( Geology ) and thesis was submitted in the French language. The French Education Minister had handed over his doctorate at the convocation held in the University of Grenoble. He returned to India and joined the Jammu & Kashmir University. Dr.Dasarathi had been selected to serve as a visiting faculty to Mackey School of Mines ( University of Nevada, Reno ., USA ).
Unfortunately he passed away quite early. My sister in law Bhanumathi's husband was married to Commander R.B.Subramaniam and he was involved with refitting of H.M.S Hercules in the year 1958 at the United Kingdom. This was later commissioned as INS Vikrant ( India's first aircraft carrier ). He was honoured with VSM ( Visisht Seva Medal ) by V.V. Giri ( President of India ). My youngest sister in law Gowri is the wife of the famous advocate Panchapakesan. Our Kula Deivam is Palani Dhandayudhapaniswamy. We are devotees of the Ambal at our village Nallampatti," stated Lalitha Sundararajan. She had been a maths physics and chemistry teacher ( prior to her marriage ) at Madras for some years and had also learnt Carnatic music for four years. Lalitha and Sundararajan are blessed with three sons. The couple have taken a clue from the family heritage and national heritage for naming their sons - Nagasubramaniam ( after Nagalakshmi the mother of Sundararajan ), Lakshmikanth ( second half of the name of the same lady ) and Bharatram because the child was born on the same day as Bharath - the younger brother of Rama.
Lalitha and Sundararajan have maintained their Vincent Colony home in R.S.Puram in a wonderful manner. They have preserved all the old items and artifacts belonging to their ancestors. Sundararajan continues to wind and maintain the wrist watch of his father N.V.Narayanaswamy. An old uruli which was used to make payasam, olakkai, the achu palagai with kuzhis used for mass producing poornam kozhukattais, ammikallu, attangal, ural, yenthiram ( thirugu ) and an ancient padi are still maintained in this household. There are several old framed pictures of Gods and temples in the pooja room ( prayer room ). Sundararajan turned nostalgic while speaking about his mother's side of the family," I have known my great great grand mother Gowri patti ( 1864 - 1956 ). She had a hunch but had a good eye sight. She used to live in the neighbourhood of the Ananthaiyan Kinaru ( well in the old town area which used to be a source for drinking water before the advent of Siruvani ). Gowri patti used to stand and see her other daughter's house from her place itself. Her daughter and my great grand mother Subbulakshmi was the wife of Tahsildar Subramania Iyer ( Sundararajan continues to preserve the photo with due respect on the first floor of his house ). Great grand mother Subbulakshmi went to Kedarnath and Badrinath over 80 years ago. They had to trek quite a long distance those days in order to visit those ancient shrines. These beliefs and visits show that India is one country and it was united by faith and fellowship. Balameenakshi was my grandmother. My great great grandmother Gowri patti has seen her great great grand daughter Bhanumathi's ( my elder sister ) son Amarnath. I have seen my mother Nagalakshmi play Pallankuzhi with her grandmother Subbulakshmi. My mother was given huge pickle jadis from Andhra by her grandfather, the Tahsildar and she used to make very nice Gonkura and Chintakai pickles. Thus six generations of our family had seen each other and I am glad to share these facts today. We belong to a family of nationalists who are keen to preserve heritage and I subscribe to Tattvalokha and have been reading Swarajya for a long time now"
Lalitha remembers seeing her mother in law play pallankuzhi with the same hundred plus year old set with her care taker during the year 2000. "We visited the Harland & Wolff Shipyard Belfast - Northern Ireland ) during our visit to Northern Ireland and it was the place where the ship Titanic was made. Both of us went to see the home that was used by my sister in law Bhanumathi and her husband for three years ( 1958 - 1961 ) while the INS Vikrant was getting ready. My husband and myself are really keen to preserve our culture and heritage. Therefore we ensure that much of our stuff is not just preserved but also fit enough to be used," smiled Lalitha Sundararajan.
A lot of heritage is being destroyed these days. Culture and tradition are given a go by due to various reasons which include superstitions and also utter disregard for good things which had included the finer aspects from the past. Unfortunately these attributes are destroying faith, culture and tradition. Lalitha and Sundararajan are role models who have proved that it is possible to preserve culture and tradition in the twentieth century and the lovers of heritage owe them a big THANKS.