In January 1968 – My father, Mr.V.P.Raman , organised a function to mark the 10th Death Anniversary of my grandfather Mr.A.V.Raman. This was a superbly organised , terrific function, I guess any son should be proud of doing this for his Parents.The memorable thing about this fuction was the presence of 4 Chief Ministers of Madras/Tamil Nadu. Present were C.Rajagopalachari -Rajaji , C.N.Annadurai ( Anna) the Chief Minister , Kalaignar Karunanidhi ( the CM after that and Today) and M.G.R ( the CM after Kalaignar). It must be noted that my father had left the Party and Politics at least a decade before – in Paper , for he continued to represent MGR,Kalaignar and even Bhaktavatsalam and Rajaji. There is one Photograph that I have not posted in Picasa or in this Blog – A lovely snap of me, my dad, Anna , kalaignar, MGR and Rajaji – that I have promised to a weekly magazine. Will post that after it has been published ( If). On the dias were also Sri Ananthanarayanan , Chief justice of madras and Sri “Chithra” Narayanaswami.

Just looking at these photographs makes me go back to those times ….. even the venue , Abbotsbury is no more there – however in the audience was Tarapore , who owned the property. I could also recognise Mr.K.Rajaram and Mr.Loganatha Mudaliar.

In fact when my grandfather passed away – My father who at that time was in the DMK Party refused to let any “orthodox” religious rituals be performed. My grandmother it is said went and cried to Rajaji , who in turn spoke to Anna – and Anna is reported to have told my dad , that he must not hurt his mother and yet do as his conscience commanded him to. Kamaraj , the CM then , is also said to have put pressure on my father – My grandmom must have really raised a hue and cry. To my knowledge my father did not budge…..

Funnily , he gave me specific instructions that nothing must be done for him when his time came. He told me – “I know , you have faith and belief in all this – dont do anything until you immerse my ashes – after that you are the head of the family , do as you please….I carried out his wishes to the T…..and continue to perform the rituals for him and my grandfather and my great grand father etc every Amavasya as well as the “thithi” – death anniversary as per the South Indian Calendar. Well , faith , is hard to shake….
My father stood firm on this much after he left the party – My wife ( ours was not an arranged marriage – but what is commonly called “Love Marriage”), wanted a traditional wedding with the whole works – my father refused to participate in the rituals and sat in the first row, waiting for us to finish with the rituals and then bless us.My mother’s brother stood in for him and performed all the rituals. My father was very firm about his beliefs but never prevented others from following their’s .He was NOT an atheist – but just against organised religion – especially the “money making” ritualistic part. He often said – I do not need a mediator between me and my God. He did go to Tirupathi , a trip that made him give up his extreme stand on God ( deserves a blog by itself – will post it soon ) and then later even to Puttaparthy.

I HAVE POSTED SOME MORE SNAPS HERE…..CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW

http://picasaweb.google.com/mohanraman/AVRamanFunctionJanuary1968#