Grandfathers - A. K. Subbiah and P. S. Krishnan and their families

A. K. Subbiah - my paternal grandfather

Extracts from my grandfather's diaries. My paternal grandfather's name is A. K. Subbiah (full name would be Ariyanayakipuram Krishna Iyer Subbiah). Ariyanayakipuram is the name of the village in Tirunelveli district where our family hails from. The diaries were collected by my father, Mr. A. S. Dandapani, Mr. Subbiah's son, and then typed on a Tamil typewriter taking the help of a person who knew Tamil typing. My father then got them photocopied and distributed the copies among his siblings.

My grandfather retired as a Circle Inspector of Police long ago - prior to India gaining independence. As a police officer, he probably needed to be very conscientious in maintaining his documents and so in his private life too, he maintained a diary detailing out the various postings, cases he was assigned, his travails of being in the police under the Englishmen, and policing the areas under his control with whatever resources were available to police officers of those days.

Subbiah was born in the month of June 1882 in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. He doesn't mention the date in his diary.

He writes that in his initial school days he was a scared boy and got frightened easily. Even for the mistakes not commited by him, he would say he was guilty, being scared of punishment by the teacher. He adds that later on he wasn't like that. Of course!

He lost his mother early on - probably when he was still in his primary school (the dates are not clearly mentioned in the diary). He writes that he appeared for III Form examination in 1893. There were two parts - compulsory and optional subjects. My grandfather and another student passed the compulsory subjects; but the other students didn't pass both subjects. Inspite of this, my grandfather was admitted to the college for his IV Form. He passed his F.A. (Inter) in 1901. He writes that he wasn't a good student. He had a strong desire to study medicine. He writes rather jokingly how he got this desire. While still young, he suffered from severe cold and went to a local apothecary for medicines and asked for smelling salts. Recognising from his voice that he had cold, the apothecary vacated his chair and invited my grandfather to sit on that chair and prescribe medicines for others waiting there. My grandfather writes that he said he would do so after studying for medicine! He later rues that he didn't have money to study medicine and the boys having money ridiculed him that he wouldn't be able to study for 5 years to complete the course. That was the end of his desire for the noble profession! However, when my cousin and my sister both got admitted to medical colleges, he was a happy man and congratulated them by writing a letter. I remember the letter written to my sister; my cousin is considerably older and lived in Poona and I wouldn't know if he also got a letter.

Subbiah got a clerk's job in the collector office on the recommendation of an official. The reason being that my grandfather had passed his FA and had good handwriting. [I can attest to his handwriting since even when he was 90 he would write letters to my father and his writing was absolutely wonderful. Cursive writing of the early 1900s]. His first job was as a clerk in the Fair Copy Department in the collector office. He started his first job when he was 19 on 10th March 1902 on a salary of Rs. 15 per month.

He writes about the police policy then in vogue. Back in 1905 there was a commission appointed by the government of (British) India to improve the image of police forces. Back in the day each police station was headed by a Head Constable, who wouldn't be much educated and would be lacking in policing and enquiry skills. Mostly they would catch an accused and resort to third degree treatment to get a confession for crimes. This had resulted in heavy criticism across the country. The commission suggested that educated people be selected, trained for one year in Vellore, and after training be posted as Sub-Inspectors in police stations. The government accepted this recommendation. The salary for the sub-inspector was Rs. 50 per month plus horse allowance of Rs. 15. There were many applicants with graduate and post-graduate degrees in addition ot matriculation passed candidates.

My grandfather applied for the post and was interviewed by the DIG of Coimbatore and was one of the only candidates selected from that batch of applicants. He joined the Vellore Police Training College on 10th October, 1905. His posting was mostly in Salem, Karur, Jayamkondan, Ariyalur, Kulithalai and other police stations.

Subbiah married Visalakshi. I have no information about my grandmother since she passed away at a fairly young age - in the late 1940s. Subbiah and Visalakshi were parents to about 10 children, out of which 9 survived for long. One daughter died immediately after she gave birth to a second child and that left my grandparents distraught. They lost the small child too due to illness. Four of his sons (including my father) and four daughters lived a long life.

I have a family tree of my paternal side going back about 13 generations. The doyen, Mahaan Shri Gopinatha Iyer, lived in Ariyanayakipuram village in Tirunelveli district. Whether he settled there after travelling from somewhere, or grew up there, we don't know. This must have been the 16th century at least. The family tree gives only the males (chauvinism, you may say) and is not fully complete across all branches. It is too big to accommodate here in this blog.

Gopinatha Iyer was supposed to have travelled to Kashi and on his return brought an idol of Vishwanath. That idol was consecrated in our village temple.

(Plaque mentioning about my ancestor Gopinatha Iyer who brought the 

idol of Kashi Visalakshi and Viswanatha. 

The plaque mentions the kumbabhishekam done in 1972)

(Mr. Subbiah with his sons and daughters-in-law - photo taken in 1964 during Mr. Subbiah's sadabhishekam)

Subbiah celebrated his 80th birthday (we call that Sadabhishekam - meaning one who has witnessed thousand full moons) in 1964. 

(Picture taken during the wedding of Mr. A.S. Raman, fourth son of A. K. Subbiah, 1952)

Eldest son, Krishnamurthy studied B.A., B.L, and practised as an advocate in Tirunelveli itself. There are some interesting anecdotes about him; he was overcome by nationalism and wanted to join Gandhiji's salt satyagraha; but was convinced not to participate. He took up cases where he didn't have to lie and missed taking up a lot of cases and opportunities to make money. He would take up real estate cases mostly, I am told.

Second son was A.S. Mani, who qualified Indian Foreign Service and retired as India's Permanent Representative to UN. Prior to that he had travelled to African countries and England as a diplomat.

My father was the third son, but not very good in studies. He didn't study beyond Intermediate. He joined Imperial Bank; left that and joined the Army (while still the British Army) and was posted to Jammu, Delhi, and Burma among other places. 

(A. S. Dandapani, 1st Sep, 1941)

Dandapani retired from the Army in 1957, the year I was born. 

(A. S. Dandapani, Indian Army)

After retiring from the Army, Dandapani got a job in Hindustan Steel Ltd in Delhi. In 1960 my father came to Ranchi and continued there till his retirement in 1976. My father was in the Chairman's office of HSL as his Personal Secretary. He continued there till SAIL was formed, he declined the Delhi transfer, and got posted as PS to the GM of SAIL R&D. My father had a very good working relationship with all his bosses and I remember all of them visiting our home and having a cup of coffee/tea in our home. To others he was considered a terror and many of my friends who came home to study with me have faced his wrath on at least one occasion.

My father married Sita, my mother, in 1946 on May 26th. The marriage was held in my mother's village - a mere three miles from my father's village in Tirunelveli district.

(A. S. Dandapani weds Sitalakshmi, 26th May, 1946)

My maternal grandfather - Mr. P. S. Krishnan

Sita, as my mother was known, was the only daughter of Mr. P. S. Krishnan. Mr Krishnan had one son by his first wife, and after she expired within a short time giving birth to a boy, he married again. The second marriage resulted in two sons, Mr. Sitaraman and Mr. Subramanian plus my mother Sita. Mr. Krishnan was a farmer with a small landholding in a village, Pappakudi, in Tirunelveli district.

(Picture taken during the Sadabhishekham of Mr. P.S. Krishnan, 1965)

My eldest uncle, Mr. Lakshminarayanan (second from left - standing), joined Central Bank and retired from there. He had no children. His younger brother, Sitaraman (second from right - standing) also joined Central Bank and retired as Manager. He had two daughters (elder sitting right extreme, younger squatting second from left). Third son, Mr. Subramanian qualified as a Chartered Accountant and practised in Raichur, Karnataka. He had two daughters and a son. Elder daughter (squatting left extreme), son (squatting second from right), and the youngest daughter squeezed between my grandfather and grandmother. Sita is standing third from right. Only three of my sisters attended the function. My father, myself, and my eldest sister couldn't travel from Ranchi. My second sister is sitting extreme left, third sister is squatting extreme right, and youngest one is squatting third from left.

(A. S. Dandapani and Sita Dandapani, sometime in 1950s)

Contrary to many families that I know of, my father's siblings and my mother's siblings didn't have any quarrels with one another. There have been brief periods of 'cold war' between two siblings, but on the whole the families were well-knit and came to support one another when in need. I remember my father taking loans for paying exam fees or buying books for my sisters, or for weddings for my sisters. For weddings especially my mother's brothers would lend money readily. We siblings (my four sisters and I - though only three sisters survive now) are similar and have a fantastic bonding to this date!

Stray

There is a stray dog near my flat door. It lies there during the warm part of the day; and sleeps there at night. It has been lying around this place for the last couple of months. I don't know where it came from and why it chooses to lie down near my flat door. It is definitely not the coolest place around, and I am hardly friendly with it. But still every day it lies there.

Now because the dog - a stray dog actually - has been lying down opposite my flat door, it causes inconvenience to us when we want to step out or when any e-commerce delivery person comes home to deliver items that we order. So we 'shoo' it away and reluctantly it gets up, looks at us dolefully as if we are heartless, and ambles away down one flight of steps to lie down comfortably in the landing. It will lie there for a couple of hours till there is relative silence and then when we are not looking, walk back up and park itself opposite our door again.

A couple of weeks ago, my wife insisted I take up this matter with our association to see if this dog could be taken away by some organisation. I took it up with the association representative, but she only referred me to Blue Cross and asked me to handle the issue myself since the dog chooses to be my 'doorkeeper'. Well, I did contact Blue Cross and other than some 'cross talk' (each of us being cross with the other), they refused to take the dog away saying that in these Covid times they themselves are overwhelmed by other animals to care for and a dog that presumes my house to be his, is no great danger to me, nor is it too unwell to be taken away and cared for by them. So Blue Cross had to be crossed out as an option. But the lady from Blue Cross did mention and give me the phone number of Chennai Corporation and asked me to contact them. I am a bit wary of Corporation and I have witnessed the horrible treatment meted out to strays, so I stayed away from contacting them.

Meanwhile we haven't fed the dog, thinking that if we don't it will get angry and leave us; but no it is getting some nourishment from someone and that is keeping it healthy; but its sleeping place is near my main door. I have seen a plastic container (that may have contained milk and water) and some biscuit pieces scattered near the dog, so I am quite sure there are some good samaritans taking care of the dog's stomach. Why they don't invite it over to their doorstep is something that I don't know!

We do believe in after-life and sometimes I feel as if my mother's soul has entered this dog and it recognises me as its son and that's why it takes liberties to lie down opposite my house! On the other hand it could be Ajmal Kasab's soul also. That's why I am not going to feed it or provide any form of nourishment. Only 'shoo' it away whenever I see it near my door.