Life is full of ups and downs. But to some, it might seem like they are forever plunging deeper and deeper into darkness. We can stomach pain for a day or two, hunger for a day or two too, misery another day or two. But what if it keeps going on for days, weeks, months, and years? What if there doesn't seem to be any sign of a silver lining anywhere to be seen?
The Indian film industry had addressed these questions through its movies and lifted our spirits through numerous songs that brought on hope. We still turn to these songs to bring on some solace to us.
I use to wonder how my parents raised me and my other six siblings in those years before independence and the post-independent period. Money and food were scarce, yet they raised all of us well, giving us all an education, a roof above our heads, and meals too. My late father never shared his story and his ties with his family in India. However, I went in search of his village home in the hope of meeting my relatives on Indian soil during my maiden journey to India in 2003. But for some reason, it did not materialize even as I stood on the street where he played and grew up, even as I stood at the door of his ancestral home in Kilsevalpatti. I came to know from a relative a few doors away that the whole family of my late father were gathered at the home of my cousin who had passed away the previous night. I could have met all of them but as I was on a pilgrimage of temples listed out by Agathiyar and the highlight of it being my circumambulation or girivalam of Annamalaiyaar of Tiruvannamalai the next day, I had to shelve my wish to step into the ancestral home of my father. I just took some photographs of the exterior of his home and the street and left.
I was always proud of my father for his courage to travel far in the years when the only means of travel was by foot, horsecart, bullock cart, and ship. I wonder at times if I could have performed the same feat. When he had traveled far and wide, from his village in Karaikudi to Rangoon in Burma, and sailed to Sri Lanka and later came to Singapore before making Malaya his second home, I never ventured out of my house nor traveled away from home. My maiden travel to India too came by and materialized because Agathiyar gave me a nudge through my Nadi reading.
As mentioned in the site http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_2013-12-11_165654.html,
The Chettiars were traditionally merchants and traders in precious stones but later became involved in banking and money lending activities. Their role in finance expanded with the growth of British colonial rule in Southeast Asia. Many Chettiars emigrated from India to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Burma (now Myanmar) and Malaya (now Malaysia) as the British expanded their presence in the region.
My late father, like the others who were money lenders both by clan and profession, took the leap too, seizing the opportunity, as new frontiers opened up. He left his homeland in search of greener pastures. He traveled on foot and cart overland to do business in Rangoon in Burma; sailed to Ceylon and Singapore and finally settled in Malaya. He began his business with his peers in Ipoh and later at Market Street in Taiping. Jaime Koh brings back the fond memories that I have of the "kittangi".
The Chettiars generally conducted their businesses in kittangis (which means “warehouse” in Tamil), which were usually shop houses. The Chettiars would set up their offices on the ground floor of a kittangi. As Chettiars usually operated individually, each had his own safe and wooden cupboards for conducting business. A Chettiar moneylender usually sat on the floor and worked from a small wooden desk. There were also no partitions to separate the various Chettiar money lenders as they had their own designated spots for doing business. The Chettiars worked and lived in the kittangi. While the ground floor of the kittangi served as their offices, the upper floors were used as residences. A caretaker took care of the kittangi while cooks provided the meals.
My parents rented a home away from the kittangi. They had a cook to prepare meals for them and the chain of visitors who came over. My parents were very hospitable and caring even to their employees. My father was a philanthropist in his own little way. Besides entertaining guests (virunth upasarippu) he used to give away money and things, the largest contribution being a car, the Morris Minor that was a favourite and that he owned. The small wooden desk my father owned is with my brother now.
A Chettiar’s financial training would usually start in his childhood, where he would learn the theory of banking and accounting from family members. Boys as young as nine years old were rigorously trained in mental arithmetic and even taught to do mental calculations in fractions. They would go on to serve their apprenticeship at various Chettiar firms once they reached their teens,
As mentioned, we were amazed to see the speed and accuracy with which my father used to calculate, without any external aid, all done mentally and verbally. I wish I could have excelled like him in arithmetics too.
Having purchased properties and assets, life was promising until the war came. When a string of machine gunshots from a Japanese fighter plane missed my father by inches, he realized that moment that all the wealth and money he had could not possibly bring him alive if he had been hit by a stray bullet. We believe that all the merits gained in doing charity must have saved him that day.
Going through the life story of Avichi Meiyappa Chettiar, or A. V. Meiyappan of AVM Productions or Studio, we get to feel the fighting spirit of the man in wanting to see through his desires and accomplish them. He was a philanthropist too with many credits to his name.
Having a successful business going for him, TK Thangaraj who turned Tavayogi too rubbed shoulders with politicians and celebrities. Like A. V. Meiyappan, he tried his luck in movies too, having produced two movies and having a cameo appearance in one of them. Tavayogi downplayed the sufferings and miseries he went through never sharing them with others. Occasionally he would tell me a thing or two. But to whoever comes to him for a solution to their troubles, he would ask them to brush it aside and to leave it to Agathiyar. "விடுங்க மகனே அகத்தியர் பார்த்துப்பார்" was his usual solution to all troubles.
He spoke about the trials and tribulations that the moviemaker "Sandow" Marudur Marudachalamurthy Ayyavoo Chinnappa Devar or Sandow M. M. A. Chinnappa Devar went through in life and how the divine came to him in a timely manner when he addressed us in Malaysia. Watch from 36.46 minutes onwards.