Thousand Moon: Mrs. Saraswathi Ramaiyer
Contributed By: Savithri Devaraj
Meet Mrs. Saraswathi Ramaiyer, born on September 10, 1925 in
Bangalore into a family of 6 brothers and a sister. Though physically frail,
her spirit is fresh and strong.
She spent most of her childhood and schooling years at Bengaluru.
When she was in high school (9th grade), her father, a police
inspector, was transferred to Chikkamagaluru.
Though an ardent student interested in pursuing higher studies, she was
not allowed to continue high school as it was a 2 mile walk from home to a
co-education high school in the new town. She says “In those days, girls from
respectable families didn’t go to co-ed schools or walk long distances”. I
could clearly see the regret in her eyes, when she said her brothers all went
ahead to become electrical, mechanical and civil engineers, but she and her
sister had to discontinue studies, and pursue other activities like stitching
and arts in a community center. Then, two years later, her father was
transferred to Mysore and a couple of years after that, back to Bangalore. She
regrets that her education came to an end so soon. During her stay in Mysore, she has vivid
memories of the Maharaja’s Dasara procession, Nalmudi Krishnaraja Wadeyar in
all his grandeur. One year she remembers her paternal aunt, who had tuberculosis,
visiting them to view the Dasara procession. Her father arranged it such that
the procession took a tiny detour to come in front of their house so that the
aunt could see the procession from their home.
She married Sri Ramaiyer in 1943 at the age of 18 in
Devarayasamudra, a small village near Kolar where she continues her life even
to this day. She observes with a smile – “during those days generally people
who lived in villages got married and moved into towns and cities, but I on the
other hand, moved from being a city girl to a village. My sister was married in
Bengaluru and went to live with her husband in Varanasi and later Mumbai. Still
I was very satisfied with my father’s choice, I had no complaints”. And this
pleasant acceptance of whatever comes is still evident in her today – she has lost
most of her peers including two brothers, her sister and her husband , but
still is cheerful and without complaints. After marriage, she was introduced
into the large joint family in the village. Ramaiyer, and older brother
Venkatesha Iyer’s families along with their parents lived in harmony in the
village. The brothers were agriculturists and had large areas of land where
grains, coconuts, tamarind etc was grown. The house had living quarters around
an open quadrangle. Even today, it stands the same with a few additional
bathrooms. All housework, including cooking, cleaning and caring for kids, was
shared in the family. After all the house work, Smt Saraswathi, being an
industrious lady, started conducting kindergarten classes for some 40 village
kids. That continued for a couple of
years until family life got hectic with schools and activities. She completely
supported her husband in all his activities and the house was like a boarding
home for all visitors to the village; there were always a few extra folks for
meals. They had a dozen cows supplying sumptuous milk and curds for several
families in the village. Dozens of
families received support in numerous ways including grains, jobs and monetary
help.
She remembers the Indian Independence movement and the
strife that came after partition in 1948. Her dad retired from the police force
that year and settled down in Bengaluru. Although the city was far away from
the partition line, she says there were lots of agitations and skirmishes, and
the family was asked to stay away from Bengaluru in the village. Her father was
a generous man; though a man of modest means, she remembers him borrowing money
on interest to help someone in need of money for pursuing his studies. Such was
his love for education, no wonder he named his daughters Sarada and Saraswathi.
One thing I clearly got from the conversation – she is very proud of her
father, and she clearly takes after him.
In spite of the fact that he didn’t allow her to study further, she is
proud of her ASP (Assistant Superintendent of Police) father who earned Rs300 a
month and supported six boys, and several other known boys, in their higher studies. She gracefully
accepts all this as a sign of her times. Here is a picture of her father who
passed away in 1962.
Today, at 89, Smt Saraswathi is still greatly respected in
the village. She spends time on and off with her two daughters and sons in
Bangalore, but is ever ready to go back to her home in the village. She still
enjoys cooking, TV programs and conversing with her brothers, children and
grand children. Thanks to this conversation, I got to know her much better than
I ever did in the last 27 years. She is my mother-in-law.
