How Raman became Ramar and Sundar gnashed his teeth

How Raman became Ramar and Sundar gnashed his teeth in fury.

My husband did his intermediate in Vivekananda college.He was one among a group of very, very unruly boys.Their sole aim in life at that time was to crack practical jokes and have fun at others’expense.One among them was Raman.
Raman’s elder brother Sundar got married. One day, The unruly boys went to Raman’s house and knocked on the door.Raman’s sister in law ie the new bride of Raman’s elder brother Sundar, opened the door.She was a typical iyengar girl from an orthodox,conservative family.One of the unruly bunch asked her,in all innocence ofcourse,”Is Raman at home?”.Now this girl who was steeped in orthodox,conservative tradition where the sister in law gives utmost respect to her brother in law,said in reply,Iam reproducing the Tamil words that she said,’Avar veetil illai ie he is not at home”.
In the word Avar,the R refers to the respectful way of referring to a person.In Avan,the n denotes that the person referred to is either younger or placed in ordinary position in life,may be a servant.

The new bride referred to her brother in law as Avar showing respect,that was enough to kindle the imagination of our bunch of boys,and enthused them to take the next step.
The next day,the same crowd went to Raman’s house and knocked on the door.The same girl ie Raman’s sister in law opened the door.One of the crowd asked the question that they asked the previous day with a slight variation.He asked,”Is Ramar at home?”.
Because Raman’s sister in law referred to him as Avar instead of Avan which was used to refer to him all these years,the boys wanted to tease the girl by calling Raman as Ramar,emphasizing on the R in the word,thereby changing the meaning and bringing tears in the eyes of the new bride of Sundar.
The sister in law of Raman promptly recounted this incident to her husband Sundar,who was furious that his wife was made fun of by his brothers’ friends.He told Raman,”I will not have them knoking on our door and making fun of my wife.If they do it again I will knock them down”.Sundar did exercises and went to jym , even in those days and was a bodybuilder.Needless to say that the crowd never entered their street again for quite sometime.
This Raman ,whom we may safely refer to as the hero of this post,was a flamboyant and gregarious person.He was a handsome looking chap and he liked to think that he was the Indian version of Richard Burton.He dressed very stylishly and went around with a swagger.He started introducing himself as Ram.
This bunch of unruly boys who excelled in their studies finished their intermediate,took up various courses and did well in their careers also.Raman became an executive in a multinational company and became the rage in the marriage market of the Madras Brahmin iyengar community.
Raman’s parents started searching for a suitable girl for him.Finally they zeroed in on a beautiful girl ,who answered Raman’s specifications,since many were his conditions about the girl to be chosen for him.
When the family went to see the girl formally with Raman,he insisted that My husband and I also accompany them.So did we.The girl was beautiful,really very beautiful,very fair , with an oval shaped face,long nose that was sculpted by God sothat she could wear one of sunkan’s by now famous diamond besari.
All of us were so impressed.I whisphered to my husband,”Raman is very lucky”.
After seeing the girl,we lingered on there for some more time and exchanged pleasantries with the bride’s parents and then came home.
The next morning,Raman’s father rang up and told us,”Raman refuses to marry this girl,please come and talk to him.”Immediately we rushed to their house.
My husband shouted at Raman,”Are you mad?the girl is so beautiful,she is more than a match for you.They are a good family.What is your problem?”
Raman looked at my husband and said in a calm manner,’There is nothing wrong with the girl,I like her also.But I don’t like her father’s name”.
“What?”exclaimed all of us in chorus.
“Why,what is wrong with the girl’s father’s name”asked my husband,to which Raman replied,”Well,his name is Kuppuswamy iyengar.But his relatives refer to him as Kuppan.So when I attend a marriage or some such function , an old woman is bound to ask me,”enda,are you not Kuppan’s son in law?”How bad I will feel!There are so many names sounding like Charles decosta,Michael,James ,Vincent, so on, so forth.Why couldn’t he have similar sounding nice name?I don’t know who kept this name kuppan for him.Well I can’t be any Kuppan’s son in law.”My husband, who could not control his anger at this silly explanation told me that we leave their house immediately.We went home,my husband fretting and fuming,and I plainly bewildered at the turn of events.
After a month, we received the marriage invitation of Raman,who married Kuppan’s daughter ofcourse.How did this happen?How did Raman agree to this alliance?To this day, I have no answer to this question.
Raman and Nirmala made a fabulous pair.But what surprised us and may surprise you also is the fact that after marriage the relationship between Raman and his father in law became the talk of the town and the envy of some.
Mr.Kuppan and his son in law Mr.Raman got along like a house on fire.Over the years the bond between them strengthened .Raman would not take a single decision regarding any personal matter like buying a house or investing his money without consulting his father in law and his father in law loved him as his own son.
Nirmala used to say,”I don’t know how far my husband’s and my horoscopes have matched but I am sure that my father’s and my husband’s horoscopes must be matching hundred percent.”We could see that she was very proud of the fact that her father and her husband were inseparable and quite rightly so.
Mr.Kuppuswamy iyengar lived up to the ripe old age of eighty seven.He passed away a couple of years back.Raman was heart broken.He told us,”Now there will be a vaccum in my life which nobody can fill.”.
Last year, Raman became the proud grandfather of a chubby,cute grand son.He named him ….What ?Have you guessed?…Yes,you are right,Raman named his grand son’Kuppuswamy ’ to honour his father in law’s memory.He proudly calls his grandson,’Kuppa,come here’. Well,Alls well that ends well.


Have you heard of a marriage,where the bridegroom’s father got furious and threatened to stop the marriage,because,the head cook, who also served food to the sambhandis,served the bride’s father ‘appalam’ first?
What?,you have not heard?Ok,I will tell you about that marriage in detail in my next post.It breaks my heart to take leave of you my friends.But I have to take leave,for I need to have my steaming, hot,coffee now,immediately!
So,bye,till we meet again
Mithila kannan
Harhar

 

Dear Devika,
Thank you for the kind words of appreciation.I am new to indusladies.com,just now I saw that your post Stalker has won the finest post category.I feel very happy for you.Please accept my heartiest congratulations.
mithila kannan

 

Dear Sowparnika,
You have made my day.Thank you for the nice comment.
mithila kannan

 

My dear anandchitra,
Thank you for your heartfelt comments.Yes in my days I had more than a fair share of suji&bajji,my being the eldest dil of a fairly large fly.
I enjoy telling stories,happy that you kiked the post.
mithila kannan

 

Dear nandshyam,
Thank you.How did Raman agrr for the match/Well my guess is as good as yours.May be he fell for the girl immly on seeing her and just acted smart with his parents.
mithila kannan