VENU, THE MARVEL

Drama was the extrovert front of Venu’s talents. His introvert mode of aesthetic realization was with poetry in the form of say, reading closely Kamba Ramayanam with the exegetical interpretations of Sri Vai.Mu.Ko swamy . I still remember the nascent glee when he bought the Sundara Kandam, Kamba Ramayanam with VMG’s urai in the Nambillai sannidhi in the south gate Srirangam. ‘Aandakai aandu av vinnnor Thurakka naadu arukil kandaan’—‘the manly one then beheld there the yonder world of heaven celestials well nigh to his watchful gaze’ so began the SK and there began my coaching in expounding Kamban on stage. Twenty hymns with the VMG’s explanations were targeted to my memory to be recited and narrated at any time on demand. A following Sunday found us in Dr. Vas’ stores in Thennur in the house of Sami Periyappa (eldest of my father and his brothers) I still hear the baritonical gurgling laugh which greeted me at the threshold. After a hot coffee I was commissioned to do an extempore exposition of Kamban - in- memory . Dr. Vas was jubilant and immediately commissioned all the inmates of the stores. There were ‘aahaas’ and ‘see this small boy’ in liberal measure. 

The forum informal then reminiscenced about the days when my father was one of the inmates when he was a bachelor. There were lots of stories for the picking. For instance, there was the story about one Brhamma Kabaal swamigal, a mendicant noted for his coin-toss gimmicks. The swami used to keep some rupees exchanged into brand mint coins and by a sleet of hand used to toss coins on the prostrating devotees giving them to believe that he had nothing to do with such divine signals. Venu was the ‘sando’(boxer) in the complex and sometimes argued a point with his hands when persuasions were pooh-poohed. So people brought now and then domestic cases to his panchayat. His judgements, decisions, leads and tackles were always appreciated by Dr Vas and others. The swami , perhaps fearing Venu, used to placate him by saying that Venu had shed off 10 of his births by showing respects to him, whereas Rajappa , of the Dr.’s household increased 10 more by his disrespect towards him. Dr Vas was a religious man and firmly believed in saluting the ochre robe wherever and whenever seen. Somehow the swami went away and nothing more was heard of him. 

Then there was the story of waiting for the Mahatma. Venu took the boy Ramakrishnan to see Gandhi. Dr Ramakrishnan still narrates with the nascent relish, the story of the waiting. My father was an ardent admirer and associate of Prof. C.S.Kamalapathi (seen in the right) and together they founded SHAKESPEARE HEAD PLAYERS and staged more than a dozen dramas of the Thespic Angel of the Avon, Shakespeare. Those were simple days and people were simple. The thatched roofs and the rustic porticos invited the people in , induced the people to go out, mingle among themselves and meet the strangers. The raised up vertical streets nowadays cleave even a single man into his sleeping part and waking part. He is now in the predicament of meeting himself first before beginning to come out. 

The present generations have not done their homework. The integration of the past , the interpretation of the present, and the intuitive construction of the future is an important task but sadly neglected. Heaping the blame on the modern way of life is one excuse. The modern life has its own virtues, say, better living conditions and more and more people realising their dreams. What we do with this material prosperity is solely dependent on a rare thing to be attained viz., Wisdom. It was available with people in those days, now become a rare commodity.
Srirangam Mohanarangan 

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