Musings from Antique Origins

Mrs. Subbalakshmi Karyakkar (1925-2010) M rs. Subbalakshmi Karyakkar of Chathapuram Gramam in Palakkad died on the 17th of November 2010 at the ripe old age of 85. A widow, she left behind her two elderly daughters, Rajam and Rukmini. A simple old Brahmin lady, she was not of much consequence to the present day society of Palakkad which is fighting hard to catch up with the rest of this consumer state for the fast moving life that we witness all around. Who was this venerable lady –who we fondly used to call Mami -to me? To put it straight, I must say that she was more like a mother to me, though we were not blood- related. Sixteen years back, when I made a career change and when I and Sindhu were expecting our second child, we were at Palakkad enjoying the good winter weather and the delicious foods the place was famous for. As it happened with me, my spare time often used to be spent on visiting some of the local traders who dealt in antiques. Most of them were raw dealers who were n...

Dying with honour- Seppuku- O ne of the most shameful incidents of corruption in public life in post independent India has come out with the exposition of the Adarsh society scam from Mumbai. Whatever may be said and justified by the VVIPs involved –which includes Chief Ministers, Cabinet ministers, Service Chiefs, Chief Secretary/Secretaries, politicians etc etc- , it is clear as crystal that all of them were aware of the gravity of the outrage they were committing. If someone claimed that he was ignorant of the facts surrounding the housing project, we can safely presume that he was not fit to be in the exalted pedestal where we had placed him. Here you see greedy, powerful and rich people manipulating every rule and grabbing the land which belonged to the Indian Army. This was the force which was expected to protect 1.1 billion people of this country from enemies. The army in its wisdom and good intention had proposed to build a small housing complex in the prime area of Mumbai adj...

Sudhakara Varma and Radhika Varma L ast week, we were invited to the Shashtyabdapoorth i-6oth birthday- of Sudhakara Varma, a relative and I was suddenly made more aware of my own generation which has just entered the wrong side of fifties. He hails from Kilimanoor Palace and is a great grand nephew of the illustrious painter Raja Ravi Varma. He is also the brother of my brother-in-law (my sister’s husband) and is the brother-in-law of my elder brother. To avoid confusions, I must add that his brother and sister married my sister and brother respectively. He stays at Kamalalayam Palace at Tripunithura, just opposite to the house where I stay now. His devoted wife Radhika Varma is the grand niece of Col. Goda Varma Raja (brother-in-law of Maharaja Chithira Thirunal of Travancore) and is the daughter of Captain Kerala Varma who had served during the II WW and who was the first to be commissioned to the British India Army from the royal household of Cochin. He was also one to be stripped ...