It was a cool Margazhi month (Dec 15-Jan 15, Winter). My mother was carrying her 4th baby (first 3 were girls). On Jan 4th, 1986 when she was sleeping, she was very sure that she will give birth the next day. So she woke up early on Jan 5th and prepared food for everyone by 7AM itself.
As expected my mother got pain. No relatives were staying in our home. My father rushed to Door No. 115 (We lived and are still living in Door No 41) to get help from the lady in that house to assist my mother. Don't know why my father went all the way crossing few streets to get her help instead of calling neighbors. May be she told earlier to call her during delivery time.
I have to mention few lines here about my place - NGGO Nagar, Chengalpattu. It is a very attached community and all were Govt servants (NGGO stands for Non Gazetted Govt Officers). It was the first layout allotted to Govt servants in Tamilnadu. Almost all were of helping nature. What is so significant about that place is people being identified by their door numbers (97 maama, 110 maami etc)..
One such person is 115 Chitti Babu sir and his wife's name is Prema. She was the person who was assisting my mother during her delivery. Her smiling face, big size pottu (bindi) and of course helping tendency is well-known in our Nagar.
All 3 deliveries of my mother till then happened in Govt. hospital only. There were some complications during 3rd delivery. So my mother and father had decided to go to private hospital (Panneer Nursing home) for this delivery. I am not sure if there was any sentiment also behind that decision because all born in Govt hospital were girls and they might have thought that if they change the place they might get a male baby. But definitely my father and mother were eager to have a male baby.
It was Sashti day (auspicious day for Lord Muruga's devotees). So Mrs. Prema being an ardent Murugan devotee was reciting Kandha sashti kavasam sitting next to my mother in hospital with a prayer that the delivery should be fine and the baby should be male.
My mother was taken to labor ward and a male baby was born at 8:32 AM. Mrs. Prema told my father about her prayer and asked him to name the baby as Karthik and here goes the reason for me having this name. (This also answers people who ask/doubt how come an Iyengar has a name Karthik)..
She will be seen on all mornings at NGGO nagar temple. I am a person who rarely goes to temple. Whenever I see her in temple, she will definitely stop-by and speak few words with me. But not even once, she had told "Naan dhan unakku per vechen" (I am the person who named you). I know it is not something very great to suggest a name. But we normally see people who try to emphasize even the smallest thing they did (Naan dhan indha koil kattum podhu modhal sengal vechen, Naan dhan nee chinna vayasa irukkum podhu unna daily killuven). But I was expecting that she will tell that one day or other.
Thursday (Mar 24, 2011) evening I got a call from my father. He informed me that Mrs. Prema expired that day morning. He recalled about the story which I narrated in the earlier paras. Well I was not shocked, neither was I very much affected about that death news (just like no death affected me very much so far). She should be in her 70s, reasonably old, settled children with kids. But definitely there was a hard feeling for some time and I decided to write a blog post dedicated to her and that is this post.
My expectation of she telling me about the story of my name never happened!
As expected my mother got pain. No relatives were staying in our home. My father rushed to Door No. 115 (We lived and are still living in Door No 41) to get help from the lady in that house to assist my mother. Don't know why my father went all the way crossing few streets to get her help instead of calling neighbors. May be she told earlier to call her during delivery time.
I have to mention few lines here about my place - NGGO Nagar, Chengalpattu. It is a very attached community and all were Govt servants (NGGO stands for Non Gazetted Govt Officers). It was the first layout allotted to Govt servants in Tamilnadu. Almost all were of helping nature. What is so significant about that place is people being identified by their door numbers (97 maama, 110 maami etc)..
One such person is 115 Chitti Babu sir and his wife's name is Prema. She was the person who was assisting my mother during her delivery. Her smiling face, big size pottu (bindi) and of course helping tendency is well-known in our Nagar.
All 3 deliveries of my mother till then happened in Govt. hospital only. There were some complications during 3rd delivery. So my mother and father had decided to go to private hospital (Panneer Nursing home) for this delivery. I am not sure if there was any sentiment also behind that decision because all born in Govt hospital were girls and they might have thought that if they change the place they might get a male baby. But definitely my father and mother were eager to have a male baby.
It was Sashti day (auspicious day for Lord Muruga's devotees). So Mrs. Prema being an ardent Murugan devotee was reciting Kandha sashti kavasam sitting next to my mother in hospital with a prayer that the delivery should be fine and the baby should be male.
My mother was taken to labor ward and a male baby was born at 8:32 AM. Mrs. Prema told my father about her prayer and asked him to name the baby as Karthik and here goes the reason for me having this name. (This also answers people who ask/doubt how come an Iyengar has a name Karthik)..
She will be seen on all mornings at NGGO nagar temple. I am a person who rarely goes to temple. Whenever I see her in temple, she will definitely stop-by and speak few words with me. But not even once, she had told "Naan dhan unakku per vechen" (I am the person who named you). I know it is not something very great to suggest a name. But we normally see people who try to emphasize even the smallest thing they did (Naan dhan indha koil kattum podhu modhal sengal vechen, Naan dhan nee chinna vayasa irukkum podhu unna daily killuven). But I was expecting that she will tell that one day or other.
Thursday (Mar 24, 2011) evening I got a call from my father. He informed me that Mrs. Prema expired that day morning. He recalled about the story which I narrated in the earlier paras. Well I was not shocked, neither was I very much affected about that death news (just like no death affected me very much so far). She should be in her 70s, reasonably old, settled children with kids. But definitely there was a hard feeling for some time and I decided to write a blog post dedicated to her and that is this post.
My expectation of she telling me about the story of my name never happened!
