A Tribute to a Father: Padmanabhan Siddharth

Papa as we called him was born to doraiswamier and yogambal in April 1909 . As was the tradition in India, yogambal was going to her village for the delivery of the baby . However on the way a boy was born in a village called PORTO NOVO. In those days there were no cars or buses in India. The rich went by horse driven carriage and the poor either walked or traveled by carts pulled by bullocks . The speed of these bullock carts were slower than walking. so yogambal was going from her husbands home in Thachakadu to her mothers house in Bhuvanagiri, a distance of about 10 miles . On the way she had labor pains and was helped by some women in the village. Doraiswamy's father was the village priest in Thachakadu and he died when doraiswamy was two years old. Doraisamy my grandfather/ was brought up by his mother, He was brilliant in his studies, got a scholarship to go to college ,studied economics and finally became a head of Dept Economics , University of Madras and Principal, Coimbatore Government College. He was a prominent economist in those days , adviser to various agencies of the Govt.. He had three children, padmanabhan being the eldest , then a daughter and a son who died in their teens.

Papa studied chemistry in college and was the recipient of the Thompson Prize in English and his name can be seen on the board of Prize Winners in Presidency College, Madras. He later went to England to study chemistry with an idea of getting a ph.d. and follow his fathers footsteps, as professor of chemistry.Those days, there were a few Indians, who had gone abroad and married English girls, so in most Brahmin families the young boys were were forced to marry before they went to England . Papa married kalpakam (mummy) and left for England. He attended Oxford but decided to leave and write the Indian Civil Service examination, in London and passed At that time ICS consisted of mainly `Englishmen but they also took some Indians who were in the top of the class. The courses offered for the ICS were mainly in liberal Arts like history and philosophy and not science subjects. So he had to read unfamiliar subjects and did very well in the examination.

His father was very much against papa joining the service as he would have liked him to become a teacher like himself. Papa however decided to join the service. The ICS was an elite service in India who were highly paid , lived `extremely well, had a lot of power and prestige. They were the surrogates of the British who were ruling India. Papa,s first son was born in 1934 but unfortunately died a year later of diphtheria I was born in 1936 in fairly affluent family. Since I remember we lived in a big house with several bedrooms, 2 kitchens, one vegetarian and another for cooking meat. My mother was a vegetarian, brought up in a very conventional orthodox family and followed the conventions till the end of her life.

There were a retinue of servant's :cook, gardeners, etc and a person in uniform called 'peon' who was just there and did nothing. Anglo Indian nannies were preferred as children would learn English which was necessary to succeed in British India.As the peon was paid by the Government it was verboten to make him do anything unless it was government work so he just sat there. I still remember my father losing his temper if we asked the peon to do anything. The peon usually played with us kicking the ball.

My father was brought up in a poor , a conventional family but had changed his ways after 4 years in England. He had become an agnostic, smoker, started eating meat. he was also an . energetic ., confident , horse back riding.dynamic person who played Tennis and bridge everyday, drank moderately and even bought a horse for riding everyday. He bought a pony for us so that we get the skills of riding. sometimes my mother would wear breeches and join us.

Summers were very hot in the plains, temperatures reaching 100 degrees. The high Government Officials all went to the Himalayan foothills to towns about 7000 ft above sea level where weather was still cold. these were really woody places and I particularly liked it because I had Friends from other places in India who were kids of officers and we met every year..

We used to walk in trails and there was always a natural spring you could drink cold water which I bought a house in berkshire hills to remind me of those days. It reminds me of Nainital and Mussorie.I was placed in summer school where the teachers were English, 50% of students were English, sons and daughters of British living in India. In early 1940s there were no hopes of independence and the most important subject in school was English. we were encouraged to read the literature. I was placed in a boarding school at age 7 and my letters would be returned to me after corrections by my grandfather .

As far as Independence movement was concerned papa was ambivalent sometimes wondered if the uneducated leaders of the independent movement could run the country. Then something happened. A close friend of his , an ICS colleague Hundi Vishnu Kamath got arrested for sedition. He was a collector of Nagpur and openly supported congress party that was peacefully trying to get independence. HV Kamath was then sent Agra Jail after his conviction where we lived . papa was the judge in Agra. I still remember going to the jail with my mother as she used to take food for HV Kamath. Soon he was released and came to live with us for a while. From then onwards he supported Gandhi.He defied the bigwigs in the British hierarchy and refused to sentence people who were arrested for protesting British rule. The independence was expected at that time and no action was taken against papa..

At age 36 .padmanabhan became law secretary in U.P. At about this time .my grandfather duraiswamier was putting pressure on papa to get a transfer to Madras State as he(Duraiswami) felt that he was getting old and they will need someone to look after them in old age .papa being the only son , as per tradition, it was his duty to take care of his parents. None of us wanted to go to Madras. My father's Boss G.B.Pant who was the chief Minister offered him the job of High Court judge to entice him to stay but papa refused.

We all came back to Madras and it took some time to adjust especially as we the three boys did not speak Tamil. Living in Tamil Nadu was different. The style had to change. Madras was a intolerant place. Caste was more important . people were intolerant, anti Hindi, anti North, separate Tamil Nadu, anti Brahmin etc.We had not seen such hatreds in the north.. papa was posted as collector of Madras. papa was extremely unhappy on the executive side . He could not fight the corruption. He decided to get a law degree so that he could practice if Govt service became intolerant. One of his problems was that he not accommodating even if it was advantageous to keep quiet. It had adverse effects in his life. To a certain extent I have had the same problem in my life when it is advantageous to shut up sometimes I do not... He could take the English bar examination directly without going to college so he took leave for six months and sailed to England. There he joined Lincoln's Inn , took up a flat and studied. He received the Langdon Gold Medal which very few Indians had received before him. One of them was a famous freedom fighter Vallabhai Patel.

He was living with a German Jewish family and the evening they threw a party for papa. During the party he fell ill and was taken to Hammersmith Hospital. He was treated by a famous neurologist Sir McDonald Critchley for hemiparesis. My mother rushed to England by Air to bring him back. He fully recovered and Sir McDonald's diagnosis was a spasm rather than a clot in the artery. He returned to Madras and was posted as collector of Vishakhapatnam. Again we had a huge big house in Waltair. That stay was marked by frequent trips to chintapalli forest trying to shoot tigers a favorite pastime of his since his stay in U.P. I used to travel with him, to places like , almora terigarhwal, pilibhit etc. At chintapalli near vizag I was old enough to bring food to the table so my job was to go in the forest and shoot wild fowl, ducks or sometimes a deer and at night we would sit around the fire and eat grilled duck or sometimes venison. These were happy days.

He was then transferred to Madras as Secretary to Public Works Department. Then bad days started. His superiors were extremely corrupt and he could not keep quiet. Instead of just letting it go he brooded over it. One incident I distinctly remember. There was a utility company called Madras Electricity System or MES. It was a private British company that provided electricity to Madras. They knew their days were numbered. They also knew that they cannot be pushed out. So the Secretary PWD and Chief Engineer (electricity) were asked to agree on an amount satisfactory for both sides where the company could be sold to Madras Govt.. However through political interference the terms were declared to be too low and the compensation was increased, by several millions. The assumption was that politicians had been paid off. Papa had a big argument with his boss that he was wasting Govt. money but had to accept the boss's decision. There were other pinpricks as Ministers going on tour making the lower ranked officers to pay for the expenses like food for the family and other friends and collecting the expenses from govt and refusing to pay the bills. He would go to the ministers and insist on payment as the clerks could not afford to pay for the whole entourage. He did not have these problems on the judicial side and the officers were usually honest during British rule.

So Papa decided to resign. He said that he would live on the proportionate pension and would practice law that now he had the law degree- Barrister at Law.

He resigned and started his practice . It was good the first year but he felt the ethics in the profession was wanting He then was looking for a job in Delhi and was asked to become a deputy Director of Council and Scientific Research. There were several laboratories all over India run by the council. His friend Dr. SS. Bhatnagar died ,the Director soon after and papa had to deal with his immediate boss Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, who had been a freedom fighter. By this time AZAD had become an opium addict and did not attend office so the President of CSIR Pandit Nehru asked papa to deal with him directly. He came in close contact with Pandit Nehru. This was short lived as he had another stroke . He was flown back to Madras. This time it took nearly six months of intense physical therapy before he could walk with a hemiplegic gait After his hemiplegia he was depressed and felt helpless. I would credit mummy for bringing him back with her own way of encouragement. He became religious after this illness and started reading books in Sanskrit a language he had learned in school. He did not have any belief in rituals and the unfortunate aspects of religions like caste system etc. He had mainly an intellectual interest and faith in reading the vedas commentaries etc..

Papa loved eating especially punjabi and kashmiri meat dishes cooked with Ghee. His favorite dishes were murg masallam, Rogan Josh and kashmiri Kofta. His food habits could be blamed for his illness.With my grandparents in the house we were restricted to vegetarian food. He however use take us outside to restaurants where we ate with gusto. This was a secret with us. I was in medical school that time.

I decided to go to America higher training as because of the caste system in Tamil Nadu I felt I had no future in Tamil Nadu. BBC has estimated in a show called 'vanishing tribe' that 80% of brahmins have left Tamil Nadu and because of intermarriage the caste is disappearing. However the pogroms are still continuing and the only Brahmins who are left in Tamil Nadu are rich as because of corruption they can buy their way and those who are poor who have no place to go, are destined to suffer ,because they are denied admission in colleges and access to jobs.

I went to America, got married with Saroja in Washington D.C. and visited my parents every three years. They also visited us a couple of times. He liked America as once he told me that when he goes out for a walk in the neighborhood people wish him and sometimes stop to talk with him. This would never happen in Britain. Later he had a heart attack and a fracture hip. a classmate of mine operated on him Madras. Also due the tremendous inflation his pension was not worth what it used to. So my brother and I decided to bring him over to U.S. He lived with us for three years before he died of a massive heart attack at University Hospital, Stonybrook where I was working. I am glad he stayed with us as I see his influence on values and education in my children and nephews and nieces.

I can assess the values I have inherited from him. An absolute Fidelity to ethics and honesty that sometimes has,had an adverse effect on my position, a contempt of people who have an arrogance of wealth especially when it is inherited . A respect for people with knowledge and tolerance.