Manimma: 2022

अस्मिन् परात्मन् ननु पाद्मकल्पे
त्वमित्थमुत्थापितपद्मयोनि: ।
अनन्तभूमा मम रोगराशिं
निरुन्धि वातालयवास विष्णो ॥

Outside East Coast Flats, Gandhi Nagar

Ganesh Ramaswamy Iyer (R. Ganesh), 75, S/o of T.G.Ramaswamy of Telco, Jamshedpur, attained Shivaloka praapti on 04.12.2022 at 3:40 p.m., leaving behind his wife (Lalitha), son (Dinesh), daughter (Srividya), son-in-law (Sridhar), granddaughters (Kamakshi and Sharada), and other relatives and friends.

so was to read the obituary in the papers. "Ganesan" to many of his friends, was many things to many people; an affectionate husband to Mami, a dear father to Dinesh and Srividya, a proud father-in-law to me, a loving grandfather to the kids, who called him Chinglu Taatha, on account of how he referred to them, a caring 'sambandhi' who bonded well with my mother on account of shared interests, and an entertaining guest to the many wonderful hosts in San Diego :-) And why not, after all, he was a man of many talents.

His primary interest, one could say, was politics, and I'm sure this is mostly what he would discuss with the many friends who he would spend time with at the Anantapadmanabhaswami temple, which was on his daily routine until a few years ago. No conversation was complete without a discussion of what Modi was recently up to, or his views on the Congress, or the DMK and AIADMK governments.

He also liked to talk about musicians (yes, not music as much, but musicians :-) He particularly liked the music of Smt. Pantula Rama gaaru, and almost unerringly, when I asked him what whose concert he wanted to hear, it would be hers. Of the many other people he liked listening to, he was particularly fond of Amritha Murali (whom he liked very much), Smt. Sowmya, and TRS Mama. He liked the pancharatnam renditions of Sanjay & Unnikrishnan (and gave us a CD of that recording), and Sowmya's Palinchu Kamakshi. He was quite proud of Vidya's singing, and had asked me to digitize some of her concert tapes.

Mama was also a big fan of old movies [and Doordarshan serials like Nukkad and Flop Show]. When he came here to the US, some of the movies that he asked if I had and watched were 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner', 'High Noon', 'Roman Holiday', 'The Dirty Dozen' and all the spaghetti westerns. He had a particular fondness for Gregory Peck, Spencer Tracy, Audrey Hepburn (he loved 'Breakfast at Tiffanys', 'Charade', 'My Fair Lady', 'Wait Until Dark' etc), but most of all, if I am not mistaken, he was fascinated by Peter O'Toole ('Lawrence of Arabia', 'How to Steal a Million') and the famous "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?" from the 1964 classic Becket.

One thing I will fondly remember is his love for Hindi film songs, and his ability to instantly recall which movie what song came from, who the actors/actresses in that movie were, the movie's director, the music director, playback singers, the composer, and their entire live histories. He had a fondness (who doesn't) for Rafi, and in recent times, we had played a lot of Talat Mahmood classics, including the great Jalte Hain Jiske Liye

I remember talking to him about S.D. Burman [possibly when talking about the above song from Sujata] and pat came Mama's comment, 'he was from Tripura'. I would think he was a walking encyclopedia (or should we say wikipedia to suit the times :-) when it came to movies.

I would be remiss if I did not mention his penchant for dressing up well, no matter how "small"/informal the occasion. Perippa would probably point to him to drive home the maxim "clothes maketh the man", and I remember Srikanth buying him perfume to gift on multiple occasions. [Update] I talked to Kamal Mami today, and she said she remembered him as being "bubbly", playful, and possessing an old world innocence.

On our last trip (summer of 2022), on the day we were to leave back for the US, Mama teared up and told Vidya she had done a lot for him; but I would think he had a more unexpressed appreciation for what Dinesh had done. I say this because when he was here in San Diego, I remember how excited he was when he heard that Dinesh was planning on coming to the US on official work. 'Sharada, yaaru vara poraa'? Dinesh Mama' he said, with excitement in his voice. It is hard to put in words how well he was cared for by Dinesh and Mami. Here is one photo of him with the kids, who were very close to his heart, taken outside the Tyagaraja Swami Samadhi in Thiruvaiyaaru.