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In the last issue
I cannot describe in words the cry which came from my mother when the news about the death of her beloved and dutiful son along with her grandchildren and great grandchild was told to her. It looked as if the cry came from the bottom of her stomach. My mother, who was cheerfulness personified till that day, became very gloomy and depressed. I can say with certainty that her last days on this earth started from that date, though she lived for another 8 years after those tragic events ....My chance to return in a small measure my mother’s unselfish love to me came to me from that moment onwards.....A true Karma Yogi she was. Whenever I approached her, she used to sit up in bed for signing the papers brought by me. I am not exaggerating when I say that she must have signed at least 1000 times.....She had an absolute trust in me, which continued till her last breath.
Read on to find out what happened........
When Sampath’s son-in-law filed his petition for Succession Certificate at
Calcutta High Court, claiming almost the entire properties of Sampath and
Choodamani, my mother, though a superior heir, was under a great disadvantage,
having no money to fight for her rights. However, my timely action in getting
legal heir certificate from Tasildar and claiming and getting some insurance
amounts of Sampath nullified this disadvantage to a certain extent, though not
fully. We now had sufficient money to fight for our rights for some time..
However, being in close contact with lawyers and court cases, I knew very well
that both Mr. S and ourselves will be the ultimate losers (and the lawyers would have been the only gainers)
if we continued our
litigation till final judgement, which would have taken more than fifteen years,
this being a civil case.
In this connection, I am reminded of two stories about fighting court cases. The
first story goes like this:-Two persons met in prison. The first person asked
his cell mate as to how he came to jail. The second person replied that he
inherited huge properties on the death of a close relative, but before he could
get them in hand, another relative filed a case claiming these properties. He
further told his cell mate, “ The case went on for twenty years, in lower
courts, then High court and finally Supreme Court. In the end, I lost the case.
I had lost all my money for paying my lawyers, and after losing the case, I
could not pay my lawyers large amounts still due to them. So I have ended up in
Debtor’s Prison.” He then asked his cell mate, “How did you come here, my
friend?”. Said his prison mate, “ I was the unfortunate relative who filed the
case against you and won. However, after winning the case, I did not have
sufficient money to pay my lawyers, even after selling off all my newly won
properties, and so landed in this Debtor’s Prison”.
The second story is about the crooked character of lawyers in general, and goes
like this:- Between heaven and hell, there was a partition wall. The
residents of heaven had heavenly music, beautiful girls like Ramba, and Urvasi giving
dance recitals all the time, large stocks of nectar to drink, sumptuous and
delicious food and all sorts of enjoyment day and night. On the other hand, hell
was full of hot and unbearable atmosphere, burning oil being poured into the
ears of the residents, Unbearable torture chambers existed where every resident was flogged
for 20 hours every day; all mega-serials, especially Doordarshan serials, to be compulsorily watched etc. The
only silver lining was that the residents were allowed to ring up their
relatives on the earth for 3 minutes every day. In this too, the residents
observed clear partiality of the authorities, as Bihari residents were charged
only Rs. 2/- for each call, while all others were charged Rs. 200/- per call. So
they went in a delegation to God and complained. God told them that he was
absolutely impartial, and that while all others had to pay at IPD rates,(Inter
Planetary Dialing) rates, Biharis had to pay only at local call rates, Bihar
being extension of hell on earth.
The residents of hell became very jealous of their neighbors on the other side
of the partition wall who were enjoying unlimited pleasures while they were
subjected to unbearable sufferings. So one fine morning, they broke down the
partition wall. Immediately, hell mates started roaming into heaven and enjoying
the wonderful pleasures there. At the same time, hot air started flowing into
heaven, while the intruders from hell started dragging heaven residents into
hell and pouring burning oil into their ears, or putting them in torture
chambers etc. Being fed up with this high handed hooliganism from their
neighbours , the residents of heaven issued a stern warning to the trespassers
viz.” Close the partition wall immediately, or else , we shall file a suit
against you in the court of God, who will punish you very severely.” The
trespassers, instead of being afraid laughed aloud and said , “ You cannot do
that”. The residents of heaventhought that the hell mates were simply bluffing,
and gave a final warning of their intention to go to court of god. At this, the
hell people again laughed out aloud and said, “Even if you file a case against
us in the court of God, who will argue your case, as all lawyers are here (in
Hell)?.”
I therefore convinced my father that if it is at all possible, we should settle the matter
out of court as early as possible, even if we have to concede certain advantages
to Mr. S. At the same time, like a good leader, who keeps his ammunitions dry
even while negotiating for peace with his enemy, I kept all my options open for
using if Mr. S does not agree for any reasonable compromise. I therefore filed
one petition for Succession Certificate on behalf of my mother in Madras High
Court . I then went to Calcutta and engaged a good advocate to fight the
petition filed by Mr. S. After coming back from Calcutta, after some rest, I
went to New Delhi, and filed one petition in The Supreme Court Of India for
transferring the case filed by Mr. S. in Calcutta to Chennai, and a Stay Order
for the Calcutta Case pending Supreme Court decision on the Transfer petition.
to avoid conflicting judgments in these cases where parties and subject matter
were same. The Supreme Court granted the Stay order and proceeded with the
transfer petition expeditiously as requested by me. Finally, after about six
months, the Supreme Court decided in our favour and ordered the transfer of Mr.
S’s case for Succession Certificate to Madras High Court, for simultaneous
hearing and decision along with my mother’s claim for Succession Certificate. In
its judgement, the Supreme Court had observed that Prima Facie, Mrs. Kamala’s
claim seemed to be more valid.
In the meanwhile, the cases in Chennai and Calcutta were going on, which I
attended on behalf of my mother. My Chennai advocate was completely true to the
stories of lawyers related above, and I had to do every action, in spite of paying hefty fees to him. After finding him more of a hindrance to our case than useful in any
way, I changed the lawyer, who while depending on me for preparing the case, at
least did what I wanted to be done. The attitude of the lawyers, who grabbed
heavy fees, and then forgot the case, strengthened my resolve for a compromise
with Mr. X, as per the Tamil proverb, 'Satchikaran kalile vizharathe vida
Sandaikaran kalile vizharathe mel' (It is better to surrender to the enemy than to fall at the feet of lawyers and witnesses).
Therefore, immediately after I received the copy of Supreme Court judgement inmy mother’s favour, I placed before my parents my idea of talking with Mr.S with a view to early compromise by conceding a major portion of his demands, . My mother supported me to the hilt, and expressed her great sympathy to Mr. S, who had undergone a great trauma at such young age. I could not but admire her wonderful nature of expressing sympathy to the very person who had dragged her to court and tried to deprive her right to inherit the property of her own son.
After getting the green signal from my parents, I wrote a very well thought out letter to Mr.S. This is what I wrote:- "Dear Shri S., You will be
surprised to receive this letter from me. Both yourself and my parents have
undergone the greatest trauma any human being can undergo, after the tragic
death of dear and near ones. You will surely agree with me that the present
litigations will benefit only lawyers, whoever may win finally. I feel that we should meet and discuss the matter. If you are likely to come to Bangalore or Chennai in the near future, we can meet there. If not, I am ready to come to Mumbai immediately. Wishing you all the best. Yours Sincerely, S.Rajagopalan."
I was sure that Mr. S. would respond favourably, especially after his losing the case in Supreme Court, as his lawyers would have certainly advised him that he was likely to lose the main case in Chennai High Court also. As I expected, there was an immediate reply, reciprocating my sentiments, and intimating his visit to Chennai in the next week. We met in my parents’ house at Mandavalli. He enquired about parents’ health, who replied very graciously. We had one to one talks for more than two hours, but could not arrive at a settlement. We parted as good friends, agreeing to meet in Mumbai the next week.
During this period, my heart problem deteriorated due to my frequent travels to Chennai, Mumbai, Calcutta, Nagpur and New Delhi in connection with the court cases and other Estate matters of Sampath. Vijaya was very unhappy at my fanatic devotion to my mother’s cause, at the cost of my health. She used to quote me the Tamil proverb, 'Suvarai vaithuthane chithiram ezhuda mudiyum (You can draw a picture only if there is a wall to draw the picture on)', meaning that
if I fall ill, nothing can be done about the court cases. My mother also told the same thing to me. Fortunately, myself and Mr.S had thrashed out a
compromise, after I told him, “ Whoever wins this case will get the entire
property, while the loser will get nothing. Let both of us win, and share
Fifty-Fifty”.We entered into a Compromise agreement to share the property
equally and filed our Compromise Deed in Madras High Court, where our case was being tried. Even after all these efforts, a final problem cropped up. Mr. S wanted the court to grant A Joint Succession Certificate, which the court refused to do, saying that Succession Certificate will be given to Mrs. Kamala, who had only applied for same before that court, with an order that she should give 50% share to Mr.S. In the event of any default on her part, Mr. S could approach the courts for redress.
I had earlier mentioned that my mother had obtained some amounts before the
compromise deed was signed. My mother was very firm that I should give 50% of this also to Mr. S even though this matter was not covered by the compromise agreement. I then gave Mr. S a complete picture of earlier transactions, and a settlement of earlier accounts were made. Mr. S was highly pleased to get lot of money without even moving his little finger. His trust in me also increased considerably, and we both applied to various banks and institutions for realizing the estate. It took about one year to get most of the dues. Most of the amounts were received by my mother as the holder of succession certificate. I was very scrupulous to send Mr. S his 50% share immediately on receipt of any amount by my mother.
During the time when we were realizing the estate of Sampath, many important (Tragic as well as Auspicious) events were taking place affecting my mother.
-- I retired from Central Government Serrvviice after serving Indian Bureau Of Mines in various capacities for 34 years. I am happy to say that I had a successful career and had earned seven promotions and appreciation letters from all the Controllers-General under whom I had worked. I left Bangalore on 30th June 1997 (the day I retired), and cameand settled in Chennai to be near my parents.
-- My father died at the ripe old age of 90 years on 21st July 1998.
-- My Shashti Abda Poorthi (60th birthdaayy)) was celebrated on 11th
July 1999, and coincided with the first death anniversary of my father.
-- My wife, Vijaya who was fun-loving anndd very active, was afflicted by a
debilitating spinal cord disease.
-- I suffered a heart failure a few montthhss before my Shashti Abda Poorthi.
The death of my father, after nearly seventy five years of marriage, was the last straw for my mother. She was slowly recovering from the trauma of the death of Sampath and his family members. My father’s death at this time was unbearable to her, and she completely lost all interest in life. She used to tell me that my father came in her dreams, and told her that she had to continue living till Gopalan succeeded in fully realizing Sampath’s money. Even now, I am moved to tears when I think back as to how unselfish she was and how her only interest in this world was to leave some money for her children.
As soon as my father’s cremation and 13 days of religious rites were over, Parthasarathy took her to Mumbai. She was very happy in Mumbai, as
Parthasarasthy, Amritha, Harish and Aarthi used to play Thayakattai game with her almost daily. She was with me, Raghu and Parthasarathy for about an year each. She could spend only a few months in Mandavalli due to various problems such as my sister Vanaja’s serious illness (Diabates), acute water problem etc.
My mother’s health deteriorated rapidly after my father’s death. Her arthritis worsened and she became bed-ridden. I had engaged two ayahs to look after her for 24 hours. She was in VHS Hospital, Adyar for nearly two years before Parthasarathy came to Chennai on transfer from Mumbai. She went to Parthasarathy’s house on 1st June 2002 and remained with him for about 15 months till her last breath on 20th August 2003. The major
problem which remained till her death was Senile Dementia. In simple words, Senile Dementia means loss of
memory due to old age. As a person advances in age, his or her memory cells start dying out. There are three types of memory cells Viz. Immediate memory, Short term memory, and long term memory. The first to go are the immediate memory cells. A person afflicted with this ailment can not remember things that happened some minutes earlier. For example, after five minutes after drinking coffee, she would say that she has not been given coffee since morning. Unless other family members understand about the nature of this disease, serious misunderstandings are likely to develop. The lady of the house may think that this old lady is telling all sorts of lies and defaming me before others. Short term memory cells are the next to die. I shall illustrate this with my mother’s example. When my mother was in Aynavaram with Parthasarathy, I used to visit her once in four or five days. Just after one day after my visit, she invariably told Amritha and Parthasarathy, “It is a very long time since Gopalan visited
me. He is having heart problem. Kindly ring up and find out whether he is
all right”.I used to sit with her and gossip about various events that happened after my last visit. I also asked her to recite Thirupavai, Thirumalai etc. While she remembered all the verses, she could not remember the sequence correctly. I used to correct her, and give her some home work till my next visit. For example, I used to tell her, “ Next time when I come, you should recite verses 1 to 5 in Thirupavai, and verses 6 to 10 in Tirumalai. I shall give you a prize if you are able to recite all the verses in sequence without any mistake. Immediately after I left, she used to take the books, and memorise the verses allotted by me. She was just like a child, very much pleased by my praise, and tried to show off her skills to me. I am overwhelmed by tears when I recall that when she was in great pains and in a semi coma just before her death, she did not shout ,“Ayyo, Amma”, but was continuously reciting Thirupavai verses even in that stage. I am sure that she would have been taken by Lord Vishnu to His abode.
In conclusion, I would like to say this about my mother. She was a very simple soul, completely free from petty jealousies or unnecessary gossips. She never cared for money. She loved all her children equally, though she used to enquire about me maximum number of times, and had complete trust in me. I do hope that I fully justified her trust. I could not fulfil her one fervent wish which was that she wanted to breath her last in Vedachala Gardens, Mandaveli where she lived for about seventy years and where she had borne her children and brought them up. But I am sure that she will forgive me from wherever she is now, as she loved me too much to mind my lapse in this matter.
concluded
S.Rajagopalan
December 2003
Note from Editor: Click here to read my article 'When my mother sang' written in December 2002
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