After a week's stay with us, Kurup kochachan has left for Thiruvananthapuram where he stays with Gopeekrishna, his eldest son. I'd the privilege of interacting closely with him, be it within the house while he gently rocked himself on the rocking chair or while walking with him in the park in front of our building as part of his daily routine or in between working on my laptop, sitting at the foot of his bed.
I shall touch upon two stories from his life which relates to the beginning of his relationship with the two legends - Paravoor Devarajan and PN Panicker.
Kurop kochachan, as I'd known him from my childhood, is a simple man with no ego hassles and is very friendly and outgoing. He has been an active player on the stage and is very talented. Paravoor, south of Kollam, boasts of two of its illustrious sons - the late Devarajan, the legendary music director of Malayalam films with a huge repertoire of evergreen numbers and Sivasankara Kurup, the actor covering a wide canvas of experience be it on the stage, movies or television.
(a) His tryst with Devarajan.
Born in an affluent family of Paravoor, his mother insisted on him being carried to the school, next door, by one of the domestic helps named Gopalan. And Gopalan carried out this ritual four times everyday all through young Sivasankaran's tenure in the primary school! It was when he joined the Kottapuram High School of Paravoor, that he came across the dark complexioned and extremely talented bard, Devarajan. They got along like a house on fire and on one of his birthdays, the bard presented him with a poem which began with the mesmerising words, 'Sangeetha jnanamo, bhakthivina sanmargamo....' And it was while at this school that Sivasankaran did his first play titled 'Sthreedhanam' and the role that he'd played in it was that of the heroine's!
After graduation, Devarajan settled at Madras and went on to attain his rightful place in the pantheon of Malayalam movies. Their friendship continued to flourish and despite Devarajan's repeated attempts to get Sivasankaran to Madras to take up a career in films, the latter found some excuse or the other to stay away as he was in search of a government job, which he got in the then prestigious 'National Book Stall' at Kottayam. In his words, it was his mortal fear of failure on celluloid that made him hanker for a job and then, try his luck on the silver screen later!
(b) Meeting up with his future father-in-law, PN Panicker.
It was while he was the secretary of the 'Kshetra Pravesana Vilambara Grandhasala' at Paravoor that he'd come across PN Panicker, for the first time and he says, with pride, that it was his handwriting that had won his future father-in-law's heart. In fact, for some reason when young Sivasankaran decided to stay away from the library, PN Panicker had gone all the way to his home and convinced his parents to send the youngster back to the library and that's what he did, eventually!
Sivasankara Kurup had heard that PN Panicker had good looking daughters and he'd fallen for my third 'ma'asi', Vilasini, whom he'd a glimpse of during one of his visits to their house. However, he'd to be contended with marrying my second ma'asi, Leela - simply because she was the next in waiting to get married after her eldest sister, my mom and in his words - she was equally acceptable and he'd no complaints! I remember that I was the youngest kid - and the only grandchild - to attend their wedding at the Ettumanoor Siva kshetram and enroute, we'd to switch cars as our's (the old Chevrolet with an inclined, flat tailboard) had broken down at Chadayamangalam in the middle of the night! I also remember vaguely that we'd arrived at our destination just in time for the wedding giving nightmarish moments to the bridegroom's family!!
After marriage, Kurup kochachan and Leela kunjamma had shifted to the Panickers' house, then TC 804, at Thycaud adjacent to the gates of the Model School and the Intermediate College, at Thiruvananthapuram and it was one solid and happy joint family!
Tailpiece.
As far as I was aware, Kurup kochachan was an atheist who poo-poohed his wife's frequent visits to the places of religious worship. But I must hasten to add that he'd joined me once for my annual Sabarimala pilgrimage which he insisted was not out of any religious fervour but out of a desire to get a taste of the experience! So, Lekha and I were pleasantly surprised when he expressed his wish to have a miniature 'Ganesh' idol which we're only too happy to gift him one. I presume that the passing away of Leela kunjamma has made him a convert.
I shall touch upon two stories from his life which relates to the beginning of his relationship with the two legends - Paravoor Devarajan and PN Panicker.
Kurop kochachan, as I'd known him from my childhood, is a simple man with no ego hassles and is very friendly and outgoing. He has been an active player on the stage and is very talented. Paravoor, south of Kollam, boasts of two of its illustrious sons - the late Devarajan, the legendary music director of Malayalam films with a huge repertoire of evergreen numbers and Sivasankara Kurup, the actor covering a wide canvas of experience be it on the stage, movies or television.
(a) His tryst with Devarajan.
Born in an affluent family of Paravoor, his mother insisted on him being carried to the school, next door, by one of the domestic helps named Gopalan. And Gopalan carried out this ritual four times everyday all through young Sivasankaran's tenure in the primary school! It was when he joined the Kottapuram High School of Paravoor, that he came across the dark complexioned and extremely talented bard, Devarajan. They got along like a house on fire and on one of his birthdays, the bard presented him with a poem which began with the mesmerising words, 'Sangeetha jnanamo, bhakthivina sanmargamo....' And it was while at this school that Sivasankaran did his first play titled 'Sthreedhanam' and the role that he'd played in it was that of the heroine's!
After graduation, Devarajan settled at Madras and went on to attain his rightful place in the pantheon of Malayalam movies. Their friendship continued to flourish and despite Devarajan's repeated attempts to get Sivasankaran to Madras to take up a career in films, the latter found some excuse or the other to stay away as he was in search of a government job, which he got in the then prestigious 'National Book Stall' at Kottayam. In his words, it was his mortal fear of failure on celluloid that made him hanker for a job and then, try his luck on the silver screen later!
(b) Meeting up with his future father-in-law, PN Panicker.
It was while he was the secretary of the 'Kshetra Pravesana Vilambara Grandhasala' at Paravoor that he'd come across PN Panicker, for the first time and he says, with pride, that it was his handwriting that had won his future father-in-law's heart. In fact, for some reason when young Sivasankaran decided to stay away from the library, PN Panicker had gone all the way to his home and convinced his parents to send the youngster back to the library and that's what he did, eventually!
Sivasankara Kurup had heard that PN Panicker had good looking daughters and he'd fallen for my third 'ma'asi', Vilasini, whom he'd a glimpse of during one of his visits to their house. However, he'd to be contended with marrying my second ma'asi, Leela - simply because she was the next in waiting to get married after her eldest sister, my mom and in his words - she was equally acceptable and he'd no complaints! I remember that I was the youngest kid - and the only grandchild - to attend their wedding at the Ettumanoor Siva kshetram and enroute, we'd to switch cars as our's (the old Chevrolet with an inclined, flat tailboard) had broken down at Chadayamangalam in the middle of the night! I also remember vaguely that we'd arrived at our destination just in time for the wedding giving nightmarish moments to the bridegroom's family!!
After marriage, Kurup kochachan and Leela kunjamma had shifted to the Panickers' house, then TC 804, at Thycaud adjacent to the gates of the Model School and the Intermediate College, at Thiruvananthapuram and it was one solid and happy joint family!
Tailpiece.
As far as I was aware, Kurup kochachan was an atheist who poo-poohed his wife's frequent visits to the places of religious worship. But I must hasten to add that he'd joined me once for my annual Sabarimala pilgrimage which he insisted was not out of any religious fervour but out of a desire to get a taste of the experience! So, Lekha and I were pleasantly surprised when he expressed his wish to have a miniature 'Ganesh' idol which we're only too happy to gift him one. I presume that the passing away of Leela kunjamma has made him a convert.
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