A Tenant and the Unwritten Laws

It was the fag end of 1970s. We had left Calcutta for good in anticipation of a new life and career in Madras. And we were on the lookout for a rented house closer to the schools for our children which limited our search circle to the Santhome area. Flats were a rarity then. Ground floor and the first floor was the order of the day. "Please make sure that you document everything. Most of the Madras house owners are finicky and they can beat the British constitution with their  unwritten rules. While the EB charges an amount per unit the owners' rates may be double the amount . And common light charges may be added to your account or if it is connected to theirs they will have a time limit to switch it off. They will own the gate key and beyond 10 pm the gates of heaven would not be opened unless you make a special request on very rare occasion. The members in the house would be numbered and any guests would be  under the watchful eyes of the house owner.

 'Beware of those Unwritten Rules' " Our friends emphasised  again.

My elder sister, a veteran tenant, shifting 12 houses before she settled down at her own place at Pammal had great many stories on the  authoritativeness, illogical animosity and jealousy amongst the  house owners who were to be tackled not with your righteous and logical mind  but the tactical and cunning  one! I will write a separate blog on her funny experiences. But as of now we were on our house hunt with a person who called himself a broker par excellence. Our hunt would start in right earnest after breakfast continuing till the afternoon siesta of our broker. The evening session would again start till the time we part for the day when the broker would start  scratching  his head with a sly smile on the countenance. We Calcuttans of 10 years took days to fathom this Madras symbolism for daily baksheesh!

Many of the places shown by our dear broker were either for Brahmins or vegetarians or people in government jobs. We came to realise that he was procrastinating the whole show and sternly warned him that we had no other option but to engage another person. But he promised us that the house he was going to show tomorrow would be his last one. Keeping our fingers crossed we  went to the place. The gentleman had built the first floor to replenish his income since he retired very recently.  We went into the details  and a pukka document was made for 11 months with an advance of 10 month's rent. We were happy with all the written rules, still in dark about the unwritten ones !

 It was indeed a late night when each one of our item found a place in the new location. Next morning, we were deep in slumber when there was a knock on our door in the first floor.

 "What have I done wrong to get such a early morning knock?"  Confused I hurriedly walked to meet the lady standing there  and accosted her with an enthusiastic 'Good morning' as my best weapon!

"You must be tired of  arranging things. So don't worry about the breakfast. I have brought it for you "The land lady  smilingly  handed me a vessel full of  steaming idlis  with sambar and coconut chutney as accompaniments!

"'To provide breakfast for the tired tenant-'Is it one of the unwritten rule  for this owner?!" I wondered.

And many such unwritten rules followed suit in this wonderful rented  place.

On Sunday evenings the house reverberated  with the spirituals from  the greats like Tennessee Ernie Ford. Then we came to know that the man of the house was a big wig of HMV (His Masters Voice, the gramophone record company) and loved music!

Those were the days when  very few owned TV sets and our dear owner was one of them. The only movie for the week in DD (Door Darshan, the government owned television station) was on Sunday evening and we were invited us to  his place to view the same . What started as a TV viewing metamorphosed into communal meals and the children of both the families thoroughly  enjoyed themselves. And it is a happy news that the same bonhomie continues among them till this day !

"To entertain the tenant- Was it another unwritten rule?"

We bought our own TV   after a while but the emptiness of watching  the DD movie without the gang hit us hard as with the people down!! We were really sad to break that unwritten rule!

The couple had a big family of one son and seven daughters all married and I was fondly introduced to all the friends and guests as the eighth daughter of the house!

It was the norm that whenever coconuts were plucked from the trees around the house they would be sent up in right earnest for our use.

Another unwritten rule!

The advent season was  a big bonus to all of us in the house as uncle Thangaiah welcomed it with rare carols from individual singers as well as  various choirs including King's college choir on his LP player!

Christmas was an occasion when most of the daughters gather in the house and the way uncle and all his sons in law get themselves suited and booted  for the night service used to fascinate us!

Christmas get together at our house was a thing a of great joy for both the families. Our extended host’s family combined with the equally talented uncle's family  recreated the magical spirit of sharing  with songs, plays, games concluding the day with a sumptuous dinner!

Our daughter was a great admirer of uncle from the day he played a record in which the comedy actor  Danny Kaye was narrating  funny stories. After more than 3  decades she could go through the stories word for word with all of the actor's enthusiasm ! 

Uncle never trumpeted his achievements  in the field of music. It is great news for us that all the Christian songs came to the fore because of his unrelenting efforts to bring them under the HMV banner! Till we saw his photo album we didn't know that he was so well connected with all the big shots of film and music industry.

In his photo album The HMV Man  could be seen  with the Congress chief minister Kamaraj, chief minister and  actor MGR, today's Tamil Nadu chief minister  Jayalalitha,  AVM Meiyappa Chettiar of AVM studios  yester year's one and only ever green heroine Saroja Devi, the great Sitar maestro  Pandit Ravi Shankar, cricketer  Farook Engineer  the queen singer P. Suseela and the highly talented T.M. Soundara Rajan and so many others.

When many a high ranking  retired personnel ache and mourn over the power and authority they enjoyed during  service, uncle Thangaiah rejected many offers within India and abroad which could have made him a millionaire. Instead  he opted for a simple and contended life enjoying his music, his organ playing in the church. The afternoon after lunch session in the verandah with  fried ground nut routinely delivered by the cart vendor along with his dear wife Stella auntie followed by  paan chewing and a small siesta and back to his music was more valuable to him than tall the riches of the world!!

Uncle died in 2008 at the age of 92. At his death bed when his health failed, memory sagged and speech blurred, his relationship with his beloved music never ever slumped. His fingers were still playing to the great  music flowing within him !

On Sunday 'Hindu' newspaper the photo of uncle Thangaiah and Stella auntie on his 100th birth anniversary opened up  the flood gates of memory and  hence this blog of love affection and admiration!

What else can we do for the owners of our rented house whose innumerable  unwritten rules  has bound us in love and happiness?

We have created a  strong relationship by bringing in  a girl from that beloved house into our family and wish that the progeny respect and revere those great values to create a fertile lives for themselves!