Stories from a time warp

The silk kurta and kasavu mundu are worn elegantly on his tall, stout frame. The accent is clearly English, from the imperial schooling in British India. T C Narayan’s stately persona befits the aristocratic settings of the house. The old times, recounted in his deep voice, could very well become pieces of memorabilia in this picturesque setting, for they are tales haloed by a bygone feudal era, which despite its stratified structure, had an egalitarianism writ into the system. The corporate veteran-turned-bureaucrat, who began his career in colonial India, took to writing post retirement, when he felt that the pulsating vestiges of a long ago world needed to be put on record. The thought of turning a scribe dawned on him long after the 40 years spent in the corporate world in India and abroad, as Board  Director of Inchcape Group that commanded most of the high profile businesses in India at one time, as Board Director of Shaw Wallace Group and many such positions later. And it was also much after the pressure of heading a joint venture between Shaw Wallace group and Andhra Pradesh State Government to manufacture fertilisers on a cost-effective basis allowed him a respite.  “After retirement, one of my good friends, Mini Krishnan, editor with Oxford University Press, kept prodding me to pen a memoir. When I finally decided to work on it, I found that there were so many characters whom I wanted to portray. So it became a book where each chapter was dedicated to a character who represented the life and social structure of the Kerala of my childhood,” says this octogenarian, when we met him at the house of his friend C Balagopal, MD, Terumo Penpol, in Thiruvananthapuram. Narayan named his collection of pen pictures brought out by Unisun ‘Ettukettu Stories’. “They are memories of the lifestyle of aristocratic Malayalee households of the 1940s. Hence, the architectural symbol of Kerala aristocracy in the title,” he explains.  The book has chapters named after characters like Umma, the sweeper woman, Head Constable Kochunni Maman and so on. Together, the characters breath life into a sprawling ‘Curuppath tharavadu’ that once stood on boundless extends of land in inland Thrissur. “The rickshaw puller, the cleaners, the man who came to wind the clocks every week - each of these people had an important place in the scheme of things. There was strong caste distinction, and yet, there was also a vitality about the relationship between these people and the household.” Once in the writing mode, Narayan translated a selection of K C Zacharia’s stories and also wrote the Malayalam dialogues for a multi-lingual production of ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ commissioned by the British Council and Royal Shakespeare Company and directed by Tim Supple. The drama has completed two world tours playing to packed houses. Wanting to showcase the rich cultural heritage of Kerala to the world, Narayan then chose to recreate in English, 48 selections from among the famed personalities, folklores and myths of Kerala. Titled, ‘Mission India’, the book is published by Penguin. “It is not only the foreigners, but the non-resident Indians too that I see among the audience of such a publication. I have seen Malayalee children born to NRIs who ask bemused, “do elephants have names here?” The stories that Narayan pen are coloured by impressions accumulated over long years that bore witness to tides of change in the country. Despite being educated in British schools, he had to fight discrimination as an Indian employee in British companies. He later rose to head the navigation wing of Inchcape group called Peninsular and Oriental (P&O) in India. In his capacity as director of the fertiliser project, Narayan remembers witnessing the rot of corruption in Indian politics. “But, I must say, I was never ever approached by anyone to push a backdoor deal. I believe if you are determined on playing it fair, nobody will dare question you.” Manmohan Singh who was the then Secretary of Economic Affairs and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Vengal Rao stand out in his memory as efficient and visionary leaders. The one-time Sea Scouts State Commissioner who executed a daring rescue operation, the passionate sportsman who donned the hat of commentator on All India Radio, Narayan does not have to look far for stories; a nudge at the treasure trove of memories in his heart and there they are born!