Rajendran rewinds... "We used to get 20 ball shaped keera vadais for Rs.1 in Central Theatre and coffee was just 25 paise then. I used to return with a pile of vadais to my shop on Cross Cut Road.Many of my college friends used to visit my shop after their day got over in the electricity department. They used to get appointed in their third year of college itself. These friends used to walk me to Central Theatre in order to savour the coffee and keerai vadai. All of us would manually cross the railway level crossing and go to the theatre. Well, bus number 6 would come through Kalidas Road in Ramnagar and conductors used to say that ' Cross Cut erangunga ' (get down). It kind of described the location and this road named after Ponniah Gowder became Cross Cut Road eventually. Our family had a house since 1945 in Tatabad, but we moved into by 1966. We lived in Grey Town earlier. My father N.Balakrishna Naidu was a textile machinery dealer and mother Padmavathi Ammal will be 100 years shortly. She happens to be the daughter of Engine Thottam R.Govindaswamy Naidu of Palanikoundenpudur near Thudiyalur. Father used to be involved in the business of cotton waste too."
Rajendran rewinds... "We used to get 20 ball shaped keera vadais for Rs.1 in Central Theatre and coffee was just 25 paise then. I used to return with a pile of vadais to my shop on Cross Cut Road.Many of my college friends used to visit my shop after their day got over in the electricity department. They used to get appointed in their third year of college itself. These friends used to walk me to Central Theatre in order to savour the coffee and keerai vadai. All of us would manually cross the railway level crossing and go to the theatre. Well, bus number 6 would come through Kalidas Road in Ramnagar and conductors used to say that ' Cross Cut erangunga ' (get down). It kind of described the location and this road named after Ponniah Gowder became Cross Cut Road eventually. Our family had a house since 1945 in Tatabad, but we moved into by 1966. We lived in Grey Town earlier. My father N.Balakrishna Naidu was a textile machinery dealer and mother Padmavathi Ammal will be 100 years shortly. She happens to be the daughter of Engine Thottam R.Govindaswamy Naidu of Palanikoundenpudur near Thudiyalur. Father used to be involved in the business of cotton waste too."
Rajendran is a quintessential Coimbatorean and has enjoyed the city from his childhood. He had done his schooling from London Mission School in Pappanaickenpalayam and studied in Suburban School later. The former Chairman of LMW (Lakshmi Machine Works) D.Jayawarthanavelu had been his school mate stated the octogenarian. He had attended many a general body meeting of the LMW group of companies. Rajendran still remembers his teachers. Muthu Vadhiyar had been the Master, while the other teachers were John, Gabriel and Vedanandam. He remembers the huge canes that came along with the teachers. The octogenarian belonged to the last batch of Intermediate in P.S.G College of Arts and Science. His recall is quite good and was happy to share the names of his teachers in PSG - B.R.Krishnamurthy (Prinicipal), Abdul Ghafoor (English), Gnanamourthy (Tamil), Boopathy (Tamil), Kannapiran (Chemistry), Kuppurathinam (Chemistry), D.K.P.Varadarajan (later day Principal of P.S.G College of Arts & Science) and Veluswamy (English). Rajendran had done his B.Sc (Chemistry) from PSG and joined the law college later. However he discontinued only to do a B.G.L through correspondence from Madurai Kamaraj University. He did his M.A in Political Sciences much later.
"I still remember my good old friends. Sri Krishna & Co - Surendran, Auditor Nandakumar, K.B.Krishnan , S.G.Ramkumar (brother of Dr.S.G.Rajarathinam), T.S.Murugesan (his maternal grandfather was T.A.Ramalingam Chettiar), Arian Soap Rajashekhar, K.R.Loganathan (K.R & Sons), Balaraman of the sound service business in town, K.R.S.Mani of K.R & Sons Jewellery. All the four Annapoorna brothers were very well known to me and I continue to remember D.Seshappa Chettiar of Sri Krishna & Co . The T.S.Dasappa Chettiar (hardware merchants on Dr.Nanjappa Road which was known as Jail Road once) family were our friends. Coming back to where we started, well Central Theatre had been a drama centre earlier and it was founded by V.Ramaswamy Naidu, a cotton merchant turned mill owner. His son R.B.Mani was well known those days," recalled Rajendran.
B.Rajendran married Vimala, the daughter of Engineer Subbiah Naidu. "My father in law Subbiah Naidu was a stalwart and he served the PSG Industrial Institute under Diwan Bahadur P.S.G.Rangaswamy Naidu those days. He was literally known as the first son of Rangaswamy Naidu (so called by the great man himself). My brother in law S.Jagadeesan happens to be the Founder President of CODISSIA," added Rajendran. The couple Vimala and Rajendran are blessed with Ashok Kumar and Ravi Kumar. Rajendran had been the boss at the Hardware Store Sri Lakshmi Corporation on Cross Cut Road until the year 1993. His business neighbours had been Ramachandran and Pandurangan. They ran Kennedy Spares and were the sons of Bangarukrishnan, the nephew of P.A.Raju Chettiar. Ramachandran had been greatly influenced by the US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and hence named the store after him. His grandmother Aparanji Amma, the sister of P.A.Raju Chettiar was a good hostess. She used to serve me hot snacks during my visits to their house on Vysial Street," stated Rajendran.
The noble nature of Asoka M.K.Krishna Chetty is cherished by Rajendran. The noble gentleman had once come to visit him on his wedding anniversary and given him a gift. He was very nostalgic while talking about Ramakrishna Bakery, "Rangulu Naidu (Rangaswamy Naidu) of Ramakrishna Bakery helped me to get a shop of Cross Cut Road. His nephews Kasthuri, Durai and Krishnan looked after the bakery. Ramakrishna Bakery made the best bakery items with the purest of ingredients. No one equaled them those days. Rangulu Naidu used to have a ' Rotti Kadai ' (bread shop) in Pappanaickenpalayam long ago and the street got its name thereafter. Coimbatore had a nice social fabric. People knew each other well and would not hesitate in trying to help people connect. The fabric that held the city together nurtured entrepreneurship and also helped people to forge social alliances.
The P.A.Raju Chettiar family residence on Trichy Road was well known to Rajendran in its earlier incarnation. "The All India General Insurance Company was housed in the nice old building which was endowed with swinging doors and old rosewood furniture. My friends T.S.Sivagurunathan (son of Advocate and Rotarian T.R.Sundaram Pillai), Jayagopal and Shanmugham used to work from that office and I used to visit them once in a way.
“My grandfather had gifted me an Agfa Camera. This furthered my interest in photography and I became a shutter bug. Used to take lot of pictures and still many of them" , added Rajendran. He also recalled the cricket team which was nurtured by Mani Naicker (V. Radhakrishnan, son of R. Venkataswamy Naidu - Founder Madras Aluminium Company & South India Viscose). Mani Naicker was known to take his cricket team friends for matches everywhere. He used to give them a big treat at Bombay Anand Bhavan or at Woodlands Hotel for each and every win.
B.Rajendran had friends who straddled all walks of life. They were found in all parts of Coimbatore. From Vysial Street to Race Course to Kottiamedu to Cross Cut Road and beyond. He continues to stay in touch with them and helps many to connect the dots.