V.K.Rajan was born to Velanganaattu Kesavan and Ammaluamma on the 2nd of March 1926 at North Paravur near Ernakulam in Kerala. He did up to his fourth standard at the "Illathu School" by learning Malayalam and Maths while learning Sanskrit in an SNDP institution under a Namboothiri.
V.K.Rajan was born to Velanganaattu Kesavan and Ammaluamma on the 2nd of March 1926 at North Paravur near Ernakulam in Kerala. He did up to his fourth standard at the "Illathu School" by learning Malayalam and Maths while learning Sanskrit in an SNDP institution under a Namboothiri.
The family consisted of 2 more sons and 2 daughters. He had learned tailoring for one year in Kerala during his formative years. V.K.Rajan moved to Coimbatore while he was about 19 years of age, and began his tailoring career at the military workshop near Town Hall.
"Those days my salary was just one Anna per day and my only activity was taking kaja for the shirts. It was a difficult period for I did not have both, proper food and shelter. Thereafter I moved over to work with senior tailor T.R.K.Nair of R.S.Puram and worked with him for some years.
Finally, I reached my destination 'Ganesh Mahal' on D.B.Road in R.S.Puram in the year 1951 and this was my own venture. The building had been put up by Venkatakrishna Iyer who was attached to Stanes Coffee," stated the ever smiling V.K.Rajan who works till this day, with a prosthetic leg. One leg had to be removed a couple of years ago but the Karma yogi in him refuses to sit idle and he continues to work the whole day.
While Paravur Bhuvaneshwari is his Kula Deivam, the ishta Deivam is Lord Ayyappan at Siddhapur in Coimbatore. V.K.Rajan has been to Sabarimala 45 times and lives with his 85-year-old wife Padmavathi at Sai Baba Colony.
The couple has been blessed with a son and 2 daughters. The son R.Murali is a qualified tailor who has done a diploma in tailoring at Mumbai about 30 years ago. Half a dozen grandchildren make up the rest of the family and now he is also a great-grandfather.
V.K.Rajan wears khadi shirts stitched by him and uses a Singer sewing machine which is more than 60 years old. He had purchased the space from his landlord in the year 1979 and reports to work promptly every morning in his son's car. He is a man of few words and is ever busy. The radio is on all the time but he loves to listen to just the news bulletin.
"Those days I began work by 8 AM and used to cycle to work from McGregor Road and worked up to 9.30 PM. I used to charge half a rupee for a shirt and one and a quarter for a trouser. It was possible for me to stitch 3 trousers and 2 shirts each day or 4 trousers or 6 six shirts. My assistants used to help me and there was a time when I had 12 people working under me. We used to stitch uniforms for 600 employees of Everest Asbestos and 900 employees of Brooke Bond year after year. A number of teachers and professors working in the agricultural university were my clients. In fact, a number of Vice Chancellors were my clients too. My other clients included Krishna Rao of Ideal Gift House and I used to stitch for his entire family. I have made shirts for his son Sreesh on a number of occasions," added V.K.Rajan.
The nonagenarian tailor remembers his old clients who included Vakkil Gounder, Nanjundan who was a leading mosaic tiles manufacturer, K.Damodarswamy Naidu and K.Rangaswamy Naidu of Sree Annapoorna Hotels, Pujara, Suresh Gokuldas, E.Ramakrishnan the Secretary to former Member of Parliament P.R.Ramakrishnan and industrialist S.R.P.Ponnuswamy Chettiar whose measurements were taken in the bungalow itself.
"I am really grateful to the gentleman who was in a high position at the telephone company and it was because of him that I got a telephone. The number used to be 2656. I never went home for lunch and used to bring lunch to the shop every day. Never took rest in the noon hours and I am a non-smoking teetotaler with vegetarian habits. For years I used to visit my favorite Vinayagar before arriving to work," smiled V.K.Rajan.
V.K.Rajan has been politically aware all along. He has been reading the Dinamani and Malayala Manorama everyday. In spite of being an ardent admirer of Karmaveerar K.Kamaraj of the Congress Party, V.K.Rajan was drawn towards the ideals of liberty as espoused by Rajaji, the great Statesman. "I did a lot of work for Swatantra Party those days at the behest of N.A.Parasuraman of Ramoo & Co. The leading ideologue of the Swatantra Party G.K.Sundaram was behind the development of the Party in the Coimbatore region and he has visited my tailoring shop on a couple of occasions. I used to participate in the preparations connected with the Swatantra Party meetings that were held in the Stanes Kalyana Mandapam. Our building Ganesh Mahal had 2 Swatantra Party ideologues, N.A.Parasuraman and Jagannathan those days. Therefore it was easy to connect to the Party through them. Again Swatantra Party was popular in Coimbatore those days and the Municipal Councilors connected with the party did a lot of good for the people," espoused V.K.Rajan, the politically aware Karma yogi.
R.Murali, the son of V.K.Rajan and his Head Mistress spouse Geetha live at Nallampalayam. He is currently the Executive Committee Member at the C.M.S Primary School while also serving as the Joint Secretary of the Coimbatore Cloth Merchants Association. He is a partner in Sri Krishna & Co, a textile outlet in the same building - Ganesh Mahal and is a Life Member of the Siddhapudur Sri Ayyappan Temple.
Coimbatore was a city known for work and service. The work culture of the Coimbatoreans had caused positive ripples in the world of commerce and industry. The work culture of Karma yogi V.K.Rajan is sure to motivate many a Coimbatoreans to work with a positive attitude.