Monday, April 29, 2019

M.A.M Palaniappan Aiya - Celebration of life !!


   Nagarathar community is aware of M.A.M Palaniappan Aiya of Rayavaram – 105 years old chettiar who resides in Rayavaram. In 2014, though I was at Bay area  when Aiya visited California and I missed seeing Aiya since I had booked tickets for whale watching. I felt guilty of missing a golden opportunity and from that point  was looking forward to meet him and my luck finally came in 2018 when I personally made efforts to meet him in his place at Rayavaram. Aiya was aware that guests are bound to come and seek blessings from him. I went along with my mom, wife and kids. We introduced ourselves and nagarathar community is like solving sudoku puzzle of level one. Third minute into the conversation we will realize there is whole lot of mutual friends between two families.

    We took blessings from Aiya and spent few minutes chatting with him. Aiya gets up very early in the morning and reads Devaram and other religious books. He watches Cricket and an ardent fan of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Aiya also does Stock Trading every single day and has the habit of writing accounts. Aiya maintains a balanced diet and has the habit of walking. These facets of his life are familiar to many nagarathars. I would like to illustrate few more …We were served Biscuits and Aiya was particular my maid also has some. Not just that when we all took our seats Aiya noticed my maid standing and insisted her to sit. Now that is humanity. Humanity has to be part of your system ..it is basically your behavior through your instincts. I asked Aiya one question “What should one do to be Happy?” Aiya replied ...”Don’t worry about anything…What is bound to happen will happen…” . One other things which is so impressive about Aiya is his positivity towards life. It is very common to see people of his age or even closer to his age say “I would like to leave the world without disturbing anyone” ….Though we can comprehend the sentence but still hearing this sentence from people kind of disheartens us and disturbs us emotionally. Unfortunately we live in a world where Tit for Tat is the order of the day – You attend my event and I will attend yours, You make a dish for my pot luck and I will make a dish for your pot luck, You ‘Like’ my photo and I will ‘Like’ your pic …etc., But here is a man who never misses any Invites and always makes sure he blesses everyone. It is very easy for him to turn down the invite citing his age instead have the bride and groom come to his place but at this age he makes sure he physically attends the marriage. One such marriage he attended in Rayavaram today and was lucky enough to get blessings from Aiya second time. He entered and sat on the chair and suddenly army of people start lining up to get blessings from Aiya.

    Life on its course throws lots of surprises every now and then but eventually life comes only once. I grumble so much about Indian summer but Aiya lives at Native which is burning hot …..Aiya does what he likes and likes what he does….Aiya’s humanity is what makes him a great person. Apart from indulging in quite a lot of philanthropic activities and donating so much for charity, Aiya treats and respects every single person as a human being. Aiya is a celebration of life. In a world where Psychiatrists and Priests (except Mr.Kamal Haasan everyone is turning to be religious these days) are ruling the roost here is a man who can rub positivity over you and make you understand love and empathy towards fellow human beings is the way to lead life. Palaniappan Aiya – We all Love you !!

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