#6 - A Match Made in Heaven!

In continuation of my previous post, SVS was sort of forced to return home due to the uncertainties that surrounded his stage career. A call from his family further lured him home. Seeing how a fixed salary was nearly impossible in theatre, SVS once again decided to hunt for a job that would pay him a decent salary every month.

And that's how he first joined a soap company as a sales man before moving to a coffee plant for work through the recommendation of his brother's father-in-law, who worked as the head accountant in Stanes Company. This opportunity gave SVS some insights into running a business. Whether it did help him run his own troupe later, I'm not entirely sure. But it did bring in a monthly salary that SVS wanted at that point in time in his life.

Soon, SVS also managed to get the coveted license, and he subsequently joined his uncle's company (Gowder and Co) as a driver. Ah, the long standing wish of obtaining a license and becoming a driver finally saw light. Simultaneously, SVS also attended several political meetings associated with the Congress party.

When I read about this, I smiled. Although this young man craved a stable job and did manage to obtain it, did he remain content? No! He wanted to push his boundaries to explore more, do better. His passion and keen eye towards art persisted. His patriotism led him to know more about the agenda and the workings of the Congress party which was soaring in the pre-independence era.

With a job in hand, just as SVS thought his life was settling, life threw a curveball at him. His eldest sister, watching SVS go over several jobs, wanted him to settle down in life. Right on cue, their mother's only sibling, mama, visited Singanallur from Kerala to seek a suitable groom for his eldest daughter Jayalakshmi.

Overjoyed at the divine intervention, SVS' sister broached the subject of his marriage with SVS, who clearly wasn't prepared with the idea of settling down with a partner. But his sister didn't relent. She insisted that he had time to settle down since the bride would live with him as man and wife only after a year. She went ahead and gave her word to her uncle, and was determined to get her brother married to her mama's eldest daughter. 

SVS was in a dilemma. On one hand, he did not have a stable job that he enjoyed or where he'd been employed for long. On the other hand, he couldn't act against his eldest sister who was more of a mother figure to him. Finally, SVS grudgingly agreed to let his sister go ahead with her plans. 

The wedding happened in May 1932 in Mangalam—a coastal village in Tirur, Kerala. As per his own recollection, SVS has mentioned that the marriage happened with a lot of grandeur for five whole days. And while coming back after the wedding, the groom and his family were stuck in incessant, heavy rains— a fact which he conveys through the words 'Inbamaana kashtangal' in his autobiography :).

Six months later, as was the custom those days, Jayalakshmi formally came to her husband's place after hitting puberty in October 1932. SVS began his life with his wife in his eldest brother's house in Kovai. 

What began as an unknown journey for the thirteen-year-old Jayalakshmi, later turned out to be her entire world. How the young, barely Tamil-speaking Jayalakshmi later became Jayamma for all us, the queen of the SVS household, is a whole story by itself. One that I will write about in my next post in detail.

Although a lot has been written and spoken about about my grandfather's drama career and his career in movies, very little has been known about my paati— one of the main pillars behind SVS' success. If not for her patience and the ability to loyally run the household, he would not have had the peace nor the space to work without distractions. In turn, my grandfather, too, was loyal to his wife until his last breath.

I knew then that it was vital for me to gather as much as I could, about my grandmother, before presenting those facts in the best way that I could. That's when I started on the journey to speak to my father and my aunts to know more about my grandmother as a mother, as a wife, and as a sister (in-law) starting from the initial days of her marriage. Which resulted in a small, unplanned break in my posts.

But let me assure you, this delay was well deserved, for I utilized this time to pause and interview my immediate and extended family to know more about who my grandparents were when it came to family. What resulted was the emergence of a lot of wonderful memories that I will share with all of you.

Seen here is an image of my grandparents taken during my parents' wedding: