Coimbatore :
“Each one of us in the family has a common surname- Coimbatore,” says CB Karthikeyan a software engineer at the family reunion of more than 150 family members at Thudiyalur. He says that this must have been attached with their names as the name of the place.
Karthikeyan was participating in the family get-together of three generations of 94-year-old, T Subbalakshmi. All children, their spouses as well as their grandchildren put together a number more than 300. This is the 9{+t}{+h} time they are organising their family reunion.
T Subbalakshmi, a retired teacher from a government school near Gandhipuram had 22 children out of which 17 remain. All of them have Coimbatore as their surname. “This has been so for a long time in the family,” she says. But for her this is one of the many reasons special for her family.
“Nowadays there are hardly any joint families. I too live with one of my sons and his grandchildren at Kovaipudur. But all of them coming together for a family get-together is an achievement,” she says with pride. From one of her granddaughter who came all the way from Malaysia to the youngest child of the family, many of them have showed up for the get-together. C Priya Suresh, who is a special educator in Malaysia, says that they had organised the get-together on Christmas as it is a holiday and every family member could be a part of it.
From kabadi to ‘Murugadi’, where the blindfolded participants compete to break a pot and talks on cultural values, all where done according to Subbalakshmi’s wishes. Subbalakshmi who was a second grade science and history teacher says the present generation has many things to learn from the older generations. “Unity and cultural heritage are aspects which today’s generation does not know,” she says.
Even at this age she reads newspapers and books without using spectacles. She attributes this to the healthy food of those days and the long miles she used to walk to her farm everyday.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Coimbatore / TNN / December 26th, 2012