Climbing trees, plucking mangoes, going to each other’s house in their native village Konetampettai. These are some of the memories that remain afresh in the mind of P. Subramani alias Chittamutti, the childhood friend of S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, fondly called as Mani in his village.
“We went around the village together. Mani’s mother Shakuntala, known as Chinnama, used to call me Chittamutti, and the entire village knows me by that name now. He was loved by everyone in the hamlet. He bore my daughter’s medical expenses,” recalls Mr. Subramani, who still lives at Konetampettai.
A pall of gloom descended upon Konetampettai, the native village of SPB’s mother. “He was from a Brahmin family and we are from the ST community. But his family was very close to us. We met him when he came to our village a few years ago,” says Jayamma, Mr. Subramani’s daughter-in-law.
The…