Page 7 - MM

APJ had three best friends during his childhood. Their names are RamanadhaSastry, Aravindan
and Sivaprakasan. All of them belonged to very strict Hindu Brahmin families and were ardent
followers of their religion.

As children, none of us ever felt any difference amongst ourselves because of our religious
differences and upbringing. In fact, RamanadhaSastry was the son of PakshiLakshmanaSastry,
the high priest of the Rameswaram temple. Later, he took over the priesthood of the
Rameswaram temple from his father; Aravindan went into the business of arranging transport
for visiting pilgrims; and Sivaprakasan became a catering contractor for the Southern Railways.

As APJ was from a Muslim family, he says that during his childhood, all the children were so
close to each other, that they never felt they belonged to different religions. Religion was not a
barrier in their friendship. There is a very famous temple in Rameswaram- the Rameswaram
temple. APJ’s best friend RamanadhaSastry was the son of PakshiLakshmanaSastry, the priest of
this temple. When these three friends grew up, RamanadhaSastry took the priesthood of the
Rameswaram temple, Arvindan started a business of transporting the pilgrims to and from the
Rameswaram temple and Sivaprakasan became a catering contractor for the southern railway-
he was in-charge of the catering for the railways.

During the annual Shri Seetha Rama Kalyanam ceremony, our family used to arrange boats with
a special platform for carrying idols of the Lord from the temple to the marriage site, situated in
the middle of the pond called Rama Tirtha which was near our house.

Rama Kalyanam ceremony is known as Kalyanotsava. It means marriage festival. In South India,
marriage is known as Kalyanam. So, Lord Ram and Seetha’s marriage is called Seetha Rama
Kalyanam ceremony. It is the ceremony of the depiction of the marriage between Seetha and
Rama.