judge madur mani iyyer

மதுரை மணி ஐயர் ஆனால்  நீங்கள் நினைக்கும் சங்கீத வித்வான் அல்ல

    Madurai Mani Aiyar was noted for his punctuality. He
never procrastinated. He would decide on any matter far in advance.
    He would get up very early and did his pujais and at
eight sharp he would come into his office room.
    When he attended any case, there would be onlookers
who came to listen to how he managed a case and argued.
    He beleived very much in dharma and dhana. Every
Sunday was a special day. He would meet all those people who would come to seek his help. He paid for the education of poor boys; he paid for food expences for those who needed help in that way. He supported many families who lost their bread-winners. Whomsoever helped him or his relatives in any way
was rewarded. He beleived so much in gratitude.
    He was very kind -hearted.
   
    Mani Aiyar was appointed as a judge in the High Court
of Madras. In the High Court, there was an old man who
worked as a pankah operator.
    What is a pankah and who is a pankah operator?
    In those days they did not have electric fans. Every
office and rich men's houses had what was known as 'Pankah'.
This was a very large fan which was hung from the ceiling.
There was a pivot. At the top were rings. Ropes were tied to these rings. A pankah operator would sit/stand near the wall.
He would have the end of the rope in his hands and pull and release alternatively. The fan occilates to and fro.
    I could draw a diagram of a pankah and illustrate
how it operates. But my scanner is not in order.
    This particular pankah operator was very poor.
So poor that he wore dirty clothes to work. He had a very big family. One day, a judge recommended to the registrar that
the pankah operator should be terminated because he was
too old to work. Mani Aiyar objected very strongly to this and said, "If he is considered old and cannot work, then I being
older than him, am still more unfit for working. If a man who draws only 7 rupees cannot work due to age, then I who is
older and who draws thousands of rupees am still far more useless than him".
    He stopped the retirement and then obtained the services of the old man to pull pankah for himself.
    In those days, the conveyance for people of means
was the coach or the charat which was drawn by two horses.
He had an old Muslim charat driver when he was in Madurai.
When he came to Madras, he brought him together with
himself without abandoning him.
    He became the chief justice of the Madras High
Court in due course. But retired prematurely thus disregarding
the bigger pension that he would have obtained.
    After a meritorious life he passed away in 1924.
    The people Madras commemorated him with a hall
bearing his name.
    But the Madurians....?