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| Kattumadam House |
Her first child, Ratna Kumari was born in 1931 in Batu Caves. Later she travelled back to Vaikom where her second child, Vimala Devi was born in 1934. They returned to Malaya and moved to Puchong Castlefield Estate. She lost her third child in pregnancy and in 1939 she had, R. Gopa Kumar, her only son.
Later the family moved to Kajang and in 1942, Indra Devi was born in Kuala Lumpur, at the Thong Shin hospital. Subsequently, she lost two more babies in pregnancies due to lack of medical facilities.
After the war, in 1947/8 the whole family left for India partly due to her poor health after the miscarriages. She left three of her children behind in Vaikom and returned with her youngest child back to Malaya in 1949 and lived in Sungai Besi town. The family moved to the Sungai Besi East Gate Division estate house in 1950 and the following year she had her youngest child, Rema Devi.
Ratnama got married in 1952 to Ravi. In 1976, Rema married Unnikrishnan and 2 years later, Gobi married Dr. Indira Dewi in 1978.
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| Sungai Besi Estate - with Indra |
She lived in the Sungai Besi estate house until 1967 when her husband retired, then moved to No. 153 Happy Gardens, Jalan Kuchai Lama, where she currently lives with Indra who takes care of her.
She lost her husband in 1980, her son-in-law, Ravi in 1983 and her second daughter, Vimala in 1990.
She spends all her time with family members who celebrate special occasions with her – birthdays, Vishu, Onam, Divali & Mothers’ Day. Her hobby is to recall her past and narrate it to family and friends who visit her.
Her regular outings are for her check-ups with Dr. Asoka Menon which she looks forward to every six weeks.
Lakshmi Kutty has been the pillar of strength in the household. Her grandchildren, Ragini & Renu spent their early childhood with her. While in Sungai Besi estate where she lived from 1950 to 1967, she provided boarding for relatives and friends who came to the city for either education, hospitalisation or deliveries. Some came to live with us when they were between jobs. She has vivid memories of them.
In 1974, Ratnama and all her five children shifted to Kuala Lumpur from Simpang Reggam and stayed with her in Happy Gardens for some time. She cooked and served 5 children, 5 grandchildren, her husband, and a relative, daily for almost a year.
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| 1967 |
She had three younger brothers, Raghavan, Chandran & Parameswaran and five first cousins: Appukuttan, Bhaskaran (Mani), N.R. Panicker, Gopalakrishnan (Vikraman) and Sarada (Ommana). Except for the last two, all others are deceased.
