G J Paul Durai, elder brother of Paul Nesam
He would start from the estate walking, cross a river in a boat run by Munnar Panchayath union, board a bus for Top station and from there he would rush down walking or running for three hours to Kurangani to catch the bus for Bodinayakanur. After staying day or two, he would return in the same route. Twice or thrice, he walked right from the estate to the town. He would carry a bag containing vegetables and groceries. The bag used to be very heavy. He was the fastidious bread winner of the family.
Born as the eldest son of a teacher’s family, along with a stepsister, three sisters and a brother, G.J. Paul durai, my father, studied upto 8th std. To get a job, he went to Munnar where he became a butcher’s assistant. Unsatisfied with the conditions, he ran away to Bombay and joined the Royal Indian Navy. There he participated in the Naval Mutiny which was against British government in 1946. Soon after the discharge, he returned to Munnar. There he wrote his life story, describing the Naval Mutiny elaborately.However, thinking the British would never leave India, he joined as an office assistant in British tea Plantation Company. He retired in 1981.
My father was a hard and sincere worker, though the due promotion eluded him due to a mistake he committed. While working in the tea estate, he built a house in Bodinayakanur. Once or twice in a fortnight, he used to visit his house in Bodinayakanur where his wife and two sons lived. The photo of Subhas Chandra Bose adorned the wall of our house.
Testimony on G J Paul Durai, by his son
Paul Durai, his wife Rosekani with two sons, Alexander and Noble
When he was working in the company, he had a pen friend in America. She used to send us current Life and Time magazines. He was notorious for his stinginess. So he earned a lot of contempt and absolutely no friends. Moreover, he used to boast he was equal to a cabinet minister of the Government of India. He narrated exaggeratingly his imaginary adventures in Indian Navy and the mutiny thereon and thus bored all the people who came across. So the people gave this eccentric old man a wide berth. (Photo: Paul Durai with wife Rosekani and sons Alexander and Noble)He never took to drinks, though he purchased some in the Military canteen. He disposed them profitably to the willing buyers there itself. He was a teetotaller not because of any moral mind set but because the drinks did not suit him.
He used to ride a bicycle until he was 85.
In the late eighties, the branch library of our town invited donations. I just mentioned this casually to him, expecting nothing from him. Immediately he made a cheque for Rs. 1000, went to the library himself and presented it to the librarian in my name. He was the first donator. Even now, my name is on the board in the local library. என்னை அவையத்து முந்தியிருக்கச் செய்தார்.
(Penned by Noble Chelladurai, the younger son of G.J. Pauldurai)