Give my Ammu back to me: Sachu

Jayalalithaa trusted me when it came to her personal work and used to tell me ‘ Sachu ma un galaala idha panna mudium dhaane? ’ (Sachu can you do this for me?).” She is an evergreen star. She was bold and capable in politics as well as acting on screen. I remember, in Ven nira Aadai , her debut film in Tamil, she was given a difficult but a prominent role. However, she took it up as a challenge and performed her part beautifully with her sheer talent and passion for cinema. I wanted her to meet her for one last time at the hospital which never happened. Our get-togethers were always special. 

“She has a photographic memory and used to recall every incident of yesteryears. Though my association with her was just on and off, it was an inseparable one. We were like siblings and she used to share many of her unfulfilled desires with me. Jaya always missed her mother, Sandhya, who was always busy with her movie schedules and was engaged in various activities such as dance, music and tuition apart from school. They hardly met as her mother would be late after shooting schedules and she would be back early from school. Jaya was brought up by her aunt Vidyavathi. The picture of young Jaya (with short hair and fringes) was always kept in one of the receiving rooms. 

Once I asked her why she looked a little angry in the photo, she replied, ‘I loved my long thick hair but since my aunt told me that it was difficult to maintain it, I was forced to cut it and it was then that this picture was taken.’ Thikku Theriyada Kaatil was our last movie together. We spent a fortnight at Bandipur forest. It was an unforgettable experience. But then we had to rush back to Chennai as Jaya’s mother Sandhya fell sick and had to undergo an emergency surgery. Jaya was adamant and wanted to be with her mother in the operation theatre. 

She was given permission to do so, but her mother collapsed in the theatre after the surgery and she was taken back dead to their residence at Sivagnanam Street, T. Nagar. I was over whelmed when she made me the member-secretary, Iyal Isai Nataka Manram. I was unsure of whether I will be able to justice to the honour. But her reaction was quick. ‘If you can’t then who can?’, she asked. To me she is not a Chief Minister unparalled but a close associate irreplaceable. Please give my Ammu back to me.