Justice P Sathasivam: The just farmer of Kadappanallur

KADAPPANALLUR (ERODE): Nachiammal, 85, recalls an old incident to describe the maturity and resoluteness of her son P Sathasivam, who will take over as the Chief Justice of India on July 19. On the day of his older sister Nachayi's wedding, Sathasivam, then a school student, sustained a deep cut on his head when he hit a wooden beam, while trying to shoo away cocks and hens from the shamiana erected for the wedding.Though profusely bleeding, he quietly approached a traditional healer in the neighbourhood for treatment without allowing the marriage function to get disrupted. It was only after the ceremony that his parents came to know about the accident.
"That scar is still on his head,'' recalls Nachiammal, who shows the newspapers that carried the news of the elevation of Sathasivam as the Chief Justice of India. "In his childhood, he didn't aspire to become a lawyer. He was, of course, keen in his academics. In the morning and evening, he would work with his father in the farm,'' she recalls.
Kadappanallur, where Justice Sathasivam was born on April 27, 1949, is about 28 km from Erode, the district headquarters. The ancestral house was renovated and refurbished by the judge where his two sons, Sreenivasan and Senthil, and families live with Nachiammal. Sreenivasan, who has an engineering degree, runs a car showroom in Coimbatore while Senthil, who has a degree in catering, manages the family farm.
Sathasivam's younger brother Velusamy, who lives close by, is an organic farmer. "I studied engineering. Sathasivam advised me to take up organic farming because it gives you mental satisfaction. After retirement, he too will join me in agriculture,'' said Velusamy. Another brother Subrahmanyam, who lives a little away from the ancestral home, too is a farmer. Sisters Nachayi and Alamel are homemakers married to farmers.
"More than my son, he is a farmer from the countryside. His father died five years ago. He tilled the paddy field even after turning 60,'' says Nachiammal, who hasn't decided whether to travel to Delhi to see her son take oath as CJI.