The Kaipullai@thekaipullai
I started watching the movie "Thaai Kizhavi" on Hotstar the other day, which is set in the heart of Tamil Nadu, I encountered a very unfamiliar name for a character.
The character's name was "Pennycuick"
Now in a land where language is an emotional topic where people sever relations, friendships and even give their lives for Tamil, a Scottish first name for a Tamil guy seems a little out of place.
Some may even call it a blasphemy.
How an odd Scottish Surname, whose origins lay in the town town of Penicuick near Edinburgh, became a symbol of pride and honour, 8000 kms away on the other side of the globe in Southern Tamil Nadu, is an amazing story.
It is a story that also tells you the real meaning and purpose of life. It makes you understand that all the worldly things like power, prestige, position and money that we crave for, is just a mirage that we are chasing.
The real glory lies someplace else.
And it starts with one man. John Pennycuick (1841 - 1911)
John Pennycuick was born in Pune in the year 1841, as the fourth son of Brigadier John Pennycuick, a soldier in the British army.
However at the age of 8, a great tragedy befell him and his family.
In 1849, in the second Anglo Sikh War, his father and his elder brother Alexander, were killed in action fighting the Sikhs in the battle of Chillianwala.
When a kid sees his father and brother killed by the natives they are supposed the rule, the normal course of action is to grow up into a into a rabid Indian hating racist white man, who would have spent the rest of his life cursing India.
But John Pennycuick was a better man than that. He wanted to do something that would leave a legacy behind him.
And luckily for Tamil Nadu, he did.
If you have ever seen a physical map of India, you will see a contiguous mountain range that separates Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
These are called the Western Ghats.
Now the Western Ghats, despite all their beauty and splendor, have one small problem.
If you had been attentive in your sixth standard geography class, you would have known that Kerala receives most of its rain from what we call the South West Monsoon winds, which flow in from the Arabian sea.
Most of the lush, beautiful, God's own country poster type greenery, is because of the abundant rainfall provided by these winds.
Unfortunately, despite being in close proximity to Kerala, Tamil Nadu gets almost zero benefit from them because of these imposing ghats
The problem is acute especially in the districts of Theni, Madurai, Dindigul and Ramnad.
In Geography, we call it the Rain Shadow region.
In the mid 19th Century, the British recognized this problem.
They understood that their rapidly growing cities of Cumbum, Theni, Madurai, Ramnad etc, could not be supplied by the miniscule waters of the Vaigai River. They needed to do something drastic, to avoid a catastrophe.
Their solution was the River Periyar in today's Kerala.
They thought, if they could divert that river with a dam and a tunnel, and make those waters flow into the River Vaigai, the entire area from Theni to Ramnad could be transformed from an arid wasteland to an agricultural heaven.
They even finalized a site at the confluence of the River Mullai and Periyar. They called it, the Mullaiperiyar dam.
Unfortunately, this was not a computer game where two clicks and one prompt could build a structure that would divert the water.
This was real life.
And in the 1800s, real life was infinitely more difficult what it is today.
The first proposal for this dam came from the Maharaja of Ramnad in 1789. Realizing the cost of the dam would be greater than the total value of his kingdom, he gave up
Then the British tried their luck in 1850. But when the first teams saw the malarial swamp and the pestilential land that they had to live in, they turned around faster than Pakistanis in front of an Indian army battalion.
Between 1860 to 1882, four different proposals were sent for the construction of this dam, but each time it was rejected citing impracticality, affordability, lunacy and sometimes, all the three.
Then came a Certain John Pennycuick.
Serving as an officer in the Public Works department, in 1887 he landed in this desolate area to take charge of building the dam.
First problem he faced was the access to the site. The entire dam needed 80,000 tons of limestone and motorable roads, cranes and automobiles were at least 40 years away.
So he built a ropeway and then used bullock carts to transfer the limestone to the dam site.
Then there was the issue of diseases, especially Malaria.
He stumbled across a local arrack that ostensibly prevented it.
Pennycuick issued them to all the labourers working on the dam. They were high, happy and malaria free.
Slowly, the dam started taking shape.
But then the biggest issue was the River Periyar itself.
It realized that someone was trying to control it. So it started rebelling. It blew away all the coffer dams that were trying to restrain it.
And when this flooding happened once to often, the British guys decided that it was time to cut their losses and run. They stopped funding for the Mullaiperiyar dam.
But Pennycuick was not the one to stop at trifling issues like stopping of funds.
He sold his wife's jewelry and personally funded the rest of the dam.
And finally in 1895, the dam and the tunnel needed for diversion, was ready.
Through the 173 feet dam, 3000 ft above sea level, and a 1.5 km tunnel cut thru the mountains of western ghats, 3000 cusecs of water finally flowed into Vaigai.
The water problem of Theni, Madurai and Ramnad, was finally solved.
Today the Mullaiperiyar dam, irrigates more than 2 lakh acres of farmland. More than 50 lakh people directly depend on it, either for agriculture or drinking water.
The districts of Theni, Madurai, Dindigul, Sivaganga and Ramnad, have transformed from arid regions with frequent draughts to agricultural hotspots.
In the last 125 years it has benefitted. directly or indirectly. more than 100 million people. It has made Theni, Madurai and Ramnad the cities that they are today.
One dam, built by the vision and perseverance of one man, 131 years later, is still benefitting generation after generation
John Pennycuick could have taken the easier path in life. He could have gone back to Britain and lived a lavish comfortable life. He could have hated us Indians for killing his father and brother. He could have been a bitter man for the rest of his life.
But he didn't.
He decided to do benefit the land that he didn't even belong to. He wanted to alleviate the lives of people who were not even from his actual country. He wanted to bring succour and happiness to a lot that probably hated him.
He built the dam despite knowing he would neither be recognized for it, nor benefit from it financially.
He helped very same set of people who were responsible for the deaths of his father and brother.
What he did, transcended race, religion, caste and identity. It towers above stuff like region and language
Today Pennycuick isn't just a name in Theni district. It is a matter or pride and honour. Their bus stand is named the John Pennycuick bus stand. People, as shown in the movie, are named Pennycuick.
There have been thousands of rich men in Theni and Madurai after Pennycuick. There have been hundreds of leaders, politicians and officers who have trod on that land.
But none inspire the following and regard that Pennycuick has, 115 years after his death.
John Pennycuick proves to all of us, that you can earn money, buy cars, build houses, go to Universities abroad and float thermacol sheets on rivers, but respect and legacy, is the ultimate currency.
Because in 2026, you don't remember the MP / MLA of Madurai / Theni. You don't remember their Ivy league degrees. You don't remember their family legacy. You don't remember their mansions and money.
They are all forgotten in the sands of time.
But you have and will always remember, John Pennycuick.
P:S: Today, we talk about North India / South India, Hindi / Tamil etc. Sometimes I wonder what would Pennycuick from heaven feel about all of this.
P:P:S: Once when someone asked why Pennycuick was doing this idiotic stuff, he said ""I am going to be only once in this earthly world, hence I need to do some good deeds here. This deed should not be prorogue nor ignored since I am not going to be here again"
