Pillay family calls back the past at reunion

The Pillay family recently held a reunion at which they paid tribute to patriarch Parsuraman Pillay.

May 7, 2016

Sugan Naidoo 3 minutes read

A photograph of Parsuraman Pillay in his 60's. SUBMITTED

THE Parsuraman Pillay family reunion, held in Durban recently, was an astounding family gathering.

Mr Pillay’s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren paid tribute to this great man who came from India in 1898 on the ship Umkuzil.

Eldest of the surviving children, Vedha Muthukrishna (95) related some of the stories of her father at the event. On his arrival in Natal when he was about 17 years old, he settled in with an uncle in Umkomaas. He went to work as a stable hand for Mr Tomlinson, a son-in-law of one of the Crookes brothers, in Umkomaas. He was later put into the kitchens, where he learned to cook.

“He could cook up a storm making all kinds of roast meats and vegetable meals,” said Mrs Muthukrishna. He soon met and married a cane-cutter-cum-nanny and, after being married for three years he was given a piece of land to farm. The vegetables they grew they sold in Kelso junction, near Park Rynie.

There was no looking back for him. He had the expertise to grow tobacco, which he did on a large scale

During the years, Mr Pillay accumulated enough funds and moved to Durban with his family. He went on to buy two prime properties in Grey Street, Durban. His tobacco business was doing extremely well and, after hearing about a sale of a business and a house in Albersville, he purchased the property and moved to Port Shepstone.

Around 1927, Mr Pillay met and married his second wife, who was a widow with three children. Between the two mothers there were nineteen children. On his regular trips to India, he married his third wife in India. She had two children with him.

Nithi Muthukrishna (left) from Durban and Booi Sadabridge from Port Shepstone.

Mrs Muthukrishna went on to say that her father came with only his clothes from India, and became extremely wealthy. He went on to purchase three properties in Albersville.

At one of the houses he purchased there was a huge guest house, where he entertained his business associates. Chefs were brought in from The Royal Hotel to cater for him and his business associates, who were mostly from the tobacco co-op.

He also owned a bus company which did trips from Umkomaas to Port Shepstone. When he did business with the banks he was treated with great respect.

He always dressed immaculately and drove a top-of-the-range Buick left hand drive, which he had purchased at Daddy Bros and Johnstone and paid for in cash.

In 1932 he bought another huge property in Langabelela, near Oribi. Here he built a shop with apartments upstairs. Soon afterwards he was elected a director of the tobacco co-operative in Durban and was a member of the Indian Congress. Together with other members of the Indian Congress he started the Hindu Educational Society. With donations from the community the society built Jai Hind Primary School and a temple in Langas which is now known as the Umzimkulwana Sri Siva Soobramoniar Temple.

Mr Pillay died in Chennai, India, in 1974 at the age of 95.

Parsuraman Pillay’s surviving children are (from left) Manni Pillay from Canada, Kamala Govender from Port Shepstone, Vedha Muthukrishna from Durban and Mogie Moodley of Durban. SUBMITTED

Four of Mr Pillay’s surviving children were present at the reunion. The youngest, Manni Pillay (71) flew in from Canada with his wife Vanitha to attend the reunion. His two sisters, Kamala Govender and Mogie Moodley, are in their 80s. His daughter Gori could not make the trip from Canada due to ill health.

Booi Sadabridge from Port Shepstone, who was present at the reunion, said she is so proud to be a grand-daughter of this great soul. She thanked her family for making the event a great success.

At the event tributes poured in from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and London from family members who could not attend.