Genga - A remembrance

Gengadharan Nair

Genga died 16 days ago on April 21 2007.

What we saw just now, today’s prayers, is in fact a farewell ceremony to prepare his soul for the next journey. The rice, the vegetables, the mat, the pillow and the umbrella are all for his use in that journey. I am sure the food would please Genga who always enjoyed a good meal. But I am not sure he would want to maintain the vegetarian regime for long.

There are also gifts for his parents and his grandparents, which would also please him because he was first and foremost a family man who enjoyed the comfort of family. We have heard from his nieces in the last few days how much he was a part of them. His uncles, aunts and cousins also meant a lot to him after the death of his own parents. In turn, he acquired a role that made him the centre of their world. Gengettan as he was called, was the benchmark that set their own standards – for Komalam, for Ravi, Balram, Padmini and others. He was the Ammaman of the Tharawad, the Paterfamilia whose nod of approval meant everything. Typical of his ways, he also extended that dominion to Devi’s family and to the nieces on Devi’s side of his family. Like all Tharawad Karnors, Genga was never overt in his expressions of pride, but we, his friends know how he delighted in the success of Sashi, his nieces and his other relations.

Today’s ceremony is supposed to bring to a close the period of mourning. The house has been cleansed, the funereal remains disposed, an altar is made and a small light has been lit for Genga, which will be kept burning. The rest are memories.
I knew of Genga before he bacame a friend. In the 60s, he, John Gurusamy and others were at the forefront of union activism, fighting to reform the employment conditions of teachers. Their names were in the papers and we all knew of them as unionists. We came together as a friends in a small group who were struggling to study the Bar exams from this country. But it was in London that we really became friends.

Last year, when Balram organised a family reception to mark Genga being made a Datuk, I spoke to our rather large family about Genga. I was particularly keen that the younger members of the family learned more about Genga’s true achievements. Many of them were not aware of his work as a unionist, when he was still young or of his practice as a lawyer or how much he was admired as a judge. I thought that it was important that my daughter and the other young people recognised him for the principled way in which he lived and worked. There are very few examples left of people like him. We live in such times.

As a lawyer, we used to think of him as someone making his name as a trade union lawyer. But the truth of it is that he was a unionist who became a lawyer to represent the cause of unions and employees. From the beginning, as soon as he returned from England, Genga started his chambers in an industrial relations practice in the law firm of Xavier & Vadiveloo. The late DP Xavier was a leading practitioner in IR and he had a major influence in Genga’s development in the early years of his practice. Genga never forgot that debt and maintained his own links with Xavier’s family long after Xavier’s death.

Most lawyers are led into the profession because of the ideals of the Law - few professions encompass the breadth of the lawyer’s scope and power, or of his ability to do good - but only a few remain close to the ideals. Most get sucked into the glamour and the money, which also the profession offers in abundance. Genga was part of the few. His firm, which he set up with John Gurusamy, advocated the cause of unions and employees. Although it would have been professionally correct for him to have taken on cases from both sides – from unions as well as employers and employer associations, as a principle Genga only argued on behalf of unions and employees. This was not always an easy decision. There were many times when the firm faced difficulties and resorting to a larger clientele would have helped with the bills. Employers paid better fees. But even when the going was difficult, Genga refused to budge on the principle he believed in. There was one case where he acted for the unions and won. His fees was RM 15,000. The employers paid their lawyer RM 700,000 - for loosing the case. That is the kind of difference I am talking about.

I wish I could say that the unions and employees deserved his loyalty. They did not. They took it for granted. Fees were paid late and often not fully. Had they seen the importance of developing a jurisprudence to protect the worker they would have appreciated Genga’s role. They did not. The union movement, with the exception of a few was otherwise preoccupied.

Many lawyers in the industrial domain had great expectations from Genga in the Appellate Division of the High Court where appeals from the Industrial courts are heard. That will not now happen and we will be the poorer for it, - unions, employees, employers and lawyers. He should have been elevated much earlier to the bench.

Genga had other loyalties besides the union movement and the rights of workers. He was a member of the Rotary Club of Damansara and would have been its president in 2003, had he not been appointed a judge.

Privately, he helped many people. Many of us here would have our own stories to tell of his generosity. He had a powerful sense of friendship. He remembered his friends and made the time to visit the few who could not visit him. Everyone looked to his company. He was, as David once remarked, a great comfort to be with. After his appointment to the bench in Johore, we all looked forward to his weekly visits.

Although not one for telling a joke, he was the perfect person to tell one. His whole body would shake as he chuckled. But this only encouraged those with a larger collection of stories to constantly target Genga, very often telling the same story more than once!

His friendship was deep and he deeply affected his friends. When the illness that finally took him was diagnosed, the effect on his friends was devastating.

We cannot talk of Genga’s relationships without mentioning Devi, Genga’s wife. She was always a great source of strength. It was her love, dedication and support that saw Genga’s recovery from his heart ailment of more than 20 years ago and kept him going. Men probably do not do enough to recognise the support and comfort of our wives, but I know that Genga did of Devi.

If memories are all that are left after someone’s death, then we must keep alive the memories of Genga for the dignified way in which he led his life, for his total and utter commitment to a good but difficult cause and for his love of his family and friends. Memories do not stem from a single source. Each of us has our different memories. Devi’s as a wife, Sashi’s as a son, of the nieces theirs, memories of his sister and brother in law and sisters in law, of cousins’, and of the many friends. For each of us different interactions and incidents would be the source of our memories. I have only told a few that I have of a great friend.

David, Siva, Maha and Peri met him everyday for more than 30 years before Genga left for Johore as a judge. What rich memories they would have. John, Radha, Alex, Unni and all the others, too many to name, would have their own memories. These memories will keep Genga alive in our hearts till our hearts also stop beating.

Petaling Jaya
16th Day Prayers
6 May 2007