Our Grandsire, Six Generations Back

Kizhekepat Krishna Menon who lived over a century ago, during the middle of the 19th century. He is still remembered with reverence and awe by the family members. Here is a glimpse of the man he was.

Once the young, yet unlettered boy, Krishnan, happened to accompany his older brother Raman Menon to see the King of Travancore. Raman Menon used to be in the payroll of the King keeping accounts for the Maharaja.

When the King saw the boy, he at once recognized a rare sparkle in the little fellow that he ordered that he be sent to school – all expenses to be met by the Kingdom!

Krishnan passed the school exams with flying colours and went on to became a man who changed the destiny of the entire family. He competed ably with British judicial officers to become, it is said, the first Indian judge in the then Madras Province.

Krishna Menon must have been a person who promoted art and artists. Once the celebrated artist, Ravi Varma, was returning from Mukambika temple in Dakshina Kannada after seeking the Goddess’s intermediation on whether he should become a professional artiste or not. On his way back to Thiruvanantapuram, the artist returned via Calicut (Kozhikode) and met Krishna Menon, who himself was a devotee of the great Goddess. Menon commissioned the artist to do a family portrait; something like a four feet by three feet oil from what it looks today. There is recorded evidence that this was Ravi Varma’s first commercial work.

Ravi Varma was, of course, an imaginative man. The portrait he painted had one embellishment that was not there in reality – an additional gold necklace over Mrs. Menon's beautiful neck. Menon wouldn’t say a word. He understood what it meant for the dreamer-artist to take that kind of liberty. But he was not be outwitted. Much later in life, Menon got a necklace for his wife – an exact relica of the one that the artiste had faked!