CHENNAI: Hemachander and his wife Mahalakshmi, who died after a fire engulfed their house in R A Puram on Wednesday, had plans to settle with their children in the US in the coming months after Mahalakshmi’s treatment for a kidney ailment.
Their son Uday Chander — who got married 20 days ago — and daughter Pavithra are engineers settled there.
“Chander called me four days back and said they had found a donor in Coimbatore for a kidney transplant for his wife. They were planning to get her operated next month before leaving for the US,” recalled a friend.
Pavithra’s in-laws had met the couple on Tuesday evening and left minutes before the fire broke out.
Hemachander was known among his friends as a fun loving person, while Mahalakshmi was seen as an ‘iron lady’, just like her father, the late Mumbai-based mafia don Varadarajan Mudaliar, handling issues and running the family with great care. Besides, she cared for the poor and the needy and helped them, much like her father did.
Eldest among the three brothers and two sisters, Mahalakshmi was the don’s favourite child. “He would not say a word against his daughter. Her wishes were always fulfilled. Even when she wished to marry Hemachander, who lived in Mylapore, her father immediately agreed,” a family friend recalled, adding that Mahalakshmi had once told him how her father would often tell her that he became prosperous only after her birth.
Police sources say Mahalakshmi’s brothers, Mohan and Jayaram, followed in their father’s footsteps and are part of the underworld in Mumbai.
According to family members, Hemachander and Mahalakshmi were made for each other. And even in death, they were together.