Saturday, March 24, 2012

Finally, Kochunni comes calling.

My cousin, Kochunni, has come calling at long last. He's the eldest son of the late Appukuttan kochachan, my dad's immediate younger brother, who'd passed away in 1985 thanks to a massive heart attack. Being the eldest of six siblings, much of the family's financial burden and the struggle for their well being came to rest on his fragile shoulders, then.

He did a myriad of jobs to tide over the difficult situation like being a newspaperboy, a salesman in a stationery shop and even carrying outmasonry work on contract. His mother, my aunt - Saudamini chittamma - died a year later after her husband, due to the dreaded cancer.

Kochunni and I'd lost contact immediately after and I must shamelessly admit that I'd not made a determined effort to get in touch with him then. And I'm not justifying my lapse, but Kochunni's reluctance to come into the limelight also did not help in the matter. And it was years later, at my dad's funeral, that Kochunni had finally surfaced! His story about his family and himself was a pathetic one leaving me to wonder as to why life is cruel to some on a continuing spree. I'd helped him financially, then, to get him past a very difficult situation.

Kochunni, his wife and son have come calling and somewhere during the conversation, the young lady said that I'm a messiah for them. I was reminded of a piece of dialogue from an old Hindi movie as a retort to similar sentiments and I quote,"kabhi, kabhi kuch logon ko devata banna padtha hai". Did I utter that? I think I did! 

Kya dialogue maara, eh?

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