Friday, July 28, 2017

Adieu Maachamma chechi, Suresh.

Two farewells of our dear ones within a span of 48 hours!

 (a) Maachamma chechi.

       Maheswari Amma, the wife of the veteran RSP leader late Srikantan Nair, passed into the
       mist of time yesterday. All of 89 yrs, her end took place at Ambalappuzha and she'd been
       ailing with minor, old age related diseases for a while. She used to be fondly called 'Maachamma'
       by everyone who knew her and were close to her.

       Two years back, on our way to my dad's place, we'd dropped in at her place and the fantastic
       chemistry between my mom and her was on display for all of us. The frequent hugs, the tumbling
       out of numerous anecdotes and the genuine concern for each other were natural and spontaneous.
       About eight years senior to mom, she used to look after her while going to school and as mom
       said, then, she always felt comfortable while being with her. Their houses were a stone's throw
       away from each other at Ambalappuzha and the families were close to each other. I remember
       mom inviting her to Guruvayur while we took leave of her that time. She'd said that she'd make it
       but sadly, it never materialised.

       RIP Maachamma chechi. My tears and prayers for a simple, beautiful and nice person who took
       care of my mom during her formative years!

  (b) Suresh.

        Suresh is married to Reshmi, my cousin who's the second daughter of Indirakutty, my third
        aunt - mom's third sister. I've already told you that he's a chief engineer in the merchant marine
        and has been a successful one at that. He never flaunted his wealth, was extremely humble and
        liked to do everything to the best of his ability. He was fond of his son, Kripashankar, for whom
        he used to get anything and everything that he wanted when he returned from a sortie. He made
        it a point to tell him the right things and avoided the rod, despite the fact that Kripu's pranks
        as a kid did get out of hand, at times. But I've never seen him get angry with him or for that
        matter, anyone.

        He enjoyed his food and would insist on a generous spread. It was a treat to see him tackle the
        spread. And another thing that he was extremely fond of was watching movies. My first movie
        with him was a Mammootty starrer, 'Bus Conductor' that we saw at a late night show in
        Thiruvananthapuram and he insisted on taking all of us along and did not allow me to reach for
        my wallet.

        His regret in life was that he wasn't able to carry out the last rites of his mom and dad because
        his ships weren't able to spare him! The fact was that he was very attached to his mother.

        His house at Paalkulangara was constructed, with a lot of his ideas put in after discussions with
        the architect. Kripu's room, that he was supposed to use as a kid, beats the best that I've seen of
        that genre, the fact that the kid liked to sleep along with his parents was another matter
        altogether!

        A vigorous strain of cancer had taken charge of him despite the best efforts my friend, Subbu
        and he was under constant pain for so many months. A high dosage of pain killers was
        unable to keep the pain away. He used to complain that his wife wasn't available to look after
        him all the time - the listing of her requirement to go to work, collect his medicines and looking
        after their son's schooling and running of the house was something that he wasn't willing to hear.
        When I saw him on the 9th, he stared at me with his left eye as the right was closed because of
        the hideous swelling of the face but did not utter a word.

        He must have given up on all of us because we couldn't do anything to bring down the acute
        pain that he was going through.

        RIP Suresh. My tears and prayers. May Reshmi and Kripashankar have the strength to tide over
        these stressful times.......What beats me is as to why god was harsh on a nice guy like him and
        had made him go through so much of pain! Seems very, very unfair.


Tailpiece.

The 4th of September marks one year of my mom passing into the mist of time. Maachamma chechi and Suresh have joined her.....they're the ones that she was especially fond of. Is there a cosmic design in all these happenings?


       

        

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