This morning came one of those bad telephone calls that one dreads to take. My eldest brother-in-law, Murukesan(junior to me, he’s 50) is currently battling for his life at the Sri Chithira Thirunal Institute, Thiruvananthapuram and he’s on a ventilator.
Lekha, my wife, has two sisters and a brother, of whom, the only one elder to her, is a sister named Latha and Murukesan is her husband. His parents had, quite a while back, migrated into Kerala from Tamilnadu in search of livelihood and begun a flourishing business in malluland. Murukesan has two brothers elder to him and a brother and a sister younger to him and his mother, currently stays with him as he was not keeping well for almost the whole of the last couple of months.
Incidentally, his family has a reputation for being the best in the gold business at Rajapalayam, which is a busy town on the Kollam-Madurai-Chennai route.
I’d first met him soon after my marriage in 1991, after hearing that he and Latha had been ostracized by my wife’s family for having got married much against their wishes. Their's was a love marriage. And that has been his biggest problem, till date – him not having been accepted by his wife’s family.
Normally at family gatherings, he’s given a cold shoulder and when he used to sentimentally express his hurt, I used to ask him as to why he wanted to attend such parties – he was craving for acceptance as I understood later, much to my dismay. Sensing this, in the last two get togethers, on my insistence, we’d made a combined entrance and sure enough, Lekha’s folks went through the motion of shaking hands with him and made small talk to him so as to ensure that Lekha and I weren’t offended.
Latha and Murukesan have two sons, the first named Sakthi who has just taken up a job in Saudi Arabia, six months back and the second named Anand who’s doing his graduation. The Murukesan, that I know, is actually a soft guy within his tough exterior that he tries to project.
As I punch in these thoughts of mine, his family is on its way to their temple at Thiruchendoor to do a ‘mrityunjaya homam’ on his behalf, in the wee hours of tomorrow morning and here’s wishing that their efforts are not in vain!
Lekha, my wife, has two sisters and a brother, of whom, the only one elder to her, is a sister named Latha and Murukesan is her husband. His parents had, quite a while back, migrated into Kerala from Tamilnadu in search of livelihood and begun a flourishing business in malluland. Murukesan has two brothers elder to him and a brother and a sister younger to him and his mother, currently stays with him as he was not keeping well for almost the whole of the last couple of months.
Incidentally, his family has a reputation for being the best in the gold business at Rajapalayam, which is a busy town on the Kollam-Madurai-Chennai route.
I’d first met him soon after my marriage in 1991, after hearing that he and Latha had been ostracized by my wife’s family for having got married much against their wishes. Their's was a love marriage. And that has been his biggest problem, till date – him not having been accepted by his wife’s family.
Normally at family gatherings, he’s given a cold shoulder and when he used to sentimentally express his hurt, I used to ask him as to why he wanted to attend such parties – he was craving for acceptance as I understood later, much to my dismay. Sensing this, in the last two get togethers, on my insistence, we’d made a combined entrance and sure enough, Lekha’s folks went through the motion of shaking hands with him and made small talk to him so as to ensure that Lekha and I weren’t offended.
Latha and Murukesan have two sons, the first named Sakthi who has just taken up a job in Saudi Arabia, six months back and the second named Anand who’s doing his graduation. The Murukesan, that I know, is actually a soft guy within his tough exterior that he tries to project.
As I punch in these thoughts of mine, his family is on its way to their temple at Thiruchendoor to do a ‘mrityunjaya homam’ on his behalf, in the wee hours of tomorrow morning and here’s wishing that their efforts are not in vain!
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