The day had begun on a quiet note. Lekha and her assistant had gone to town to get a few things done and a cheque that I'd filled to be handed over to the manager of the hotel, in which rooms have been booked for Ammu's engagement ceremony, turned out to be wrongly done....the date was written as 09 Dec 2012! Why and how I made that mistake was out of my comprehension. A quick dash to replace the cheque and in the process, told Vrinda, my cousin who'd called me then, that I'd call her later.
Later on, around lunchtime when I'd called her up did I realise that they're already at Guruvayur and felt a pang of regret that I should have taken that call and invited them to my house. They'd arrived by a half past 2 at night and had taken rooms in a hotel, close to the temple. Unni kochachhan(83), Santha kunjamma(81) and Sarala kunjamma(79) along with Sarala kunjamma's children - Vrinda and Veena. They're a group of eight and had come to pay their obeisance to Guruvayurappan. As Vrinda put it, it was the ongoing part of a religious journey to pass through the bad phase of her life.
They'd gone - minus Unni kochachhan - to look up Radhan chettan, who's recuperating at his home. He is on a slow road to recovery with the dressing on his foot being changed, every three days! They'd fetched up at our place, after that, by teatime. On a personal level, I'm invariably taken back to my childhood days whenever I see the two sisters - Santha kunjamma used to carry me around when I was in diapers, often to my mom's displeasure who felt that her child had to be left to himself and enjoyed from far. She relived those days, went around 'The Quarterdeck' as she was visiting us for the first time, reminisced her ill fated marriage to Pandey chettan - who'd his roots in Maharashtra - that was short lived (Precisely for ten months) leaving her with a son, Unni. She's extremely beautiful and Pandey chettan was quite possessive about her and abhorred her interaction with any guy and at Muthachan's place there was no dearth of guests. In fact, she currently stays with Unni, his wife and a daughter in the house adjacent to their ancestral house, 'Puthuvayil Veedu' - which is a national monument in the making, being the house in which the legendary, PN Panicker was born and had spent his childhood!
Sarala kunjamma, had joined us later and spent time at the Raj Nivas at Kottarakkara to help mom, during her days as the Kura Post Mistress. We children were bathed and given food while mom carried out her professional commitments. She had left for Neelamperoor short of her marriage to Unni kochachhan who was a film representative. He used to visit us quite often, at Raj Nivas, as to quote him, "It was always like coming to my home!"
I'd gone to drop them at the hotel and to meet up with Unni kochachhan. He looked healthy, has put on weight, is hard of hearing with occasional bouts of dementia but what really touched me was the manner in which he'd got up to sit bolt upright on the bed that he was lying down, on seeing me.
It's the love of these elders that makes life really worth living.
Tailpiece.
They'll be leaving by the afternoon train tomorrow, for Puthupally, after seeing Guruvayurappan on the 'Ekadasi' day.
Later on, around lunchtime when I'd called her up did I realise that they're already at Guruvayur and felt a pang of regret that I should have taken that call and invited them to my house. They'd arrived by a half past 2 at night and had taken rooms in a hotel, close to the temple. Unni kochachhan(83), Santha kunjamma(81) and Sarala kunjamma(79) along with Sarala kunjamma's children - Vrinda and Veena. They're a group of eight and had come to pay their obeisance to Guruvayurappan. As Vrinda put it, it was the ongoing part of a religious journey to pass through the bad phase of her life.
They'd gone - minus Unni kochachhan - to look up Radhan chettan, who's recuperating at his home. He is on a slow road to recovery with the dressing on his foot being changed, every three days! They'd fetched up at our place, after that, by teatime. On a personal level, I'm invariably taken back to my childhood days whenever I see the two sisters - Santha kunjamma used to carry me around when I was in diapers, often to my mom's displeasure who felt that her child had to be left to himself and enjoyed from far. She relived those days, went around 'The Quarterdeck' as she was visiting us for the first time, reminisced her ill fated marriage to Pandey chettan - who'd his roots in Maharashtra - that was short lived (Precisely for ten months) leaving her with a son, Unni. She's extremely beautiful and Pandey chettan was quite possessive about her and abhorred her interaction with any guy and at Muthachan's place there was no dearth of guests. In fact, she currently stays with Unni, his wife and a daughter in the house adjacent to their ancestral house, 'Puthuvayil Veedu' - which is a national monument in the making, being the house in which the legendary, PN Panicker was born and had spent his childhood!
Sarala kunjamma, had joined us later and spent time at the Raj Nivas at Kottarakkara to help mom, during her days as the Kura Post Mistress. We children were bathed and given food while mom carried out her professional commitments. She had left for Neelamperoor short of her marriage to Unni kochachhan who was a film representative. He used to visit us quite often, at Raj Nivas, as to quote him, "It was always like coming to my home!"
I'd gone to drop them at the hotel and to meet up with Unni kochachhan. He looked healthy, has put on weight, is hard of hearing with occasional bouts of dementia but what really touched me was the manner in which he'd got up to sit bolt upright on the bed that he was lying down, on seeing me.
It's the love of these elders that makes life really worth living.
Tailpiece.
They'll be leaving by the afternoon train tomorrow, for Puthupally, after seeing Guruvayurappan on the 'Ekadasi' day.
No comments:
Post a Comment