Had got up leisurely on Sunday morning and gone about our chores. The worry was as to whether we could make our return trip to Guruvayur today itself because of the All India bandh/Black day called by the farmers of north India.
We'd set off to the 'MyG' once again to sort out the remaining issues and to buy my sister, her cell phone. Lekha's handset was handed over for repairs as the 'mechanic was available' and within an hour, the pin at the charging aperture was replaced making the instrument operational at a mere Rs.450/-. Her new handset was brought on stream, further, by downloading the necessary 'apps' and transferring the existing data from the old instrument. Meanwhile, Padmakumar and Achu had zeroed in onto the same instrument for Rema, too, in exchange for a tab, that they had. Since the transfer of data was taking time, we'd made a quick dash to Lekha's dad's house, near Mercy College. The house has taken a thorough beating from the elements of nature and the worst thing was that the white ants were creating havoc, by being everywhere.
The new buyer will have to knock off the house and build a new one in its place. I believe there's a prospective buyer who has approached Lekha's younger sister and is still in the process of bargaining to clinch the cost! What reminded me was about our last visit to the house, years back, when Lekha's dad and Radhamani amma had hosted us. It was vibrant and a well kept house, thanks to their efforts. Lekha's dad had shifted to his ancestral home in Kottarakkara, soon after the passing away of Radhamani amma, sometime in '07. He used to make his monthly visits to Palakkad to collect his pension, stay at the house and have it cleaned up during those visits. For Lekha, it was a sentimental visit and I'd gone along despite the fact that there was nothing we'd planned to do out there!
Lunch was at the Indraprastha which was nice and it didn't take too long at the vegetarian end while we saw a long wait at the non vegetarian end. We returned to the digital hub, collected our stuff and headed for home. We did the remainder of our packing and left Rema's place, soon after, on our return journey. The 'black day' had not disrupted normal life and things went on as usual as confirmed during our earlier foray into town. Many of the roads, within the town, were dug up and therefore, we'd to take a detour to get on to our actual track.
We reached 'The Quarterdeck' by about 5 and went about the unpacking bit. The top door towards the balcony was left open by yours truly. Thankfully, the door had remained shut because of the present weather conditions but it was an unacceptable lapse and I could only blame my lack of concentration while doing things. I had repeated a similar error, soon after dinner, when I'd switched on the motor to pump water from the well into our overhead tank. It was raining around that time and I, quite, forgot about the chugging motor - it had run for an additional 38 minutes! The error was unacceptable and I kicked my shin for my faux pas. About a ring and a half of the well water was pumped out in the bargain!
It took some time for me to get out of that feeling of guilt of having done the unthinkable!
Tailpiece.
Adieu Sathi's dad.
It was while we were returning from our shopping spree that Gopu had called up to say that Sathi's dad - Bhaskaran Nair sir - had passed into the mist of time a couple of hours before. He was all of 104 years. Alzheimer's illness had caught up with him after the death of Sathi's mom, about six years back. When I think of him, I'm reminded of a very agile and diminutive figure, having an ascetic's aura and we've spoken about a lot of things, regarding life, in our conversations. I've always enjoyed my trysts with him.
RIP sir. My prayers and tears. May your family have the strength to tide over these stressful times.
We'd set off to the 'MyG' once again to sort out the remaining issues and to buy my sister, her cell phone. Lekha's handset was handed over for repairs as the 'mechanic was available' and within an hour, the pin at the charging aperture was replaced making the instrument operational at a mere Rs.450/-. Her new handset was brought on stream, further, by downloading the necessary 'apps' and transferring the existing data from the old instrument. Meanwhile, Padmakumar and Achu had zeroed in onto the same instrument for Rema, too, in exchange for a tab, that they had. Since the transfer of data was taking time, we'd made a quick dash to Lekha's dad's house, near Mercy College. The house has taken a thorough beating from the elements of nature and the worst thing was that the white ants were creating havoc, by being everywhere.
The new buyer will have to knock off the house and build a new one in its place. I believe there's a prospective buyer who has approached Lekha's younger sister and is still in the process of bargaining to clinch the cost! What reminded me was about our last visit to the house, years back, when Lekha's dad and Radhamani amma had hosted us. It was vibrant and a well kept house, thanks to their efforts. Lekha's dad had shifted to his ancestral home in Kottarakkara, soon after the passing away of Radhamani amma, sometime in '07. He used to make his monthly visits to Palakkad to collect his pension, stay at the house and have it cleaned up during those visits. For Lekha, it was a sentimental visit and I'd gone along despite the fact that there was nothing we'd planned to do out there!
Lunch was at the Indraprastha which was nice and it didn't take too long at the vegetarian end while we saw a long wait at the non vegetarian end. We returned to the digital hub, collected our stuff and headed for home. We did the remainder of our packing and left Rema's place, soon after, on our return journey. The 'black day' had not disrupted normal life and things went on as usual as confirmed during our earlier foray into town. Many of the roads, within the town, were dug up and therefore, we'd to take a detour to get on to our actual track.
We reached 'The Quarterdeck' by about 5 and went about the unpacking bit. The top door towards the balcony was left open by yours truly. Thankfully, the door had remained shut because of the present weather conditions but it was an unacceptable lapse and I could only blame my lack of concentration while doing things. I had repeated a similar error, soon after dinner, when I'd switched on the motor to pump water from the well into our overhead tank. It was raining around that time and I, quite, forgot about the chugging motor - it had run for an additional 38 minutes! The error was unacceptable and I kicked my shin for my faux pas. About a ring and a half of the well water was pumped out in the bargain!
It took some time for me to get out of that feeling of guilt of having done the unthinkable!
Tailpiece.
Adieu Sathi's dad.
It was while we were returning from our shopping spree that Gopu had called up to say that Sathi's dad - Bhaskaran Nair sir - had passed into the mist of time a couple of hours before. He was all of 104 years. Alzheimer's illness had caught up with him after the death of Sathi's mom, about six years back. When I think of him, I'm reminded of a very agile and diminutive figure, having an ascetic's aura and we've spoken about a lot of things, regarding life, in our conversations. I've always enjoyed my trysts with him.
RIP sir. My prayers and tears. May your family have the strength to tide over these stressful times.
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