Adieu Murali chetta!

In the 1960s and the '70s, I was staying with my maternal grandparents (The PN Panickers) at Kalpar, on the Easwara Vilasom Road in Thiruvananthapuram. Murali chettan used to visit our home quite often and he was, then, a student of the Sainik School, Kazhakoottam.

Brigadier N Krishna Kumar (Roll no. 168) had set off on his favourite two wheeler and gone across to the Palayam Market, this morning. He collapsed while interacting with his tailor, who showed a great presence of mind by taking him to the nearby hospital, which had registered that he was brought in dead.

His son, working in Helsinki, will arrive on the 5th and the cremation will take place that afternoon.

I would like to recap the great times that we had over the years and without much ado, would like to dwell upon those moments.

His house was situated a few blocks away from our's - the address was TC 16/389, Plavila Puthan Bungalow, Easwara Vilasom Road, Thiruvananthapuram - 695014. He has three sisters and a brother, all elder to him. He was friendly with my Maman, to begin with, but over a period of time we had become friends. I used to call him Murali chettan and he used to call me 'Monay'.

When I'd joined Sainik School in class VII, on 28 Jan 1967, he was in class X and in 1968, he'd joined the 36th course NDA. We used to continue to meet during our breaks - he, from the NDA and I, from the school. His conversations used to be peppered with a lot of military slangs, acquired from the Academy. Punctuation of almost every second sentence with the word 'balls' was something that I heard from him, for the first time.

He was deeply religious and used to visit temples during the mornings and in the evenings, whenever he found time. In fact, Mrs Sindhu Krishna Kumar, when asked as to where they'd gone for their honeymoon, had smilingly quipped that they visited most of the temples!

In the early 2000s, while I stayed at Arjan Vihar, in New Delhi he used to be putting up at the Cariappa Vihar in the neighbourhood. We used to come across each other, almost daily, when we were on our evening walks. On retirement, he had settled down at his own house, opposite the flagstaff house at Pangode, Tvpm where his body will be brought in, for the last time, before noon on 05 Sep.

We had promised to meet up with each other whenever I visited Thiruvananthapuram but it remains a promise, even to this day. Feel sad that I didn't keep my word. The last I spoke with him was when his daughter had passed away.

A fine gentleman and a lovable person. He had seen action during the Indo-Pak war '71, when he had trained the Mukti Bahini.

Om Shanti! Sadgati. My salute, tears and prayers to a fantastic guy. May your near and dear ones have the strength to tide over these difficult times.

Tailpiece.

Got up around a quarter past 6, the chores and was ready by 10. 

It was a rather quiet Saturday. Listened to old songs, both Hindi and Malayalam.

Suresh Laxman informs me about the passing away of Brig N Krishna Kumar, VSM.

Participated in the 584th edition of Aazhchakkoottam : "Artificial Intelligence in service to the common man" by Shri VK Bhadran, Director, Alibi Global, Technopark from 1600 - 1730 hrs. An interesting lecture.

Lekha had gone across to the ration stand to collect the 'onam kit' on offer.