Dearest RJG,
I’ve asked you many things and you have done each of them for me. I’ve spoken to you about many things and you’ve been the best listener I’ve had in my life. There’s a lot we haven’t spoken, we exchanged those amongst us through silence. I’m sure you’d remember the day I was born. When I was a toddler you’d always keep saying “Kuttan give me a kiss” and move your cheeks away till I can’t lean any further. I do that with your daughter’s today, it looks funny to you, I enjoy every moment I spend with them. History repeats !
Do you remember the first cricket bat you had? It was “SYMONDS” and do you remember how you used to stoop and lean while facing a bowler exactly like Krishnamachari Srikkanth. During my school days your commentaries about West Indian bowlers and batsmen were the one’s that kept us hooked to the early morning matches on DD. I vividly remember all the night’s you’d land up our doorstep in Coimbatore and leave by the Eratupetta bus the next evening.
While in Muvattupuzha or Avoly all the cricket matches I and Kanja have been spectators are very fresh in memory. We were barely as tall as the stumps back then and were allowed to bat. We’ve watched umpteen movies on rented video cassette players. One night we even drove an OMNI into a stream, parked the car in the middle of the stream and washed it. I’ve never seen Ammachi go wild except when you ask her permission to watch a movie and your skills in getting her consent to take us to Latha to watch a movie are incomparable.
The visit to Newman college in Thodupuzha to meet Sr. Kunjuorshi Ammayee and all the young women there who’d line up to take a look at you were copied later in Minsara Kanavu with Aravind Swami playing the lead role. Your anti-establishment stance in Nirmala College and later Rajagiri College but still being a good guy to the Teachers was a skill any student would give one hand and one leg to possess. Did you have an iota of idea of where the MSW from Rajagiri would take you when you passed out of college in the late 80’s?
After you moved to the North we did meet up in Delhi every summer holiday. After diploma Sabarish joined us once on a trip to Delhi and he used to say that he had the time of his life in your and Josthy’s company. Every person I’ve known who knows you holds you in such high regard – James, Ravi, Ganesh, Sam, Timmy, Hari, Stanley, Pradeep and the list goes on. There’s hardly anyone I’ve known who isn’t in awe of your down to earth nature and the incredibly humble air you carry around yourself.
Do you remember the first road trip you did from Madras to Coimbatore when I came down the previous night to do the driving? It’s another matter that we ended up doing many such trips all the way up to the last trip we did to Vailankanni in August 2009 last year. What about “CHINATOWN”? Do you know what we ordered the first time we went there? Soup and chicken lollipop, and that’s because you had very limited pocket money as a student those days. We even took Mia to this place once and she loved it. Kanja and I went back to this place last year before he left India but these chaps don’t seem to open anymore.
Do you remember that ill-fated night when Ammachi left this world and you drove down from Madras and I took over from Coimbatore? Do you still remember how close the tanker lorry came in front of you and Kanja before Kanja swerved to the side and avoided a head on collision? “Kanja is a super driver, if not for his reflex we’d all have been hit” is what you said when you got down from the mangled vehicle. How could you remain so cool, calm and composed?
How many times we’ve have discussed prospective business opportunities? You even served a deadline to us: April 2009, and we decided to extend that for a little time more considering the volatile nature of certain things in our personal lives. You persuaded me to get married and settle down but not once did you try to give me a sermon about it.
There’s a T-shirt with GEO written on it which I haven’t worn till now, I got that from you in June and I intend to keep it that way for a while. Our visits to Burma Bazaar, the DVDs we bought, the music system we installed, the road trips we did, all the tech doubts you asked me, the blackberry usage training I gave you, the endless talks we had about AR Rahman, the way you enjoyed Malayalam movies and some Tamil movies, your devotion towards Mother Mary, the way you adore Mia & Mishma, the way you call Josthy “Kuttu” and enjoy it when I mimic it, the way you and Kanja discussed HR practices (as someone from an alien background I used to listen with amazement at the ideas you two shared), the books you read, the course you did with IIM-A, I can go on and on about every little thing that inspires me however I can’t write everything in one big post here. Like our real lives we’ll leave most of it un-exchanged verbally and sync at the levels of our soul, what else can you call the way we connect?
I hope you get a sense of what I’m trying to convey, if you can’t then nobody one else in this world can. Here’s wishing you a happy birthday. Don’t worry about things back home, everyone is ok. Mia & Mishma are doing well in their studies, Josthy’s a star and effortlessly seems to juggle all her responsibilities efficiently. This year I’ll miss not being able to wish you in person; I’ll miss not getting a treat and not going to Church with you.Hhowever our time to catch up will come. Do keep an eye out for us and tons of prayers.
Yours lovingly,
Kuttan (HJG)
19th Jan 2010
