MUNNAR OF THE 1960s

 

In the late sixties, money was in short supply. People did not have enough. It had been struggles all over. But people were happy. There were close inter personal, inter family relationships.

At Munnar we had visitors all the time. Family and non family. Papa and Mummy were happy to host them and entertain them. They didn't have much. Still they were happy when people visited. Fortunately we were staying in a Bungalow that had quite a number of rooms. 

Jose achayan was more than a son to Papa and Mummy. He was their nephew. They had loved him much more than us. Papa had given him driving lessons that he did not favour us with. Mummy had always prepared special food for him. For us , Jose achayan  was our elder brother whom we always  tried to emulate.

He had stayed with us to complete his schooling. Both of his parents had to move away to Valparai on a routine transfer. It left him with no place to stay to complete his studies. Our parents had no hesitation in accepting him into our household as their own eldest son. It  enabled him to continue his education without any interruption and move ahead in life. It fulfilled his two avowed ambitions, one,  to become a doctor and two, to emigrate. It led him to do well in life. It made him successful in his chosen career. It made him rich.   

We  had always hoped Jose achayan and his wife, Mini ammamma would visit us and stay with us for a few days soon after their wedding. Unfortunately it did not happen. 

The time I refer to dates back to the late sixties.

I was much pained when Jose achayan had recently  made it public that his dirty relatives had denied him and his wife a honeymoon at Munnar. No one had told them not to visit Munnar. They could have stayed with us as long as they wished. We too would have been happy.

When mud was thrown at us  in Don Quixote fashion I thought of our own visit to Munnar after our marriage. We happily had made it to Munnar as there were no dirty relatives there to prevent our visit. 

Though we had planned to stay in a Hotel, the first person we met had asked us to stay with his family and roam around Munnar as we liked. It was two days of bliss in that picture post card environment. 

Unforgettable it certainly was and it still is.