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I and we as a family have so much to pen on
J Daniel.
The association began when he married Animmamma.
Being Mummy's younger sister I had a special relationship with her.
I still remember her walking into our house at Munnar when she had visited the place. She was a student of UCCollege Aluva. The students from the College were on a tour.
She got down from the bus as the group was returning from Mattuppetty. There is a dam there. It was one of the wonders of Munnar at that time. It still is. I was thrilled to be with her. She had spent the night with us and left to join her group the next morning. Our house was below the road to Mattuppetty.
Every year Mummy used to visit Niranam and Animmamma was there to take care of me.
When she was married to JDaniel we were all there. It was at the Jerusalem Church. Niranam
I was in the primary school.
They had their first night at our Kumbalathu House that no longer is ours.
The next day JDaniel came out. He made friends with me and Leela. He was wearing a pyjama and a shirt of identical colour. It was the first time in my life I had seen such a dress. Didn't even know its name.
He quietly told us to address him 'Uncle.'
He became Uncle to us. He still is.
Though he is no more.
Babychayan, Mummy's twin brother, when he heard us addressing JDaniel as 'Uncle' showed aggressive displeasure. He had repeatedly told me to address him or to refer to him as Danichayan from my young age upto my marriage whenever we came across. Afterwards he gave up.
Uncle used to flood me with gifts whenever we were together at Niranam or when he had visited Munnar.
He was so wedded to Honavar and St.Thomas, he preferred to remain at Honavar. It was a relationship established in concrete.
It was the time teachers of Malayali origin were finding employment at Ethiopia.
Once Mummy in her ignorance and her deep desire to see her sister and her brother in law well settled in life had suggested that they both ought to make a beeline for Ethiopia.
Uncle quietly told her, he had no desire to leave Honavar, but he assured her he would never make Annie starve.
Mummy never returned to the topic
Once, I completed my MA, he took me as his own son.
Whatever I am today is solely due to the invigoration he had induced.
He had no need for that. He had his own four children. Those days the income they both generated was not enough for sustenance. Yet he took me under his wings. He ensured the blossoming of a nincompoop to an individual of substance.
Well I have much and much more to write. But I very well know that in these days of capsules, you would detest me for flooding the WhatsApp.
Today, I am happy all his children are doing well in life. I am happy they have been richly blessed by God with riches.
Uncle had firmly believed in God. His God looked after him well. God has listened to his prayers. I am happy his dear companion Annie and all his children have grown from those Honavar days to what they are today.
He cared much for his father in law and mother in law. When he came to know how they were suffering in their old age, he had sent Animmamma with a single mission. He told her to bring them over to Honavar.
And he looked after them. There is more to what he did there. But I prefer to go silent on that
Of course, as time has progressed, relationships are no longer close. Everyone is busy with their own lives. No one has the time to think of anyone else. It's the way of the world.
Riches come, vanish
They come again
They vanish again
The cycle goes on
But love stays
With us
But in the far corner of my mind everything is alive. They would remain like that as long as I am around.
I thank God for the wonderful relationship I had with Uncle.
I thank God he had sent JDaniel, my uncle to earth to fulfil God's vision and mission.
And I know he is a winner there.
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