GrandPoppz

 It all started with a fight.. last Friday evening was a day I had a  lot of things to deal with. As my trainee kid is set to go live soon, after a short discussion with my manager on the same I decided to get into a quick zoom call with my trainee around 6:45 pm. As an infra analyst, one spec of my job role is infra level architecture analysis with hands on devops and this involves a lot of screening and triage. So one thing I demand is an up-to-date and fully functional private lab. During our discussion I realized it is still pending due to failure in some services and errors in their functionality. When I figured out that zoom session would get extended as I have to help out in sorting all those it was already 6:58 pm and my son's usual live classes from Monday to Friday starts at 7 pm. I asked my trainee to take a break and ran downstairs to inform this to my mom and to ask her to take over the session and accompany my son after I join the bridge and set it all up. She agreed. My mom was cleaning shrimp for our dinner then and as discussed after setting up bridge and calling out to mom to take it over, I came back and resumed my call. It took me almost 30 or 45 minutes most to sort it all out and conclude that. After that I walked down to arguments between my mom, pappa and brother and a bewildered Agnu (my son) who is also trying hard to take part in all these. I mean he was also grumbling about something and also shouting 'pappa pappa' at times. I was thinking Agnu usually has his fun time or crafts/drawing class on Friday evening so what could this all be possibly about. To my surprise I found out that it was about the shrimp. 

Oh yes, as discussed mom took over the session after I set it up for Agnu but halted the shrimp cleaning, kept the shrimp unattended in the kitchen utility area and also left the work area door unbolted. So our cat kind of took over that activity. By the time mom returned, shrimp was almost gone (yeah, especially the cleaned ones, our cats talent) and to her bad luck Pappa came around the kitchen at the same time. So he figured out what happened and started arguing with her. This disturbed my brother and he went down to join that argument. Mom put the blame on Agnu, me and cat and also Pappa who brought uncleaned shrimp to home at that late hour. Pappa as usual is putting all of this solely on Mom and my brother who is the lone enemy of our cat (especially after Agnu's cat fight incident where our cat accidentally tried to bite off his chin) tries to put it entirely on our cat. Agnu is trying to explain this whole situation to Pappa in his own words in an effort to save mom out of it all. When that whole argument reached a place where my brother stated with determination there is only one solution to all of this and that is to throw cat out of our house in an attempt to save his beloved cat Pappa shifts all of the blame directly to the person who left door unbolted. This again happened to be my Mom. Hearing this my mom openly declares, 'Thats it! I'm not ready to take this anymore. I am leaving this house right now.' From experience I knew how that would end and that would be like my entire Saturday to be spend on home chores so I interjected in an attempt to pacify my mom. But it was way too late and she left to my grandmother's home which is just 100 meters away from my home. And as I expected, I had to take over Mom's for the whole day on Saturday. As usual by Saturday evening all of that argument was sorted and Mom returned home. But she again brought back the complaint that if she were at home all of this would have fallen on her so we had to take a combined decision to relieve her from all chores on Sunday even when she would be at home. My brother took charge of breakfast and cleaning, I took helping brother with breakfast and lunch and Pappa took helping me with lunch and dinner. 

As planned we decided to give a day off to Mom on Sunday and started our day. When it comes to cooking, my mom who handles most of the cooking is usually a safe cook and my brother also falls under the same category, my sister is a passionate cook, me in turn is a survival cook on weekdays and an experimental cook on weekends, Pappa also falls in the same category. As we both would be working together for lunch and as it is a Sunday we decided to make something special. His expertise being sea food and chicken, he opted chicken to leave me with sea food. As I live in a coastal area, sea food is something which we have here in abundance. Deciding either to make a sea food platter or a chowder, I set out early morning with my brother to a nearby sea port which is 20 - 25 kms away from our home. I was planning to get some fresh, good quality molluscs (Well cant live without them kind of situation) such as mussels, clams or scallops. We hunted down almost all vendors around in search of those but to our misfortune we could not either find decent quality product or fresh ones. At last after traveling 2 more kilometers we found a small shop vendor who had a few clams and some large good quality mussels. We bought 2 kg of clams and one kg of mussels and asked him to clean mussels for us. 

Whilst he was at it, he started talking to us. He began by asking where do we come from. To answer that I am someone who goes with my home's exact location however my brother always opts to give out my father's home location and he gave it out here as well. When he heard the place name, he asked is it on this side of the river or other side of the river to which my brother again replied this side. He again asked if our location is near bazaar or somewhere else. My brother replied, it is behind bazaar and near to the bank of the river. After hearing this, he started talking about how he used to visit that place while he was young and how he used to fish in the river along with others and also how much development of means of transport has made nearby places farther. We always get to hear wonderful glimpses of others life experiences and get insights from them when we find time to listen to them. One thing or the other thing, presumably about our exact location, let him to ask us if we ever heard of a person by the name 'Vasu'. When my brother expressed his curiosity, he again specifically gave out the name 'Enora Vasu'. After hearing this my brother looked at me and smiled a bit and replied to him saying he has heard the name. Also asked him how do you know to which he gave an expression of admiration and respect and started talking and those words I would have to write down here in my mother tongue. 

മക്കളേ ഇങ്ങളെ ആ പ്രദേശത്ത് ഇല്ലോർക്കും വന്നു പോയോർക്കു ഒന്നും ഒരിക്കലും മറക്കാൻ പറ്റാത്ത ഒരു ആളാണ് അത്. ആ ബണ്ട് ഇല്ലെ, അതാര് കെട്ടിയതാന്ന് അറിയോ, മൂപ്പരല ന്നാലും അതിനു കരാർ എടുത്തു അത് എങ്ങനെ ചെയ്യണം എന്നൊക്കെ പലേടത്തും പോയി പഠിച്ചഎടുത്തു മൂപ്പര് ഉണ്ടാക്കി എടുത്തത് ആണ് അത്. ഇക്കണ്ട മഴ ഒക്കെ വന്നിട്ടും അനങ്ങിയോ, വേറെ എടോകെ ബണ്ട് പൊട്ടി ഒലിച്ചു പോയി. അത് അനങ്ങുല, അത് അങ്ങനെയാ മൂപ്പര് ചെയ്യിപ്പിച്ചെ. ഇവിടെ മൂപ്പരെ ഒരു അമ്മോൻ കൂടുന്നുണ്ട്, അന്നൊക്കെ ഇവിടെ വന്നാൽ ഞാൻ കാണൽ ണ്ട്.

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 പിന്നെ ഒന്നും പറയണ്ട ഇവിടന്ന് അധികം ദൂരല്ലാ അത് സംഭവിച്ച എടത്തിന്നും, അത് മൂപ്പര് ആണു ന്ന് അറിഞ്ഞെനു ശേഷം തൊണ്ടെലുടെ വെള്ളം ഇനിക്ക് ഇറങ്ങള് ഇല്ലെയ്ന് കുറച്ചു ദിവസം. എന്തിനും പോന്ന ഒരു ആള് ആയ്‌നി.

 By that time he was almost done cleaning those mussels. While handing over cleaned mussels to us, my brother with a smile informed him that the person he talked about is our grandfather. He was taken aback and with a perplexed smile he started talking excitedly to us again about our grandfather. It felt as if he could not contain his joy after meeting us, and he inquired about others in our family, about my father and so many other things. He also gifted us a half kg of clam and gave his number so that we can call in advance before traveling this far to check if those products would be available or not. 

There is a way in which we still keep our dear ones alive and sound in our memories even when they are no more. When it comes to achacchan, he is someone who literally makes the term gone too soon true in all its essence. He passed away at such a young age when my Pappa was just 10 years old. So much I have heard about him from near and kin, a born hero, a self made entrepreneur, a valiant man and a born leader, a sincere lover and a loving husband and father; and also read about (again has to be done in malayalam):

ഒരു നാട്ടിൽ മുഴുവൻ വിപ്ലവ പ്രസ്ഥാനം പടുതുയർത്തിയ 3 സഹോദരന്മാരിൽ ഏറ്റവും ഇളയവൻ എന്നാൽ ചങ്കൂറ്റത്തിൽ ഏറ്റവും മൂത്തവൻ.

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It took almost a few pages for the author of a book to write about my grandfather and his brothers out of which almost all pages were about my grandfather and certain peculiar incidents. 

But getting to hear about him from a random person who lives far away from our place after 52 years of my grandfather's demise is not just something but it is everything. 

I am someone who has grown up seeing and experiencing my father's valor and courage in building up a life for himself and his family from scratch making him my epitome on literally everything. The greatest fitness enthusiast, the greatest automobile enthusiast and the avid reader who can never be occupied more than 1 week by gifting a book of any size, a man who can own up every room he walks into yet never have tried to control anyone or anything, deciding to divert to building up a family whilst on peak of power, prowess and control, every single quality has made me awe more and more, a true Arien not just by birth but also in action. Anyways since last week I realized one thing my father was just rebuilding not building, was just following the tracks not paving one and this quality is not just something which he picked up randomly rather it is something which runs in our veins. 

This is again a tribute post but if this is a place I write my heart out, my grandpoppzz deserves an entire post here...

.                       Grandpoppzz..