On 7th of April 1989, among the various joyous things happening on planet "Earth", in a certain town called Salem in Tamil Nadu, India, a family had one more reason to feel happy about. This time the reason was the birth of a baby boy. While the birth of a girl could have been a reason for big celebrations, a boy was nevertheless joyous. Among the people there was a beautiful lady in her 50's who felt herself quite soon being called a grand-mom for the 5th time in her life through her own blood line. She decided to call this boy "Prasanth" after Prasanthi Nilayam where Sai baba was reciding.
It has been more than 21 years since this happened and I think it is time that I pen down some words for the person who left such a big impression in my heart for being the person that she was and who meant the most to me at all points of my life till now and who continues to inspire me for the most.
A brief history into her life would shift focus to a place called Karimba on the way to Mannarkkad, about an hours drive from Palakkad, Kerala. Born to Cheetampady Unnirarichan Thiumulpad and Kunjukutty Kovilamma, She along with her 11 siblings were for the most raised in Palakkad town because of the proximity that the town had to centres of education- Victoria College, NSS Engg. College among others. This house (Tharavadu) was called Sree Sadanam. Most of the 12 children would later complete at least a Bachelor's with the name of the house being mimicked by others as Saraswathi Sadanam, meaning a place where goddess Saraswathi ( Knowledge) was residing. After completing her Bachelor's in History, she was waiting to get married which took sometime owing to Chovva Dosham (as per astrology). It was quite unusual for North Keralitie's to get married to South Keralitie's in those days (statistically even now) except for certain unusual situations. One such being the above mentioned case. This being said, her elder brother would wait for her to find a suitable groom through an exchange marriage which was the norm in those days. Hence, two families would get united through such a union and it did happen. However, the other family to be mentioned were originally people from the North, a branch of the larger sub-caste to which all of us belong. This was relief for many. Nevertheless, Saraswathi Kovilamma would then become Saraswathi Pandalai (after her husband Krishnan Marthanda Varman Pandalai). They would then spend a good part of their life in Salem and beget 4 children, one being my mother.
Ammuma would replace Saraswathi Pandalai from now.
Ammuma remained a housewife not just because she didn't have any objection's from being so but more importantly because my grand dad didn't want to earn the disrespect of running the family from his wife's take-home. She was an epitome of patience, faith and righteousness. I still remember how she would tell me that there exists a book that god would keep filling in both our good deed's and bad deed's and on the day of the judgement, the one that would outnumber the other would form the course of further action. This prevented me from indulging in such activities those days but I along with my brother were always mischievous. Ammuma never liked anyone talking ill of others, she would say that the walls that surround us have angels who know what we speak and our actions. I very much doubt if the word "hate" even existed in her dictionary. She would never get angry for any reason whatsoever. I remember throwing down her specs and shattering it into several cracks and mentioning that I made stars out of her specs. She would respond with grief rather than shouting at me. Above all, she hated hitting her grandchildren - me and my brother alike. This had prevented us from being spanked for a wide variety of reasons, many of which we deserved the same though. As most grandmother's do, Ammuma would recite to us stories of the epics and many of these stories would end with a moral that she wanted us to imbibe. She knew Sanskrit well and her faith in god was unchallenged so much so that bhajan's in houses including ours in Salem were a part of my early life. Me and my brother, would be even more interested in eating the Prasadam while the others prayed. We were often quietened in these occasions by asking to play the Kanjira or the Manjeera. While we would stop other activities and indulge in playing them but to everybody's horror without any rhythm whatsoever. The name "Vanaras" came about as a result of these activities.
My grandmom left us and became one with god when I passed 9th standard and joined tenth. I could not realize her loss much owing to the fact that once we left for Abudhabi, from fourth standard to ninth we were in a different world altogether. However, my formative years were nurtured by many people who formed my idol's and they live through me for all my life. My Ammuma would be among the first people in the list.
