Published on April 22, 2013
One of the most important influences in my formative years was Appachan. The person I am today has been to a large extent been shaped by him. I was fortunate to spend a lot of my growing-up years in the company of my maternal grandparents and, since I was their first grandchild, they showered me with care and guidance.
Appachan was an ideal mentor to me (and to many others) in more ways than one. As a teacher, he had the patience to guide me in the right path. He had a great thirst for knowledge and I imbibed that quality right from the day I learnt to make my own decisions. His intellectual curiosity was also astounding. He wanted to know about everything and anything in the world around him. But, among the many gifts that he gave me, the one I treasure most is the love for the English language and his sheer passion for reading.
In fact, the only real material possessions that he was enthusiastic about accumulating were books and reading matter. I can still remember his joy every time when we used to go and pick up from the post office the latest books he had ordered from Reader’s Digest! These volumes cost a lot in those days, especially for middle-class earners, but he used to buy them without a second thought. There was also a small bookseller at Vazhudacad junction whom Appachan supported financially and otherwise for a few years.
Appachan was keen on a wide range of subjects – movies, sports, popular music, current affairs and so on. And I find now that I have developed virtually the same interests that he had. He was the one who bought me, for the first time, an issue of Sportstar, the popular sports magazine – this was probably in 1981 or 1982 (I can still remember the cover of that particular issue). A life-long love for sports was born in me at that moment.
Similarly with music – he used to enjoy listening to popular hits on the radio and on records and cassettes, whether it was Hindi, Malayalam or English (Mohammed Rafi was a particular favourite of his, as was Jim Reeves, ABBA, Nazia Hassan and many other artists).
Appachan loved movies of every kind too, though it was hardly as easy to see them then as it is now. His taste for movies ranged from entertainers like Sholay and Bruce Lee flicks to serious biopics like Gandhi. Wonder what he would have made of YouTube, smartphones, iPad and such technological marvels of the modern day … my guess is that he would have been fascinated by every one of them.
Appachan was a wonderful story-teller – many were the tales from fiction and history that he would relate. All his great heroes from history – Pandit Nehru, Gandhiji, Admiral Nelson, Abraham Lincoln, Shakespeare, PG Wodehouse, HG Wells, Jim Corbett (note the wide range of characters!) – became mine too, to some extent.
One aspect of Appachan’s character I remember with fondness, other than his gentle and kind nature, was his great sense of humour. There were scores of anecdotes from his long life that he would chuckle over. These were never malicious – I cannot remember a single instance where he was mean-spirited or cruel towards others. Even in his last years, when he became an invalid confined to the house, his love for life remained strong.
His sense of time was another striking part of his character, especially in the final years. Every day was run like clockwork. He would check the time on his watch and then immediately look at the clock in the living room to make sure his watch was not wrong! And, he would only sit down for his meals at the exact time – not a minute before, and not a minute later.
As Lizamma Aunty has already written, Appachan’s empathy for the unfortunate and suffering was heartfelt. He simply could not understand why some people had to suffer the way they did. That was a part of his faith he could never reconcile himself to – how could God allow such disparities in the world He had created? A question for which Appachen could never find the answers to, till his dying day.
I saw Appachan last in late-1995. I had contracted chicken pox during the holidays and my parents were keen that I should not pass it on to Appachan, especially in his weakened state at that time. So I bade him a quick goodbye and left for Calicut. A few months later, Amma informed me at my Delhi hostel that my beloved grandfather was no more. There was no way in those days to get back in time for his funeral, sadly – and so I had to bid him farewell in my mind. But the memories of his remarkable personality shine on for all of those who knew him. It’s sad that Shameen could never meet Appachan, even though they both lived in the same city for years. She would have loved and admired him as much as all of us did.
This article was written on the occasion of my grandfather's 100th birth anniversary on April 19, 2013
One of the most important influences in my formative years was Appachan. The person I am today has been to a large extent been shaped by him. I was fortunate to spend a lot of my growing-up years in the company of my maternal grandparents and, since I was their first grandchild, they showered me with care and guidance.
Appachan was an ideal mentor to me (and to many others) in more ways than one. As a teacher, he had the patience to guide me in the right path. He had a great thirst for knowledge and I imbibed that quality right from the day I learnt to make my own decisions. His intellectual curiosity was also astounding. He wanted to know about everything and anything in the world around him. But, among the many gifts that he gave me, the one I treasure most is the love for the English language and his sheer passion for reading.
In fact, the only real material possessions that he was enthusiastic about accumulating were books and reading matter. I can still remember his joy every time when we used to go and pick up from the post office the latest books he had ordered from Reader’s Digest! These volumes cost a lot in those days, especially for middle-class earners, but he used to buy them without a second thought. There was also a small bookseller at Vazhudacad junction whom Appachan supported financially and otherwise for a few years.
Appachan was keen on a wide range of subjects – movies, sports, popular music, current affairs and so on. And I find now that I have developed virtually the same interests that he had. He was the one who bought me, for the first time, an issue of Sportstar, the popular sports magazine – this was probably in 1981 or 1982 (I can still remember the cover of that particular issue). A life-long love for sports was born in me at that moment.
Similarly with music – he used to enjoy listening to popular hits on the radio and on records and cassettes, whether it was Hindi, Malayalam or English (Mohammed Rafi was a particular favourite of his, as was Jim Reeves, ABBA, Nazia Hassan and many other artists).
Appachan loved movies of every kind too, though it was hardly as easy to see them then as it is now. His taste for movies ranged from entertainers like Sholay and Bruce Lee flicks to serious biopics like Gandhi. Wonder what he would have made of YouTube, smartphones, iPad and such technological marvels of the modern day … my guess is that he would have been fascinated by every one of them.
Appachan was a wonderful story-teller – many were the tales from fiction and history that he would relate. All his great heroes from history – Pandit Nehru, Gandhiji, Admiral Nelson, Abraham Lincoln, Shakespeare, PG Wodehouse, HG Wells, Jim Corbett (note the wide range of characters!) – became mine too, to some extent.
One aspect of Appachan’s character I remember with fondness, other than his gentle and kind nature, was his great sense of humour. There were scores of anecdotes from his long life that he would chuckle over. These were never malicious – I cannot remember a single instance where he was mean-spirited or cruel towards others. Even in his last years, when he became an invalid confined to the house, his love for life remained strong.
His sense of time was another striking part of his character, especially in the final years. Every day was run like clockwork. He would check the time on his watch and then immediately look at the clock in the living room to make sure his watch was not wrong! And, he would only sit down for his meals at the exact time – not a minute before, and not a minute later.
As Lizamma Aunty has already written, Appachan’s empathy for the unfortunate and suffering was heartfelt. He simply could not understand why some people had to suffer the way they did. That was a part of his faith he could never reconcile himself to – how could God allow such disparities in the world He had created? A question for which Appachen could never find the answers to, till his dying day.
I saw Appachan last in late-1995. I had contracted chicken pox during the holidays and my parents were keen that I should not pass it on to Appachan, especially in his weakened state at that time. So I bade him a quick goodbye and left for Calicut. A few months later, Amma informed me at my Delhi hostel that my beloved grandfather was no more. There was no way in those days to get back in time for his funeral, sadly – and so I had to bid him farewell in my mind. But the memories of his remarkable personality shine on for all of those who knew him. It’s sad that Shameen could never meet Appachan, even though they both lived in the same city for years. She would have loved and admired him as much as all of us did.
This article was written on the occasion of my grandfather's 100th birth anniversary on April 19, 2013