ANTONY. K. VADUKUT – MY PAPA!

In first of my memories, I still clearly remember, as a boy of 3 or 4, My Papa getting salutes from the blue-trousers-clad police of Bombay, in the early seventies, when we went for walking in the evenings....! They also gave salute to me as a generous gesture, as they were very fond of My Papa. Who was not fond of him...Everyone was fond of him...Because, he always had a very big heart. He never listened to his brain...He always listened to his heart...And, people found a great man in him, always. In those days, I was first in my studies & other activities like 100 metre dash etc. When I was in KG, I still remember the race I had in my school, to where My Papa had accompanied me. I started off to a flying start & went ahead & separate from the others running in no time...They were all well behind me...Then, that thing happened..I saw some good shaped pebbles on the middle of the running track; I stopped, bent myself & collected all the pebbles on the ground to finish last in the race....! I was happy that I could collect the pebbles...I didn’t give significance to the race over the pebbles... My Papa didn’t tell anything to me but he seemed to be enjoying the situation very well as he must have found the same heart of his beating inside me, putting the brain in a far distant second place...! He laughed & told the story of me & the pebbles for a lot of days wherever he went!

For him his heart was always the most & only important thing in his life. He did whatever his heart told him. He was educated, cultured, well behaved & above all the proud owner of a really BIG HEART! He worked with the Bombay C.I.D first & then joined Standard Batteries. He never hesitated to have a fight with anyone for the things he believed are right. I have heard that he even had bitter fights with the then labour union leader turned Indian Political Stalwart of later years George Fernandez & came out with his beliefs clearly established! He never feared anything & was adamant in his beliefs!

In the evenings, after his work in Standard Batteries, he returned home & went outside, with me following him like a loyal servant. He usually went to some of the liquor shops & had enough of the Burning Oil he wished to have; I was given boiled eggs, ground nuts & Coco Cola, as it was available in India at that time of our existence, as it was much before Morarji Desai banned Coco Cola & other international companies in 1978-79! One day, in one of our strolling in the evening, I grabbed the tail of a dog which was given something to eat at the liquor shop, and pulled with all my might. It responded by putting both of its paws on my face, just missing my eyes! The next day morning, around 3.30am, My Papa took me to some place, travelling on foot & then train, & there I was given a good & tasty ball of something with a bottle of soda that the paws of the dog stamped on my face had no effect! He never accused me or the dog for the incident as he was sure we both were right from our stand points-from the Angle of Heart, as I, as a child, had every right to pull the dog’s tail & the dog had every right to put its paws on my face! We both loved dogs....I always finding some street puppies & taking them home to the anger of My Mom! They were never allowed to enter inside home; hence, I kept them inside the small garden on the other side of my house & fetched something for them, most of the times, with the help of My Papa! We both were declared dog lovers, me & My Papa!

I remember, me watching My Papa going for work in those Bombay Mornings; I remember, I with my tiny friends waiting for My Papa to come home from work near the Victoria Terminus; I remember My Papa going to the famous shrine of Mahim a couple of times a month. I still remember a lot of things of those bygone days with clarity, where he is present, as if all those days were yesterdays! From Bombay he went abroad to Sharja & joined Techon International & we were sent packing to Kerala. He worked in right earnest & gradually found himself in the top most position of the company. He, sitting in his great position, took a lot of people, first his younger brother, then his elder brother’s children & then a lot of locals & those people who had problems in their lives to Gulf & provided them with good job & good salaries. He became PERSIA-KKARAN (THE MAN FROM PERSIA, THOUGH HE WORKED IN UAE!) ANTONY for a generation!

Whenever he came back home from Sharja it was festival in & around our locality. People poured in to meet him & tell their problems....financial problems....personal problems...& what not? He was there to console them & help them out of the problematic situations which they stated they were in! He gave them money without any conditions...And, he gave them a lot.....! He helped them out in all the ways he could. He thought all people were genuine & honest to him and they had innumerable problems, which should be mitigated forever....! He never used his brain to analyse their stories of grief & problem. As he was for all his existence, HE ONLY LISTENED TO HIS HEART-A REALLY BIG ONE! He never calculated though he had a small calculator near to him most of the time! His relatives, his relatives’ relatives, his friends, his friends’ friends, his neighbours, his neighbours’ neighbours, his subordinates, his colleagues and this man & that man and everyman who came to him had his magnanimity felt in their lives! He never asked them anything in return...he gave...he gave ....he gave away without counting & that too in rich abundance! And, he listened ONLY TO HIS HEART, never to his brain, despite having a quite good one!

While at home, resting after a year’s work at Sharja, in the morning he usually started his stroll, after having breakfast @ home, with his 10-15 loyal friends or else we should call them drunkard friends! He paid all the bills they incur in the bars they visited, from morning to late night! He also showered them with enough money that they could live the next 12 months with ease till his arrival from Sharja next time, when they could restart all these things again! It was festival when he was home! When cars were a rarity we had 3 or 4 cars belonging to us. When colour T.Vs, Telephones & Gas Stoves were rarities, we had all these things in our house; we were one of the very few persons around with gas stoves in our house, when gas connections were almost unheard of. I remember people from 1 or 2 kilometres from our house coming to watch T.V & even sleeping in our house, after watching some really special programmes aired in those days! I remember those days when I had to walk one or more kilometres to deliver/pass the message which somebody asked us to deliver to some unknown person/s as the very privileged persons who had telephone @ home! And, the telephone number was ‘413’, just 3 digits & we had to book a ‘Trunk Call’ & wait for an unspecified time to make a call even to Bombay or Sharja!

My Papa had a good collection of Malayalam & Hindi songs (cassettes) which made me like songs & singing! He, I think, had a good voice too, which I heard usually when he went to take bath in the mornings! He sent me stamps of different countries that I own a decent collection. He brought new chess board with magnets attached below the chess coins & presented me with a Yonex bat to play shuttle badminton, the first ever in my locality, way back in 1984! He must have influenced me a lot & molded my character, now I reckon; but I never knew it consciously! We had dogs at home, remembering those good old Bombay days, when 24/7 I followed My Papa, like his shadow, in the evenings. Then, one day he arrived, all of a sudden, from Sharja with just a suitcase full of documents & a small bag of used dress after resigning from his job, as it always had been, LISTENING TO HIS HEART! He was around 45 at that time & that was his declaration of retirement! He must have wanted to live with the family & live on what he had earned till that day. But, what he didn’t calculate was, given his nature, it was to be a Himalayan task to move on as he had been living till that moment! But, he was never to listen to anything other than his heart!

PART 2 FOLLOWS.........