Infant days..
I am two years old ‘he’ is not exist, I am four years old ‘his’
name is fetus, I am five years old ‘he’ born in the deep south India in state
of Tamil Nadu a place called Oduvankuruchi. Yes that is where ‘his’
downtown where ‘he’ born and brought up. I am six years old ‘he’ is just
turning one and ‘his’ naming ceremony was happened in Oduvankuruchi house.
I still remember those days ‘he’ is sooo chubby and pink in color. He
was originally named lengthy “Jaya Sundara Moorthi Chettiar” for
remembrance of ‘his’ grandfather; and for birth registration ‘his’ parents
registered ‘him’ as Sundar. Most of my cousins, kith and kin's call
him as short as Sundu!.. He born with a silver spoon; he grew up for few
years in ‘his’ own downtown, in next few years his dad’s business picked up
very well so he named a new shop in ‘his’ name ‘Sundar Store’. After that
occasion ‘his’ mother also started involving in the business due to the
pressing requirement of their business; so he was brought up in Namagiripet for
few years. ‘His’ elder cousin named Kavitha akka she took care
of him. When I ask about Sundu; she will say I can keep talking about
his childhood days, he was so naughty in his whole childhood days and I still
can’t forget any of them.
Childhood days..
Sundar inhabited with bunch of elder and younger cousins.
He is now little grown up, for every annual leave occasion, we all gather in
our grandmother’s house and stay there for at least couple of weeks those are
unforgettable days. When sun rises in the morning all kids wake up and brush
their teeth and wait in a queue for a single toilet or few of us do sacrifice J and
move their bowl in to the plants.. My uncle was running sago pappad factory;
for drying the pappad’s they had a very big ground called ‘kalam’ where
all of us use to play after dusk, almost every one of us drove kids tri cycle
there. Mostly the annual leave falls in the peak summer time so which is the
apt season for Mango’s. Since my grandmother’s house is near Salem our uncle
use to buy a buckets of mango’s for the kids and whole family.. since there
were bunch of kids mostly we will have a lunch/dinner to-gether Kavitha akka/Hema pinni will
prepare food in a same bowl and all kids/parents sit round-around them and she
serve the small food balls in each of our hands. We kids use to have some
snacks/side dish in our hands and bite it once before every time we get a food
balls in our hand.. I am not lying, but the food tastes delicious during that
time. After our lunch all kids grab a mango in our hands and move to kalam and
start eating the mangoes. We store the mango seeds in the edges of the sheds/
top of the stone pillars for drying the seeds. We fought for the place to dry
the mangoes and yell at each other’s saying; hey this is mine and that is yours..
Also we use to put some identification marks to claim that it is mine.. Very
next day we all run to their seeds take them in to the Sago pappad factory
and grill them in the coal flame once they are grilled well, take them out and
wait for the heat to reduce. After some time we break the top shells and
separate the seed inside and have them together.. The seed looks half cooked
and tastes mild sweet & sour. Right after consuming them we run to drink
water and the water tastes sour sweet which is an unique taste you can never
experience in anything else. Our sweet kutty brother Sundu is also with us all
this time..
Grownups..
Now Sundu is 10 years old, well he is not so good at studies
however his sister does, almost most of the families two decades back this is
the case or a curse I don’t know why? Always girls study and score well but not
the boys however boys were so creative enough to write anything in the exam
paper which is not just a photo copy of what the book says. However girls does
that. Excuse girls/ladies.. Just for fun. May be this is the reason why boys
does not score well. So, Sundu is not an exception and the same happened to him
as well. Most of the families live in deep remote villages do this usually. The
kids stay at hostel and do their schooling. Sunder and his sister did the same.
I remember once upon a time, after completing the holidays Sundu has to go back
to the hostel, my uncle and myself were planning to drop Sundu in to the
hostel; but was so adamant and he is not willing to go back to the hostel and
he jumped away from the two wheeler and crying a lot, then we somehow managed
to make him sit in between his father and myself and went to his hostel cum
schools in Rasipuram and dropped him.
Adolescence days..
Sundu is now 18 years old, somehow he managed to complete his 10th grade
and 12th grade without any problem and with a reasonable score.
He spoke to me and his parents and came to Singaaraaa Chennai for his higher
studies, he joined Sathyabama university and decided to do BCA course just like
me. During that time I was working in a Chennai based IT company, and his
sister also working in Chennai, so we use to meet once in a while during this
first year. Starting second year or so he decided to come out and stay with me.
I was living with my friends in a rented house and Sundu was staying with us.
Myself, Sundu and my friends had good time, 5 days back to back work and
college and weekends having lot of fun and folic.. Days were moving Sundu
completed his final year with some reasonable score.
Maturity days..
Sundu is no longer a kid, he is so matured nowadays and he
discussed with me and his sister and parents then he himself decided to do
post-graduation studies in DG Vaishnava college in Chennai, Well by this time
few bunch of our cousins also in Chennai either working in IT company or doing
their graduation. Wow, this is a an awesome period where we all were matured
enough and often we meet during weekends and had lot of fun, movie outings, few
bunch of lunch and dinner outings, beach & mall visits and so on and so
forth.. My fingers are not enough to count :-). That would give you an
impression of how much fun we had. I would say this must be best part of
Sundu’s life with few bunch of Kith and Kin’s. By then Sundu become so
professional and improving his skills in all possible ways to get placed on
campus. After continued trails of interviews finally he went through in a
renewed IT company and worked there for couple of years. He stood beside and
helped many of our family members who traveled to abroad including myself. He
was so cool guy and helpful to his friends in many ways.
Mysterious days..
Now Sundu is almost 25 years old.. All in a sudden one day I
heard that he met an accident and admitted in the hospital. He experienced all
sorts of pain at the back for 20+ days and I am pretty sure he went to Heaven
as he experienced the hell when he was in the hospital itself. There were few
bunch of his friends came forward to donate blood when he was ill, Looks like
he was even helping one of his friends middle class family to continue their
education and stuff like that. We came to know all this in later stage, which
he did not tell anybody. See how great his thinking was? Shortly Sundu’s sorrow
cannot be explained in words and we don’t know how to convince his family
without him? :-(
I would love to dedicate this to my brother Sundu.. He is
definitely living in all our hearts and he lives in all our hearts forever…
~ Karthik Rajasekaran
