None of us, present in the crematorium was blood-relation of KKK .We believe, the last rituals are to release the departed soul from all bonds. We were admiring Daamu’s concentration .Menon must be fortunate to find out a son like him!
After completing the funeral rites we have just come back home, There were two persons with broomstick and mop to remove the curtains and calendars and to clean the premises One of them leaned at the large photo highlighting the living room, Daamu said, “No, leave it there.”
I was impressed, ‘He had not seen any one of them; the son, daughter, their spouses and children of Menon ! He asked Daamu once to dump it somewhere! But he might have seen Kamala Aunt gazing at the photo, tears running down her cheeks.She concealed her sorrow, nurturing her orchids and anthuria and feeding her kitten and died in grief, she had four grandchildren, she could not see at all!
She was alive, three years ago, as I entered, a stranger to ‘Garden Spot’. Feeling delicate, I was hesitating at the massive gate. Person of my stature, pondering scope for insurance policy! I could not disappoint my daughter. I had heard stories.KKK Menon, ICS, Under Secretary (Rtd) disliked by many and Identified as NOM among youngsters in the colony. Few knew, it meant ‘Nagging Old Mongoose!’.
‘He shouts at people. Boys of neighbourhood never stood chatting near his gate; he may bark at them:
“Don’t have any work; wasting time, senseless chaps! If found alone ,kills advising .During festival season, cleverly catch boys, jumping over the wall for flowers and seat them in front of the growling Alsatian. He held boys pelting at the mango tree and breaking his window panes till their parents came to apologise. He sued the Temple Committee for using loud speakers and disturbing students and the sick. He complained against the neglect of the Corporation to procure assurances .Why, seeing a stranger smoking, he shouts:
“Stupid fellow; signing for an early summons!”
Fast with a typewriter and sharp with his wits he used to point out mistakes found in the leading news papers. How could people tolerate a person of that temperament?
As I appraised through the gate I decided to impress upon him. A crore-worth compound and Villa. An Impressive garden. Not-very-old BMW in porch. A huge Alsatian in the Kennel, two or three Pomeranians and a few Kitten running here and there. Clear indications of affluence. Wife too, retired civil Service Personnel. Son, CEO in reputed I.T. Company in U.S., daughter, established doctor in Germany. As i entered, i frowned, a locked up look! Over grown grass on footpath, dry leaves, covering the court yard , pigeon droppings all over the steps ,poking branches of bougainvillea , and, a rat snake slithering across, ignoring me, everything added to my apprehension, nobody is living there. But the front door was half open. I pressed the calling bell. Waited; no one came. Pressed again, no response. I climbed the steps to peep in, There was an aged man, huddled in easy chair, with a bandaged foot and cervical collar. Despite his lean body, exhausted look and tired voice, the man in white dress white hair and beard and thick framed glass, had an air of a respectable person.
“Krishnan Kutty Menon?”,I asked.
He looked at me with the corner of his eye.
”No, I am Krishnanunni.”
As I apologised and turned, I heard his request in feeble voice: “Anyway you came, why don’t you sit with me, just five minutes?”
That opened up a genuine friendship. He tilted his head towards me and smiled:
“I slipped in the bathroom. This fracture and a nasty back pain confined me to chair….I am least interested in gossip or boasting or flattery, not many people drop in here.”
He looked in to my eyes:
“Do you smoke?”
I shook my head. He said
“I cannot get along with smokers and drunkards; stupid people!”
“Is not there anybody else, at home?”
To my query, he pointed inward:
“My better half Kamala is inside. She had been exceptionally active up to last year. Now, she has to be full time in bed; suffering from osteoporosis. She has few bones in her body which did not break!” As I got up to greet her she was struggling to smile at me!
I tried to hide my feelings:
‘Here is a lady, well educated, highly placed, plenty of money but sad; she can’t even move without another person’s help!’
I heard KKK calling me:
“There is our son, Daamu, he had just gone to the market. He helps both of us and pulling on. He is shouldering all the household requirements. If he were here, we could have had a cup of strong tea! Come when you are free.”
As I was stepping out, KKK reminded:
“Sunday evenings we sit together- Colonel, Magistrate, SP ,Banker ,Doctor, all, retired. Do come, let us have a Professor too in our TOW club. Seeing me frown, he smiled:
“We hate gossip. We discuss the week’s news headlines.”
Stepping out, I saw a middle- aged fellow with six-seven tender coconuts, coming in He cleared:
“Not Daamu, I am Apputty. Yonder, is my house?”
He was apologetic:
”Premises turned shabby; ever after both of them were laid up. I should have cleared it.”
Apputty lowered his voice:
“These are good for the sick; plenty here; but he doesn’t allow plucking..I thought, I shall pluck from my house. How could he deny then?”
I mused,
‘Here is a man like the tender Coconut itself!’
During my subsequent visits to’ Garden spot’ he became close to me. Illiterate he was, living on petty jobs like clearing compounds, digging pits, painting work, plucking coconuts etc. Ever since KKK bought the villa and started living there Apputty was taken as a helping hand He told Aunt to wait for him if she plans any heavy work in her garden. His first duty, every day was to go round, checking for maintenance problems. Menon had tried to pay for services, Apputty scowled:
”You made me feel, you are my people and, this is my house! Can I pay for the concern you have on me?”
He often liked to talk to me about Uncle and Aunt. What I heard often made me thoughtful. Menon
was indeed, quick tempered, but both the husband and wife competed to guess when somebody has come empty stomach. I had noticed ,KKK is angry when somebody is wrong. He was a man of principles. In fact, only he knew the pains taken by the ailing lady to raise such a garden. How could he ignore the mischief of the boys?
Next Sunday; a pleasing youth opened the door. I heard Menon calling him as if he were his kid. Apputty had told me Daamu was not even related to him. received me at Garden Spot. I guessed, that was Daamu He was not even distantly related to them; One thing I noticed, KKK did not like asking about his wards.
He had a brilliant son and an equally smart daughter. Both completed studies in Delhi with ranks. .
Athul preferred M Tech, secured US scholarship, and an early placement. He had to accept the husband ship of Sarah, daughter of an Indian Professor. Athul completed his course, staying with them in their house. Of course the blessings of parents were sought, a week before the marriage. Athul used to come home alone in alternate years to enjoy the food and patting of his mother. Later the frequency of visits reduced to once in four or five years. He had promised to bring his wife and children for them to see. Under professional emergencies, it remained a promise. When he received the message over the demise of mother, he was messed up in some crises. He could only send a condolence message to his father
.Daughter Amulya had a passion to be a successful doctor. She preferred to stay in Delhi hostel and complete her M.D. etc. A Telugu boy, her classmate was eager to marry her. His millionaire father made all arrangements including feast, venue, accommodation and even flight reservation to and fro Hyderabad for the bride’s group!
A couple a years after marriage, they went to Australia took citizenship, there. Later they migrated to Germany, built a house and settled with two children. She expressed her deep desire to come to Mom and Dad with children. However, she cared to send a photo of both the families when Athul visited her during her housewarming in Germany.
As KKK focussed over his typewriter Mrs. Menon concentrated on embroidery work. When she acted as the appraiser of his write ups, he acted as the best appreciator of her patterns on cloth. Those days , he was found every evening going to the temple banking on walking stick and her holding his arm. If they are late,the youngsters, basking on the steps of the temple pond used to wonder,
‘what happened to our Delhi couple today?’
During one evening stroll, a boy was there, lying exhausted on the platform outside the temple. Hardly eighteen didn’t look like a beggar or one of those street boys. Even youngsters peeped curiously and went away. The Old woman couldn’t go like that. She poked her husband:
”Look at his face, must be from a decent family. How did he reach there and collapse”.
She managed to help him sit up and made him consume the porridge, she got back after offering the deity. He had it, looked at her and wept.
‘Left home, started before dawn, Walked aimlessly twenty-twenty five kilometres, empty stomach, having only tap water from roadside.’
Someone peeped in and cautioned:
“Menon sir, must be careful with strangers .We cannot make out cheats. These days, one has to think twice even before offering help.”
Menon didn’t like that kind of advice. They returned home with the boy. He thought of sending him away after providing food.
Daamu told them, his father was laid up paralytic. When he could not bear any further torture from stepmother, decided to leave. On the bridge for a moment thought of jumping overseeing people, changed mind .
After having food, he stood folding his hands. He pleaded:
‘he does not want any money: for a shelter and a handful of food he shall happily do any work’.
’From that day he became their support and them, his guardians!
Menon was as blunt in dealings as he was sharp in habits; whether it is Daamu or his own better half. 0ne evening, stepping in to ‘garden Spot’, I found Daamu in a desperate situation. He was under punishment. He was allowed lunch only after peeling off a thousand coconuts and piling in the store room .He had not been careful with Uncle’s favreluba watch. It was wife’s gift during his sixtieth birthday, it fell down and the glass broke when Daamu was dusting the table. Menon had a craze for preserving monuments, irrespective of their money value. When I saw the boy was half way only. I thought he will have to starve whole day. I saw KKK watching him in work. Daamu was all in sweat and tears with his palms red, swollen and bruised, but was not ready to rest for a minute!
At that stage Menon rushed to the boy, stopped him, helped him wash, served food and started feeding him with his own hand .He too was starving all the time He said with tears:
“Sorry, my boy, I am not sir, not uncle, I am your grandpa.”
Daamu said to himself,
’not Grand pa, my God father!’
Once, Uncle told;
”He is a gem, given by God to support us in old-age. If I ask him to jump in to the well, next moment he would have been found there!’
seeing his deftness in mending things, Menon managed to admit him in 1TI. The day he placed the diploma certificate in his guardian’s laps he was placed as an apprentice in the nearby, workshop! When KKK was laid up in bed for long time ,Daamu stopped his job.
When Aunt call Athul and Amulya in sleep and sit up, tears rolling down her cheek, Daamu might be pressing her aching legs. Menon often said,
‘my Kamala’s blessings will always be there as a talisman, protecting him.’
Like myself, the colonel, Magistrate, and the team loved sitting with KKK, at least once in a week.With the black coffee and the cookies prepared by Mrs. Menon, we laugh over his witty dialogue and jokes. Often he asked her to join, reminding that
‘Not an apple a day, but laughing loud every day, keeps the doctor away.’
He cared to talk to wife softly. He remembered that she is now like,
‘The hornet, destined to remain thirsty, all life and growing weak, day by day. Aunt lost all her agility after a nasty fall. Within a span of six months, she collapsed. One morning the Home nurse came running to report, she is not breathing. Athul was very sad but he could only weep over phone. As he fumbled to explain why he cannot be present for the formalities , his father asked to stop the bluff and dropped the phone. When Amulya’s call came, he helped her discontinue.
He once told;
”she was just twenty when she joined me; if stayed, we would have observed, next month, our wedding jubilee and her Sapthati together!”
It took several weeks before KKK recovered from her demise .Daamu had been after him, day and night. We found him more and more confined to his easy chair. One evening Daamu called us frantically. We admitted him in hospital. After heart surgery and a week’s rest, we resumed our light talk and plain jokes over black coffee.
I was in Madras when Daamu called again. I told him, I shall be back in three days. As I hurried to Garden Spot the fourth day every thing was over. I saw the body in the ice box, felt a heaviness in my heart:
“couldn’t be helpful, in his last days.…………………………
“His son and daughter; haven’t they been intimated?”
Colonel’s voice woke me up. Suddenly I reckoned, I was lost in thoughts, standing beside the box, with KKK’s body inside .Daamu had been sitting behind the box, head and hands folded on to his knees. He got up, picked something from the table and extended towards colonel. It was KKK’s diary:
“I have been trying from yester night, got sister around eight today morning. She said, she too will try to inform her brother”
“When shall we expect her here?”
To colonel’s query he shook his head denying.
“She said, her husband is admitted in hospital for bye-pass surgery, and, not to wait for her!”
Daamu looked at me, sadly:
“While he was in hospital I asked him, shall I inform his son. He said;
“No, they might think I am calling for financial assistance for my treatment. They don’t know, I am least bothered about their one or two lakhs!”
‘Although, he spoke angrily he was in sorrow; I knew.’
Looking at Daamu’s wet eyes, I too felt a heaviness in my throat.
Around noon, the SP thought, it is time for him to assume his actual role of the brother-in-law:
“How can we retain the body indefinitely? We didn’t even get a message from Athul…….let us make arrangements for the funeral by four, in the evening. Let his cousin’s son perform the rites.”
At this, Daamu stepped forward, he was emphatic:
“I shall complete the rites for my grandfather.”
No one ever thought he could Speak so firmly. He continued like a soliloquy:
“He often said, his last rites, will be done by his son, Daamu only.”
I looked at S.P, He looked at Colonel,who looked at Magistrate and him at Apputty. He glanced across the crowd. Accordingly, the body was taken to the crematorium. Everything over in a couple of hours. We returned, and were having black coffee and biscuit after starving whole day. There was a request; it was from Apputty; probably he thought, never again we may sit together; the set of people with different age and taste! The invisible link connecting us has gone!
“Just for one day, why don’t we manage here, tonight? It will be nice if we give company to Daamu. I shall arrange for preparing gravy and vegetable curry in an hour”
His eyes searched through us, he went to the kitchen.
We sat long time talking about KKK.and spent the night. Early morning, we were woken up by the sound of a taxi at the gate. SP, recognized the youngster walking in with the bag and suitcase. He shouted as if to everyone:
“Athul has come!”
He stepped down from the veranda and proceeded towards his nephew. He wanted to console him. He asked:
“How come this late, dear!”
Ignoring his greetings as well as the friendly gaze of all, waiting at the edge of the verandas he went inside. After two-three minutes he came back to the front door and stared at each one, speculatively. He hissed:
“Who told you to take the body; I am his son. How could you decide to proceed before I reached?”
Those who were nearby, heard what he spat as ‘bastards’.
Everyone looked surprised and annoyed.
Suddenly, Colonel got up and proceeded to Athul with a finger pointed at him. His voice thundered through:
“Shut your dirty mouth, you, bastard! who do you think we are?”
As Apputty and myself were trying to pacify the colonel, what we had in our mind burst out through colonel’s tongue:
“Where were you all these days? We know everything. Mother was in ICU twice. Father had his heart surgery. A son, who didn’t even turn up, when Mother died. Shame, on you!”
He was shocked at colonel’s blast. Standing still for a couple of minutes Athul sat on the door step. After a while, as if to conceal his guilty complex, he said:
“I sent a message in reply to the call. I repent, I faltered in my duty. I could reach now only because I was in Paris and got flight ticket immediately. Colonel picked the mobile and searched. Then he announced as if for everyone:
”yes, there is message ,’arriving tomorrow early morning.”
Apputty came with seven-eight cups of black coffee .Daamu picked one and showed to his grandpa’s son and said,’I am Daamu’.
As if got a chance to patch off his hurt pride, Athul barked at Daamu:
“So, you are that cunning fellow; Stuck on here canvassing my father!”
Apputty looked at me as if he wished me to retort. I noticed, Daamu was unperturbed. He appeared to have realized, he had nothing more to do there and his life itself is at stake now.
As people started to leave one by one, Athul came to the veranda. He said:
“I have not many days; I have to be back in States completing everything in five-six days.”
His uncle said:
“It is third day. As per tradition, we have to conclude the formalities on the sixteenth day in any of the sacred spots such as Tirunelli.”
Athul laughed as if he heard a joke:
“You mean my staying here for so many days? Impossible! There, I am in a responsible position. I’ve to complete certain confidential matters reaching back, next week.”
He looked around and spoke for everyone to hear:
“Papers are to be got cleared in three-four days. I suppose, death was reported, already. After getting that certificate I have to apply for property inheritance. Amulya had given me power of attorney. In the mean time we have to find a party. I cannot come again for registration; I don’tmind reducing the selling price. But the party must be ready to pay full amount within these days.”
Hearing him, rest of us looked at each other. I said:
“Won’t it be inappropriate to go after property sale immediately?”
Daamu intervened:
“I shall take care of the formalities to be completed for grandpa; only you and SP sir have to guide me. Let brother go after procuring the certificates and finding a partyto buy the property.”
Athul looked at him as if he made a silly talk. He took it as an opportunity:
“I am prompt and punctual in my dealings. I am particular about doing things systematically. Last time I was talking to dad for a long time, not to stay here alone and to stay with Amulya in Germany, disposing off the properties here. She has a grand villa there. Of course, he could have stayed with me in San Francisco; the problem is Sarah and myself will be on official tours frequently. In fact, I felt, Dad was often orthodox and stubborn.”
Apputty received the vehicle with food packets.
While having food Athul wanted to know, how are the expenses met with. He turned to Daamu:
“Tell me guy, where are the pass books and records of Dad kept.”
Daamu explained:
“While going to hospital hegave me two cheque leaves and twenty thousand cash. 0ne cheque for Eighty five thousand was paid in hospital previous day. Here is the other cheque, up-to-date account and the balance seventhousand.”
He handed a cover to Athul without even waiting to wash his hands. He continued:
“The expenses for the cremation and food these days are met by one or the other; those are to be returned.”
Daamu washed his hands duo came back with a long key.
“This is the key of the shelf in Grandpa’s bedroom. Pass Books and F.D. receipts are kept there. He used to maintain accounts meticulously. In S.B.and F.D. together there will be about nine lakhs. He has shown me as nominee everywhere.”
That was too much for Athul to bear with. He barked:
“What made Dad nominate an outsider!……
I know, he often does foolish things.”
Daamu was cool. He said:
“Don’t worry, I shall come and sign where ever you want.”
‘This is the boy whom Athul called cunning fellow!’
Everyone who overheard was thinking the same! Daamu went out and sat on the steps as if proclaiming that he was nobody there then. I wondered, can there be youngsters like this, these days!
Fourth day when people dispersed after the ceremony, the lady who was brought for help was serving rice gravy and stew for us. Athul was sarcastic:
“Oh, this menu of gravy is also that guy’s suggestion? I can’t have this. Look for any bread loaf for me.”
As we are having the breakfast, a car stopped at the gate. A stranger came in with a briefcase. He touched the I.D. card that read, Advocate Viswanath Pillai.
“I am the lawyer of the deceased K Krishnanunni Menon. I have come to handover the Will he got registered, two years ago, precisely on 3rd November, 2018.”
Though he was ready to wait till we finished, even I felt a little impatient to hear. The gist of what he read was surprising.
“The house and property and all the deposits in banks are given to P.K. Damodaran Nair
Alias Daamu who had always been keen in completing the duties of a son, silently bearing all my out bursts and accusations without any grumbling, and, nobody else will have any night on these.”
No body looked at the face of Athul who was sitting stunned. But the sound of somebody’s wailing from the veranda indeed, made everyone silent…………………….
