Archbishop of Trivandrum late Rev. Benedict Mar Gregorios, called my Appa Kochappan. Thirumeni Appachen was nearly 14 years older than Appa.
When he came for the inauguration of the new church in Kadappakkada in the early 70’s, he decided to stay at our place, for a couple of days.
We stayed late into the night, with both Appa and him sharing fond memories of their childhood, listening to music by our own Dasettan, eating Amma’s cookies and cakes, during the day he gave us priceless tutorials on agriculture and naturopathy which we all followed religiously.
I was studying at St Joseph’s Convent, Kollam.
Without any qualms I want to hypothecate a lot of my life’s attributes to this great soul, who opened my frontiers in terms of agriculture, gardening, farming, social ethics, naturopathy, good food, education, human values and appreciation for all forms of entertainment: music, dance, movies etc.
I still remember the day, he came home first, we had a District Youth Festival and I was participating in mostly every item, this was the norm then, other than music which was dedicated to Lekhu, I represented my school in MonoAct, Fancy Dress, Recitation etc. I considered that as my moral responsibility. I had come home with my makeup ON, dressed as a Toddy Tapper, with a weird Kappada Meesha (huge moustache turned up)
The black piece of Mundu, the toddy tappers bone, (Fore shank Bone) for tapping toddy, the sharp knife, Kallu Kudam (container) which was actually a dried fruit in the shape of a balloon with water inside or the old incandescent bulb, encased in a coir mesh to prevent breakage. The complete work kit was borrowed from my neighbor lad Unni’s Achan.
This was the first and last time I smoked a beedi. To be as realistic as possible I decided to smoke a Kaaja Beedi on stage and Unni’s Achan gave me two beedi’s, one to practice and another one to perform. He showed me how to light up and smoke, I made a mess of the whole thing by biting the beedi tight with my teeth instead of holding gently and tactfully with my lips, when I lit the beedi finally I inhaled all the smoke and started coughing so hard that I could feel my eyes popping out and getting breathless.
The practice did good to handle the scene on stage and I won the 1st prize in all the items I participated.
Thirumeni, was very happy to see me and he sat through my stories about my School winning the overall trophy for the district youth festival.
He was impressed by my quest for perfection and explained to me the importance of detailing in life, in anything we do. I religiously follow that to date. I used to be a great perfectionist. I have tried to compromise a bit just a little bit due to my age and bad health that prevents repetitive action with my right hand. I seek help from others these days to complete certain tasks.
Thirumeni Appachen had snowy white beard cascading down his chest, there was a lot of peace in his eyes, his behavior, the way he spoke, I felt there was a halo every time I saw him, these days when I watch the halo of Moon and the Sun I remember him a lot.
He was a great humanist, who loved and served people beyond the narrow limitations of caste and creed, I quote the words of “Indian Vice President K.R. Narayanan, who said in the condolence message, at Thirumeni’s demise. Giant who left an indelible mark on the nation´s socio, economic, cultural and political fields” “The ideal representative and symbol of Indian secularism which is suffused with spiritual heritage”.
Without doubt he gave new definitions to Godliness by focusing on the improvement of living conditions, and betterment of human life. He truly practiced what he preached “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”. I take immense pride in following his path to propagate Social Ethics and I am sure I was inspired by this great soul, my desire to serve mankind and the future generation with my experience is to simply contribute, collaborating with every one of you.
1 comment(s)