I wrote yesterday that I was missing Appa a little more … But maybe it was some sort of premonition that today his namesake, Krishnan’s Mama was planning to pass on. Seshadri Mama and Babu Chitappa are probably the biggest connection I had to Krishnan’s immediate extended family.
Mama made the dream of the computer centre come true, through the loan that his firm offered us on his guarantee. Otherwise, we would had to close the centre six months after opening it as we never managed to get the bank loan. When we lost all the money and shut down the centre, Mama was a huge support believing in us when many others didn’t. While we had repaid his firm, he would meet us regularly in Hyderabad whenever he came there and would buy us lunch or dinner and pep us up. Then he came along with Babu Chitappa when we came to Delhi and the one memory I can never forget is the day, both these gentlemen decided to cook at our Patparganj house.
Mama was a great cook so the food was fantastic, but both of them used the grinder and didn’t know how to get it clean. So when I got home from work, they both told me sheepishly that they tried to clean up but couldn’t :):). Just the thought that they wanted to cook before I got back from work so I didn’t have to was so sweet that I happily cleaned up the kitchen. Mama loved a potato dish that I had made and was never convinced that I hadn’t used some special masala.
He loved spicy food, could cook just like dad and liked women to be normal and not stick thin, so he never liked it when I lost weight. He could also fit into any social setting, completely at ease in the corporate world and a village. Mama had the mix of modernity and old world lifestyle where he and Mami were on first name basis at a time when it was not accepted socially while he knew all the rituals that a “jeeyar” would know !!
The last time we met him was when his nephew chose to leave unexpectedly and at such a young age …. And Babu chitappa was a broken man. We chatted with Mama not knowing that would be the last time. Some relationships don’t need many regular meetings, some just are. It feels like another big part of my married life just became a memory with Mama’s going today, just like Babu Chitappa’s going did a few years back.
His son reached a couple of days back suddenly out of the blue from the US, so Mama could see him and talk to him and his soul could say goodbye. Again so similar to dad, who waited till I reached back to leave… RIP Mama. May the journey to the other world be peaceful and may you find another grand life to live and love again.