I don’t even know how to begin this post ! I wanted to write it yesterday but just couldn’t get myself to do it. My daredevil Chitappa who was lost on April 6th, found on April 13th was lost forever on April 16th :(. Tamil Puthandu Vazhtukkal – Chitappa Found.
As I write this post, Sampath Chitappa’s mortal remains are being cremated …. Om Shanti Om Shanti Om Shanti.
When Chitappa was found on April 13th, he was absolutely fine except for being dehydrated. So he was taken to a local hospital near Ammanoor for the saline drip. When he fainted once again on the 15th, Aravind immediately brought him to Kauvery hospital in Chennai. As is the practise, the hospital ran a battery of tests and Chitappa was declared fit, just dehydrated.
Yesterday morning, Chitappa had his breakfast and was doing fine. My youngest Chitappa came to be with him so that other folks could go home and get ready for the day. Around 2.30 pm, Chitappa felt a lot of pain in his back and chest and was rushed to the ICU….
Amma spoke to Vasu Chitappa (my youngest Chitappa) just around that time and he told her that the docs are saying it’s a massive heart attack and that Sampath Chitappa was critical. At 2.59 pm Vasu Chitappa sent the shocking message to our family WhatsApp group that Sampath Chitappa had passed away …. None of us knew how to react to that news. Here we were rejoicing that he had been found and was doing fine and in just a period of 30 minutes he was lost forever.
Like I told my cousin Aravind, we just have to feel happy that he left the mortal world surrounded by his loved ones. I can’t imagine how any of us would have dealt with the alternative – if something had happened to him when he was all alone and yet to be found. It makes my heart go cold even imagining that scenario.
So many memories come flooding back. When my father suffered the cerebral haemorrhage, it was Sampath Chitappa who stayed with us right through and was right besides Appa when he took his last breath. I can never forget those four months. It was Chitappa who drove down with Appa in the ambulance when we moved dad from Apollo Hyderabad to Manipal Bangalore.
I still have a small green colour notebook that Chitappa had got for me when I was a little girl. He loved children and could befriend any child. Yeah, he was gruff and would say something inappropriate every now and then, but under that tough exterior was a deeply sensitive and very loving heart. As we took Appa’s ashes to be immersed at the Triveni Sangam in Srirangapatna, he kept crying and you knew those tears came from the heart. What you saw is what you got with Chitappa, no masks, no pretences.
It was Sampath Chitappa and Chithi who played the role of my parents during Krishnan’s Shastiabdapoorthi… and it was Chitappa who had taken care of all the arrangements for my wedding in 1990. I can still hear him tell Amma not to cry when Krishnan would tie the “thali” (Mangalsutra) to me solemnising the marriage. Well, Amma didn’t heed that advice and did cry :).
Farewell, Chitappa. You must be happy to be reunited with Appa, Pushpa Athai, Vimala Chithi and Sami Chitappa besides your parents. That’s your gang. Do say hello to Appa and do let him know that he is missed everyday. And let Vimala Chithi know that we all will take care of Aravind, he may be your only child but he will never be alone.
We had coffee last evening in your memory but it was nowhere near your outstanding coffee !! That remains due and I will surely collect it in another life.
Om shanthi Om shanthi Om shanthi. 🙏🪷
He came home in order to go home again, I believe. The other side was calling, but he replied, “One nore thing”, as my mother was fond of saying when I thought I had finished a task. Bless his immortal soul.