Small things

I remember...

Achan used to take us through the triveni road back home after school when he was in a good mood and bought us savouries which were my favourite. It was more like a reward when we'd been good.

Achan loved root vegetables like yam, sweet potato, they were his favourite!

I never knew achan's favourite colour. Although I think he liked brown quite a bit.

Achan idolised the BJP leaders Vajpayee and Advani.

Achan loved the malayalam actor Murali. I think somebody had mentioned that he looked like him and thats where the secret admiration came from. He was a fan of Mohanlal too.
He despised Shahrukh especially because his daughters were big fans of his :-)
He made fun of most mallu actresses saying they only knew how to cry.

Achan made fun of amma's gossipping friends and made us laugh although he would show a lot if interest when she spoke about them. I thought it was cute :-)

Achan loved his nephew one in particular although that favourite nephew never turned up even during the difficult time of the loss of achan.

Achan went out of his way forto help people...sometimes strangers and never expected anything in return.

I always observed that achan had many friends, some very close, some platonic. But the ones he loved most deeply most often let him down and those he had least expectations from came to his rescue in the difficult times.

His favourite person in the extended family was i think velliachan. he respected him, idolised him and unconditionally loved him.

Achan did not express some things to his loved ones. He had a long converstaion with one of my friends on my wedding day about each one of his children which I came to know of much later, after we lost him.

Achan had strong opinions about everything including cricket. He would argue and fight to prove his point on how we have patronised Tendulkar and have lost the sense of a team and it has become all about individual achievement.

Achan hated it when we spent too much money and time in putiing extensive pookkalam for onam. :-) He used to sometimes help us do the finishing touches so that we could have our breakfast together. sweet no?

Achan would always be stubborn about certain things, like the friends we made, visiting people or being courteous which seemed very conservative and unnecessary at that time. we wondered how does it matter if our friends hung out with boys,or if we visited somebody without a formal invitation or went out of line once in a while and despised him criticising us. But today when i look back at each incident, i realise my dad was right in every way.he said it for a reason. life experiences have taught me that he was always right. i hope i could pass on atleast some of those learnings to my children when i'll have them.