Yuhanon Mor Meletius Metropolitan of the Thrissur Diocese.
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Inauguration Announcement
Dear Family members,
I have great pleasure to inform that the informal inauguration of our Family Website will, DV, be held on 25th April 2015 at 4 p.m. by Thampychayan on behalf of the family members.The valuable inputs and help rendered by the committee members including the Web Administrator are gratefully acknowledged.
With warm regards,
Alex George
Web Coordinator
Remembering Caps
Year – 2006
Venue – Mathaichen’s (Levi in the ‘family tree simplified’ chart) house in Bangalore
Occasion – on the sidelines of the burial of his wife Kunjamma
Time – a few days before Mathaichen’s demise
His age – 91
His only sister Baby, aged 85 years, lives in Thiruvalla, Kerala.
His nephew Alex is at the venue. He calls Alex aside and says, “Did you see Baby? How is she? Next visit to Thiruvalla go and meet her”
At cemetery his last words to Alex, “After reaching Ernakulam , please send letter to me or call Reji and inform.”
C.I.Mathew passed away after 3 days on 24/08/2006. He didn’t have a chance to hear from Alex this time.
And his sister Baby passed away five years later in 2011.
Rewind to year 1988.
Mathaichen’s eldest brother Kunjoonju (C.I. Chandy) is in Aswathy hospital in Trichur on treatment for stroke. Mathaichen took the long break from his Bangalore home and stayed in Trichur to look up his brother every day, all day. Those days the daily trips to the hospital would be on the above Lambretta scooter. He was the pillion rider behind me.
I was watching both Mathaichen and Kunjoonju closely when Mathaichen approached Kunjoonju in his bed. Kunjoonju had been down with stroke and couldn’t speak very well, much less move his body. But suddenly Kunjoonju’s face changed, tears started to run down his face, extending his shaking hand he muttered with a huge effort, “Mathaiii….”
Both of them wept.
Rewind again to the year 1971.
Kunjoonju (Chandy) is a retired, but quite an able man living in the old Chathoth house in Vallamkulam. Suddenly the untimely death of his sibling Kochunju (C.I. Abraham) happens in Bangalore. There was no telephone those days in the neighbourhood. The good old telegram arrived in the neighbor’s house because they feared for the life of Kunjoonju!
Alex tells me, “This kind of affection between brothers and sister, we can see in Chathoth family only.”
Well, shall I expand the above love to all families? Let it be so everywhere. That would be super awesome.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! (Psalms 133:1 KJV)
May the souls rest in peace.
C I Mathew
(Mathaichen)
DB : 29-10-1915
DD : 24 -08-2006
Annamma Mathew
(Kunjamma)
Poovathummootil
Pullad
DB : 02-04-1917
DD : 19-08-2006
Greetings from Vallamkulam
A million dollars – free give away, act before it is too late!
Have you ever wondered what you would do if you won a million dollars?
Well, you had better make up your mind.
If I had a million dollars is a famous song that lists a bunch of things the narrator would buy for his sweetheart. Thank God I had heard this song and had thought out a plan for myself, just in case I ever won a million dollars!
And guess what! I found out early this morning that I had indeed won $1 million dollars, which is about 5 crore rupees. Sweet!
Here is why making up your mind quickly could come handy. I am going to give it all away. No matter how rich you are, there is always the chance to touch your less fortunate neighbors. On the other hand, you may be looking for some money for a project of yours. In either case, shoot me a comment below here and your the money could be yours. First come, first served.
Here is the song that inspired me. Let it play in the background, put on your thinking caps and…..
……remember to post your projects today. That is important!
Tree house student in the forest saved us from tigers
“This house saved us!
From this one!”
It IS ONE SUMMER NIGHT IN 1940 AND THE LOCATION IS THE FOREST NEAR PALLIVASAL, MOONNAR. The tropical forest is thick and full of dangerous animals. There is no one inhabiting the place anywhere in eye sight. There is a mud track that takes traffic passing through the middle of the forest. A tourist bus comes slowly up the hill through the forest and at one point just stops. All the lights are gone and the engine is dead. Any attempt by the driver to start the bus fails. All the passengers in the bus are now in pitch darkness in the middle of the forest. There is no way to spend the night in the bus as the area is not safe to sleep unprotected in the open.
The passengers start to walk away in panic, aided only by the glimmer of light from the stars. Ruben, a school teacher, spots a light in the distance on a tree top. He walks fast and beats everyone to it and shouts at the top of his voice. A man opens the door of his tree house and peers out.
And then something amazing happened. The man from the tree top lowered the ladder and ran down to Ruben in a hurry.
“Sir, why are you here in the middle of the night? It is dangerous to walk alone in the forest at night. Come stay with us for the night.”
He was one of Ruben’s umpteen students. Ruben remarked to me years and years later that being a teacher has its good moments despite the poor pay, and this was a life-saving one indeed!
Ruben was on his way to visit his brother working in Pallivasal Power Project inaugurated that year (1940).It was the very first power project in Kerala, meaning that entire Kerala had depended on lamps before that time!
Can you believe this story? Well, you probably cannot, but it is every bit true! Do you know who the two brothers were? My grand dad, C.I. Chandy was the teacher and his brother in Pallivasal was C.I. Abraham.
It was the period of reign of the last King of Tranvancore, Sri Chitra Balaramavarma and his prime minister, called Diwan, Sir C.P. Ramaswamy Iyer. C.P. is credited with the success of the Pallivasal project which was otherwise beset with legal troubles.
125 years old! Patriarchs speak!!
Here is a 125 years old man!
Just kidding?
Yes, and no!
I mean, I have butted heads with people born couple of centuries back! Around 1890 to be precise! That includes all of the patriarchs of Chathoth Vallamkulam family!
The essence of life is memories, isn’t it?
I have memories- actual or vicarious – as old as 1890s.
Now, here is the question? Who doesn’t like to hear stories?
If you are one of them, let me know, and I will have to re-calibrate my story-telling drive.
Otherwise, I will be posting a few hitherto unpublished real stories in the days to come.
