Lest We Forget

It is the first monsoon season in our newly built house. The Rain 
God seems to be in a benevolent mood as it is raining copiously this year. To have a house of your own, and to enjoy the rains, sitting in the balcony, had been a dream, cherished deep down in our hearts. So when the dream finally became true, and as we sat in the balcony, drinking in the beauty of the monsoon showers, we felt overwhelmed with gratitude towards the blessings of the Almighty. It was also the time we felt indebted to our Kunjettan.

For years, the thought of constructing the house had been gnawing at our minds and everytime we tried to make a move forward, it would invariably meet with a hurdle. And then Kunjettan came into our life, literally becoming the Hands of God to give shape to our dream.

Kunjettan was my husband's cousin brother. But the love he had for his cousin was more than that of a sibling. For, what else could make a person take up a work, that would keep him away from his house for nearly two years, and which would consume his time and energy so much that he would hardly be able to enquire, leave alone care for his aged mother as well as his wife and children. In that respect, kunjettan was quite a mystery for everyone who came to know of his role in building our house.


Kunjettan, lost his mother at a very young age and was brought up in the house of his relatives along with his younger sister. As a teenager, he was later taken to Trichy by his father where he grew up under the loving care of his second mother. 

Kunjetten soon became associated with the construction field and he became a construction engineer by profession without attending any professional college, other than hands-on experience. His expertise was so well known that every newly recruit engineer in the state Public Works Department was asked to take apprenticeship under him before undertaking any independent work.

 For years on, Kunjettan became the layman's architect in building dream homes for people belonging to all sections of the society.  When the rich sought his guidance again and again for undertaking extension works or for newer projects, the poor looked upon him as a messiah who had fulfilled their 'never-likely-to happen" wish.


 Kunjettan would often reminisce about how he would take the initiative in first instilling confidence in these people and then take a token advance from them. Very often he himself would finance the expense for the foundation. After this, he would take a loan from the bank in their name and built a one-room house so that they can shift. The monthly rent thus saved is collected and then step by step the construction is completed over a period of time.   

Kunjetten returned to Kerala and settled in his hometown Wayanad, a few years ago after winding up all the projects and disposing off his assets in Trichy. His children, two sons and daughter were all settled and it was time to enjoy the retirement period. But it was not long before Kunjettan began to feel restless sitting idle at home. A person who has been active all along is suddenly beset with all sorts of illness when there is no other engagements and Kunjettan was no exception. It was at this juncture that the idea of taking up the construction of our house was mooted and Kunjettan was only eager to do so. 

When Kunjettan came to Cochin to inspect our land, it was with a child-like excitement that he went about enquiring the details and seeing this excitement we felt assured that Kunjettan had taken up the task with cent percent willingness and not out of any obligation.


 He readily agreed to stay with us though the two bedroom flat was hardly spacious enough. We soon came to understand why he was so confident of managing  himself, for his wants were much too less than we could ever imagine. He would be  up in the early morning and by 7 he would leave for the construction site to return only at 7 in the evening. His only demand was for a two-wheeler to move around and his enterprising nature took us by wonder for he was so much at ease in a new and crowded city like Cochin, finding his way through the nooks and corners which we never knew existed.

Kunjettan was so simple a person in his outlook that one would have expected him to be soft in the site also. But there he was such a stickler to perfection that he would brook no laxity at all and the workers soon came to recognise this and started cooperating. Whenever a problem came up he would find some ingenuous way to overcome it and thereby ensured that not a day passed without any progress in the construction. Each day we would eagerly visit the site and see our dream home coming up so fast that before we knew it, the construction was complete and that too with a much needed financial savings. 


He knew how little spare time we had to supervise the works and  never complained about it other than pulling our leg by addressing us as the guests of the house and not the owners! He also knew that if any work is left incomplete, it is likely to remain so for years. So he took care to finish all the major works and even cajoled us to shift to the house soon enough, unmindful of the little works pending, so that he could go back home contented. 

As the life in our new home moves on, we often pinch ourselves in disbelief that we are truely staying in a house of our own.  So when our "Indeevaram" house get ready to become drenched in another spell of rains, we silently thank the Almighty for this  Kunjettan's varam.