Remembering 2 great people

I remember 2 great people today, both of whom were dear to several of us.

My grandfather, the late Dewan Bahadur Kuriyan Matthan, of the Maliyakal family, was born on this day in 1877. He died in 1951 when I was still a small boy.

Till today I can remember him in all his glory as a great upstanding individual.

I want to share a picture which was sent to me by a niece, by marriage, where her great grandparents share the high table with Dewan Bahadur. Ahalya is Rahul Matthan's wife. Rahul is the son of Anand and Shalu Matthan. Anand is the son of the late George Matthan, who was the eldest son of Dewan Bahadur Kuriyan Matthan. The late George Matthan was also my godfather.

Here is the story in Ahalya's own words.

I took a keen interest in the family tree that you built. Before Rahul and I met in Paris we had no idea that our families knew each other/ knew of each other, and this photo that I will attach is our favourite conversation peice. In the picture are my great grand-parents, Rao Bahadur Justice Medapa and his wife, Mrs Medapa (who passed away when I was 18); and with them is Diwan Bahadur Kuriyan Matthan. Apparentely, they were friends and knew each other, not only because of their work environment but I believe from my grand-mother that they got on well. I don't know if this will be of any interest to you, we cherish this photo! I have a whole album of this particular event that my grand-mother gave me - it shows them sitting at the high table, at an official tea-party - and is interesting in the kind of lifestyle and professional obligations that they obviously followed because they represented the judiciary and bureacracy of the state of Mysore.

Thank you Ahalya for sharing this with us, as Dewan Bahadur Mysore Matthan is fondly remembered, not only by many many members of the Maliyakal family worldwide but also thousands of people whom he reached out and helped with no thought of return, a rare trait in this world.

I hope you will share with us some more photographs from your collection.

The second person whom I want to pay tribute to today is my late dear elder sister, Nalini, who left us on this day 45 years ago. I loved her dearly. As each day passes I think of her in fonder terms than the day before.

Her cherubic face is well represented in this photograph as a baby.



Here we have her, in all her beauty, on the day of the wedding reception in Bombay in 1959.



Let us humbly remember these two people, both of whom are revered by many of us for what they stood for - love of our Lord.