In our archives there is one letter that we especially treasure. It is one from Mrs. K. M. Mathew, Annammakochamma, which we received in January 1987.
Letter from Mrs. K. M. Mathew, Annammakochamma
received in 1987 to Annikki and meHere was one of the busiest women on this universe, running her own top woman's magazine of India, active with social work to help the needy, active with the community to the extent of doing the hair of almost every young girl in the community getting married, holding daily morning singing and music lessons for the talented young people of the city of Kottayam, producing mouth-watering recipes on a daily basis from her kitchen, and all that with only half her organs left in her body, and she took the trouble to write to Annikki and me to tell us how much she loved us and cared for us.
Little did she know that Annikki and I cared for her more than almost any other individual on this planet. We prayed for her well-being, knowing how much pain she was going through, but also knowing she never cared for her pain but always thought of the pain and suffering of others.
We were so grateful when we received not one, but two copies, of the book written as a tribute to her by her husband, K. M. Mathew, Mathukuttychayan, my mother's younger brother.
"Annamma" by K. M. MathewThe first copy was sent by Mathukuttychayan and the second by his youngest son, Jacob Mathew, Chacko.
Annikki is a very slow but thorough reader. She hardly has any time to do any reading other than the daily newspaper. But she picked up the book about one of her favourite aunts the evening it arrived. When I saw her later that night she told me she was so captivated by the contents, that she could not put it down till she finished it. She said that the moving text and the wonderful pictures were an absolutely faithful recounting of the life of a lady she had loved, respected and admired ever since she first met her when she took the time to visit our humble home in the sixties.
The two of them, Annammakochamma and Annikki, were on the same wavelength on everything about life - their art, their creativity, their views about humanity and their views about their need to be of service to all their fellow beings.
I, too, could not put down the book once I started reading it, and I remembered many of the events as I was very much a part of them. The sorrow I felt when they moved from Bombay to Kottayam was so moving as I lost my best friend and cousin, Rajen, as I loved to go to their flat in Byculla and play hide and seek in that old rambling flat on the second (or third?) floor.
The relationship that we built in the few months we lived in Bombay at the same time is something neither of us have ever forgotten - right through to when we were in college in Delhi together and he worked tirelessly with his friends to get me elected as the President of the Students Common Room and the de facto head of all resident students of the college. That is something I can never repay him for as at that time I was going through a major crisis of my life, as having lost the use of my index finger on my right hand, I had lost my chance to be in the college and university hockey team.
It is the same dedication that Rajen inherited from his mother that has helped him to drive the Malayala Manorama to the very top of the Indian media scene. He was the most deserving recipient of one of the highest honour's given by the President of India, the Padma Shiri, last year.
Rajen receiving the Padma Shree Award
from President of India, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul KalamThank you for this wonderful book which we will treasure, just as much as we treasure that letter we received from Annammakochamma in 1987!
