Fond Memories of Valli (Valiachan)

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My memories start right from my childhood when I would be walking with him hanging on his arm.In my school days he would have a busy morning getting me ready to school, right from checking if my clothes were ironed, searching for my pair of socks ,getting my shoes polished and ofcourse making a point to wear it with a shoe horn and finally rushing me to the bus stop. In the evening he would be waiting at the bus stop and then we may get some snacks on the way or he would have already got it in the numerous shopping trips that he did in a day.On the way I normally tell him everything that has happened in school on that day,the homeworks or projects which I have to do on that day.After reaching home he will sometimes make scrambled eggs or Maggie noodles in the evening  on the biogas stove.Those  being still my first lessons in cooking.He sometimes watered the plants in the evening with the black hose.Then he would set out for his evening rounds.By the time he comes back I would be ready with my home work or if I had a project ,he  would have collected materials for my project work.Thus I was completely spoilt by him.

When Television arrived in the house,he was clear that we were to watch only  quiz programs or the science programs.He rubbished chitrahaar or rangoli or movies and was completely against us watching .He used to watch godfather with the family which was too late in the night for me.He regularly listened to radio in the morning mainly BBC,Voice of America and Deusche welle.I remembering listening to Yankee Doodle on radio.He used to teach us Badminton and Cycling.

On days when the state science exhibition came nearer there would be sets of people visiting him for guidance on their projects. On other days there would be former students,people with interest in setting up a biogas plant or people interested in astronomy. He  had subscription or had been gifted subscriptions’  for  Scientific American,Science reporter,Nature,National Geographic,Sky and Telescope and later on Karshakashree,down to earth,passline.Even in hospital , two days before his death he mentioned to my husband  that he had two magazines to read,but was too tired.He had a love  for torches , emergency lights, old oil lamps which he regularly cleaned and candles.All these he cleaned and positioned in preparation for the regular power cuts.