By Jonu.
A hundred thoughts would run through my mind each time I thought of writing something for this page. With just one day to go, I guess I'll take the only route left: scramble and dump everything I have on my mind.
There isn't any clear flow to the stories, it just the ones that crossed my mind as of today.
Chetan
If you knew my brother, you might have always called him by one name, it would have been Georgie or Popu. At home, it was different for me, I would call him by one his many names depending on the situation or people around. If we were around friends, I would call him Georgie. If we were around cousins, uncles and aunts, it would be Popu and if were at home and I needed him to take his earplugs out and listen to me, I would shout, "Muthe", a name only mummy would use to call him. (I only realized this when Priyam mentioned it at the funeral.) But when it was just the two of us, I would always call him, Cheta/Chetan.
Chetan in Malayalam means elder brother. I don't remember exactly when I had started calling him Cheta, but I do remember hating it. This was when we were kids, and he was taller than me - he must have been in Class 6 or 7 and I had just started school. So, to give him that respect when all he would do was beat me up was something I just didn't want to do.
I remember mummy and papa would remind and nudge me to call him Cheta. Initially, I would just whisper the word out. I guess even he wasn't sure if he was comfortable with me calling him Cheta. But gradually we both got comfortable and overcame the awkwardness.
I remember this one time, when he came home for Christmas, and I needed some money. He was on his laptop, and I walked up behind him and asked, "Can you give me Rs 2000?" Realizing I forgot to add 'please', after a pause I blurted Cheta to make it sound more like a request than a demand. After a second, he turned around and we both burst out laughing.
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From Mummy
This is a story, I recently got to know from mummy. While many of you might know that Georgie was extremely smart. A sort of a lighthouse to many of us kids. To balance the equation, I was on the other end of the spectrum, being the slow one.
So as mummy would narrate it, once Georgie unfortunately, scored 9.5/10 in one of his school tests! As mothers are, she wanted nothing less than 11 from her eldest son, mummy questioned him - where he had lost the half-mark. Right then I walk into the room ignoring the tension around and waving a sheet of paper and telling mummy, "Look mummy here's the remaining half mark. I got a half on ten in school!"
The story always ends here because whenever she has narrated it, people would just burst out laughing. So, we never got to know how things moved from there.
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School
I think the longest time we have spent together as kids was not at home nor at school, but it was most probably the bus stand. For four or five years, we stood and waited for our dear Jugal da to come pick us up at Usha. This is one of the earliest memories I have of Chetan from his school days. A newspaper vendor would set up his shop on the ground and Georgie would stand right next to the vendor and tilt his head in a way that he could read the day's headlines from the papers.
On school feast days, when the school bus wouldn't operate, we were dependent on public transportation. Chetan and I would hop on to the local bus with the hope of meeting an aunty who would also be heading to another school right next to ours. We knew if she was in the same bus as us, she would pay for our bus fare leaving us richer with Rs 20 in our (his mainly) pocket. After the feast day celebrations, I would meet him near the gates, and it had sort of become a ritual to have a 5-rupee orange ice cream stick with the extra money we had.
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I think the most memorable moment of his school life, must definitely be the day when the quiz team he was part of had won the Times NIE quiz winning a super cool computer, a kick-ass cycle and lunch at some high-end restaurant in the city. But the cherry on top was the fact that his team's picture had come in the papers! I'm not sure, considering it's been years and I have no proof, but I believe the team's picture had come in the front page of the student edition of the Times of India. I got a copy of it in school and kept it so safe that I have never been able to find that news clipping ever again. 😥
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Bangalore
This particular video was taken in February 2023, right after our visit to a record store on MG Road in Bangalore. We had recently acquired a vinyl record player as a gift, but we only had three records to play on it. So, I was eager to purchase my very first vinyl record. Chetan and I began our day with a delicious meal from one his favorite Kerala restaurant, a small, easy to miss place called "Motis Kitchen." I had taken him there six years ago, and he had been yearning to return ever since and have their meals again. We ordered a meal each and at the end of it struggled to walk back to the car, our bellies full and content.
Next on our agenda was to visit to Ram's Musique store. After having browsed through the records we were on the verge of leaving when Ram uncle, the owner, walked into the store and struck up a conversation with us. He inquired about our musical preferences, the type of player we owned, and how we acquired it. Upon learning that it was a gift, he remarked, "Receiving a vinyl record player as a gift is quite expensive for the receiver. To truly make it worthwhile, you'll have to invest in records, and records don't come cheap." We chuckled and agreed, acknowledging that we would indeed be spending a considerable amount on records going forward.
Ram uncle then shared a valuable tip on how to approach our hunt for the right album. He suggested browsing through all the records, taking our time, and initially selecting 20 that caught our interest. We could then narrow down the selection to 10 and finally choose our favorites. Following his advice, we dived right into the task. Georgie occupied one corner of the store while I took another, meticulously examining every record. After some time, which might have been 2-3 hours we had each chosen around six or seven potential purchases. Ultimately, we left the store with two carefully chosen records. As we were leaving, Uncle requested that we leave a Google review for his store.
On our way out, Georgie promised to buy me a new Pink Floyd record he had spotted at the store as a gift for my birthday.
On the way back home, Georgie finally managed to publish his review of the store on Google. Later that evening, for some reason, I happened to capture a video of him checking his phone, exclaiming with delight, "Someone found my review helpful!"
As I write this story, I went to look for his review of that store and tapped the "Helpful" button. In my head, I can see him receiving a notification and excitedly informing anyone nearby, "Jonu found my review helpful!"
It was not until recently that I realized Georgie loved his sleep. I guess I never realized it myself considering I must have been sleeping as much if not more to notice it.
This picture is from 2017 I suppose. It was the first time Georgie had come to Bangalore for work. He had landed a little late in the night and I had given him the directions to come to the closest landmark to my house. At around mid-night I conveniently went off to sleep with my phone on silent. Thankfully or not for Georgie, I woke up around 2:30 AM in the morning panicking and checking my phone. Poor Georgie had reached the place around 12:30 and was trying to reach me. I rushed out to look for him and guess what?! Georgie was sipping chai with a few locals and having a casual conversation with them. While I took him home, both looked sad as if I had come to ruin their get-together!!😃
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