In the 1940s a British traveller to Anholt, a small island fifty miles out in the Kattegat, between Denmark and Sweden, noticed some island children singing a piece.
' Jeck og Jill
vent op de hill
og Jell kom tombling down.'
This ditty had been brought to the island by occupying British soldiers during Napoleonic wars.
This rhyme has been in circuit for the 130 years or more.
This traveller would have heard the same nursery rhyme if he had walked through the Chittor road in Kochi from an old, but elegant building; the voice emanating from the throat and heart of Kochappan ; such was his learning and proficiency in English even those early days when English was all Latin and French to most of us.
On the morning of 2 July of 1881, President James Garfield accompanied by his secretary of state, James Blaine was passing through the Central station in Washington, DC, to spend a holiday in New Jersey, when Charles Guiteau, a lawyer, walked up to him and shot him point blank with a .44 calibre pistol. To provide some comfort for the ailing President the core of Naval Engineers was called in to provide a cooling device in his hospital room. They rigged up a large iron box filled it with ice, salt , water and Terry cot filters saturated with melting ice.
Iam not the president of a country nor is Kochappan member of that team who provided the President with melting ice. But whenever I had been deserted by words, thirsty for words , real thirsty, he had been providing me with words which could melt into a sentence and quench my thirst too.
He is the one who gave me the definition of 'Happiness' as 'Having a large , loving ,caring family in another city.'
'' In these days of sophistication and modernity'', he told me, ''things are not 'Stolen' but 'differently acquired' ''.
He told me that 'Abraham Lincoln was the greatest President of America' and not the
' greatest Precedent ' as I have been mentioning. He chided me once saying that Iam the reason for ' global warming.'
After having worked in the USA and UK ,he gave me some insight about those places.
''In U.S'' he told me once, ''dancing with a girl, mostly, is a perpendicular action of a horizontal desire''.
''The sun never sets in the British Empire because, even God doesn't trust an English man in darkness.'' he added. He does that often without any provocation; love for Arithmetics probably.
The only time he subtracts is when you ask him his age.
He pointed out the subtle difference between 'Desire ' and 'Wish' to me.
He told me that I have a 'desire' to write. Desire shows a strong intention to do something and it's normally within reach. 'Wish' is almost the same but gives a sense that it is un attainable. I 'wish' I could write, or sing etc.
He is the one who taught me that 'Log on' is not adding wood to the fire place, and that 'Hard drive' is not a trip through the MC road in Kerala. '' A Mouse pad, aniyan, is not where the mouse lives.'' he told me with patience.
Can I call up such a person and tell him '' Hai Iam aniyan. Long time no see''. That's why I haven't mentioned about him for the last two months. I was diffident to intrude.
One doesn't dare call him. The best one can do to catch his attention is to clear the throat. I did that. Having come to know that Kochappan is at Kochi I rang him up at his hotel and cleared my throat. He acknowledged my presence and told me that he would meet me soon.
His voice came to me over phone. Next, it would be him in person.
'If winter comes can spring be far behind?''.
Menon ( aniyan )
