My father never told me.....

                                         ____1_____

"You have to meet him Somiah, he looks like your younger brother " Srinivas  said..

Somiah just smiled, and continued to eat his sandwich. They had an hour for lunch and then they had to go back for training. 

Somiah was sitting in the Starbucks in City Center Doha, eating his sandwich and having a cup of coffee, his standard working lunch with his colleague Srinivas Jain

They both were working at the Qatar Financial Center, walking distance from The  City Center Mall , and were in the midst of a training for  upgrading the systems. 

Srinivas was talking about a cousins friend who had joined another company in Qatar, who had arrived from Australia. Apparently he looked like what Som looked like when he was ten years younger..

" Sure , but right now we need to go back to the office" replied Som

"How about this weekend, lets go to Trader Vicks ? I will call him too" said Srinivas

"Sure, that sounds like a plan ".They  finished up and went back to training. 

                                                        ____2_____

Thursday came and Somiah picked up Srinivas in a taxi , and went to Trader Vicks,  Srinivas hated driving,  and they both planned to drink that night, so no car, just a taxi 

They ordered a round of drinks, and ordered some starters, and some more friends joined them  and they were chatting and then Srinivas, tapped Somiah on the shoulder and when he turned around, Somiah thought he was seeing a double of himself, wait ..only younger. Same eyes, same build, same toothy smile. They both were surprised , and then Srinivas shouted "See I told you" ...and introduced them to each other..." Pat meet Somiah, Som meet Pat...your younger self...ha ha" ..

After a few awkward words to each other, they settled down to talk to each other, and then slowly they started asking each other questions...Pat was 8 years younger than Somiah, his Mom was from India...an Anglo Indian ....Madras actually, then migrated to Australia with her brother from there. Married his Dad there, another Anglo Indian, two kids, one brother and him.

Somiah said " My Mom was an Anglo Indian too?" 

Pat asked "Was?" 

Somiah said "She left Dad when I was little, we are two brothers too, my grandparents never approved of her. ....I always wondered how she looked "

Srinivas who had been listening...suddenly said 

"Why dont you ask your Mom, Pat , if she had any sisters who had kids in India?"

 Both Somiah and Pat looked at each other and laughed. 

Somiah said " You know Srini, its believed that there are 7 people in the world with your face, clearly one is standing in front of me. "..and nothing more was on the topic was said. 

                                          _______3_______                                              

It was October and Somiah was travelling back to Coorg to meet his Dad and stepmom. 

After a few days back, Somiah  showed his Dad a picture of Pat on his phone, and said "Does he not look exactly like me? You know Dad, you never spoke to us about our Mother, what was she like? Did she have any sisters? " 

Som's father, Mr. Belliappa, was quite for some time. He had been a stunningly handsome man in his younger days, and you could still see some of those looks. He was clearly struggling with something, and then he finally spoke 

"Your Mom and me met, when I was doing short service commission in the army in Madras, I had broken a leg, during training, and she was the nurse who looked after me. I fell hopelessly in love with her, she was a beauty, and we eloped and got married. When I came with her to Coorg, your grandfather refused to let us into the house. We were expecting your brother then, and were quite devastated . "

"Your grandfather refused to budge, and I was young and hotheaded, turned and went back to Madras , Your mother was very upset about it. She never spoke about it again, but she felt very insulted.'

"Then you were born, two years later, and we started having fights, her entire family was migrating to Australia, and she wanted us to go too. I was not keen, things got worse, when her brother sent word for her, and told her to leave me and come with the kids. " 

"She left alright, but without you guys, and sent me the divorce papers through a relative, and I was so upset, I signed it"

"I  got married again, and completely forgot about your Mother "

Som looked at him and asked him "What was her name? Do you have a photograph?"

His father walked to a cupboard in his library, and took out a folder, in that was an envelope, with his wedding certificate, his divorce papers, and a black and white photograph of him and a beautiful woman. 

"Her name was Anne, full name Anne Pearl Higgins , and she was your mother. "

                                            _________4_________

Somiah was sitting opposite Pat at the coffeeshop at the Four Seasons , Doha. They had both ordered a strong cup of Amaricano 

Pat was staring at Somiah, on the table in front of him, was the photograph.

Pat picked it up again, and stared at it. 

"That is my Mom, she changed her name to Pearl, whenever we asked her why , she would say "Anne is a really common name.""

Pat said "You know Som, I can call you Som? My Mom never spoke about Madras, or her life in India, she would just say "I wanted a better life", I guess she meant moving abroad, and being near her family "

Pat then looked at Somiah and asked him " What do you want from me?"

Somiah looked at him and said "Nothing really, just closure "

                                                                ___5_____

Somiah got a call from Pat, a few years later, " Mom just passed , she had been suffering from cancer, and in the last few months, deteriorated really badly, just wanted to tell you" 

Somiah mumbled "My deepest condolences" and put the phone down. 

That evening he lit a candle in her name. He felt nothing....absolutely nothing ...a strange calm had come over him . 

The story of Chaya

Present day......
Chaya looked across the wedding hall at her husband Kush. He was talking to his twin brother Luv. She could not imagine two men more similar looking and more different in every which way.

Her neice, Luv's daughter Sujata was getting married, and this brought back a lot of memories of her own wedding day, so many years back.

Chaya's cheeks were burning with mortification. It was at the wedding mantapa that Luv her would- be -husband, walked in with Kritika, and announced that he was married to her. Leaving her Chaya, literally at the alter, with no where to go. Chaya's mother Daisy, burst into tears, her father Karumbiah wanted to kill Luv. Luv's parents were screaming at Luv, it was utterly chaotic, and every one had forgotten about the bride, sitting in all her finery, feeling utterly humiliated. 

Chaya went into a daze, and sat there shocked. She looked up to see Kush walk on to the mantapa, and announced that he would marry her. There was a stunned silence. Chaya looked up and saw relief on her mother's face, aggression on her father's face . Suddenly Luv's parents started talking, and next minute, all Chaya remembers was that she was married off to Kush, her would- have - husbands twin brother. 

Kush suddenly looked up to see Chaya watching him and gave her a slow smile. He left Luv and walked across to Chaya.


Kritika and Luv were child hood sweethearts, Luv's parents did not approve, because Kritikas father was only a manager on the estate and had no wealth to speak of. The girl had  finished only matriculation and had been sitting at home. When Luv's proposal came to Chaya, the daughter of one of the top planters in Coorg, who had studied in Ooty, and then in Mount Carmel college in Bangalore, it was considered a good match of equals. The women could not be more dissimilar in looks. Kritika, was short, curvy and pretty, and Chaya was tall, slim and regal looking.

Soon both were pregnant, and Chaya gave birth to a boy- Kishen , and Kritika to a girl- Sujata. Chaya went on to produce a daughter Kaveri and Kritika misscarried three times and never conceived again. 

Both Luv and Kush, were very hard working  men, both busy in growing the practice. Their father had instilled in them that it was best for the business if they worked together and so the firm "Kalappa and sons" became one of the top firms in Bangalore. All of them lived in a joint family, in a huge house of St. Mark's Road in Bangalore. The house had three wings to it, added on by the far thinking Advocate Kalappa, who knew that he wanted to keep his brood under his watchful eye, and also keep the family unit together. 

Kush nudged Chaya, and whispered " Where is Kritika? Luv cannot find her"
To which Chaya replied "Must be in the kitchen supervising the food ". It was a lie, she had seen Kritika go towards the back of the house and knew she had gone there to have  a quick drink. Her drinking had started quite early, but slowly what was a night tipple had turned into a bottle a day, and now she was considered to have quite a serious drinking problem. Luv and she would fight practically every day, and Sujata had been brought up by Chaya and Kush.

When Sujata fell in love and announced that she wanted to get married , it was Chaya she told first, before her own parents, and it was Chaya who spoke to her husband and convinced her inlaws.


Kritika, got into depression. Her husband was a workaholic and she soon found that she had nothing in common with him. The distance was more than physical .  It was believed that he was unfaithful to her, she had no proof and no way of confronting him about it. Initially she had felt triumphant about marrying Luv, but as she gotten older, a bit of jealousy mixed with intimidation seeped into her relationship with Chaya. She tried to imitate the way Chaya wore her clothes, her easy banter with her in-laws, her sense of humour, which got even the very serious Kush laughing. Sometimes sitting on the dining table, she would see the whole family laughing at a joke that Chaya had cracked, including Luv and she would feel a wave of jealousy. 

 Kritika started drinking, initially it would be a shot of brandy at night, that increased to a few shots of brandy with hot water, and then finally she became a full time alcoholic. The in- laws were very upset, Luv was indifferent, and the only one who worried about this was Chaya, because of the impact it would have on Sujata. Slowly she took over the reigns of looking after Sujata. The young girl loved Chaya, who told her stories during dinner, and read to her, and oiled her hair. She took her shopping, bought her makeup and went to see movies with. They would giggle over a common joke, and Sujata called Chaya "dodeavva" or big Mom. The child initially was rebellious, but with a firm hand and lots of love, she changed, and grew into an intelligent girl. Joining her Dad and Uncle in the practice, she specialised in patent law, a relatively new subject. Chaya wanted her to go to England and study it further and after much convincing, she was sent. 

Chaya looked and Kush and said "Thank you for marrying me". Kush looked at her quizically, raising an eyebrow asked "All okay?" , to which Chaya replied "Just say you are welcome! Why do you over think things?" To which he replied " I am not over thinking anything, just trying to figure out, after 23 years, why did you suddenly decide to thank me! Besides, I should thank you too, its been a good ride ". He then reached over and kissed her on her forehead.

Chaya blushed, its very rare for Kush to display any affection in public. She loved him, and she thanked Lord Iggutappa for giving him to her.

Hindi-Vindi....no not my language..

When my parents moved to Delhi, my Dad enrolled me into Bal Bharati Air Force School. On the first day of school, my Hindi teacher, a very strict woman called Mrs. Jain, while doing the roll call, asked me if I was Coorg. Naturally, I proudly got up and said "Yes Maám". She shook her head in dismay, and then to the entire class related a story of an ex student of the school, called Nanjappa. 

The year was 1982. Nanjappa, or Nanju as he was called in school , was an all rounder. Great in sports, he played hockey, basketball, was on the athletic squad, swam really well, and played water polo. He also painted really well, played the guitar and topped his class in Maths. The teacher's would talk about Nanju and his good looks for a long time to come. But only Mrs Jain would shudder at the very mention of his name. 

Mrs. Jain had graduated from Baneras Hindu University. Finishing first her graduation and then her post graduation in Hindi, and then went on to do her M. Phil and teachers training in Hindi. She loved teaching. She felt extremely lucky to have the opportunity to teach young minds, and make them appreciate the nuances of Hindi poetry and study the subject. 

Mrs. Jain could not stop talking about Nanju, and his green eyes, and his white teeth and then she stopped and said "Just wish he was better at Hindi".She looked crestfallen. 

The story goes, that Nanju's results in all subjects was above average, except Hindi. During the annual Parents-Teachers meeting, Mrs Jain took his Dad aside and told him, that Nanju would have to repeat the 10th standard, if he did not pass in Hindi. Nanju's father Chengappa,was very worried, Nanju was his only son , and he knew that the child would be crestfallen, if he had to repeat a year. 

Nanju started staying back in school and taking extra lessons in Hindi, his parents hired a weekend teacher to teach him Hindi at home. Progress was being made. The exams were looming closer and closer. Then one day, one of his class mates Rajesh came to class and told his close buddies Nanju included that he had come across some body who would give them the 10th board paper in Hindi for a princely fee of Rs 60/-. Nanju, saved up his pocket money and chipped in Rs. 10. It was princely sum for him. He got the Hindi paper, and now was confident he would pass in Hindi. He shared this news with his weekend teacher. Who went through the paper, and with two days to go, gave him the break down on the paper, he told Nanju, "write a really good essay and that is about 20 marks, and then all you have to do for the rest of the paper is get about 15 more marks and you are passed". Nanju looked at the essay and the topic was about "My cow Gauri". The teacher wrote down the essay, and Nanju spent an entire night learning it by heart. Every comma, every word was learnt till he could narrate it blindly

. 

The day of the exam came, and Nanju got the paper, quickly he went to the page about the essay and it was about "An ideal student". The papers had been changed. Nanju was in shock, quickly he decided to write the essay. 

He started it like this. "There was a boy called Ram, he was a good student. Ram had a cow. The cow was called Gauri..."....and then proceeded to write about the cow Gauri....

The class was howling with laughter, I thought it was terribly clever. Mrs. Jain looked pained, and many years later I am sure she was narrating Nanju's story and my story to the next batches....

Well Hindi - Vindi..its not my language...

Karma is best served cold

It was rainy day, in Aug 2012. Gloom had descended on the entourage like a thick blanket. Pratap and Siddarth were distraught. Dev was only 38, too young to die. They cremated Dev in the electric crematorium in Bangalore and all went back to his mother's house in St. Marks road for the prayer meet.

Dev had died of a massive heart attack, right in the middle of  a jog. The doctor had told him to start an exercise regimen, as he was putting on weight. It had been 3 weeks, and Dev had started jogging every morning. His wife Kamala and he had been divorced for many years. He lived alone, in his flat in Brunton Road.

Kaveri read out the obituary in the papers. It read "Dev Nanjappa - born March 6th 1974- died Aug 23rd 2012. Survived by a wife and daughter". Kaveri felt a sense of peace descend on her, a big chapter of her life was closed forever. She looked up and thanked God.

It was in 2000 when Pratap, Siddarth and Dev had a bet. The bet was simple, the plan even simpler. Get Kaveri to fall for one of them. In order to achieve this, one would behave like a jerk, and the other one would "rescue " her and give her a shoulder to cry on.  So the plan took shape, Pratap would act like the jerk, and Dev the "rescuer". 

Dev and Kaveri started seeing each other. Many months later, while they were all out for lunch, Kaveri had to leave early to meet a client. She left the restaurant, only to realise that she had left her cosmetic bag on the table. She went back to get it, and as she was approaching the table, she saw Siddarth  and Pratap take out money and slap it on the table. As she moved closer to the table, she heard Dev imitating a woman's voice and say " Oh Devu, tell me you love me, because I love you", and all three burst out laughing. And Pratap said " Man you are the guru, who would have believed that Kaveri of all the people would have fallen for you." 

Kaveri was devastated, she ran out of the room, sobbing and went straight to her childhood friend Ranjit. She sobbed and told him the whole story. Ranjt listened to her quietly. A little later over a hot cup of tea, Ranjit sagely told her to get a grip and not worry. Ranjit said " Karma is a funny thing, it will get even every time, what goes around comes around." 

Years passed, Kaveri moved to Delhi, and started working in a newspaper. She proceeded to move into a new fashion magazine, slowly making her way up to the editor. Kaveri's success was fueled by a certain sense of anger and urgency. She wanted to succeed, she wanted to make a name for herself. 

She was 36 now, married to a very nice understanding man. Kaveri picked up the phone and called her husband of 5 years "Hi darling, what are you doing for the rest of the day?"

 Never play God, he will always send Karma around to remind you that he exists.

Jackpot...

Some stories in Coorg that makes the rounds have a certain element of legend to them. This is not one of them. This is about a Coorg father who was smart, correction very smart.

In the not so recent past, four friends from Mount Carmel college,on summer break, decided to go to Delhi for a holiday. Money was no object, they were all staying at the Oberoi hotel, near Mathura road.

One evening they decided to go clubbing, so they all took a hotel taxi and went to Hauz Khas village, to a uber – chic place called “Out of this box”. Kirti Shetty was from Mangalore, and her brother Kartik had called up some friends in Delhi and they were told to look after his sister and her friends. On arriving at the venue, Simone Kalappa, Tanya Gowda and Soumya Reddy along with Kirti all hit the dance floor.

While they were dancing, they were being watched from the bar, by Kartik’s friend Sid and his two other friends Jacky and Vineet. Sid gave the guys the lowdown on all the girls. Kirti was off limits, her brother would kill them. Jacky’s eyes fell on Simone, she was gorgeous, tall, with light eyes, and full lips. He also noticed her discreet Rolex with diamonds, her limited edition monogrammed Louis Vuitton bag, solitaire diamonds on her ears. “This one seems rich”..he thought to himself “let me patao her”. He was a good looking boy, 27 years of age, with a job as a sales man at the Porche dealership in Delhi. A job he had landed because of Sid’s connections. Everytime he came to the nightclub, he would remove money from the cash register at the dealership, and return it the next day. Today he had done the same thing. He now decided to impress the girls with the money. When they all came back for a drink to the bar, he introduced himself, and then proceeded to take out bundles of cash from his back pocket, slammed it on the bar counter and told the bar man “A round of champagne for the girls”. They all protested, and after much coaxing, agreed to have some wine. Jacky, was at his wittiest best. Sid and Vineet knew what was happening. They also played up to the gallery. Call him Sethji – a play on his surname Sethi. Might as well lay it on thick, after all they were never going to see these girls again.

Soon Simone and Jacky are dancing together, first its to Hindi music, and all the mad gyrations, and as the DJ changed the mood to mellow and romantic, they are soon slow dancing and looking deep into each others eyes.

Around 3 in the morning, they all decide to get some food to eat, and Sid has a suggestion that they should try out the road side dhaba’s for some really good food. All were in agreement, they all leave the club and climbed into the Porche Cayanne that Jacky was driving. Simone sat in the front, with Jacky and they held hands all the time, all the rest squeezed in at the back. They drove to Humayan’s tomb, where there was a dhaba called “Aap ke khatir”, they got out of the car to stretch their legs. Simone and Jacky decided to stay in the car, and continued to talk. The rest all ordered some food. And as the evening progressed, all begin to notice that Simone and Jacky had their eyes only each other.

At around 4 in the morning, Simone startled everyone with a loud “Yes”…Kirti, Soumya and Tanya rushed back to the car and find that Jacky had proposed to Simone and she had said yes. Simone felt that Jacky and she were soul mates. Sid came up to Jacky, gives him a big hug and whispered “Teri to lottery lag gaye”. Jacky just grinned and nodded his head. Yes he had hit jack pot. During the course of the evening, Simone had told Jacky that she was the only child of her parents. Her Dad Mr. Kalappa, had extensive property in Coorg, had a bungalow off Brigade road in Bangalore, and two apartments, a bungalow in Chennai, on Mount road, two flats in Mysore, two flats in Cochin. Jacky quickly did a mental calculation, and thought to himself. "I will not have to work for the rest of my life!”. But he knew he had to act fast. He turned to Simone and went down on his knees and in front of all her friends “Marry me NOW”. After all shubh kaam mei kya deri…why wait for good fortune.

At this point Kirti broke away from the crowd and went to make a call to her brother Kartik. He immediately told her to call Simone’s Dad Mr. Kalappa. He had met Simone’s father and thought him to be a very formidable man. She called Simone’s father and told him everything.

Kalappa was a very respected man in Coorg, he was known to never lose his cool and always gave very good advice to people. He quickly collected his thoughts, and played it smart. He called Simone on her mobile, and after hearing her out, told her that he would like his only daughter to be married off in the pomp and glory befitting his status, and none of this eloping nonsense would do. He then asked her to invite Jacky and his family to Coorg, for a full fledged marriage with all the traditions of the Coorgs.

Three days later, Simone, Jacky, his parents Mr and Mrs. Sethi, his elder brother Rajesh, younger sisters Anupama and Anuradha, arrived in Coorg. They were greeted with the traditional aarti, and then Simone’s father requested for a private meeting with Jacky. His eyes glistening with tears he said “I need to speak to my future son in law alone, after all I am giving him my most precious child, the apple of my eyes.” All of them agreed and Jacky and Mr Kalappa retired to the study upstairs. As soon as the study door shut by Mr. Kalappa, he turned around and faced Jacky and his demeanor changed. His eyes narrowed and he lowered his voice, and in an icy tone, told Jacky to sit.

He then went to his desk and sat on his chair. He leaned over the office table and slowly said “Listen to me very carefully, I will count till a hundred, if you and your family are not off my property by then I will shoot you with the gun here”, pointing at the double barrel above his desk on the wall. Leaning back he started counting, “One, two, three……”

Two years later, Simone married her neighbour's son Cariappa. She never forgave her father for that day, but as Kalappa liked to say to his wife “She will get over it”…