Isat glued to the television, to see the final journey of K M Mani. Thousands of people had gathered to get a glimpse of the stalwart. They loved him a lot. At the end it didn’t matter how he lived. What mattered was that he was loved, not only by his family, his voters in Pala and many other Malayalis across the state.
So was Lakshmi Kutty. She was loved, loved by her family and all who knew her in the small village of Keezhvaipur. She was a great storyteller.
She told how she was married at the age of 13 to a man twice her age. How she would run out to play only to be admonished by her new husband. How she would sleep off in the middle of her kitchen chores. I didn’t know much about her when I was growing up as I saw her only once a year during my summer holidays. It was in the last 25 years that I understood who she really was.
Nobody left her house without being fed and happy. She had seen many a tragedy in her life, but no one had seen her shed a tear. She was my biggest support when I was going through troubled times in my personal life. Though everyone in the family tried to hide the truth from her, she was very sharp to know what remained unsaid. I still remember how she held my hand and said, “It will be alright.” And it was alright. Lakshmi Kutty or Amuma to everyone, lived to the age of 102.
All who had gathered to bid her goodbye had tears in their eyes. The crowd was not as huge as that of what was seen in Pala, but nevertheless they came from far and near. Till the age of 100, Amuma got up early in the morning and cooked on the wooden fire. Her eyesight was good. This was a result of a cataract operation done at the age of 90. She swept the courtyard and did whatever kept her busy.
She was up and about all her life. While she didn’t get to do the actual cooking in the last two years, she would chop all the vegetables and even grate coconut. I clearly remember 1 December 2018. She didn’t open her eyes and was gone on December 3, just like that. A life well lived. An inspiration to many.K M Mani will be remembered by a lot of people. Lakshmi Kutty will be remembered by all who knew her.