Holiness Unleashed

 Danichan was mixing soap with water and making bubble tornadoes during his bath time when he asked me a question.

“ How is holy water made, Amma?”

 This question brought back a heart warming  memory from over three decades ago.

We had a little bottle of  holy water in our living room showcase. Vallyaunty must have brought it during her annual home visits. During exam time, we would dab it on our forehead as if it would  miraculously give us to the powers to perform well. 

Curious to know how this special water was made I posed the same question that Dani had to Deechechi. 

Deechechi was quick to reply.“ It’s no big deal. There is church in Rome with a huge tower. People crowd outside the church with baskets full of stuff they want to be blessed. This would include liters of ordinary water in bottles. The Pope would then come out for a minute and make the sign of cross and say Bless all the stuff below and voila you have holy water".

This was before the era where you could  google to check the veracity of any answers. Also, I believed everything that Deechechi said and I had no doubts.  I passed on to  Danichan the same procedure to make  holy water that Deechechi shared with me years ago.

Daniel paused for a second and said “ We’ll, I have a better way of making it. You add some Dove shampoo and conditioner to a mug of water to make it cleaner and cleanliness is next to godliness which makes it holy.. and even better if you freeze it overnight you get holy ice! Can  we please make holy ice Amma?

As this included transporting a mug of holy water downstairs to the living room I said no.

PS: Deechechi was indeed right! Wiki page has  three DIY ways to make holy water and the process is essentially the same as what Deechechi told me years ago ( although the prayer is longer and you need to add salt to the water!)

A Piggyback Ride to Remember

  Back in the days, lunchtime on Sundays after Catechism classes would be the time for Smrithilayam on Dooradarshan; half an hour of nostalgic Malayalam music. Although this show didn’t particularly excite me; given that we didn’t have the unlimited choices with cable connection, I would still half heartedly watch it. Deechechi and I would sometimes pick  a song for roleplay that we could enact in our own little ways. As always, Deechechi would assign the roles, and usually she was the super hero and I was either the villain or the side kick. One song that we  particularly loved was  Thappukuttampuram Thavidukuttamparam which we both thought would be a perfect fit for performing. In this song a little girl is the central character as she is is showered with love while being given a piggy back ride by a bunch of family members. I  felt very excited and quite important; for finally getting the role of the main character and also for having to go on a piggy back ride. After many attempts with me climbing on the sofa and then jumping on to Deechechi’s back,  she finally said that I was not doing it right and decided to abort the play. I was so disappointed.  As you remember, I  was a mini-drama queen  back then and  Amma used to call me 'complaint box'. So,  I ran to  Amma and you to pour my heart out. You were both outside in the driveway talking to John uncle and a few of your other friends.   With tears running down my cheeks, I told you both what happened. I still believe that a Holy Angel must have descended on you that day; you surprisingly offered me a piggy back ride. I happily climbed on your shoulders and wrapped my legs around your waist and arms around your neck. I stayed there for almost half an hour as  you continued your light evening walk with with Amma. I felt just as proud and happy as the little girl in the song.

As a little girl many times I have yearned for more physical and verbal affirmations of love from you. I remember telling Amma once to ask you to call me mole once in a while instead of edi Jyotee.  But as I have grown older and may be a bit wiser, I have realized that love can be expressed in many different ways. From  meticulously ironing out all my uniforms and salwars through school and college, carefully filling out all the entrance application forms, driving / taking me to all important exams from SSLC, medical entrance exams and USMLEs, cooking countless delicious dishes, tirelessly washing all my pumping bottles during residency and most importantly taking care of Danichan and Emmanu like your own- you have  expressed your love and affection in a million other ways.

PS. I still maintain that you were a bit too strict and I prefer  the mellow version  I see you switch to when you are with your colleagues.