“I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Wishing everyone a very Merry X'mas and advance wishes for the New Year.
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A lot of my memories of Perippa are of him laughing – his laugh always was so thoroughly, genuinely delighted, and in the time we spent with him, I remember he laughed a lot.
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Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Wishing everyone a very Merry X'mas and advance wishes for the New Year.
I stumbled across this email (sent a long time back, and almost forgotten) a few days back when looking for something else. It is from Pushpa, on Perippa, and she had asked that it be shared on this blog. Looks like today is a good day; after all, Christmas is a good time to recollect beautiful memories.
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A lot of my memories of Perippa are of him laughing – his laugh always was so thoroughly, genuinely delighted, and in the time we spent with him, I remember he laughed a lot.
Sometimes he liked to poke fun at our American accents and say that he had no idea what we were saying, though he almost always did. I also remember Perippa always getting a huge kick out of Meera scolding him about not wearing his hearing aids – he could never hide his smile. There was the சொடக்கு (sodakku) on our fingers and toes as kids, and him shaking his open palm at us saying “Yen di ippadi irukke?!” to either me, Ranjana, or Meera numerous times throughout the summers with a smile on his face. For years now that has been a catchphrase in our household.
I also remember how proud he was of his children and grandchildren’s accomplishments – how excited he was at Meera’s graduation, and at Appa’s professorship, for instance. Some years back, I found typewritten correspondence in his elegant English to Dr. Edward Miller – the CEO of Johns Hopkins – talking about what it meant for Appa to be promoted to professor at Hopkins. The last time I saw Perippa, he seemed a bit more fatigued than before, but he asked me to transcribe as he dictated a letter to Siddharth (Appa’s Patna classmates’ son) – it was impressive to see that he had lost none of that sharp, polished ability to express himself in words.
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