Ayyappan the milkman did not come yesterday

Ayyappan the milkman did not come to Rajavihar and Laxmeenarayana yesterday.

One of our first duties of everyday for the last seven or eight years is placing the milk pot with a filter on the 'thinna' of the porch. If we get up late for some reason or other, we hurry doing that duty since Ayyappan usually comes at about 6 am. We also let the gate open for the first visitor of the day. Ayyappan 'was' never a talkative person. As I check my e-mails at Punarvasu during the wee hours of the morning, I hear the sound of his M80 braking. He poures the milk into the pot with just a smile on his face and moves to Laxmeenarayana for his distribution of milk for Kochettan and Girija chitta. I take in the milk to the kitchen for that first cup of strong coffee, without which any day cannot called by that name.

After that as I go out of the house for my jogging I meet him near Paaliyam or Kottaram in his M80 giving milk to the homes of Palace Road for their morning coffee or tea.

Usually I have not seen him during any other times of the day except sometimes near the portico near the Thekkans hotel near the Highway. I do not know where he lived or anything about his children though he 'was' a silent part of our homes for so many years.

Till yesterday

Day before yesterday was the last time we saw him in the morning. Little did we know that we would not see him again. On that day after his duties he was riding his vehicle. Suddenly, a maruti car hit on his vehicle. The accident was fatal. He died due to the hit.

As one more person associated withRajavihar leaves us, never to be returned or seen again, I wonder about the fate of his family whom I never knew about. He just went away from our lives like the way he went out of Rajavihar everyday as silently as the morning breeze that flew over Rajavihar.

We owe him three days' price of the milk but we are indebted to him for the good milk he supplied to us giving meaning to my mornings.........

murari