yet a few memories: stage-1....

memory flashbacks keep popping up and I always feel I should immediately write them up, but never end up doing so, which is why the scrambled thoughts and lines in this transcript....

over the span of 30 years plus there have been many many fun times and even more fun times and yet more....thought i`d set up a framework and introduce all the young guns so that everyone who reads the blog will have a mental picture of the dudes who hung out with stephan in the vettucks standing committie (VSC) watching the world go by.....

stephen was an integral part of most of them starting with our VSC and fore-shore road stints.... to recollect some of those early day memories of VSC..... the bonding and camaraderie facilitated by the special mind-expanding process experimentation, combined with helping the cows (by not letting them eat too much fodder as it was better for the non-veggies & veggies alike) as the raw materials were then dried and burnt/ smoked to keep the mosquitoes away in the land termed as "queen of the arabian sea". ....

this was indeed a daily ritual and of course, stephen was part and parcel of the process, essentially accompanied by the ever green and young ashley koshie... and our honorable and the only trustworthy soul - the kuriyappy korah with his rajdooth bike and tennis racket... and the strappingly handsome jackie shroff lookalike - laiju the george who did treat us all in yuvarani for the sale of his bajaj vespa (?) scooter booking that came up and we had a guy on the nbext table fall off his chair when he got his bill :) remember....!

plus the role model executive type businessman koshy alex sporting his moustache and the engineering aspirant john k punnosse and the senior gee varghese .... and the young manoj and his then time partner alan...and the man with the bike painted two colours - one side in full red and the other side full blue,... did confuse the cops a boit and witnesses every time he had an accident - the young anil thomas who mused to come in from home wearing proper shirt and trousers and then get off in pallimulkku and go to xavier chettans tailoring shop and get changed into torn, scruffy jeans and a freaky t-shirt to then head out to thevara college as the yound cool dude :) ofcourse anil thomas had to repeat the process on his way back home and do the reverse for his folks :.....

.....and the first man in town to wear a wrangler jeans... thereby knighted "wangler" which has over the years progressed to be millenium compliant - to be the one & only "wangu" the brave and quiet arun kumar...

and how could we forget our strapping french triathlon winner with the one & amd only raleigh cycle - the young kin from rowdy ammacchi1s clan - the SKC as shamil calls him .... susheel kandathil cherian or the popular susheel kodaikanal cherian.... and our very own strapping - should have been a movie star, but didn`t go that route - pavan kariappa who had a wife from our clan them days figuratively....

biju the vijayan - remember all the days of changing tyres in front of pavan`s house .... and the days of dashing from the rear gate to the front inside st theresas while blaring the musical horn.... gosh, biju had the nerve and the ideas, a quiet and demure young brain with creativity flowing when it came to the girls :)

ooops... that made me recollect the young fashionable teenager with a gold streak on one side and a silver streak on the other in his hair and a jeans and a t-short with some bans name on it and a sneakers that would be changed more times than his underwear would ever get changed - the disco-dancer and prize winner for best dancing couple in navy ball with pammy of panampilly nagar fame, the one and only man who had his butt pinched with the rubies of this world in both coffee shop, the one and only young man who was a asst manager with the likes of ashley koshie and nandu in the wilderness of the ranges in tea estates..... i reckon you must have all guessed by now that this was our very own - Kat.. the Kat Sathyan as he was and still know as...

remembering Sathyan also brings to memory young gopal... mainly as both of them would slink away to gokul the nearby restaurant to have a masala dosa without any of us knowing.... and then we had the young gokuldas and haridas and krishnadas... oops, I meant KD as most would not know him as krishnadas :) a music bank and an expert on songs, KD was a quiet one as gokul did make up for that with his M50 motorbike like young gun shamil habib and his band of youngsters with the likes of paul - i`m paul from the UK... good bloke, i wonder where he is... and ofcourse shamils band wagon with bijo and a few others....

we did have our very own georgie who is now the hotshot commander in the naval archives and the strapping malayalee speaking sardar - our very own bunty sethi who is also a commander of a frigate i beleive... and our back up dudes from the indian navy - the j. s. gill and rajender. unfortunately i believe rajender is no more... may his soul rest in peace... but the two were famous for their escapades of flying low over st theresas college hostel and dropping chocolates and taking pics.... hmmm... gill is now flying air india so you may run into him some time...
we did also have our true patriot who then used to be the etb clan - suresh and and and.....

and we do have our very own steve eapen....... i remember steve when he got the dudes t-shirts with their names printed on it... grey with navy blue shoulder pads leading all the way to a 3/4 sleeve... quite kool t-shirts though... laiju the george used to flaunt it often :) ofcourse steve is now a hot shot in the USA along with our very own sam who used to play the stairway to heaven song brilliantly in our little sessions that used to take place when ashley`s folks weren`t there or in john k punnose`s house in the refinery area of sorts; and then we had our young descendent of the naturam godse ... the one only essence man, the aditya the deo; ofcourse he was the closest I`d say, with stephen in all these years... a very quiet young man for those of whom don`t know him well :), Aditya is a smart professional and always used to be the nice, gentlemanly sort and still is.... should not stop without mentioning our popular viju who is now after years of experimentation, living in good ol`e abu dhabi...

this will turn out to be a looong one if I start to name every one out there i guess.... so shall simply sign off on that with just a mention of ali our very own cigarette supply box shop (petti-kada) at jos junction and the numerous times we`d hit ICH with the urge to have the coffee (coffee out there was superb) not to mention their beetroot filled MD and MC and TO.... simply masala dosa, mutton cutlet & tomato omlette.... three cheers to ICH, the food still tastes the same....

and then, there was a time we had a penchant for music ... well, we still do... and stephen and I decided to pay some music and teamed up with a few dudes from kottayam... ajit daniel chacko the band leader then was a nice maloo bloke who was born and brought up in jamshadpur and had shifted to do his degree in cms college in kottayam. go introduced to him via mutual acquaintances and we joined up in the band,,,, gosh its so far ago that I don`t even remember the band’s name, but we were good :)

our opening song was "we are an american band" by grand funk....... cool number. Stephen and I used to head across most weekends - managed to reach there some how, by train or bike or .... one specific time we took wavvan`s (may god rest his soul as he is no more too) M50 and did that stint to kottayam... that was one helluva ride... imagine riding from ernakulam to kottyam... it took forever and we had to start playing at 7 pm and did reach by 8 ofcourse... well, stephen used to play the electric rhythm guitar and I, the drums...

we used to do a few rock and rock&roll numbers and some pop and it was fun. Infact stephen used to sing a few ones too, not many but a few like j j cale etc. hey that was really kool. we even played for the arts club festival and opened the CMS college arts club festival with a concert .... was fun to play in these small bands though and we did have a swanky time...

I don`t know of anyone in VSC who`d remember the times stephen and I used to go across to play in kottayam... good times, great times, terrific times...

will be back with some more memories soon... got to run now....
await "yet a few memories ... stage-2...."
coming soon....

Yet a few more memories.....

Memories last forever.... a few of them....

Eulogy (25 June 2010) - My beloved uncle

I was 6yrs old, when on 09 August 1995, I was made the flower girl for Shyla and Stephen’s wedding and that’s when we invited Mr. Stephen Francis into our lives.

My earliest memory of him was sitting in their bedroom on their first night and refusing to get out as I wanted to have an intelligent conversation (about food) and chit chat with "my new uncle". Yes, inspite of them trying to kick me out, my mom and dad and Gran trying to call me away, I stayed with them – all the way till 11pm :)

A formula 1 fan and a dedicated Michael Schumacher follower, Stephen uncle introduced me to the world of car racing when I was just 11. He even got me a cap signed personally from my favourite formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher when he went for one of his many F1 races.

My relationship with Stephen uncle was quite straight forward and easy to maintain. Plain and simple – Give and take! Everyone at home hated cleaning the fish tank every week, therefore I would help him clean the fish tank and I would get a burger. Or if Chech asked him to do some chores around home, he would call me [I lived in the next building] and say ‘Aye Sharon, want a double whopper from Hardees followed by donuts?’ and I would obviously say ‘YES!’ He will then give me my task list for the weekend! … A very understanding relationship I must add.

He was different from all the other "uncles" in my life – no unwanted lectures. He would give me 50 Dirhams when I ask for 5! An adventurous guy by nature, his ideal weekend was a long drive to the desert, camp there the whole night and go quad riding all of which I have been a part of many a times.

And gradually as I entered my teens he introduced me to the world of music. From the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears that I used to listen to, Stephen uncle got me to explore Scorpions, Roger Waters and he even took me for the Jethro Tull concert in Dubai.

An intelligent man and well aware of everything happening around him, he would beat us any day on a game of scrabble and monopoly. I would always prefer being in his "team" as we never stood a chance of losing.

The line he used to live by was "the future belongs to those who dare" and I have always seen him practice this by teaching Sarah and Rachel to take the path less taken by others and to explore their alternatives.

During his 43 yrs on Earth he was the loving son and brother to the Francis family. He was the loving and doting brother-in- law and uncle to the Samji family. The passion in his life - he was the loving and caring husband to Shyla Stephen for 14 yrs and 10 months and finally the role he took the most seriously the father, provider and mentor to Sarah Ann Stephen and Rachel Elisa Stephen

One of Stephen uncle’s fav quotes was "it’s good to be in abundance" and at this point it’s amazing at the abundant strength and love he has left us with. And because of all this and coz of who he was in our lives, we celebrate his life and not mourn his death.

And just like how chech and Stephen Uncle would say to each other, we ‘love u now, forever and a day..’

Stephen Uncle – I’ll love u always coz u were different from the rest.

Signed - ur favourite niece!

Memories in abundance

We met, talked for about 45 minutes, he popped the question and I said yes! Steve and I were married 8 days later.
Our first fight was at the Church on our wedding day – I was ½ hour late! We tied the knot and the Father went about his sermon. Steve whispered ‘Why were you f@#*ing late, we are timed at the Taj...’ and I replied ‘Did you just say F@#**? How can you say F@#**, in church?’


Before we know, one of Steve’s relatives tapped him on the shoulder and said ‘The priest has been asking the bride and groom to stand up – 3 times now!’ And so began an incredible journey.

Steve’s style was rather unique. He’d have no qualms walking into my office to undock my laptop, then walk into that meeting on that stressful day and declare, ‘I am taking my wife, I think she deserves a break, any objections?!’ And from there the next stop was atop Big Red – me all dressed in a business suit and high heels – we did raise quite a few eyebrows the way I was dressed!

Hamukil Badkoos, coconut problems, HumukITis, Al Gulth is just a few words from many he would use to diffuse a tense situation.


Good times were a plenty! I won’t take names and risk offending anyone – you are welcome to own your respective instances! Here’s a few that would always make us laugh …

• Anonymous and Stephen learning to lock an aircraft’s toilet from the outside for privileged use on a 14 hour flight!
• Anonymous and anonymous making such an impact with my Bro & SIL that repeated attempts from Stephen to correct the picture just fell on deaf ears! All for Kappa and ‘thalla curry!’
• Anonymous engrossed in trying to figure anonymous enacting Shrek during a game of dumb charades and told Stephen ‘stop yelling, I am trying to concentrate!’ when all Stephen kept yelling was ‘DONKEY…’
• The trip to Silverstone with anonymous where Stephen got mistaken for Montoya and had a mini crowd following him to the extent that anonymous to-date gets irate on the extra £s they paid to upgrade hotels for better security!
• On a non smoking flight, 8 hours into journey, Steve came back smelling like Marlboro Lights and when queried he replied ‘have you seen the bunker downstairs where the crew rests? Ya – I got a quick tour!’
• The dark night in Kattur where he wandered around in the night calling ‘Molly! Molly!’ coz anonymous left the compound gates open and Molly the dog ran away!
• Stephen getting anonymous to clean the huge fish tank and delegating his part of the household chores to anonymous in return for a Hardees burger …
• Referring to anonymous and anonymous as ‘Kutti Pattalam!’ and getting thoroughly annoyed with the ruckus they make around home but would quickly check on them the moment there is an unusual silence

I can’t quite pin down one favorite memory with Steve. Each day is a memory.

What would have been a mundane drive turned to be an unforgettable experience when Steve gave me a key with a BMW logo! He said ‘Enjoy and live your dreams!’ A BMW was my dream from when I was 18 perhaps?

Steve always encouraged me to go the extra mile. I owe my career success to him. Steve mentored me to keep a dignified distance from ‘coconut issues,’ take corners whether in life or on the roads, night drive, higher studies, desert drive – the list is endless.

There was never a time when he would stop me from doing what I wanted including shopping!
There was never a topic we couldn’t discuss … whether it was our lives before we met or whether its life without him.

Sure Stephen and I began as husband and wife. But we matured and ended up being best friends!
And what a wonderful relationship it is … I am honored to be Mrs. Stephen :)

Hello Everyone
For those of you who remember Stephen Francis and would like to share an anecdote or two or three or four, please go ahead and do so here. The guy was quite the character and for those of us who have been with him for so long have so many memories of the man so some words from us would be more in tune with his attitude.

Stephen was one for cracking quotes. I think he saw himself as quotemaker. Whenever he would prime himself up with inspiration he would let fly his pearls. Woe to one who had to be the brunt of his wisdom.

He was also academically very brilliant getting great grades all the while indulging in every non-curricular activity one could do in One Horse Town Cochin.

He hated being called Steefan or Steefaa. He would constantly correct people by telling them S.T.E.P.H.E.N. is pronounced Steven. Imagine this situation for Malayalee people who by God's decree have never got any western name right ever! Those who didn't want to incur his wrath or rant just called him Steve.

I am going to post a couple of pictures. Look forward to seeing a few words from others.
Cheers
Ashley