Ram's Long-Lost Nephew

Yet Another Surprise

Ram and I were having tea in the front patio of our house when we received a call from one of Ram’s grand-niece, the granddaughter of one of Ram’s late elder sister. She very rarely, hardly is more appropriate, call us and when she does it is for some specific information to relate to us on the bigger family. I expected this call to be one like that, that someone or somebody is in hospital, or perhaps something untoward had happened. She requested to speak directly to Ram. I could only hear the one-sided conversation but could make out that she had passed on the call to somebody else to talk to Ram. Suddenly there was excitement in Ram’s voice. A string of questions came from her. She was excitedly talking and only in English, which I found quite odd, as we normally converse in mixed Malay / English banters with kinfolks.

I continue to listen to her side of the conversation and I slowly began to realize who she was talking to. Her late sister’s eldest son, and who is about 2 or 3 years older than us. He had gone to the UK for further studies after finishing upper secondary school in 1959 and had stayed on there since. He had only returned home once or twice in the last 45 years. The first time he came back was sometime in 1972 or so. Tessa was then about two years old. I remember he had very long hair and dressed in the ‘Hari Krishna’ signature dressing, the era of ‘flower children’ and he was clearly into this grouping of young people. I began to wonder how he looks like now. I signaled to Ram to invite him over for lunch or dinner and he agreed to come for lunch the next day. He had just arrived at the airport and was met on arrival by his niece or Ram’s grand-niece, the one who made the call.

All the years he had been away there was no communications between him and the kinfolks here. It was as though he was keeping away from the family for some reasons or other. Even the several times when we were in London we could not or do not know where to look for him.

It was also an opportune time for him to visit us as Ram’s sisters, Siti and Rashidah were with us. They had come up from Johor Bahru the day before to join us in going for yet another wedding in the east coast (the dirty state where, on our previous visit, some family members and I were infected and ended having very bad tummies. My mum was hospitalized even. See my previous posting on this). This time it is the wedding of one of Ram’s grand-nephews. The three sisters were really looking forward to meet this long lost nephew of theirs. They prepared several dishes for lunch and called a few other nephews to join us in meeting him at lunch. Tessa had scheduled for another lunch meeting and thus could not come home to meet this cousin of hers. Perhaps she can meet up with him later. My other children are of course located too far away to join us in meeting him.

Lunchtime the next day came. The other nephews arrived first and shortly after he arrived with his niece and her husband. I looked at him getting out of the car. His mannerism, features, size were typically his late father, and his smile, which was exactly his father’s, confirms that this is really the long lost nephew. Only that this time around, he was the opposite of how he looked like when he came some 30 over years ago. He had shaven bald and was dressed in fitting T’s and casual slacks, white socks, a band on his right wrist, a necklace and a good tan. He was a few years my senior when in school. I began to recall the times when we were in school with his mannerism, the way he talks and gestures. His three aunties and I had so much to talk about with him.

We learnt from him that he has one daughter and that he had separated from his wife when the daughter was very small, and that the daughter should be in her early forties now. He does not know where the former wife is neither had he seen his daughter as the wife kept the daughter away from him since their separation. He says he is still trying to find his daughter. He had apparently remained single since. He lives somewhere outside of London he said.

He had dabbled into various things throughout his life. He is now into ‘healing’. He had mentors and gurus to guide him and now teaches others into healing. He is currently involved with a group in Bali on this healing thing. It is something like faith healing, using inner power to heal. I will have a separate post to share my thoughts on healing.

We continued to chat with him and he left after a while to meet his younger brother with a promise that he will try to come and see us more often now that he gets to go to Bali on a regular basis. We certainly do look forward to see him more often.

MKI Ramblings Unlimited,
Petaling Jaya