Kochi: Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has been so busy a man during the four decades of his public life that he was not around when any of his three children was born. And his wife once had to send him a letter to complain about the new cook at their official residence.
True or false? Whatever, anecdotes about Chandy abound. And now they fill a book that also carries his caricatures. The compilation by his press secretary P T Chacko is being made public here tomorrow by Minister of State for Human Resource Shashi Tharoor. The book is being published by DC Books.
The 64 caricatures and the anecdotes lucidly narrated by Chacko reveal Chandy as a man of simplicity, without much thought to sartorial considerations. They also show him as a man always on the move, with little time to spare for his family. Whether at home or in office, he is surrounded by a crowd.
According to one anecdote, even his wife, a retired banker, rarely sees her husband. On one occasion, after she got no chance to speak to him about a cook appointed in their official residence, Mariamma Oommen Chandy wrote a letter to the chief minister.
The book says:”... he spotted a letter bearing a familiar handwriting. It was a complaint against the cook, written and signed by yours truly, Mrs Chandy.”
Mariamma reveals that when she gave birth to their three children, her husband was not around. When she delivered their first child, Maria, Chandy was assigned to accompany the visiting Sushma Swaraj, the then Haryana labour minister who now is leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha. And when their second child was born, Chandy was drawn away for an urgent party meeting.
His two daughters and a son point out, with a tinge of rue, that it’s only when there is a state-wide shutdown that they get to see their Papa at home, the book says.
Chandy contested from the Puthupally assembly constituency in Kottayam district first in 1970, and he has not lost a single election since then.
Another interesting incident the book talks about is an interaction Chandy had with superstar Mohanlal on completing 40 years as a legislator. When the film star asked him about the last film he saw, pat came the reply, “Manjil Virinja Pookal”.
IANS
