In January this year, on a Thursday evening, Nesa Aunty had a visitor from across the globe – Beulin Naladha from Adelaide, Australia, who was in India for a vacation. This is an account of that evening.
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“It wasn’t a deliberate decision actually – very impulsive”, Naladha recalls, “I was taking a tour around the Dohnavur fellowship with my two boys – my parents were also with me – suddenly the tour guide, Mayma pointed to a house and told me with that unmistakable fellowship Tamil, “ Nesa Akka veedu”. She asked me if I wanted to go in and say hello.
“I wasn’t sure if Nesa aunty would be comfortable with an uninvited guest”, Naladha continues, “I’ve never known her in person – you see – so I was a bit hesitant. I did not want to intrude”
But Mayma, the tour guide, is a charming combination of enthusiasm and persuasion. Naladha had watched her play the chimes earlier in the day, and it seemed to Naladha that even the bars on the chimes danced to the tune of Mayma’s hands. Mayma pointed to the door and beckoned her once again. Naladha followed.
Video: Ms. Maymalar (Mayma) playing Amazing Grace on the Fellowship Chimes
As she stepped over the mahogany door sill, Naladha noticed the familiar pattern of predictable geometries spread out on the floor tiles.
“In the fellowship, even buildings wear a uniform”, she thought to herself.
Ms. Maymalar introduced Naladha as an alumnus from the first batch of Higher Secondary students to graduate from school. Nesa aunty remembered that the first batch graduated in ’97.
“Over 20 years have passed”, she said.
“I noticed that she wasn’t wearing her formal navy blue at home– instead she had a pink night dress on”, Naladha says.
Strangely, the absence of the blue with all its rigid integrity and perfections seemed to collapse the distance and unfamiliarity between them.
Image: Nesa aunty and Mary ma’am pose for a picture
Although in her mid 80s, Nesa aunty had all the stately grace of her Kashmiri ancestry, she asked questions to the boys, and listened actively to their replies.
For Naladha, this serendipitous tryst was a sly peek into the lives of aunties and akkas from the fellowship.
“Although we had lived literally next to each other, we did not know anything about the lives of these women. That surprised me quite a bit. I learnt that in the fellowship, most women – known to each other as “sisters” – share rooms and houses. Some of the younger sisters stay with the older ones and help them with any difficulties”, Naladha noticed.
Nesa aunty stays alone except for Sister Sonabai who helps her with the chores. Sister Sonabai, who is much younger in age and exposure assists Nesa aunty with everything. She seemed very glad to be of help to Nesa aunty. “That is how it is in the fellowship”, Naladha observed. “The younger sisters help the older ones. And then when they get old, their younger sisters look after them. It is a cycle. Occasionally Sis. Sonabai prepares a special meal for Nesa aunty, but mostly Nesa aunty gets her meals from the fellowship kitchen”.
Nesa aunty spoke about her health. She said she had just had her chemotherapy sessions completed.
“I am feeling good”, she smiled, adjusting her headscarf.
After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017, she underwent a surgery in Chidambaram hospital at Thisaiyanvilai. A certain Dr. Christopher performed the operation. Although, she went through a lot of pain, Nesa aunty has maintained a cheerful disposition throughout. No one has ever heard her complain about her circumstances.
Recently, the Principal mentioned that Nesa aunty’s daily devotions since the diagnosis were deeper and more reviving to her audience. On Palm Sunday this year, she helped with serving the communion service bread and wine to older akkas.
A lot of details about Nesa aunty, Naladha only learnt after she got back to Australia and got in touch with friends from school. That Nesa aunty’s father was an Englishman, that she was a Kashmiri though, and that she was brought to the fellowship when she was about 15 or 16 days old. That her birthday falls on the 7th of July, but she does not celebrate that day. “Instead she celebrates the day she was brought to the fellowship which falls on the 21st or 24th of July”, Naladha continues. “I heard about her leading the girls in WCC during her college days as a charismatic leader – that and so many other minutiae which interested me greatly as I probed each detail”, she adds.
“As we sat across each other that evening, I realized how vastly different each of our lives and circumstances can be”, Naladha reminisces in retrospect. “I had my parents beside me, and my boys were playing with peacock feathers that Mayma had given to each of them. Yet here I was in a conversation with a wonderful woman whose life and experiences may have been very far from my own”
Despite her health that evening, Nesa aunty was hopeful that she would be able to leave her house in a few weeks, and travel around the fellowship on her bike once again.
“I miss going around in my bike”, she said to Naladha. “I will take it around the fellowship once I am better”
When they were parting and bidding good-byes that evening, Nesa aunty turned to the boys with a smile, “You should always love Jesus” she said, “And tell about Jesus to others”
As Naladha stepped out of Nesa aunty’s home onto the grass outside, Mayma looked at her. Naladha smiled back at her and nodded. The January sun was dimming into oblivion, sending its final shimmers of photons for the evening. The green grass of the fellowship lawns swayed gently in the breeze. The boys ran ahead of them. Mayma and Naladha watched them as they raced each other into the moonlight.
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Image(From Left to Right): Davin holding the peacock feather from Ms. Mayma. (She’dd given it to the boys to quieten them. It was a prized possession of Mayma’s. She parted with the feathers rather hesitantly. Jaden chilling on his Mama’s lap. Nesa aunty smiling for the picture as always.