The ancestral history of the family is shrouded in oblivion and I have only heard from the hearsay what little information I posses about its origin. Its history is rooted in the distant past and people who claimed to know about it have passed away and the succeeding generations are totally in the dark. All I can remember is that the family originated from the Royal family of Kayankulam at a time the native Rajahs were in power. They were Kohatrias, a warring race of high caste Brahmins. It so happened that there was some trouble with the ruling Rajah and three of his brothers. The 3 brothers in vengeance murdered the Rajah and to escape punishment moved to distant places then under the Maharajah of Trivandrum who defeated the minor Rajahs and established sovereignty over their territories. The Rajah of Kayankulam remained independent and refused to accept the sway of the Rajah of Trivandrum and hence was his enemy. Now that the Rajah of Kayankulam was disposed off, his assassins became favourites of the Rajah of Trivandrum and as such were given special favours like free occupation of land and freedom from land tax etc. which these people enjoyed for generations. One of the 3 brothers settled in our house, the second a few miles away and the third some 15 miles away at a place called Konni. There were frequent contacts between these and one man from Konni used to visit us in my childhood and with his death the bond was broken.
The man who made his home here became eminent among the Hindhus and was treated with great respect. He had great landed properties and he had great influence among the local people. How many generations succeeded him is unknown. All I know was that my great granfather had sons, the elder of whom had his home at Kanianthrayil closeby and the younger in the family home. By that time or long before that time they became Christians. There was only one church under the See of Antioch. The Patriarch of Antioch administered the church through their bishops sent directly by the Patriarch. They thus became members of the Jacobite church. Later when the reformation in the church split the church in two, Jacobites and Marthomites, the members of the family elected to join the reformed church.
The younger brother of our great grandfather had no children when his wife passed away and a few years later he married a widow with 2 sons and 2 daughters and moved from the family home to the neighbouring property where he put up a house for his new wife and her children and left the family home to my father. It is noteworthy that my grandfather was one of the three, one each from Cherianad, Puliyoor and Ala who were mainly responsible for the construction of the Mar Thoma church at Puliyoor which we are all using at present. This is all in the church records. Besides this he gave away one and a half acres of land to the then CMS church at the request of their bishop. The converts belong to the backward race and they have been functioning ever since.
My father passed away at 68 years of age when I was 19 years of age and had just passed the lower certificate leaving 3 brothers and 3 sisters, the eldest of whom was already married to Mr. K. Geeverghese of Kaithaina, Kozhencherri. My 2 brothers were also married and my younger sister was also married before the death of my father. The 2 brothers built their own homes and moved into them. My mother and youngest sister lived in the family home and later when she was married her husband also stayed to look after mother and his wife. The younger sister was married to Mr. K. Mammen Eappen Karottuhruse, Nedungadapally near Mallappally. My eldest sister who is still alive and 91 years of age has 5 sons and a daughter. The eldest son K.V. Verghese was the Principal of the Mar Thoma College Kozencherri for several years. A few years after his retirement he passed away leaving behind his wife and 3 sons, all doctors and a daughter who is a lecturer in the Mar Thoma college. The sons have married doctors and the daughter another doctor. The second son George took after his father as a merchant and the third was in Kuwait with the British bank. The fourth son was employed in Bangalore telephone manufacturing company and the fifth is also a merchant.
My eldest brother K. M. Varghese who passed away in 1983 had 2 sons and 2 daughters. One of the sons is a priest of the orthodox church and the other an employee in the Indian railways in Madya Pradesh.
Next to him was K. M. John who also passed away in 1985 and left 6 sons and a daughter.
My youngest sister was married to an agriculturist Mr. C. C. Chacko who passed away in 1982. He has a son Prof. C. C. Phillip MSc who retired as Professor of Physics in the Kerala University College, Trivandrum in 1986. He has settled in Trivandrum. His 3 sons are engineers and the fourth is jobless now. His mother sold their property in Ala and has joined her son in Trivandrum.
I was born on 17th August 1907 and had my primary education in Kozhencherri, Cherianad and Ala schools after which I studued upto Form 3 at the Kodukulanji middle school and then Form 4 and 5 and 6 at the High School, Chengannur. I passed the SSLC exam in 1928. My father Mathunny Mathunny passed away soon after my results were announced. We were at that time in financial difficulties but my mother was very keen that I should go for further education. She borrowed Rs 300/- from my eldest brother in law in Kozchencherri by mortgaging our property. With that sum I joined St. Berchmans College Changanacherry for the Intermediate course. In 1929 I got married to Aleyamma in Kozchencherri. My father in law Simon Mathai was also in bad financial predicament and he borrowed some money from my brother in law on mortagage of his property at Kadamanitta. In 1930 I passed the Intermediate examination of the Madras University and proceeded to St. Thomas College Trichur for the BA course in Economics. I passed the degree exam in 1932. For almost a year I remained unemployed. Then in 1933 I left for Malaya where one of my wife's uncle Mr. V.A. Mathew was working as a teacher in a goverment school in Johor. I stayed with him in Segamat for about 6 months when I was offered a job in a private school, Penual High School in Kuala Lumpur. Later I was offered a post in the YMCA school where I worked for 6 months. I secured a place in the KKM school of commerce in Kuala Lumpur where I worked until the South Asia war in 1940. My wife and eldest son Mathew came over to Kula Lumpur in 1940 just before the outbreak of the war. We had a horrowing time until the end of the war in 1945. Mathew was born on 21/11/1933.
On 1/5/1940 my daughter Anne was born at Kula Lumpur. I was taken on the staff of St. Johns Institution Kuala Lumpur on 1/1/1941 and had to learn and teach the Japanese language until the Japanese surrendered in 1945 under the British military administration I worked at St. Johns school when in 1946 I was offered a teaching post in Kluang English School in January 1946. I continued teaching here till my transfer to Segamat High School in 1949. While in Kluang John was born on 18/8/47. He had his primary education in Segamat and later in Batu Pahat early in 1959. I was promoted to special grade in 1960 and became the Headmaster of High School Batu Pahat in which capacity I remained till September 1967. From 1964 I was supervisor of the Regional training centre at Batu Pahat. John passed his Cambridge School certificate exam in 1964 and had his higher secondary course at Johor Bahru till 1966 when he came to India and joined the medical course in Nagpur. On his passing the exam he was admitted to the MBBS course at the Government Medical College Nagpur.
Molly after passing her school certificate exam at High School Segamat came to St. Thersa College for her pre medical course which she passed in first class but since she could not get admission to the medical college she had to join the BSc course. A few months later she was admitted to the Trivandrum Medical College for MBBS. After taking her degree and doing her housemans year she came back to Malaysia in 1967 and was employed at the Medical College Kuala Lumpur. Later she was transferred to the General Hospital Kuala Lumpur where she worked for 2 years when she took leave to go to UK for specialisation in paediatrics. She completed the course in 1971 and came over to Ala to see us in 1971 October and was with us till 9/12/71 when we saw her off to Kuala Lumpur from Trivandrum. When we returned we heard the news on the radio her plane had crashed at Meha Malai near Madurai. She was one of the victims of the crash. We went to the place and were told her body had been removed to the general hospital Madurai. We picked up the body and came back home by 1pm. A large crowd awaited the corpse and the next day the body was buried at the cemetry of our parish church at Puliyoor.
Rachel the youngest daughter was born at Segamat on 4/8/51. She had her primary education at the Convent School Batu Pahat and her secondary education at the Goverment Girls School Batu Pahat. After passing her Cambridge School Certificate examination she returned to Ala with us. She joined the pre medical course at Nagpur and on obtaining first class in that exam was admitted to the Medical College, Ludhiana. On taking her degree she joined the staff of the College and later joined the MD course in pathology at the Central Medical Institue at Chandigarh. She passed in first class with first rank and was employed at the Medical College Ludhiana. She was married to Roy Oommen at Kachukushi Vennikulam an electronics engineer then employed at the B.P.I Bangalore. Later she was appointed at the Sri Chitra Medical Institute at Trivandrum. Roy resigned his job at Bangalore and joined her at Trivandrum where he remained unemployed and finally left for England after 2 years. Luckily he obtained a job in England as medical electronics engineer. At his instance she resigned her job at Sri Chitra and joined him in England. Later she obtained a job in London. She passed the first part of MRCP.
Mr. K.M. Mathai passed away on 1/7/91 and Mrs. Aleyamma Mathai on 2/7/91.
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