Abraham bids final adieu

Abraham Tharakan had been a very popular figure in the blogosphere as a prolific blogger.  He merged with Divine Light on 7th September, at the age of 80.  I came to know about this from my blogger friend in Mysore, Ramachandran who had linked me to 'Maddy's tribute': [Click here]

My brief friendship with him started on an unusual note.  My brother had sent me an e-mail with a link to this blog [click here], asking me if I could identify the striking blue flowers from the 3 photos in it. The blogger [Abraham Tharakan] was curious in knowing its name.  He had posted his friend K.O.Issac's plant pictures. It was a rare plant, so I copied one image and posted it on "Dave's Garden", where there are many knowledgeable gardeners.  I was/am also a member there, being an avid gardener. It was in 2007, the same year Abraham [and yours truly too] had started blogging.  He was then 73 and in Chennai from where he moved to his home, Cochin in 2009 I think.  

Very soon, that plant was identified.  I posted the plant name in the comment box in Abraham's blog.  He took objection to my posting it up without permission, which was my mistake, as he had mentioned 'copyright'.  Our brief e-friendship started with my apology to that!  In the meanwhile I had his e-mail address.  One of my introductory e-mails was with the apology!  Later he gave a formal permission to add that picture to the plants database there, but only after he got the green signal from Mr. Issac.  That is how meticulous he was.

It was no wonder that many bloggers had become good friends with him as he was a wonderful and friendly person. He wanted to meet me too and thought of a possibility in Bangalore where he used to travel frequently on some work at that time. My going to Bangalore did not happen.

It did not take me too long to get impressed with his beautiful style of writing and the subjects he chose.  One can see a long 'followers list' in his blog which was absolutely no surprise. 

Our e-mail exchanges were long apart but we forwarded mails to each other a little more often.  In one of the mails he mentioned about his younger days in Bangalore and his love for Hockey.  He linked me to his post with those memories because of that 'Mysore connection'. [Click here].  But I would like to reproduce what he wrote me in his mail: 

"I did play hockey for the Mysore University in 1954. Was goalkeeper. We came up to the All India finals but lost to the star studded Punjab in the bitter cold of Ludhiana that year. The match was on Jan 25 or 26. I didn't go for selection in 1955 because it was my final year.

In 1957 I played in the Nationals at Bombay for Kerala. That was the high point in my hockey career. The opponents were again Punjab which was almost the Indian Team. We conceded the first goal through a deflection. Then Udham Sigh scored twice against me. Only that great forward could have scored those goals. 

Dhyanchand who was the Chief Guest said my performance that day was perhaps the best he had seen.  I had to give up hockey for my career." 

[Dhyanchand was a hockey wizard]

One of my blog posts on old memories prompted him to come up with one himself and he mentions me in it: [Click here].

RIP Abraham Tharakan.