Memoirs-ByPakku

Susanne, Aman, my mother-in-law & Philomena

At Hazel’s Baptism in Uran. Susanne, Glenda, Neelu & Kavita



Diwali 2019 at Vashi. Neelu, Manish, Susanne, Akhilesh, Kavita, Nachiket, Philomena & I March 2019 at Anjali Celebrating Sr. Alphonsa’s birthday

December 2016 Sr.Jyothi at her Convent in Mysuru December 2016 At Chris Ray



Acknowledgement My journey of penning this Memoir began with the inspiration I drew from Sr. Alphonsa and my grandfather. Sr. Alphonsa had started to make a family tree somewhere in 2010, starting from her grandfather and shared the details with me; she could not complete it though for various reasons. I also remember having seen a diary kept by my grandfather with every detail of the family till he fell sick. [The diary contained birth dates, baptism dates, anniversaries, special events of the family, etc.] These two experiences ignited a desire in me to write this memoir. It took quite some time, more than three years or so with many breaks in between as I was undecided whether to go ahead or abandon it given the circumstances surrounding the family situation. I thank Philomena, Susanne and Sydney for encouraging and supporting me to go ahead with the book by putting all the past unpleasant things behind, which I did! Susanne helped me in putting things in proper perspective, including some bit of help with formatting and pictures. Huge gratitude goes out to her friend and ex-colleague Pritpal Kaur Mehtab for editing this memoir for language in record time. I also thank Sr. Jyothi, Sr. Ivy, Rosa and Hilda who gave some valuable timeline inputs regarding the younger siblings. My sincere thanks to all those family members who encouraged me to go ahead with my memoir. It is a dream coming true for me, a sincere account coming straight from my heart. I am sure you would find this a compelling read! Look forward to your comments and feedback. Yours truly,