My cousin Binoy and I were greeted by Fr. Ranju Skaria outside Binoy's home in the early hours of the chilly Bhopal morning, before daybreak. We got into the waiting jeep and were on our way to Makodia.
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| Home of Abhaya Niketan, Makodiya |
In the jeep we met Kochamma (a honorific title given to the priest's wife) and their little baby who was named Jerome. That caught my attention as my son was named Jerome too, and it was not a common name in our community. Little Jerome watched us with great eagerness from his mother's arms. "We should reach Makodiya in a couple of hours" said achen.
Binoy and achen knew each other since a long time as they were from the same church, so they spoke about the local activities, politics, people as I listened along. On the way, achen stopped to buy us tea, but himself did not drink as it was the time of the Moonu Nombu (three day fast).
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| Jaipal |
Achen called the Makodiya mission house, which was from where the Abhaya Niketan Project was directed, and spoke with Jaipal to arrange for our breakfast. As I learnt later, Jaipal was a boy from the local village and he handled many of the routine chores at the mission house.
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| unpaved roads lead into Makodiya |
As day broke through, we were well on our way towards Makodiya. Achen drove us into Itarsi, and past the Balagram we have there, past the school managed by the Church and Itarsi railway station. Soon the paved roads gave way to dirt roads. As we swung from side to side because of the unevenness of the pathway, Binoy remembered that the last time they had been there, they had used a tractor to get through these areas. One shuddered to think how Mar Theodosius would have travelled to these areas many many years ago when HG first came to Makodiya.
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| Kerala in Madhya Pradesh? |
We drove through the mud roads, and finally reached the barricade that served as the gate into the mission house. Jaipal ran out and opened the gate for us and there we were - finally - what I had only heard of till then and had longed to see - the very place where Theodosius Thirumeni had carved out his precious vision for doing Christ's work in India - we were in Makodiya.
What greeted us was the sight of 3 coconut trees surrounded by a lot of greenery in front of the main building. We were far away from Kerala, I thought, but Thirumeni has ensured that he does not miss Kerala much in this place!
(Written by Mathew Samuel (Sunil), a visitor to Makodiya in January 2013)
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