A tale of 3 Sreekumars

Do you remember the name John Garrideb? It’s a character in one of the Sherlock Holmes stories that came out in 1924 titled: “The Adventures of the three Garridebs.” 

Well, about 98 years after the story came out, I happened to remember that title when a simple set of incidents happened with me last month in Kerala. And that’s why I have adapted the title from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s story even though nothing singular or peculiar happened in my case. 

Sreekumar is a relatively rare name outside of Kerala. And certainly not with a name that is spelt with two e’s as in Kerala. 

But my father gave me that name and so did the father of another batch mate of mine from Kerala School, at the erstwhile Canning Road in Delhi. He joined us in the 11^th standard back in 1991. 

We passed out of school in 1993 and reconnected once Facebook came into picture. 

We finally got to meet on 23^rd March this year after almost 29 years. It was a great meeting in Kochi and we spoke at length though the memories we share and the memories that we want to share is longer than the road ahead. Among the things we managed to recall with much nostalgia was about going to the iconic Chanakya theatre in Delhi in April 1993 after our 12^th class board exams to watch Arnold Schwarzenegger in Raw Deal as well as playing tennis ball cricket in the sector 5 park in Pushp Vihar, Delhi with our other friend Arun who is now a Brigadier in the army. 

We parted for the night on the agreement that we would need many more occasions to catch up on all that had happened in our lives since we passed out of school. 

But the main story doesn’t end there. 

Even though there was no third Garrideb in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s story, there is indeed a third Sreekumar in my story. 

On Saturday the 26^th March evening, I was walking towards the town junction of a place called Keraladityapuram in Trivandrum, where my parents live when a bearded man in his mid 40s, dressed in a black shirt and black dhoti or Mund as we call it in Kerala waved to me and smiled. 

Even as I was trying to fight the post-corona brain fog, it became clear from his talk that he had mistaken me for someone else, thanks to the mask on my face. 

But it was flattering to know that he thought I was a Malayalam director who was related to the legendary lyricist and the former Chief Secretary of the Kerala government – Mr. K Jayakumar, IAS. Which true blue Malayali can ever forget the beautiful lyrics of “Chandana lepa sugandham…” from the 1989 cult classic Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha starring Mammooty and immortalized by the voice of KJ Yesudas? 

But then as we were about to part, purely out of courtesy I asked his name. 

Keraladityapuram Sreekumar, he said. 

We had a pleasant, happy look on our faces when he learnt of my name as well. 

He shared that he was the Panchayat member there once and it turned out that he knew my father as well. 

We parted ways but on my way back about 2 hours later, I ran into him once more and he gave a small booklet to share with my father regarding the upcoming festival in the nearby temple there. 

So that’s a small story of the three ordinary Sreekumars without counting the legendary national award winning playback singer MG Sreekumar, the former IPS officer RB Sreekumar, Jagathy Sreekumar – the erstwhile actor who acted in 1500 films, character actor SP Sreekumar and the well-known non-Malayali Prof. Srikumar Rao from the US. 

A small tail-end to the story: 

When Sree and I had gone to check in at the hotel where I was to stay for night, the receptionist at the lobby got confused when he learnt that the booking was made by a certain Sreekumar in the name of a Sreekumar. 

I took out my voter id card and showed him that I am R. Sreekumar and he is L. Sreekumar. 

Left and Right; Sree said to the receptionist, adding to his amusement. 

In the picture you’d see L. Sreekumar sitting to the right and R. Sreekumar sitting to the left awaiting one of my favourite dishes – Appam and vegetable stew for dinner!