Quilon, Kerala, India
Four brothers with the same acronyms denoting their names lived in the picturesque seaside village of Tangasseri. The place was popular for its lighthouse which came into existence early in 1902.Another interesting feature was that remains of both the Dutch and Portuguese forts can be still found there.The four brothers all had P.B D’Cruz as their abbreviated names,when expanded P and B denoted different names. Each of them went on to carve different careers for themselves in their lives. The eldest one went on to become a successful Teaching Professional to helm one of the well known schools in Dubai. The second one cracked the Indian Civil Services at the young age of 22 barely out of college; subsequently joined the Indian Police Service(I.P.S) and got posted to the Northern part of the country right in the midst of the badlands of Chambal. One of them built a career and a life down under(Australia) and made a name for himself as a Senior Executive in one of the biggest Telecom companies of the world. The youngest of the lot, a passionate educationist still continues his vocation of moulding young minds.He was the one who was lucky enough to be still based out of the place where he is born
Four brothers with the same acronyms denoting their names lived in the picturesque seaside village of Tangasseri. The place was popular for its lighthouse which came into existence early in 1902.Another interesting feature was that remains of both the Dutch and Portuguese forts can be still found there.The four brothers all had P.B D’Cruz as their abbreviated names,when expanded P and B denoted different names. Each of them went on to carve different careers for themselves in their lives. The eldest one went on to become a successful Teaching Professional to helm one of the well known schools in Dubai. The second one cracked the Indian Civil Services at the young age of 22 barely out of college; subsequently joined the Indian Police Service(I.P.S) and got posted to the Northern part of the country right in the midst of the badlands of Chambal. One of them built a career and a life down under(Australia) and made a name for himself as a Senior Executive in one of the biggest Telecom companies of the world. The youngest of the lot, a passionate educationist still continues his vocation of moulding young minds.He was the one who was lucky enough to be still based out of the place where he is born
Jose Dale
Essen,Germany
A few days into my first business visit to Europe as part of Mindcurv, one fine morning I receive the following broadcast message from one of my cousins.The youngest brother among my father’s siblings was visiting down under for the very first time to spend some time with his elder brother.
“Tomorrow is our Uncle's birthday. Please take a couple of minutes to give him a call or message him. Remember that he is in Australia which is 5 and a half hours ahead of India, 8 hours ahead of Poland,10 hours ahead of Germany and 11 hours ahead of London”
Just to put things into perspective this message was sent to the children of the very four brothers.
Reading the message gave me goosebumps. Come to think of it our grandparents would be super proud to know that their clan is scattered all across the world from east to west. Reading the message detailing on how we should wish our paternal uncle according to the timezones left me speechless. I have never seen my grandfather because he passed away a few years before my birth. As far as I know my grandmother was a very focussed and driven woman. She knew exactly where / what she wanted her children to be. But never would they have thought of how small the globe would become with their children/ grandchildren spread out like this.
This entire episode got us thinking of actually meeting each other since most of us were in Europe at that point of time. The fact of the matter was that I had not met my eldest cousin sister for almost a decade. The last I met her was for her marriage, I was the best man and one of my cousin sisters was the bridesmaid. Incidentally both of them are based out of London. Another cousin brother of mine was in the midst of a business visit to Krakow,Poland. It would be a coup d'etat if we could make the meeting happen. We chose Amsterdam for the big fat Jose dale meet up and started planning with great earnest. I was wary in the beginning because most often such grandiose plans never materialise.
Picture courtesy:Dannilla Donald Correya
Amsterdam,Netherlands
Finally, on the first weekend of December I reached Amsterdam after hopping a couple of trains. Aarti, originally from Australia had reached there first.We agreed to meet up just outside the Amsterdam Centraal station. By then I had already grabbed some breakfast and met up with Aaron one of Teenu’s cousin who had traveled overnight from Stuttgart. I had met this bloke when he was a kid along with his twin brother more than 2 decades back. We were just roaming around the streets around the station when Aarti called informing us that she had reached the station.
We rushed back to find her reading a book. All the offsprings of the 4 brothers were voracious readers thanks to their genes . Each of the brothers had a personal library of their own so it was a no brainer that the kids picked up the habit. After the warm customary hug I realised that it had been quite a long time since I had indeed seen her. She was now an IT professional and a part time musician hopping planes from the UK in the middle of a Friday night to meet her elder cousins.
Teenu had also called us to inform us that her flight had landed but preferred to wait for her younger brother whose flight was scheduled to land sometime later. Meanwhile,all 3 of us were roaming around the place in an effort to kill time and understandably we had a lot to catch up because we hadn’t met each other in ages.The weather was a bit colder than usual but manageable since it was December .
After walking a bit we decided to rest a bit by mid day. There was still no sign of the brother sister duo. We lounged at one of the cafes overlooking the innumerable canals and grabbed a beer. I felt old when I said cheers to my baby sister, she had not even crossed the legal drinking age the last time I met her for Teenu’s wedding. She retorted with gutso that I needed to take a chill pill now that she was an adult. We were joined by another friend of Aaron, Meena who had come from Hague. We again called up Teenu wondering as to what was going on. Adrian, being adrian had discounted the timezone difference and wrongly told his sister about his ETA. Teenu was hardly complaining because that gave her ample time to delve into a book, a rarity these days courtesy being a mother of two boys.He finally landed by afternoon.and they were on their way to meet us from Schipol airport.
As soon as they got down at the intersection ahead of our location Aaron spotted the distinctive blue jacket from a distance and concluded that it was Teenu. She had not changed a bit from the last time I met her. The quorum was now complete with Kavita who had accompanied them. Boy, we were a noisy lot and famished to the core because literally all of us had traveled quite a bit in the last few hours. As starters we grabbed some hot dogs and some onion rings from a food truck. Till date Teenu maintains that it was the best food she ate during our entire time over there. Post that we decided to grab something for lunch before heading to our respective hotels to settle down and then regroup towards the evening.
Now this is when the actual fun starts with everyone well rested and settled down we were all in our elements when we met again somewhere around dusk. There was a nip in the air since the temperature had slipped to single digits. We were still outdoors walking around looking for a place where all of us could fit in, our options were limited because of the large group size. Finally, found a Bulldog outlet which with a couple of benches outside. As mentioned earlier it was getting very cold but nonetheless we settled in. I wasn’t complaining much because I was coming from a place which had recorded sub zero temperatures the previous week. The entire group slowly was getting into the mood. Eventhough, we were all related it definitely took quite some time to warm up to each other. The last time when all of us met we were only boys and girls but today we were all battle hardened adults who had gone through a bloody lot in their lives. Being scattered all across the globe also didn’t further our cause any less.
After feasting on space cake topped up with some freshly baked homemade cake(courtesy: Teenu) and loads of caffeine we decided to finally push off. As we walked through the streets of Amsterdam looking for a good place for dinner I couldn’t help being reminiscent. I turned quite nostalgic when I thought about the 4 brothers during their growing up years chilling at their backyard in good old Tangy. During one of those evenings I don't think that even in their wildest dreams would they have imagined that their kids would one day hold a reunion of sorts in the Dutch capital. Undoubtedly, this evening filled with fun and frolic was going to leave an indelible mark in the rest of our lives.
Dam Square
Teenu had also called us to inform us that her flight had landed but preferred to wait for her younger brother whose flight was scheduled to land sometime later. Meanwhile,all 3 of us were roaming around the place in an effort to kill time and understandably we had a lot to catch up because we hadn’t met each other in ages.The weather was a bit colder than usual but manageable since it was December .
After walking a bit we decided to rest a bit by mid day. There was still no sign of the brother sister duo. We lounged at one of the cafes overlooking the innumerable canals and grabbed a beer. I felt old when I said cheers to my baby sister, she had not even crossed the legal drinking age the last time I met her for Teenu’s wedding. She retorted with gutso that I needed to take a chill pill now that she was an adult. We were joined by another friend of Aaron, Meena who had come from Hague. We again called up Teenu wondering as to what was going on. Adrian, being adrian had discounted the timezone difference and wrongly told his sister about his ETA. Teenu was hardly complaining because that gave her ample time to delve into a book, a rarity these days courtesy being a mother of two boys.He finally landed by afternoon.and they were on their way to meet us from Schipol airport.
Lunch together
As soon as they got down at the intersection ahead of our location Aaron spotted the distinctive blue jacket from a distance and concluded that it was Teenu. She had not changed a bit from the last time I met her. The quorum was now complete with Kavita who had accompanied them. Boy, we were a noisy lot and famished to the core because literally all of us had traveled quite a bit in the last few hours. As starters we grabbed some hot dogs and some onion rings from a food truck. Till date Teenu maintains that it was the best food she ate during our entire time over there. Post that we decided to grab something for lunch before heading to our respective hotels to settle down and then regroup towards the evening.
Its the time to party
Now this is when the actual fun starts with everyone well rested and settled down we were all in our elements when we met again somewhere around dusk. There was a nip in the air since the temperature had slipped to single digits. We were still outdoors walking around looking for a place where all of us could fit in, our options were limited because of the large group size. Finally, found a Bulldog outlet which with a couple of benches outside. As mentioned earlier it was getting very cold but nonetheless we settled in. I wasn’t complaining much because I was coming from a place which had recorded sub zero temperatures the previous week. The entire group slowly was getting into the mood. Eventhough, we were all related it definitely took quite some time to warm up to each other. The last time when all of us met we were only boys and girls but today we were all battle hardened adults who had gone through a bloody lot in their lives. Being scattered all across the globe also didn’t further our cause any less.
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