Sometime in 1950s my great grandfather bought a sizable amount of land in a district in Kerala, India. Though I have seen only his photo, I have great admiration and respect for him. He is looks majestic and makes me a proud great grandson. I admire him as he is one of the handful who has bought land as opposed to inheriting.
Until 1996 I had gone to this land only twice & never stayed in our old house. Sometime in 1996 my father got possession of the papers belonging to the land. The bunch papers weighed say 300 - 400 grams and as someone who collects antiques, stamps etc this was a treasure trove for me. In various discussions with lawyers I have shared my frank admiration for the papers as opposed to the land - and they think I am bluffing or I am crazy. I spent evenings combing through the papers, cross comparing the old letters and alphabets with sources like Bible. The Malayalam Bible used numerals in Malaylam as opposed to Arabic numerals.
(screen shot from : https://www.prokerala.com/malayalam/mal-alphabets.htm )
My sole goal was to find useless stamp papers or any old document which I can then add to my antiques or stamps. Looking back I also feel I was well versed in the Christian Succession Act of India & a peculiar mention about a certain "Mary Roy" ! Its so happened that on the mom's side we were traditional agriculturalists with hoards of land. I grew up as the "pet" of my grand parents hearing stories about "Mary Roy" and various means to divide the land. My grand father was the local "unpaid" advocate or so as per the local lore. He had people visiting with land disputes and various other disputes and 90% of the time he settled the disputes sitting in our varandha. (The settlement often followed by my grand mother yelling about why she was brought to Wayanad and she was supposed to be living peacefully in Aleppey). I am not sure how many times I have gone through this ordeal. But I was getting coaching about law and I knew about this mysterious "ammachi" called Mary Roy : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Roy much earlier than many others.
A word or two about Mary Roy ammachi
So this ammachi was not so welcome in the proud male chauvinistic Christian families. Back then I had no clue what this ammachi did. But now after cross checking wikipedia and few articles I see that she was an activist who brought justice to lakhs of Christian women. Her landmark case allowed the Christian women to inherit what is rightfully theirs.
Later in my adult years, I read "God of Small things" & learned more about "Mary Roy" as a character called "Ammu" in the novel. Little did the lower primary school boy listening to his grandfather knew about any of this. Years later even know I am very very proud that both my great grandfather and grand father had given their fair share to their daughters.
The contents of the papers
I must admit that the land papers, though old and belonging to various princely states were so well written that I got only 1 unwanted stamp paper from the bunch. I was quite annoyed and I combed through each every piece of paper and in the process learning about Travncore Christian Act & Cochin Succession Act. I was thoroughly disappointed back then.
21 years later, now when looking back at the 9th standard student who was thoroughly disappointed, my admiration for my great grand father is reassured.
My Great Grandfather had not just given his property to his daughters, he gave his sons what they deserve early in their life.
The fun times
Little is known by the fellow family members of mine whom I have never ever met that their involvement in this entire episode is caused by a 9th standard school boy. Like every other teenager this school boy I was also armed with righteousness and the urge to do good. I convinced my dad that every relative should get a fair share and thus he ended up adding the names of every relative he good think of in the tax papers! Now the little land's tax receipt has the names of half the population of Kerala state.
So, now 21 years later, here I stand thoroughly amused by people, greed & equally proud of the great grand parents. My dad who passed away 2 years ago is now accused of trespassing land. Which makes me also a trespasser!
Apologies Mr Varghese Mappilai
I am not sure why the land was given ONLY to the daughters in his will by Mr Vargheese Mapplai - my great grand father. Well, I will never find the answer in this life for sure. I am not sure whether causing all this drama and making this situation whereby the land is now given to your son's against your will disappoints you or not. I have done everything in my power to make sure atleast everyone gets something. I have taken pains to investigate whether your son who is an outcast is alive or not. Right now, my feeling and opinion is that everyone of your kin should get some reasonable share and that is also against what you wanted.
I don't know whether its right or wrong to expect everyone of us, your grand children and relatives gets a piece of the wealth you had created.
I am sorry, I was not able to implement or enforce what you really wanted.
I think, we must actually look at what your kin, who is creating this thoroughly amusing scenario & enjoy. I would like to believe that sitting somewhere you will be laughing at all of us and especially those of your kin running around throwing civil cases at each other.