January 27, 1951. It was unusually a warm day. The day was long and the Sun was slowly sinking down in its tranquility. The sky was crimson in color. The birds were singing and flying to their nests. There were calm and serenity everywhere. Vazhappally was quiet. People were returning home after a day's work. But at my home there was commotion. Kochamma (mother's eldest sister) was there. Vayattatti (a traditional home nurse who helps pregnant women deliver babies at home) was there. My father (Achayen) and my brothers were there. My mother (Ammachi) was there in a small room. She was in labor. The Vayattatti and Kochamma were in the 'home labor room'. Ammachi was in great pain. She was in that room for the last three hours. This was going to be her sixth delivery. All other deliveries were normal and she delivered her children at home with the help of Vayattatti and Kochamma. The Vayattatti came out of the room and told Achayan that the delivery is complicated and she could not handle alone and urged him to call a doctor. Achayen ran to the Changanasserry government hospital holding a rosary along with my brother Joymma (Thomas).

Changanasserry was in a festival mood that week. The biggest festival of Changanasserry Cathedral - St. Mary's Metropolitan church - was the feast of Saint Sebastian which had just ended. The feast falls on 20th January. St. Sebastian was considered to be the patron saint of Changanasserry by the Christians. People at that time prayed to him to intercede and protect them from the plague, especially smallpox. Prior to the feast, St. Sebastian's Kazhannu (arrow) was taken to the houses for veneration. The preparations for the festival begins one month before the actual feast day. Workers erect pandals all around the cathedral and along the entire route of the procession. The procession starts from the church and proceeds through the historic market, boat jetty, circling the famous Anchuvilakku, then through Vattappally road and back to the church covering a distance of 3kms. The Changanasserry market was inaugurated by the Diwan of Travancore, Veluthampy Dalava in 1805 by selling an elephant. Anchuvilakku (five lamps) was installed by the people of Changanasserry in 1905 to commemorate the centennial celebration of the market. The lamp signifies unity in diversity representing the main religions of Changanasserry. For the procession, coir carpets were stretched on the road, poles and pillars were decorated with flowers, ribbons, ornamental plants and coconut leaves. On the St. Sebastian's feast day, all the people from Changanasserry and the neighboring towns and villages flock to the cathedral. There were many vendors selling food and sweets, toys and balloons, household items and cosmetics, bangles and chains, dates and oranges, fried peanuts and ushunnada - rings made of urad dal and put in a banana strip, and many other items on the church ground. Holy mass starts at 5 am and continues till 12 noon. The procession carrying the statue of Saint Sebastian encased in a glass- sided casket will start at 3 pm and everybody will look at the statue admiringly as the casket is carried on peoples' shoulders with jubilation amidst the local brass band playing, echoed by church bells. At every nook and corner, the statue would be garlanded with lemons. At every crossroad, the casket would be raised above the head and turned round so that the statue could look over all the worshippers and houses on that street. In front of every house, a nilavilakku- oil fired floor lamp - was lit. Nilavilakku is made of brass. Cotton wicks doused in oil is used for lighting the lamp. Traditionally nilavilakku is lighted and kept at the main front entrance of a house. Lighting nilavilakku is believed to be auspicious. It was the pride of the people of Changanasserry to celebrate the feast with pomp and show. The procession will reach back the cathedral by 7 pm. All the people would sit on the ground and relax with biting and quenching their thirst while waiting for the fireworks. The fireworks would start at 8 pm and would light up the sky with rainbow colors up to 10 pm.

The people were also happy on 27th January 1951 because they had celebrated the 2nd Republic day of India on the previous day. India became a republic on 26th January 1950. Five hundred small princely states ruled by kings and queens, maharajas and maharanis were integrated into one country, India. Kerala State was not yet born. Changanasserry was under the newly formed State of Travancore-Cochin (Thiru-Kochi) with the king of Travancore as the Rajapramukh. It was a short- lived state. My father approached the government doctor and apprised him of the grave situation. The doctor kindly agreed to go with him. Joymma ran and hired a hand driven rickshaw. The rickshaw wallah started pulling the rickshaw with the doctor inside. Achayen was running at the front of the rickshaw and Joymma running at the back. In between Achayan was screaming at the rickshaw wallah to pull faster. He was sweating profusely. When they reached home Achayen was gasping, and Joymma was tired. The doctor went to the labor room and analyzed the situation. The child's head was big and so the baby was not coming. The doctor used an obstetric forceps to pull the head out. It was 10.30 pm. I was born to the relief of everybody giving much pain to Ammachi, great tension to Achayen and enough worries to my brothers. Achayen promised to name the baby, Sebastian after the name of Saint Sebastian. Another boy! My brothers remarked. I was born as the sixth son in a line. They were waiting for a girl child.'Next time' Vayattatti commented. They all laughed.