Chapter 13

In the adult education center

The exuberance of the new American life had started fading. As an unemployed person, I was a prisoner of solitude again. Baby would go to the hospital punctually in the morning. It was a great problem for me to while away the eight hours after that. I did not have any friends in the locality. All of Baby�s friends were busy with their work. There was nobody idling at home. I pulled on without knowing how long I can spend my days like this.

Taking care of children was the biggest problem for parents in New York. When one spouse goes to work, the other has to take leave or alternate between night shifts and day shifts. I too could get an opportunity to look after two children during the idle hours, the twin brothers, James and John, of family friends Annakutty and Joe. They have grown up now and become great personalities. This duty helped me ward off the boredom and they had the consolation of their children being in safe hands.

There are a lot of occasions for the Malayalees of America for get-togethers. The festival of Onam is celebrated in a grander scale than in Kerala. It is in these festivals and gatherings that we get a nostalgic feeling of home. But we never participated in such programs of the Malayalee organizations. The only reason for this is that Baby is more interested in prayer and church activities. Therefore, most of our family friends were from the church and related organizations.

One of our intimate relationships was with Rev. Fr George Thomas Vadakkel who was a professor of English at the Devamatha College at Kuravilangad in Kerala. Fr George, who was from the Vadakkel family of Kaduthuruthy with a heritage of more than 450 years, lived in USA for 25 years to serve as a priest. He was a good speaker and an affectionate friend of Keralites in America. It was quite common for the family friends to arrange parties with him. Those were marvellous experiences. I would visit him whenever I come home to the �Priest Home� at Muttuchira where he is living now. On our visits he would arrange lunch for us at the residence of his brother Pappachan (Cyriac T. Vadakkel), who is a retired professor. From there we would return with the gratification that we could spend time with a family which shows such a magnificent hospitality.

Baby was part of a lot of such friendly circles. I too entered into them shortly. Baby was trying to get me a job through her friends. We had not thought of any job suitable for me. It was very difficult to pull on without a job. The boredom of idling was a bigger problem than the income from a job. In between I tried for a job in several companies.

Nobody noticed an illness creeping into my body slowly. I did not feel like going to work. Without any interest in anything, I liked to remain idle all day. One day Baby and I were coming out of a vegetable shop. Baby saw me standing still as if I was posing for a photograph. I was unable to take a step forward. Baby took me immediately to the St Joseph�s Medical Center where she was working. After a lab test we came to know that I was suffering from hypo thyroidism. Thus I was in a hospital bed for the first time. I was there for 10 days.

I came to know that this condition is a silent killer. Like a guerrilla attack, this illness would trigger off other health problems. These attacks were going on in my body for quite 29 some time. As a result, the eyesight waned. I had difficulty in talking. Because of the delay in treatment, my heart also was getting weakened. I had to take medicines throughout my life. Else, the end result will be slackness. Thus I became a machine thriving on a tablet.

Because of my illness, Baby took the decision that I need not do any heavy work. We had to think of some easy work that would not affect my health. Thus I decided to join the lab technician course.

It is not possible to pursue any higher educational courses there with the certificates from Kerala. There is a system of Adult Basic Education equivalent to the Centre for Adult Education here. It works under the General Education Department.

In order to pursue the degree course one has to study in these centres and take a diploma equivalent to the high school certificate. With this certificate, one need not write the entrance test for admission to a degree course. For that we should have proficiency in American English. So I was forced to do the American English course unlearning the British English which I had learnt with great difficulty. Thus in 1980 I became a student again at the age of 34.

After passing the diploma course conducted by the University of the State of New York Education Department, I joined for the associate degree which included medical laboratory diploma.. After attending classes for two years, I appeared for the examination in August, 1982 and secured the medical laboratory technician certificate. Now I had to undergo internship for which I worked part-time at the Yonkers General Hospital in New York. I could get a permanent job there after that.

My life was again on track. I started gaining in optimism. I cultivated flowering plants and vegetables in our apartment and was very happy when they sprouted and started blooming. These plants were my companions in my lonely hours at home.