Remembering Mahes Vivekananda Rajah

By Charmaine Candappa

There are more colors on the palette of memories. There is laughter and joy in the sweetness of remembrances. Our friendship with Mahes was entwined with our sister-in-law Rukmani,  the younger sister of Mahes. Hillary and I first met Mahes when she visited us in the early seventies. She was so beautiful. Hillary and I told her that she reminded us of Ava Gardner,  the Hollywood actress. Mahes laughed loudly when we complimented her. 

I met Mahes again when I visited the UK in 1969. She was working for a well-established Dental practice in Knightsbridge as a dental auxiliary. On our way back after her work on a Saturday afternoon, she insisted that I had to experience a show at the West End. Yul Brynner  who played the role of  the Pharaoh in Cecil B. de Mille’s Ten Commandments, was playing the lead role in the musical The King and I. 

Mahes purchased tickets for us. Rukie and another dear friend Berni Silva  would always join us whenever there was a good show at a West End theatre. This became a constant happening whenever there was something worthwhile to see, like ‘The Fiddler on the Roof’ with Topol, that we were so privileged to see in person. After the show, we would return home by subway and go to Mahes’s or Bernie’s home for dinner, where Reggie Berni’s husband and my brother Anton would be there waiting for us. This happened many times during my infrequent visits to London where we had great times chatting and enjoying the weekends. Mahes later met, and married Mahinda Vivekanandarajah and lived in Ilford. 

I saw Mahes a couple of times since then. She was happy and quite settled in life as a housewife as well as in her working life. Life certainly takes turns in everyone’s journey. Hillary and I moved to the Sultanate of Oman due to his employment. Yet, even though our contact was infrequent, I would remember Mahes’s birthday on the 10th of January each year, and send her greetings, Strangely, I even remembered her address from memory. 

The years rolled by as it happens, and takes a toll on everyone’s life as we move on in years. Our memories though are embedded in our minds and hearts and would always remain  like a web, fragile, yet strong, as we remain attached by an unseen force that doesn’t ever go away. Robert Sexton, writer and poet wrote: “Across the years I will walk with you, in deep forests and on the shores of sand, and when our time on earth is through, in Heaven too we will have each other’s hand.”