2 CONTENTS Website- www.sunnykutty.com Dedication 4 Foreword 5 Preface 6 PART ONE IN THE BEGINNING Chapter 1: Parents & birth- Life at Thiruvalla 7 Chapter 2: Achachen & family 10 Chapter 3: Ammamma & family 16 Chapter 4: Life at Vengazha 22 Chapter 5: Childhood at Thiruvalla-late fifties 26 Chapter 6: Theepany & E.H School days 38 Chapter 7: Keezhvaipur-Thiruvalla reminiscences 40 Chapter 8: Secondary Schooling at SCS, Thiruvalla 43 Chapter 9: College life at Thiruvalla 56 PART TWO LIFE AT FACT & ABROAD-(1971-80) Chapter 10: Life at FACT 71 Chapter 11: FACT Cochin Division 83 Chapter 12: Associated activities of FACT era 88 Chapter 13: Marriage and after 96 Chapter 14: Abode at Ambalamedu & Aramco offer 107 Chapter 15: Life at Aramco, Ras Tanura 113 Chapter 16: Birth of children 123 Chapter 17: Banagas and life in Bahrain 126 3 PART THREE GASCO FAMILY IN ABU DHABI-UAE Chapter 18: Employment with Gasco, Abu Dhabi 134 Chapter 19: Gasco Ruwais Operations 136 Chapter 20: Family abode at Ruwais Housing Complex 141 Chapter 21: European tour 143 Chapter 22: Kuwaiti invasion & after effects 145 Chapter 23: Gasco reminiscences 149 Chapter 24: Gasco Energy award 192 Chapter 25: Gasco Service extension 199 Chapter 26: Post retirement Gasco 211 PART FOUR GENERAL Chapter 27: Abode at Kottayam & birth of Ruwais 209 Chapter 28: School days- Tanura & Ruwais & Singapore trip 214 Chapter 29: Brothers & family 217 Chapter 30: Jolly & family 222 Chapter 31: Literary skills and hobbies 225 Chapter 32: Children's careers & marriage 231 Chapter 33: Holy land tours 240 Chapter 34: Grand children & Montana Shipping 248 Chapter 35: American tour 252 Chapter 36: China tour 261 Chapter 37: 2nd Re-birth & Australia-NZ tour 264 Chapter 38: Sunny Days in Gulf News 267 Chapter 39: Post retirement tours - India & Abroad 276 Chapter 40: Kerala floods 2018 & Covid -19 279 Epilogue: 283 Comments: 284 Contact Information Sunnykutty A.G, Azhakath House, Muttambalam - P.O, Kottayam- 686004, Kerala, India. Phone- 0091-481-2970689 Mobile- 0091-9400814200 Mobile- 0091-9447148889, Email- [email protected] ISBN 978-93-5212-634-7 4 Dedication To my loving wife Jolly, who was instrumental with her constructive criticisms in the fulfillment of one of my long cherished desires of writing an Autobiography! Moreover, my dedication goes to the “Computerjee”, (As Amitabh Bachchan said) with out which I would not have tried for this type of silly and foolish attempts. Last but not least, I dedicate this to our Computer Consultant Engineer & daughter Tanura for the necessary advises on design lay outs and other digital photography techniques for the production of this book in the printable format. In the true sense, this is only an attempt from my side to find out whether a layman also can write something like an Autobiography or not. 14/5/2020 Sunny Azhakath 5 FOREWORD “Sunny Days” of Sunny Azhakath takes us to a generation of people he met and associated. It is always interesting to recollect how minor or major incidents happened in our life and how far it had its impact in shaping our life. A.G sunnykutty through this book helps the reader to recollect his own experiences. Through the stories and life’s milestones he takes us through the social, cultural, religious family ways of life and that gives us a picture of our then society. The lines in this book also reveal historical facts of many personalities. As we read this book, we also agree with Sunnykutty that life is wonderful, exciting and interesting. Let us thank the God for this one life which we receive as a gift from God. Let us learn lessons from life’s experiences by evaluation, and let us to first seek His kingdom and His righteousness. God's blessings and my prayers to Sunnykutty, Jolly and their children Tanura & Ruwais families. Thiruvalla Rev Sunny Abraham 5-2-2008. Editor, Naveekaranam 6 Preface “MY LIFE” - SUNNY- AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY "Mark Twain" once wrote: 'If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.’ I read this when I was around 16 and haven't forgotten it since. I have always been able to relate to the philosophy behind it. It holds true in my life because I believe that when you lie, you always have to remember two things- the truth and the lie. And, inadvertently, this complicates matters. When you speak the truth (at all times), life is so much simpler. You don't carry any luggage nor do you have to be wary of incidentals. If you speak the truth, your thoughts and actions will always coincide. Besides, lies get caught at some point of time. I know that choosing to speak the truth may not always be easy but it is rewarding- every time you begin a new day, you will be happy knowing that you have a clean slate! What more can you ask for? *** 7 PART ONE IN THE BEGINNING Chapter-1 Parents & birth- Life at Thiruvalla I was born on 14th September 1950 at Mathilumkal house, Thiruvalla as the second child of Mr. Azhakath Mathai George (A.M George) and Mrs. Annamma George. (Usually they were called as Georgekutty and Amminy respectively). It was one Thursday and the time was about 03 30 early morning and the Malayalam era being 1126 "Chinga massam” 28th. My birth star is “Atham nakshathram" which was considered to be bad omen for the parents especially the mother and her family. But nothing has happened except for some minor problems for the parents. But as a matter of fact I was not in good health up to 12 years of my life. One by one lot of health problems has come up during this period to that much extent, which has compelled my mother Ammamma, and she has promised to choose me for the service of God by making me a Priest of the Mar Thoma Church. But God's Will was different and as per His wishes something else was planned for me. *** As my parents are not in this world, especially Ammamma, it is very difficult to get the details of my child hood and whatever I can recollect from my memory can be the authentic version of my early childhood days. Later my main sources have been the diaries that I have maintained right from my College Pre-degree level and at times due to various overwhelming aspects; I was not able to make daily entries into them, which has led to occasional gaps. Moreover, with the passage of time and fading memory, I am unable to recall certain aspects in full or pinpoint the exact dates of certain events. To the extent possible, I have tried to provide the relevant details. However, if any errors have crept in inadvertently 8 or if any loopholes exist, I shall be grateful if the readers could point them out so that they can be corrected in further updates. My name "Sunnykutty" itself is something peculiar due to the presence of the "Kutty" (child) and through out my life period I will remain as a ‘kutty’ forever. I also couldn't get a clear picture as to why this name was chosen and instead my parents could have given the simple name “Sunny George" for me. This remains as a mystery and still I continue to be shy to express my name in front of others with the name "Kutty". Ever since I recognized this, I used to represent myself simply as "Sunny" only. Anyway "Sunnykutty" continues to be a rare name and so far I could come across only 9 sunnykutties in my life and three of them I acquainted through the Obituary columns of the newspapers. The only prominent name in the list is that of one Mr. 'Sunnykutty Abraham' who is the special correspondent for the “Mathrubhumi” daily whom I have seen through TV debates etc. *** My early childhood recollections are very minor and whatever I do highlight through these columns are nothing but the narrations by Ammamma and others of which I have some vague memories only and the genuineness of the same cannot be questioned or verified at this stage. As stated earlier, I was born as the second child and my elder sister was "Sallymol" who could survive in this world only for about ten months. She succumbed to some sort of "Diphtheria" or "Villanchuma" (whooping cough) on 19/9/1948. We are having a group photo taken at the time of her death and that is the only record to show that such a sweet baby ever in flesh and blood lived upon this world at least for a short duration. She was very cute and lovely as per Ammamma, and we were not fortunate enough to be blessed with a sister since then. If she had not passed away then our life would have taken an entirely different pattern or course of actions. Whatever it may be, all of us really missed our lovely sister "Sallymol" and in fact this has led to different consequences in my life also. Since childhood I have never been acquainted with any girls and being brought up in that atmosphere, I was really having certain apprehensions about the girls in my life also. Only some exemption to this feeling is 9 regarding my stay with my auntie Kunjummamma (mother's younger sister) at Thiruvalla during 1958-60 periods. 10 Chapter-2 Achachen & family Going back to the history of our parents Achachen and Ammamma, Achachen belonged to the noted "Azhakath" family of Keezhvaipur near Mallappally.