KEEPING HERITAGE ALIVE

DURING MY VISIT TO INDIA IN 2007, 1 WAS HAVING LUNCH WITH my cousin Kochupurackal Kunjumon in Kumbanad. I recall as clearly as it was yesterday, getting a phone call from my cousin Tom Philip, from the US. The time was around 2 p.m. in India and so I was a bit worried as it was past midnight in the US. I attended the call, apprehensive of some type of emergency. It was indeed shocking news, quite like an SOS call, one that had serious ramifications for the entire family.

He told me that he had received a tip-off that our Kumbanad family heritage home had been sold to an outsider, thus depriving a family member of having ownership of the property for the first time. It was an unacceptable proposition, as such a change in ownership would deprive the entire Valiyaveettil family of holding on to that one bit of historical monument that was a symbol of our collective heritage.

For a few years leading up to 2007, we had been trying to buy this house and property, especially since the family branch that had inherited the ancestral property began publicly showing interest in selling it off. Therefore, I was taken by surprise, especially as we came to know of the property sale in Kumbanad via a phone call from the US, suggesting the secretive nature of the deal, almost as if it was formulated to keep the family members in the dark.

My cousin Tom asked me to immediately contact the prospective buyer Ikara Kunjumon. It was not as if the man was unknown to me. Even though he was a few years senior to me, I knew who he was, though we had till then no reason be in contact with each other. Tom gave me his number and I called him. I told him that I heard he bought the property. He said, "Yes, I did and I am going to build a resort there".

I promptly conveyed to him that this property originally belonged to our great-great grandfather who moved there and built a chapel before they built their house. While that house did not bear a family name as per the available family history, the next generation saw the two sons build houses on either side of the original house and they came to be known as Thekkeyveedu and Vadakkeveedu. It was later on that the original family abode came to be known as Valiyaveettil.

As we were talking, my cell phone battery died and I had to leave for another appointment. So, I left my house, leaving my cellphone connected to a charger. When I came back later in the afternoon, I noticed there were missed calls from many cousins. There was also a call from Ikara Kunjumon. I was told by some of my cousins that Kunjumon had approached them seeking to find my whereabouts.

So I called Kunjumon immediately. He answered the call and started with an apology. He told me what I had heard about the sale of the house was not true as he had only signed an agreement to buy the property. He also told me that he did not want any property belonging to our family adding that he would be happy to give the property to me at the same price as what was offered to him. In other words, he made it clear that he did not aim to make any profit out of the deal.

Then and there it was agreed that we would purchase the prop-erty. Since I had to return to US, the property was bought jointly in the names of Tom Philip and myself, with the sale deed getting executed in our absence.

For the next 10 years, my cousin John K. Koshy maintained and took care of the original home and property. For a few years, we were debating what to do with property. We first planned an old age home which for various reasons did not work out.
It was Mar Thoma Valiya Metropolitan Philipose Mar Chrys-ostom who first planted the seed in my mind that we should build a hotel there. Finally, we yielded to his encouragement and in October 2017, we broke the ground to build a hotel on our ancestral property. The structure was built by 2019-end but soon, Covid broke out and everything came to a standstill.

The catastrophe was in no way of less magnitude in the US than it was in India with millions dying in both countries. And these were the two countries around which our lives revolved. It was not only our businesses that got severely impacted. Many dead bodies were kept in freezers outside in parking lots. Large holes were dug on the ground and bodies were buried as mass graves. It was one of the toughest times in modern history and we faced our share of tragedies.

In 2019, Tom Philip passed away. Before his passing, he had been I was just a silent partner. But his passing pushed me right into the middle of everything.

By this time, another cousin John Abraham had returned from Doha, the capital of Qatar after putting in 40 years there. As he agreed to step up and help out, it was a great relief for all of us. We restarted the project which was stuck for two years due to the pandemic, with Asa Varkey donning the cap of architect and project adviser.

The project took on an iconic turn once the world-renowned sculptor Kanayi Kunhiraman agreed to sculpt a signature elephant for us. It was a dream come true for me to bring the great sculptor, celebrated for his Yakshi of Malampuzha Dam Gardens and Saga-rakanyaka at the Shankumugham Beach, to work on a sculpture in my homeland, Kumbanad.

After years of struggle, we inaugurated the hotel in June 2024 in the presence of Mar Thomas Metropolitan Mar Theodosius and Malankara Catholic Church archbishop Cardinal Clemis. Among the dignitaries who graced the occasion were Kerala Minister for Health Veena George, former Rajya Sabha deputy chief Prof P.J Kurian, former MLA Raju Abraham and Adv Varghese Mammen.
Now, the 20-room hotel with modern cuisine is fully operational, catering to both the local community and visitors to Kumbanad from all over the world. Sure, it is no match to the 92-room hotel I built right across the Miami International Airport in Florida and is being run under the celebrated Best Western label.

It means a lot to me, as it marks a remarkable journey for our family which started in that location way back in 1761, by building a chapel for the worship of the Lord. The Kumbanad Heritage Hotel is that way a celebration of the crusading spirit of my ancestors who began expressing themselves a good 15 years before my adopted land declared independence in 1776.

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