Before breaking the ground for his new house, R. Basheer piously brought a six-feet-long cloth hoarding of ‘Tony chettan’, which he had kept safe after the Assembly polls.
With the help of his friends, he fixed it vertically on the plot, facing the area where the trenching was to be done for laying the foundation for his new house.
After moments of Mr. Basheer fixing the hoarding, someone picked up a trenching hoe and started excavating the ground.
It did not bother Mr. Basheer, the Fort Kochi Mandalam president of the Indian Youth Congress, much that it was an election campaign poster of Tony Chammany, the UDF candidate from Kochi, that he had at hand.
All that the young Congress worker was concerned about was the presence of Tony chettan, as he fondly calls the former Kochi Mayor, even in the form of a hoarding on an auspicious occasion in his life.
“I had deeply yearned for the presence of Mr. Chammany, who had earlier helped my family move into a house, while breaking ground for my new house. Unfortunately, he could not attend the event as he was recuperating from COVID-19 and spending the days in isolation. I wanted his presence and hence brought the display board to the site,” said Mr. Basheer. He gratefully recalled Mr. Chammany’s support to rehabilitate his family living on puramboke land on the banks of Manthra canal in Fort Kochi.