Kerala - Alappuzha   

Fulfilling her mother’s wish in a foreign land

— PHOTO: By Special Arrangement

LAST RITES: Amanda Streatfeild carrying an urn containing the ashes of her mother Ailsa Walkiden on Sunday.

ALAPPUZHA: As Amanda Streatfeild walked towards the Arabian Sea on Sunday, carrying on her shoulders an urn containing the ashes of her mother Ailsa Walkiden, she was carrying forward a relationship with India that Ailsa had begun 63 years ago.

It was by 11 a.m. that the rituals for the immersion of Ailsa’s ashes began in the compound of the Alleppey Beach Resort, a favourite haunt of Ailsa during her trips to India for over 25 years, till her death in May last year. Amanda, accompanied by her husband Mark Streatfeild, followed instructions from the priest, before carrying the urn to the sea, chanting the mantras she heard from the priest.

The ceremonies were as per the wishes of Ailsa, who had first come to India as a nurse from Scotland in 1946 just after World War II. An “incredibly independent woman”, as Amanda describes her mother, Ailsa made it a habit to return to the sub-continent every year since the late 1970’s, staying for around six weeks to celebrate Christmas and New Year.

Now, Amanda hopes she can carry forward the relationship.

“It was a beautiful ceremony, well orchestrated by Om and Beena of Alleppey Beach Resort, who were great friends of my mother when she came here. In fact, she would have been thrilled by it all. We will certainly come back again, but not for six weeks every year like Mother used to do. I don’t think we will have time for that,” she said.

For Om and Beena, meanwhile, it has been an emotional period. “Ailsa was very much involved in the resort every time she came here. In fact, she used to sit at the reception at times, joking and enjoying with us,” said Beena.

Amanda and Mark, who will fly back to their home in the United Kingdom on Wednesday, added that their sons Sam, Tom and Harry were hoping to come to India soon, to see the country that had their grandmother spellbound all her life.

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