A QUESTION OF TIMING - Read more stories in A TALE OF PARRALELS

9. A QUESTION OF TIMING The Year, 2018 The sultry weather in Kozhikode unexpectedly turned blustery. The coconut trees swayed demonically in the backwaters of Kerala. Waves that lapped the Kozhikode Beach rose in a gargantuan manner. The atmospherics appeared that it was nothing short of a nemesis. Perhaps a Tsunami-like storm was on the cards which would wreak havoc in God’s own country. The velocity of the wind and the sheer momentum of the waves toppled several boats of the fishermen who had forayed deep into the Arabian Sea. Tourists on the beaches scampered for safety. Agnes Dominic Thekaparambil settled down, much to the consternation of her colleagues and unmindful of the prevalent external conditions. She began a session of Transcendental Meditation at St Mary’s Malankara Catholic Church, in her room in the residential complex. “This practice is against our ethos, our culture and whatever we learnt at the nunnery. It is an affront to our religion. The yogic practice challenges the fundamental tenets of our Lord and Christianity,” was the exasperated reaction of Sister Martha Raj from Thanjavur. Agnes Dominic Thekaparambil offered a weak smile and ignored the caustic remark of her companion. The two seminarians were in their late thirties. Sister Martha Raj was a staunch Christian and a devout Catholic, who believed only in her religiosity. She could never empathise with the internal turbulence of Agnes Dominic Thekaparambil. Sister Agnes’s mind was cannonaded with several antipathetic and Sisyphean thoughts and today she seemed to have found succour and sanctuary in practising Transcendental Meditation to assuage her frayed nerves. This practice in no manner came in her way from performing the responsibilities of a nun. She discovered that Transcendental Meditation was a technique for detaching oneself from anxiety and promoting harmony and self-realization through meditation, repetition of a mantra, and other yogic practices promulgated by the voguish Indian spiritual Master Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The Year, 2008 Sister Agnes Dominic Thekaparambil was in news for all the wrong reasons along with Father Martin Mulakkal. She had known the cleric now for around ten years. But the power of the Church and pressure of certain political parties and social groups helped the priest and nun to remain afloat as rumours of indiscretion between the two spread within the community and outside. “Such insinuations, such canards are being spread by infidels and the church should not cow down. Father Martin Mulakkal is above board and has performed admirably as a priest by bringing large numbers into the fold of Jesus.” A fringe group called Catholic Laymen’s Association (CLA) who championed the plight of sexually victimised nuns were in the forefront to espouse the cases of Sister Agnes Dominic Thekaparambil and a neophyte student of Malabar Christian College named Anitha Ruth Rogers. The CLA pioneered the cause and struggles of women, especially nuns and girls who were allegedly sexually exploited by the brawny priests. These were hapless women who could not voice their case behind the iron fisted curtains of the Church where any dissenting voice was papered over and cloaked in the name of God. Amidst this Sister Agnes Dominic Thekaparambil was attempting to maintain sanity. It was not that Agnes had embraced yoga and Hinduism or was proselytised, but she took to Transcendental Meditation like fish to water after a retreat at Rishikesh at the Maharishi Transcendental Meditation Centre. She often pondered over the tipping points which had transfigured her life. When had she really set in pursuit of peace? When had her peregrination towards silencing the mind, body and soul really begun? The tipping point were two gory incidents accompanied by macabre deaths which had rattled her DNA and today she was desperate to seek redemption. The Year, 1998 A cherubic Jyothis who hailed from the lower strata of the society in Kerala had entered St. Mary’s Malankara Catholic Church to serve God and his children. She was born and brought up in Kottayam and had virtually painted the town red with her outlandish behaviour and errant activities. Jyothis was a well-endowed, prepossessing young woman in her early twenties. Soon she became the cynosure of the nunnery as seniors, juniors and her contemporaries jostled for space to draw her attention. “Hey Jyothis, you are not cut out to be a nun. It would have been better if you had joined Mollywood.” The winsome girl did not have a particularly frost-covered past. Infact in her high school and college days she was known for dabbling with drugs and alcohol. She had indulged in a few physical relationships too. The activities of this bootylicious and voluptuous young woman from Kottayam gave the family an egregious name which thus literally coerced her to enter the Church to serve in the name of God. This was to be her atonement for the purportedly innumerable sins committed by her. But she mused, even in the literate and matriarchal society of Kerala, men got away with murder while woman grappled to remain afloat, to remain lily white. “Dad, it is easy to find fault with others. When you point a finger at an individual do remember there are three fingers pointing towards you. You think we are not aware of your nefarious dealings with politicians, honchos of the corporate world and bureaucrats? Both, mother and I are fully abreast that you supply women to these powerful people, to further your business activities. And after all I am a chip of the old bloc. And my brother Joseph is no paragon of virtue. Less said the better,” she spoke out, only to receive a thwack from her father and brother. The spirited young woman was however not deterred by the bruises and scars on her body. She was a feisty woman with enormous determination. Jyothis was reluctant to join the nunnery and put up a mettlesome fight. Eventually she caved in as she had no option. She surrendered to the diktats of the unyielding father and stentorian brother as her forlorn mother and sister looked on with anguish. “Perhaps being away from Kottayam would be a sagacious choice far away from this daily ho hum I might discover almighty God. If not, at the least I might understand why I chose this deviant path which obviously runs in the DNA of the family,” she concluded. As per the cannons of the Catholic Church a nun is a woman who has to maintain special vows and dedicate her life to the service of the church and the community. Jyothis was well abreast of these facts and wondered someone like her could adjust to the regimented atmosphere. In order to emerge triumphant as a nun, the triumvirate demands for maintaining chastity, poverty and obedience were absolutely inescapable. As per dictum of the Church, Catholic nuns had to be Catholic, but not necessarily virgins. The training period was a time for deep introspection by Jyothis, a time when she was to actually decide whether she really wanted to become a nun. This period lasted for a monumental nine years. Jyothis was rechristened Sister Agnes Dominic Thekaparambil. The event was a matter of immense satisfaction and pride for the family, in particular her father and brother. For the duo fervently hoped that the blemishes of past would be washed away and a pristine Sister Agnes would materialise almost through a miracle and the name of the family restored. Meanwhile Sister Agnes Dominic Thekaparambil while undergoing her religious pedagogy at St. Mary’s Malankara Catholic Church, began teaching at Providence Women’s College, Kozhikode. This preeminent educational institution was founded by the Sisters of Apostolic Carmel came into being on 1st July, 1952. It was the sacred mission of Mother Veronica who established the congregation to train young women who had embraced a religious life. A singular incident occurred in the life of Sister Agnes prior to her being ordained as a nun in 2007. She came in contact with Father Martin Mulakkal. The talismanic churchman had reported back to Kerala from Rome after learning and training in the scriptures over there. He was allotted the Kozhikode diocese. The charismatic priest was exceedingly popular in the Church as he zealously and singularly spread the word of Lord. He was instrumental in attracting droves of people to the Church from the nearby forty villages. Among them were Chathamangalam, Beypore Chelannu Cheruvannur, Raroth and Vavad to name a few. The clergyman was victorious in pursuing some moneyed Catholics and members of other faiths to contribute handsomely to the coffers of the Church. This made the top echelons of the Church consider him an indispensable virtuoso. His adoration and ascendency were envied by the older order in the Church as was his growing proximity to the Bishop. Word spread that he was a possible candidate to don the mantle of the coveted post of the Secretary to the Bishop of Kozhikode. At the same time, he was spotted and identified by the right-wing parties for spreading the gospel of the Lord at a frenetic pace in the bijou towns in the vicinity of Kozhikode and in the hamlets which enveloped this burgeoning town. The right-wing parties and some Muslim organizations had begun gunning for him, trying to find possible chinks in his armour. It was reported that candidates were purportedly supported by him and indirectly funded by the Church scored victories in college elections and in the University of Calicut. This was a charge categorically dismissed by the Catholic Church and the Secretary to the Bishop. While no contrary truth was uncovered, the murmurs and rumours afloat refused to die. Several young priests and nuns were decidedly dazzled and overwhelmed by the out-of-the-box thinking and approach of the ecclesiastical personality. Father Mulakkal’s mass was attended in large numbers. He was considered an exemplary figure. This was deeply resented by the right-wing parties and associations. But they did not find patronage from the state government whose political base were the churches and the mosques. Game of Thrones The game of thrones of the parties who assume power at the centre has an enormous bearing on the religious, cultural, social and political moorings of the populace. Interestingly, the right-wing party and its allies were in power at the centre till 2004. Thereafter they lost as the magic of “India Shining” was diminished and diluted. For next ten years it was the United Progressive Alliance which was at the helm, before crashing to a mortifying defeat in 2014. But in the backwaters of Kerala, pole position has exchanged hands alternatively between the UDF and the LDF, whose major political philosophy is “secularism” and antipathy towards the right-wing forces. They thus kept the Church and its activities at an arm’s length, but always receiving its support overtly or covertly. Love, Attraction and the Church The Line of Control clearly delineated the responsibilities and distance to be maintained by Father Mulakkal and Sister Agnes as per the biding of the Holy Church. But life is full of vicissitudes and incredible situations. Perhaps it was the very first day they encountered each other sparks flew. But discretion was the better part of valour and Father Martin Mulakkal and Sister Agnes Dominic Thekaparambil maintained a distance. She was in her late twenties, exceedingly well honed. She spoke eloquently and had a flagitious past which was known in the cranny corners of the Church. Father Mulakkal too was abreast of her past. Meanwhile there were numerous occasions when the pastor and anchoress were to interact. Innocent interactions over a period of time became intense. The nun like the others in the Church, was conspicuously impressed by the panache of Father Mulakkal. Soon the LoC were breached and the vows of celibacy, chastity and obedience and the attestation of poverty, chastity and obedience were broken by the flag bearers of the ecclesiastical order. Friendship and admiration between the two servants of Lord soon metamorphosed into affection and love, which eventually transfigured into physical relationship. The two were returning after a hard day’s labour spreading the word of the Lord in the neighbouring villages of the diocese when their vehicle broke down. They were to spend the night in a guest house not too far away from Kozhikode, where all inhibitions were shed. Providence Women’s College, Kozhikode, 2007 Meanwhile on the request of the Principal, soon-to-be Agnes Dominic Thekaparambil was allotted a room in the hostel of Providence Women’s College as she had to mentor students. She began spending several nights in the college premises and her voyage with Father Mulakkal to undertake community service in the villages and bijou towns near the diocese declined. The clergyman Father Mulakkal was a quick-witted person and managed to wrangle a request from the Principal of the college to take a few guest-lecturers in management and on the Christian faith and Catholicism in the college. This was a ploy. The flame was reignited and they continued with their dalliance. In a couple of months a few tongues , especially those of the older ecclesiastic order began to wag and eyebrows were raised on the frequent visits of the priest to the women’s educational institute. But Father Mulakkal had carved a special niche for himself in the Church and the diocese that the top echelons supported him and their writ had swung in his favour. His latest coup de grace was to ensure the victory of a group of candidates in the KMCT Medical College who were tacitly supported by the Church and ensuring large corpus of funding by a shipping magnate, Varghese Thomas, to the Church. The shipping tycoon became an asset to the Church and none could question his agenda and prowess. Anitha Ruth Rogers had graduated from Malabar Christian College, where she came in contact with Agnes Dominic and later began pursuing a course in Masters in Communication at the Providence Women’s College and was a student of Agnes Dominic Thekaparambil. The charming Anitha Ruth Rogers became an acolyte of Agnes Dominic and the two began spending large time together and discussed a variety of subjects. Anitha too was from Kottayam. She was aware of the hoary past of the teacher and tried to dig information about Agnes Dominic’s dalliances and her reformation process. The heart-to heart confabulations lasted several long hours and Anitha could discern that the nun in making from Kottayam was a bird trapped in a cage . She was still grappling between her bygones and the path chosen. She also had a lurking feeling that there was something, Agnes Dominic was concealing from her. The topic of discussion veered to Father Mulakkal. Anitha found that Agnes Dominic was insecure about discussing about the churchman. “Ma’am he seems to spend lot of time in our college, don’t you think so,” Anitha questioned Agnes. “ I guess that is not in our domain of choice . It is for the management to take a call on the matter,” Agnes parried the query. Over a period of time , the student of Mass Communications much to her discomfort found that Agnes Dominic who was now on the verge of becoming a nun , began avoiding her company. She wondered what possibly could have triggered this. While trying to draw the attention of the woman from Kottayam Anitha also found the frequency of visits of Father Martin Mullakal to the college on the rise and he used to spent several hours with Agnes Dominic. Anitha Ruth Rogers had become wary of the continuous presence of his eminence in the hostel premises of a womens’ college. She formally complained to the Principal of the College besides sending a mail to the Secretary to the Bishop. The college and Church authorities maintained that Anitha Ruth Rogers was suffering from a bipolar disorder. This was a mental pestilence which resulted in severe high and low moods and alters sleep, energy, thinking, and behavioural pattern. Doctors on rolls of the Church and the colleges associated with the sacred institution certified that Anitha was plagued by bipolar disorder in which she passed through periods and phases where she felt overly happy and energized and there were patches and episodes in her life in which she felt extremely sad, hopeless, and sluggish in her demeanour. And in such a condition she would make all kinds of insinuations. Ruth required a lifelong treatment which mandated a combination of medication and psychotherapy. This was a terse statement made to the prying media. Anitha Ruth Rogers protested vehemently about the ailment , but could not raise the decibel of her protest. Fictitious doctors on the panel of the Church and the college produced prescriptions and her room was littered with a large number of anti-depressants which were collected by the police during the course of their investigation and this proved to be a clinching evidence of the pestilence she was suffering from. Meanwhile the blue-eyed boy, Father Mullakal wore a Teflon coat and could not indulge in any misdemeanor and was given a clean chit by the Church and the investigative agencies. A defining night, 2008 The weather was sultry that night and Anitha was feeling extremely parched. Her mind was also tormented with the unusual behaviour of Sister Agnes Dominic Thekaparambil. Anitha had been ecstatic till a few days back when her teacher was eventually ordained as a Sister to serve the Catholic Church. However, she was not invited for the process of beatification which left her distraught and devastated. Unfortunately for her the stain of bipolarity on her personality, was a major deterrent and a stigma even in the advanced literate state of the country. Anitha was considered inauspicious. That night she stepped down the stairs of the hostel and saw someone in a tearing hurry running away from the hostel premises. Anitha hailed to the watchman in order to draw his attention. But it was in vain. The individual disappeared in the cover of darkness and only the visage of a short bearded man in the silhouette could be seen from the distance. Meanwhile in a far corner from a room, sounds of moaning and ecstatic pleasure were resounding. A curious Anitha Ruth Rogers peeped in through a crack on the window and was rendered speechless to watch what she witnessed. She was absolutely gobsmacked. She was ashen faced to see three naked personalities indulging in sexual gratification. They were Varghese Thomas, the charismatic cleric Father Mullakal and her idol, Sister Agnes. The threesome indulging in heavy petting and oral sex reminded her of a third-grade pornographic movie. For a moment she lost all faith in fealty and almighty God. “Why does Satan overpower sanity and pristine love ,” she wondered. Upon witnessing the galling sight the bottle of water she had, to quench her thirst, slipped from her hands. The clangour alerted the trio , who quickly dressed up and rushed outside the room. They were in a hot pursuit trying to apprehend the prying student of Mass Communication. The Murder The murder of 22 year old Anitha Ruth Rogers was initially dismissed as a suicide by the state police and crime branch, but the CBI who were pressurized to conduct an enquiry later concluded that it was murder. The CBI was pressed into service and reopen the closet with the Catholic Layman’s Association who raised the ante. This was also the time for the right-wing party and their affiliates to take up the cudgels on behalf of Anitha Ruth Rogers, inorder who were smarting under a series of political losses in college and university elections and they found an opportunity to target Father Martin Mullakal and his alleged misdemeanours. The investigative agency CBI charge-sheeted Varghese Thomas and Father Mullakal . But the case witnessed several twists and turns and a flurry of petitions which delayed the trial inordinately. According to the CBI charge-sheet, on the day of her death, Anitha Ruth Rogers got up early to study and went to the kitchen to wash her face. The charge-sheet surmised that she witnessed some sexual activity involving the two priests and nun and was killed because they feared she may disclose what she had seen. She was first attacked with an axe and later dumped in the well, the CBI claimed. Although the case created a sensation in the state , the church stood by the accused, stating the accused were innocent and the victim was a patient of bipolarity who suffered from excessive mood swings and made false accusation against a devout clergyman who had served the Church and humanity with aplomb. Varghese Thomas with his money and political power had proven that he was away on a business tour and had nothing to do with the disappearance of the student of Mass Communications. The former CBI deputy superintendent of police John P Thomas, who had first investigated the case had later opted for voluntary retirement once there was immense political and pressure of the Church to write off the death as a suicide. Change of Political Guard in 2014 The change of political guard at the centre , emboldened the right wing forces in the state who along with certain Civil Rights groups and the Catholic Layman’s Association once again got the case reopened for investigation. A special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was constituted which went into the details of the case and relied on various testimonies including that of Raju the robber the puny bearded man who disappeared in the darkness on the fateful night. Although most witnesses had turned hostile during the trial, the court concluded that a few prosecution witnesses had been convincing. Interestingly one of the main witnesses in the case was a small-time robber, Raju. He was on the premises of the convent for stealing areca nuts when the incident took place. He reportedly told CBI officers that he saw two priests and a nun at the convent around the time of Ruth’s death. He later confessed that he was promised several blandishments to remain silent. Raju subsequently confessed that he was promised many things to own up to the crime and change his statement but he stuck to his testimony. The special court were sentenced under Varghese Thomas and Father Martin Mullakal under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code on a few grounds. They found the plea of bipolarity of Anitha Ruth Rogers were absolutely specious in nature. The drugs like mood stabilizers were never prescribed for the patient and instead she was administered anti-depressant drugs. Second , the claim made by Varghese Thomas that he was out of town on business was found to be false as the investigative agencies discovered that the shipping magnate had never made a trip to Chennai on the fateful night and was very much in Kozhikhode. Father Martin Mullakal who tried to put a spirited fight capitulated when Agnes Dominic Thekaparambil agreed to the misdemeanour on her part and her partners in sexual misdemeanours were the inscrutable Father Martin Mullakal and the moneyed shipping tycoon Varghese Thomas. This was primarily to avenge what her father and brother had forced on her. They were coercing her not to accept the charges and that she never forsake the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Sister Agnes Dominic Thekhaparambil was being brainwashed by her father and brother that all this was the handiwork of Mephistophelian right wing forces. She was absolutely aghast at the unethical behavior and duplicity of her father and brother. The feisty woman decided to take on the male bastion of Kerala by storm. And finally the evidence of Raju the robber proved to be the clinching evidence about the shady activities in the college premises. During the course of the trial Father Martin Mullakal accepted his errant behavior and sobbed inconsolably . He further informed the court that as he was undergoing treatment for cancer he pleaded for a lesser punishment. Sister Agnes Dominic Thekaparambil was not found guilty of the murder , but wayfaring conduct was debarred from all activities of the Church and the College as she was not an ideal role model to lead the faithful. “ I wish I’d been there earlier. It might have made all the difference. So all I can tell you is why she committed suicide ,” the former Sister Agnes Dominic Thekaparambil confessed in the penitents box and divulged all the details of her dramatic life story. Meanwhile she settled down for another session of TM after having a final look at her former lover in the coffin, the once hypnotic and magnetic priest who succumbed at the altar of ambition, corruption, sleaze and sex. It was always a question of timing all her life, which gravitated from the good, bad and the ugly.