The McMamama Clan

A giant banyan tree grows from a tiny seed. So too, from the seed of one amazing life, a diverse, global, affectionate clan was born. Bonded by blood and love and memories, sharing with and caring for each other, living fully and joyously, this ever-growing family is the McMamama Clan.

Born in 1910, Ramani Mallya, a woman of the Gowd Saraswat Brahmin community, was married at the age of 15 and lived in Mangalore, India, where she had ten children: five boys and five girls. In the eighty nine years of her life, this beautiful, small-built, slender woman proved to be an indomitable but compassionate matriarch who did her very best to take good care of her family. Her ten children in turn had children of their own, so she was grandmother to a large brood of rambunctious grandchildren, who called her Mamama or Bappamma.

Today, her grand children have children, and grandchildren, of their own, and, like shoots of the ever-spreading banyan tree, her descendants have spread all over the globe. This giant family tree, now over a hundred members strong, is a close-knit, loving group of individuals who continue to bond together over four generations. The oldest clan member is over 90 years old and the youngest are barely a few months old while the rest of the clan span the ages in between. Representing diverse cultures, races and nationalities, the current-day Clan is truly a multi-cultural global entity and a shining example of the essential oneness of the human race. From USA to Dubai to Indonesia and Australia and, of course, India, the tendrils of affection and connection form an invisible but strong network as beautiful and interdependent as the canopy of a dense tropical forest.

Family is more than just blood-relations or shared DNA. It is a complex, organic, mysterious field that is constantly developing, growing, interacting, changing and evolving. Ramani Mallya was just one individual, but she also was a node in the flow of evolution, a crucial vortex in the flux of ancestors to descendants, an important key-note in the unfolding harmony of the Clan.

Every one of her children and grandchildren were consciously and unconsciously influenced by her and are transmitters of her unique message, her soul vibration of faith and devotion, love and sympathy, simple joy and compassion.

 Like unnoticed daylight and fresh air in an inner courtyard, the essence of Ramani Mallya  lives on; in the children and grandchildren of her grandchildren, her gentle being achieves a kind of immortality, which is shared with every member of the ever-growing clan..

Delighting in life, enjoying good food and drink, good conversation and company, providing affection and support to each other, feeling part of a greater whole, the members of the McMamama clan naturally carry on the tradition of Ramani Mallya : to be good human beings.

There is no better way to honour her.