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.
