Journeying across continents and crossing the seas, C.J. Lazar, who spent most of his childhood in the village of Puthenpeedika in Thrissur, has had front row seats to history being made for a hundred years now.
“Do you know how old I am?” asks Mr. Lazar from the Signature Aged Care home at Padamugal in the city. He will ring in his hundredth birthday on Monday, with cake, payasam that he requested, and a video call with his son and family in England who, with the travel restrictions in place, could not make it to Kochi for the big day that Mr. Lazar is excited about.
From picketing a shop selling foreign-made cloth as a student during the colonial period to qualifying as an electrician during World War II and being posted in Bombay, Karachi and Burma, several places and significant historical markers dot Mr. Lazar’s long life. He later spent 33 years of his life working for a British engineering company in Uganda, Kenya and Sudan, with his wife Elannam, where he went on to challenge some of the segregation he witnessed.
“All years I have spent very happy,” says the healthy centenarian. “One good thing is that I went around the world – Africa, Australia, Europe. When I used to get off [from work] I would go around the world. I liked travelling very much.”
He eventually returned to live in Girinagar here in the late 1980s, living alone after Elannam’s death in 1993 and continuing to travel with his son and their family. Now, he spends his time reading or participating in programmes and activities with the 45 other residents of the home.
With all the tumult he has witnessed in the world, what does he think about the COVID-19 crisis? “It’s a strange thing. Something will appear all the time – now it’s corona, next time something else. It will all be overcome and it will be peaceful later.”
