And now to my family....well I am a member of the 10th generation of the Kattakayam family. Originally from Palai, my great-grand father, then a Member of Legislative Council of Travancore-Cochin and nephew of Mahakavi Kattakayam Cheriyan Mappila moved on to this picturesque but remote place called Arakulam to cultivate rubber, surrounded by hills and accessible by tarred roads only in the last decade. Anyways to cut a long story short my dad, John Kattakayam the first college union chairman of Newman College, Thodupuzha and first rank holder for MA Sociology at Jabalpur University studied his way out of the rubber business and landed up in Trivandrum to do his Ph.D with just a trunk-petti as he called it once.If my dad was from the hills my mom, Gracy came from a remote lower kuttanad village called kattanam and like my dad studies brought her to trivandrum too.Whats common with both of them was that they struggled a lot to finish their studies, came empty-handed to trivandrum and found professional success.Anyways my dad is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Academic Staff College at the Univ of Kerala and my mom is a lawyer who was Addtl Govt Pleader and Public Prosecutor  from 91-98 and who cud have gone a long way if she hadnt sacrificed it all for bringing me and my sis up.Then there is my younger sis, Jisha doing her masters at UCLA. The irony is that we both went to rival schools all our life.When I was at Loyola she was at Holy Angels, When I went to SCT she chose CET and because I went to USC she chose to go to UCLA. We still fight a lot but she is the most precious thing in my world. Then there is my ammachi still going strong on 81. I believe it is her prayers that have been responsible for all the blessings god has showered on us.