Chapter 24 | Two Dadda's and a Daddi

Papa’s family is humongous. So big that it was only at a cousin’s wedding in my teens that I discovered Papa’s step step siblings of whom, I was previously unaware of.

You see, Daddi had married twice. She had four children from her first husband (these I knew fondly) and two (Papa and his real sister) from the second. Daddi’s first husband hadn't actually been in love with her and so he began a sordid love affair with a woman of Malay origins. Daddi was not oblivious of this relationship and she one day followed him to the house of his mistress.

As to whether anything immoral went down between the two of them, I cannot say. All I do know is that despite her heart being shattered by this discovery Daddi would still visit this ‘other’ woman bearing gifts in the hope that her husband would be pleased with her actions.

On the contrary Dadda number one, divorced Daddi and married his mistress, leaving her to fend for herself. Eventually, Daddi remarried. It seemed as if though her entire married life was doomed from the onset. Dadda number two passed away before the birth of his second child, Papa, as a result of a heart attack. If he lived knowing Papa, he would probably have died of a heart attack any ways.

Whilst his other siblings at least had someone they could call ‘Dad’, Papa and my Choti Foi grew up without a father. When Dadda number two passed away, their financial circumstance was in a pitying state – there was nothing else but for Daddi to send her two eldest sons to live with relatives.

Like many uneducated women back in the day, Daddi was limited as far a possible working ventures went. She found a job in a factory as a seamstress and she slogged to make ends meet. I realize now that I never once heard her complain about her life then, of how difficult things used to be.

Papa wasn’t as close to his siblings as Mama was to hers and I think that growing up apart from each other had a lot to do with that.

As for those step step siblings I spoke about in the onset? Well Dadda number one had 6 kids from his second wife, this apart from the four he had with Daddi. His sperms certainly did the rounds.