John Kisten
He is vice-president of the Magazine Barracks Remembrance Association, and a member of a host of other organisations. He also ministers to descendants of his old community.
He and my father, Chungelrion Swaminathan Govindarajulu, were friends since childhood.
When they set up home in Chatsworth, they would catch the train together from the Westcliff Railway Station to their workplaces closer to the city.
Recalling their lifelong friendship, he tells of their never exchanging a harsh word and always speaking to each other in respectable language, forgoing even the slang that was commonplace.
Kisten is the preferred choice of priest when significant prayers or memorials are performed in many homes of barracks’ descendants.
Well schooled in the Tamil language, he leads the prayers with great simplicity. He takes the time to explain the mantras and the purpose of the observances.
His intimate knowledge of families connects the younger children to generations long since deceased.
The reverence the current generation has for him is matched by his respect for his ancestors. His modest home in Road 307 is adorned with portraits of his parents and loved ones, as well as certificates recognising milestones in their lives.
The hand-tinted picture of his father, Moonsamy Viragaveloo, looking aristocratic in his Sunday best, with a handlebar moustache, dominates the tiny stairwell that leads to the upstairs two bedrooms of his semi-detached cottage.
His father worked in the municipality’s sanitation department and was responsible for the public toilets in Overport. Alongside his father is a portrait of his graceful mother, Naguramah, in what must have been her best sari.
Kisten holds court in the downstairs sitting room, where visitors constantly call on him, usually to study the almanac that regulates the observance of births, deaths and naming of newborns.
He pores through the ancient texts for explanations, readings and lyrics. A constant companion is the radio, with his favourite DJ, another Tamil scholar, Mala Lutchmanan of Lotus FM, who also has her origins in the barracks community.
No time with Kisten is uninterrupted. If it is not his landline ringing, then he slips his little cellphone into the side pocket of his traditional white kurta shirt. He could do with a secretary to keep track of his appointments but he manages them in his head and with his carefully handwritten notes.
Those who need him to perform prayers or readings send a car to fetch him, and he is meticulous about keeping appointments, though he juggles them with unscheduled visits to homes where there are bereavements or other calamities.
He is a counsellor in times of grief, always with a willing ear and gentle word.
This octogenarian, who shows no sign of slowing down, enriches the lives even of those well beyond the Chatsworth community.