Advocate Sabastin Parappurath of Kerala, India entered on a business venture in New York in 1979….

 

It was a time when it was very hard to get a ticket to and from Kerala. Making a toll call within America itself carried heavy charges. Nowadays is it very easy to make free calls with WhatsApp technology. When technology develops it is likely we forget the past.

 

In the late 70’s, when a person from Kerala wanted to refund a ticket to India, it was extremely difficult and Suma Travels offered the best solution for the impasse. They called the Keralite, Sabastin. Just by that call if he answers the phone saying “let me see” one could be assured of a seat on a flight to Kerala. One of the early occupant for Kerala, Mr. Baly Usalit, remembers gratefully. 

 

Adv. Sabastin recounts the early days when tickets were written by hand and sold away. Now, new technology emerged which replaced the old system. 

 

Suma Travels is an epoch making historical service just like the “House of Spices” (https://www.hosindia.com/)  in Queens, NY. Suma Travels successfully completed 40 years of its yeoman service of commitment to the community. At that tine IATA and ARC recognized Suma Travels as the first and only agency in New York setting a sales record. 

 

Adv. Sabastin belonging to Amballur village in Ernakulam District of Kerala, took his degree at law college at Ernakulam. While he was practicing in the High Court, he got married with Rosamma Manalayil from Pulincunnoo, Allappuzha District, in 1973 and emigrates to USA in 1974. First, he worked in a department store in New York and later on joined AT&T. The inception of Suma Travels was in 1979, named after his elder daughter, Suma. 

 

At that time, some other Malayalis (people who speak Malayalam/from Kerala) were engaged in businesses like insurance, groceries, real estate, etc., and there was no one in travel business, Sabastin was persuaded to start a travel business which required insistence and initiative. 

 

During the early days of Suma Travels, Sabastin working at AT&T from midnight to 8am and attended his new travel business from 9am to 6pm - very few hours finding time to sleep between the phone calls and having two young children. Customers even waited for 11pm to make discounted calls, as was common at that time. 

 

After the inception of Suma Travels, with one wanting for more, Sabastin left AT&T. Facing heavy odds in the beginning, the last lap of his working in Suma Travels, were filled with happiness and self-satisfaction. 

 

Suma Travels functioned for four decades in a spacious office building on Broadway (1123-1133 Broadway) in Chelsea district of Manhattan, having occupied various offices in the building staying loyal to the neighborhood and the community of Little India over the years. 

 

Since 1979, the achievement of Suma Travels in the form of covetous multi-faceted awards for years (HYPERLINK-can you link the AWARDS page here)  from Air India, Kuwait Airways, Delta Airlines, TWA, Singapore Airlines, Jet Airways, etc.

 

He tried his hand at journalism too by working as the chief editor of ‘American Malayali’ in 1999, which was the first color print edition of Malayalam language papers for 4 years.

 

In retrospect,  Sabastin feels fully satisfied in what he had already achieved. Over the years, he has given employment to about 25 Malayalis who were qualified yet were not finding work in the US. Through employment at Suma Travels, these people were able to secure a green card. Adv. Sabastin records his sincere and deep-seated satisfaction for securing them these valuable green cards that enabled them to gain US citizenship and later on employment in their original fields of study in New York. 

 

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Sabastin John Parappurath ("Joy") wrote the above history at the request of his elder daughter Suma to introduce the "About Us" section of a website for Suma Travels, Inc so that he could connect with the next and future generations of customers.  Sabastin has always aimed to stay ahead in technology of business, being one of the first to even have a computer in his home for the purpose of work. He understood communications technology but always maintained a sense of humanity and personal contact with his community and customers. Suma Travels, Inc, has maintained staff and customers for two generations and always focused efforts on how to continuously improve on service. 

 

 Adv. Sabastin has lived and worked in New York City, serving the Malayali community in New York and by extension, the US and globally, over 40 years. He passed away in November 2022 and is survived by his wife Rosamma Manalayil (Pulincunnoo), his daughters Suma, a high school teacher and adjunct professor in New York City, and Suja, a doctor residing in Austin, TX, with her husband Biltz, and their five children, Thresia, Anna, Josiah, Richard, and Matthias.  

 

Tribute by George Abraham (https://indialife.us/article.php?id=193502)

 

He is also survived by memories and continuous support of long-time customers and families who have become friends and pillars of the community which he has served over the past forty years.