Until recently, I was a proud grandchild of a 90 year old man who led the life that truly epitomizes simplicity. He passed away 13 days ago and on this occasion of his Vaikunta Samaaraadhana, I attempt a memoir:
A quick trip:
It’s a sunny afternoon, my brother and I arrive at Kakinada station, where we are greeted by our grandfather who rid us home and fed us lunch. An hour later, we realize that it is quite humid
but our grandfather has already has us diverted. By evening, my granny has arranged for a light dinner and all of us fled upstairs to relax in the open air. After few conversations, we slept tight and next day morning, I wake up to the hen crackling in the neighborhood and mild radio tunes played by him. My grandfather is seen going for a walk and returns home with some groceries. In the next few hours, he
is seen running errands and after a quick lunch, he would nap that is timed for exact number of minutes and then up again for a detailed reading and rama koti writing session. The couple sits in the front yard covered with coconut trees and immersed in intelligent conversations. The day passes by and ends again on the terrace.
This daily routine seems very common for many of us, but there are hidden moments that are otherwise called as Memories for me:
This write-up is a quick trivia to recall the good times spent with him and my eyes welled up as I walked down my memory lane, miss you taatagaru!
A quick trip:
It’s a sunny afternoon, my brother and I arrive at Kakinada station, where we are greeted by our grandfather who rid us home and fed us lunch. An hour later, we realize that it is quite humid
but our grandfather has already has us diverted. By evening, my granny has arranged for a light dinner and all of us fled upstairs to relax in the open air. After few conversations, we slept tight and next day morning, I wake up to the hen crackling in the neighborhood and mild radio tunes played by him. My grandfather is seen going for a walk and returns home with some groceries. In the next few hours, he
is seen running errands and after a quick lunch, he would nap that is timed for exact number of minutes and then up again for a detailed reading and rama koti writing session. The couple sits in the front yard covered with coconut trees and immersed in intelligent conversations. The day passes by and ends again on the terrace.
This daily routine seems very common for many of us, but there are hidden moments that are otherwise called as Memories for me:
- He neither owned a bike nor a car, he rode us back home in a cycle.
- He engaged us with stories made of interesting avatars to help us gain worldly perspective.
- He plucked home grown vegetables for lunch and in fact makes an awesome fresh salad that he titled as Aurangabad chutney.
- In few summers, the house was deprived of power, but he would manage with hand fans and natural air. This was a main element in our evening terrace sessions that are accompanied by wonderful stories that embark hope and optimism as we slip into sleep.
- He never used a computer in his life, yet was super efficient and until his last breath, he remembered every birthday, anniversary, service dates, due dates and other important milestones of all his family members.
- He was financially smart and spent meager amounts for his living, only to give away his earnings to his children.
- He was a fantastic husband who struck a balance between life and wife :) Besides helping granny with her cooking and cleaning, his daily routine included praying, reading, writing diary, negotiating with tenants, writing letters, planning train reservations and many more. (A funny and daily sight was him shaking a Horlicks bottle filled with butter milk in order to draw butter :))
- Being a lifelong teacher, he enjoyed enlightening us with sessions on Grammar, Literature and Biology.
- He was a proud owner of a tiny black and white antennaeted television that worked occasionally and he would be all dressed up for the Sunday evening, to watch a regional movie aired on DD.
- He would enjoy watching the hustle of moving trains and passengers in a train station and in order to engage us - he would assign collecting variety of flora, which is later explained in our journey back home.
- He was excellent at socializing and ensures to network via hand written letters. One will be amazed at the actual social network he managed even after his retirement. (Upon his demise, a 65 year old student of grandpa had called my Mom after seeing his obituary in the news paper.) He truly knew what it takes to keep in touch with others. No telephones nor Facebook sites back then!
- Another beautiful habit is, he makes scrap books for everything which if referred later become a learning pass time. For example, he gathers pictures of different states and makes a book for us, so that we could flip the pages to learn the various states, languages, dance styles, food interests etc.
- An interesting post-reading discipline he follows is, to write a summary of what has been read in a day with date, page numbers and a gist of literature.
This write-up is a quick trivia to recall the good times spent with him and my eyes welled up as I walked down my memory lane, miss you taatagaru!
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