Last month on 8th April at 9:00 pm, when I received the news, my world came to a standstill. My son thought I fainted and rushed to me with Glucon-D. I felt it would be impossible to continue living with out him for never in my wildest imagination I thought of my life without him. But alas, we are forced to continue living, do our duty as he did his till he was alive.
Sundays meant going out and enjoying Kulfi at Roshan di Kulfi or Chole Bhature at Nathus in Connaught Place. We never had to ask him for anything. We got whatever we needed. Whether it is carom board, cycle, it was there for us.
After his retirement, he used to insist on serving us food which we used to dread for he would fill out plates with huge quantity of food. And for a man, who never had to enter kitchen even to fetch a glass of water, he used to prepare tea and bring it to me upstairs when I was studying. He , at the age of 60 for my recovery of health did angapradshanam at Tirupati along with me.
He had a huge collection of Bengali,Tamil, English classics and was a voracious reader till his last days. The day he found it difficult to read even the newspaper, he lost his interest to live. He felt his brain is dying as it was not being nourished.
I had an opportunity to host him for a couple of months. He enjoyed teaching Sanskrit to my son and talk about the freedom struggle and teach him those few chapters in history. It was interesting to hear some one narrate about Khudiram Bose , Netaji in first person. He enjoyed the pakodas, fried vegetables which I cooked for him and ofcourse he had his chole bhature too.
He was very excited that he his going to have his hip surgery and would be able to walk on his own and even challenged my son for a game of cricket. Despite his handicap after the accident, he never felt handicapped. He used to move the objects in the house, took to washing clothes. He was disappointed that in my house, I had a maid doing all those chores and he was to sit idle. Much to people’s wonder, he enjoyed the malls, traveling places, eating ice cream at Mc Donalds, even in his 80s.
I am proud that the death embraced him without any pain . May he attain his moksha.
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15 comments:
i was really sorry to hear about ur father.. n suddenly it has created a fear in me.. its unexplainable..
am reminded of my grandpa. your son is lucky to have spent time with your pa.
good to see (read from?) you.
Chitra
I do hope you get down to posting his writings here.
Do keep the flame shining!
I cannot belive that is already a month!!
Chitra, You have written it very well. Had tears in my eyes while reading this.
He did not express so much in words his love for us but his actions spoke a volume...
Rama
Very good work, thank you
Chitu,
Sorry to hear that girl. Wat a timing for both of us with dates. I missed my mom on may 9th few years back and its still like yesterday.
Hope you gain back your strength and remember the best moments you spent together and cherish it. It will be green forever.
Dear Chitra,
I was so moved by this article about your Father. I wish I had the opportunity to meet him when he was in Bangalore with Rama. But things happened so suddenly. Your love for your Father couldn't have been expressed better...
I am pasting a few comments which I received through mail :
Ankit : After reading the blog I would like to cite a quote which I recently heard, "The quality of life depends on the quality of experiences" and I can easily say after reading it that your father lived a life of a very high quality and achievements in his own right. May God bless his soul and he rest in peace.
Vijay : It was such a moving article. Chitra expressed her appreciation and love of your Father so well. It made me wish like anything that I had the luck to meet your Father...
Meenu : I must say that I was one of the fortunate ones who had the
honour of meeting Uncle and spending sometime with him. We had mutual fondness for each other and I was really floored by his sense of wit and humour... I will share the picture that I have of mine with Uncle. When I showed him that picture he had said - oh, this is
beauty and the beast together and we both had a hearty laugh:-). I have not come across a more photogenic person than Uncle...
I really remember him very fondly...
Dear Chitra,
My most vivid memories of Chari mama (I think the whole Tamil community in Noida knew him by that name) are of him sitting in the front room of your Noida home and having an animated discussion with all of us about something. I've never seen him in anything other than his usual cheerful self, never seen him even slightly unwell or lying in bed. He epitomized zeal for life - joie de vivre - the joy of life. Death cannot take that away.
Chitra I am so sorry for the loss of your father. You have beautiful memories and thats what I hold on to. I lost both my parents before I was even married and it was hard.Take care of yourself.and be strong.
let peace be upon him and soul rest in peace.
let his sprits guide his grandchild to betterment
Hey Chitu,
How are you? Be in touch.
To your father, a toast, for the celebration of Life that he stood for.
Someday, i will miss my father like this, and more.. because i still have not been able to make a bridge with him. And am losing hajar opportunities to create what could have been wonderful memories. Pray for me too.
......
May God bless his soul...
Take care of urself..
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