Undoubtedly
my father is the best at whatever he did and probably knew how good he was. People
say that I take after my father in personality, appearance, attitude and also
inherited his sensitive digestive system.
Among
many stories, I would like to share a few anecdotes which he told us in the
afternoons of our holidays, while my mother served tea and her cookies.
It
was on one of his weekly visits to his best friend Late Sri Sadasiva Rao garu,
that my father told about his restlessness mind searching and seeking for
something. And his friend’s simple yet poignant words were, ‘ let the mind do
its work till it finds the TRUTH.’ My father repeatedly tells this incident and
has tears in his eyes whenever he remembers his friend. Another quip of this
friend which he remembers is that one should keep generating ideas because they
might someday take shape under conducive environment.
Sri
Someshwar Rao garu is an old friend of my father whom we hardly met in the last
two decades. But of late my father and mother are visiting him after the demise
of his wife. It seems they talk about so many aspects of life including
spirituality. This old man was an English Teacher and a great artist. He told
my father to write something about Dwaitha and Advaitha philosophy, may be, a
sort of test to his spiritual quotient. And my father, known for his brevity
(even in the legal fraternity) summed it up by describing them as the two sides
of the same coin. Well, one can keep exploring the scope for interpretation in
such complex subjects.
Yet
another interesting incident my father keeps recollecting is his meeting Sri Raghunadhacharyulu garu, a renowned
Sanskrit Scholar and Retd. Principal of Sanskrit College, Warangal. On asking
about the sublime relationship of a Guru and Shishya, he gave my father a book
on the qualities of a sishya and told my father that one should shed
ego(ahamkaaram) and totally surrender at the feet of the Sadguru.
My
father once met Sadguru Sri Sivanandamurthy garu and expressed his anguish
about the modern generation and generally the societal problems. Swamiji told
him that we are merely onlookers/bystanders and hence reflecting upon one’s
past experience is the best way to spend one’s old age to gain a
better understanding of oneself and our relationship with the cosmos.
My
mother told me about this note worthy tete-a-tete with one Sri..............,
my grand father’s contemporary and a Vedic Scholar. When he came to my parent’s
place, while narrating the story of Mandana Mishra he commented about the
hospitality and the grace and poise of a woman as seen in my mother and her
unstinted cooperation as a sahadharmacharini to my father in discharging the
family and social obligations. I could see the gleam of appreciation in his
eyes towards his wife, truly a shadow of his life.
Finally,I
write this ode as my father’s daughter
“You
always said that some things are better unsaid.
I
never violated that norm of yours till now.
But
this is what I wanted to tell you something for a long time.
You
are the Best, as a Paterfamilias.
But
for reasons best known, and like some serious fathers, you were
inaccessible to emotionally connect with you.
It
has always been a detached intellectual observation whenever we talked about
anything in life.
In
retrospect, I think, had it been otherwise, I would have been a prodigal
daughter.
So
I love you the most Dad-da!