Cool Dude

When I started this blog in April last year it was an outlet to get rid of the angst as life passed by and I saw myself drifting along aimlessly getting thwacked from shore to shore. I wrote about tips and tricks of not getting caught in the quagmire of corporategiri. I made a few friends along the way and happily as I amble along today I have the opportunity of celebrating the birthday of the coolest dude of them all. He’s been my trainer, my guide, my brick and bat, my sunshine and rain……he’s the coolest dude I know and ever likely to know.

My grandpa.

Nanu

He is what I aim to be in life if I ever get to live so long.

Disciplined

Open minded

Tolerant

Non-interfering

Unconditionally loving

Suave and Polished

Calm

Stoic

He taught me to walk with my head held high

..to bear life’s storms with equanamity

…to believe that all that is will pass, and all that happens is to be..to do my karma to the best I can and leave the fruits to the powers there are

….to love unconditionally

…..to practice the divinity of forgiveness and its healing powers

……..to be true to self

…………to BE

His sayings:

Silence is Golden ( yea helped me walk away from many a scruffs with mum and many a thulpings outside)

A stitch in time saves nine ( I still carry a needle and thread)

A million beatings is an idol made (Explains my goofiness despite all that life tosses my way)

Give all you got and receive what you get, no more no less (explains my huge credit card bill i guess)

Stay healthy – Eat to live – walk and water (reason for my sturdy build methinks)

My Nanu.. Ever-smiling and ever-loving. He has seen two wars, Gandhi and Nehru, participated in the Independence Struggle, was thrown into Bellary Jail, ran away from home when 9 to study in Chennai, ate idlis for 2 annas and watched movies with his friend at Mount Theatre in Chennai for 4 annas.

My Nanu..Always ready to lend an ear but never give a mouthful. He owned more land than we can imagine accumulating over a span of 3 generations; he saw it all acquired by Vallabhai Patel’s Land Ceiling Act; he fended for his family of 5 giving up the little land he owned doling it out to the people who worked for him; stayed a vegetarian all his life though none of us are.

My Nanu…Happy for being loved and loving as if there is no tomorrow. He ends every call no matter who is on the other end of the line with a “God Bless You My Dear”, and a ” I Love You my dear”. Who has learned to use the mobile phone at the ripe young age of 86, god bless him. Who cheerfully bids farewell to his youngest and darlingest grandson as the young man sets out to find his own path on distant shores. Who bids adieu time and again without a complaint or a tear with only a “We are Here for you my boy.”

As I stood waiting for him near the threshold of the temple at 5.30 in the morning (yes, he is the only one for whom I would quit being sleeping beauty for a day) I remembered all the morning walks he would take me on over the years in his efforts to instill discipline in me (sadly unworkable). I remembered all the early morning knocks on my window to wake me up so I could study for my exams, or head to the gym or prep for an important interview. I remembered all the times I would head straight to his room to pour out my frustration at a sad workplace or a bad personal situation. I remembered all the times he took hold of my hand and helped me cross.. a road, yet another challenge, an unexpected hurdle, a broken heart and many a tragedies.

Yet during all these times I have never seen him lose his calm, raise his voice in anger (though my mum tells us otherwise about this saint of a man who was a tyrant once), lose his nerve or his smile.

For my grandpa is a Dude who will find a corner even in a circle (yes mathematically impossible i’m told but with my Dude this is a probability coz anytime he enters a room he finds a corner and promptly plonks himself on it with the nearest reading material available), who will listen to all that you say but pick up the most relevant thread and prod you to open up till you think anew and feel afresh, who helps me look at life’s inanities and its series of comic sketches being played out around me and with me in it.

My nanu.

My umbrella.

My rock.

May he ever shine and never grow old. Amen and hallelujah!!!!!