Today is the
Father’s day . I have crossed the age of 74 and my mind went back to my father. My father whose name was P.R.Rama Iyer was
poor hotelier in Hyderabad
and had only completed his education up to third standard . But he was an extremely wise and intellectual person. Of his own he
had attained mastery in Malayalam, Tamil, Sanskrit , Telugu, Kannada as well as Marathi and could easily
read all English newspapers. He was the
first book worm that I saw as he was a
compulsive reader who read
anything published in any of those above languages. As a result he was an extremely wise person , who could give guidance to
large number of people who approached
him., He was madly involved in the independence struggle of India. Due
to his extreme poverty and the need to
look after his dependents , he only read
volumes of literature relating
to our country .He was a subscriber
to a paper called “Harijan” which was being published by the great Mahathma .He was an expert in astrology which was our
family tradition. Though all his
children were special to him , fate
made me
live along with him for a very long time without my mother and siblings . He
used to talk to me about what he
knew as well as his ambitions. He was forced to sell his hotel due to labour problem and retire to the village. He told me that his
ambition was to make us all great and he knew that without education this was
not possible. He told me that he would
educate me by tightening his wants and by taking loan. He wanted me to study well and then
do all that was needed to realize his dreams. For the next eight years
I studied in various colleges and universities staying in various hostels . I could
manage to get some scholarship to finance part of my education. By the
time I came back and got a job my
family was in dire financial straits .
Then my penance started to fulfill my father’s dream along with my little darling younger brother .
Years of struggle along with my father
and mother lead me to the realization
of my father’s dream.
Today I remember him as the guiding spirit and
the thirst of knowledge of my
life, If I say to him,
“Happy father’s day “, he would perhaps laugh
and say to me , “Konthe , what is
this nonsense?’
So I want to tell
him who is in heaven , “Appa , I
would have been nothing without you and all that things which other people
consider as my achievement are all
yours . Appa, I miss you even at this
ripe old age.”
P.R.Ramachander
