Indakka Atya

I just came back yesterday from Mumbai. This was another added grief to the whole family when my eldest Atya - Indakka Atya expired 13 days back in Mumbai. This was just within 3 months of Pappa's death.

In some ways, Pappa and Indakka Atya had very similar traits of being leaders and winners. She was a brave lady too, having seen tough early years and then getting married and sustaining a large family of 4 kids - 2 sons, 2 daughters in the early years. My early remembrances of her start from the solapur days where she used to live near the railway station. I remember the days when she used to play 'Gunda', 'cards' along with me when I was a kid  and I used to get surprised, amused and happy about it. Later along the years, her family grew and she saw grandkids and even a grand grand kid as well in the last few years ...

Pappa and Indkka atya used to share a very 'loving' and 'figting' relation possibly can be termed as 'Lovingly fighting; ..I say this because evertime they used to meet, there would be some arguement between them where they would differ in their views and given they are from similar traits, both of them would stick to their stands always ..I often used to wonder why this happens everytime and later in my life when I did few learnings on MBTI, emotional quotients etc, I started to realize why this could be happening..

It is also ironic that they both passed away within a span of 3 months !!! Both of their souls are probably having the same camaradrie and the familiar fights of our world ! ..

My tribute to both of them ..

Deepawali

On this day every year, Pappa used to wake the whole family very early in the morning so that we could all get ready for the 'Aarti' before sunrise. While the proceedings for Aarti would be happenings, the phones would start ringing from all across other homes wishing each other on deepawali and exchanging notes if they have completed the aarti at home or not ..Amidst all this, Pappa also would make sure to burn couple of crackers outside the house which would break the silence...It was his way of telling the world that Deepawali has arrived and people should not be sleeping. He had also continued with the tradition of giving money to put in the aarti thali to me, Deep and Diya ..

Infact, his festivities would also start a few days earlier when he would check all the twinkling light rolls that he would be putting around the house. One of the light rolls would usually not work and he would have made sure to buy a new one as a replacement. He would have made sure to put all the light rolls that would hang from the first floor to the ground..This was quite an activity and I would usually help him to put them from the first floor. This was the tradition that he had started in Saarang in the last few years.

Today is a strange day. I just woke up very early though Pappa did not call. In the last few years, he used to call up through the phone from the ground floor in case we were getting late to get up. I had not realized that there is no Aarti this year and was trying to get ready when got to know that there is no Aarti.  It started reminding me of all the Deepawali days in the bygone years and how I as a child, teenager and as adult celebrated Deepawali. In the childhood days, it was also of looking forward for the new shirt that pappa would be purchasing.

While I write this, my memories go back to the past of the all the deepawali days when Pappa was alive. This is a strange nostalgic, empty and void feeling ...There is silence around and I just took the time to write this note before the kids wake up and a new day begins again which probably will make me forget the silence that is currently pervading at the moment ...

Painting story

I'am in the middle of getting portions of 'Saarang' painted. This includes the some of the exteriors and the rooms in the first floor. This was the extension of the work that was started by Pappa. Infact, his interests in some activities were very deep. This included 'Painting' , which he was fond of doing and trying himself.

Last year, he himself painted the entire ground floor of the house. I used to pick up a fight whenever I used to see him do that standing on some stool or ladder; Later, he started doing it whenever were were not at home. While I deeply appreciated his passion , I also had fear that he might hurt himself in the process. In anycase, he would not listen to anyone and would still go about doing what he loved doing ..He started out painting the compound, gate , window grills with Black paint. It got extended for some of the interior walls and later when we were away for 10 days in Singapore, last year, he completed most of the ground floor with offwhite, clay colour. The next in his plans was the first floor, which had not got completed. This was one of the reasons I wanted to complete this activity, which was on his mind.

He would have got completely busy engrossed with the painting activity if he was alive and would have discussed his various thoughts after I used to come back from office. Infact, when I went to purchase the paints at the nearby ' Asian Paints' shop, the shopkeeper recognized our house and Pappa and narrated how he used to come daily last year and buy 1 Ltr paints in small quantities.

I'am glad that I took up the unfinished activity initiated by him and its almost getting over with shades of yellow, orange in Kids room ; shades of green, brown in master bedroom ; shades of offwhite and brown and in the guest room above ..