A Journey Made Easy by Uncommon People
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station, even when you barely managed to walk, you were sitting in the train with me and dozing off! When you were getting down, you saw me getting anxious. You reassured me, ‘I will be alright, have a safe journey’. Books became our teachers and companions as children. They showed us the way, found solutions to our problems, made us happy, addressed our curiosities, healed us, comforted us, and empowered us. Books also made us address our fears and anxieties. They played a great role while we were growing up, now to calm us during stress. Nisbet’s The Railway Children has stayed with me forever. Your ability to use language beautifully and appropriately to give it a purpose and meaning has been picked by three of us, most by Anand, he is like you, and has the most beautiful and powerful language. It has been a gift of God to have a father who actually could ‘make day light out of darkness’. Whenever you returned from your tours you used to get beautiful gifts, sometime for Mummy, the other time for Anand and Ashok, another time for me or your parents. You thought of everyone in the large family. Your uncles, aunts, cousins and your colleagues. These gifts were colourful Himachal woollen shawls, mufflers, caps, socks, blankets, cushion covers, bed sheets and wrist watches. You never came with a single gift – atleast two, three or four. From your trip to Srinagar you got so many beautiful gifts – fur shoes, little embroidered purses, trinkets etc. You encouraged mummy to feel nice as she gave these beautiful gifts to relatives and friends. From Port Blair you got hundreds of small, medium and large sized shells which were given to friends and relatives after keeping a handful at home!
Mummy I remember you as a happy, always smiling and positive person. You taught us to be kind to those who had no support. We saw you all the time giving whatever you had because you could never see anyone sad, tired or hungry. You were so much in love with nature. You loved feeding birds, dogs and monkeys. You used to feed rice to birds; kala chana (Bengal gram) to monkeys, and rotis
