August 16, 1949. He was born into a poor middle class family in Uttar Pradesh, India. It was Janmashtmi ( the birthday of lord Krishna), the day he was born. He was the second of six children. Quite prodigious in academics, he started school directly from the fourth grade and by the age of 17, moved out of home to study at BARC, Bombay. He graduated at the age of 20, got a job at ECIL, Hyderabad and by the age of 25, he had two children. Tragedy stuck in the form of chicken pox at the tender age of 18, and with nobody to care for him, it was to take a serious toll on his future. He contracted juvenile diabetes by 25, and had to take insulin twice a day for the rest of his life.
By 35 he had three children, a great job, and a house of his own. Fighting chronic diabetes is not easy and inspite of that, he kept his pain to himself, and achieved a lot. He was avant-garde in his sense of fashion and art. A talented singer, musician and artist, he also had a repertoire of urdu and hindi couplets for every situation. For someone who was educated in Hindi until his undergraduate days, his English was exemplary. He read a lot, and travelled around half the world.
He led by example, and provided his family with everything they needed. Sacrificing at the cost of expense of ones own desires is one thing, but to do it without ever mentioning it and expect any reward is a totally different thing. He never forced his ideas on his children, and taught them the value of choice. Never misusing his position of authority, he never used force or took advantage of his superiority as an elder to drive home his point. It was always his highly developed emotional maturity that did it. He always allowed you to freely express yourself without fear and encouraged you to make your own decisions. He strongly believed that one is successful only when he falls down and makes the effort to stand up once again. His life was testimony to this fact and he ensured that his children and others who he mentored at various stages of his life were always abiding by this famous quote of his:
Whatever you do, do with your might, things done by halves are never done right.
He used anecdotal sayings/limericks/poetry to pass on the right values to his children be it:
'Man is a fool, when it is hot he wants it cool, when it is cool, he wants it hot, always wanting what is not '
'Never expect anything, you'll never be disappointed '
'Insaan ki khwaishon ki, koi kami nahi, do gaz zameen bhi chaiye, do gaz kafan ke baad'
'My pain is mine - I will not let it impact your decision'
His profound spirituality and ability to connect to every individual set him apart as the most dynamic person I have ever known. Be it as a son, brother, father, husband, grandfather, uncle, friend or just a mere acquaintance, he touched the lives of people in his own, unique way. The hundreds of people who attended his funeral and cried for him, and still cry for him, are testament to that. People like this are rare, and I suppose they die young because God needs some good company too.
This is the story of someone I admire and would like to emulate.
