Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Lessons from my forefathers



I’ve have had so many nostalgic moments in past. More often after I started travelling to Electronic city. Nowadays, I badly miss being amidst sensible people. Some fun loving colleagues; cubical mates with cracking sense of humor; witty managers; discussing love, life and other impediments with friends and so many such moments which have now become a rarity. Thanks to my company and 5 hours of travelling. I’ve comforted some that it happened and regretted few that it won’t happen again. But today I experienced a totally sublime moment. It was such a bliss that I don’t have enough words to explain how I felt.

Of late, I’ve developed a kind of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) for cleanliness. Not sure if it is the effect of taking too many Information Security trainings at office or my being an Aries man, Nowadays I can’t stand shabbiness of whatsoever form. After lot of plan, and since I was observing Earth Hour (March 23rd) I decided to clean one compartment of my cupboard which was muddled with some century old stuff which no one in my home was interested in. 


While cleaning them, what I found was something really interesting.

A post card written by my maternal great grandfather to my paternal grandfather which had the information that my dad was born! Yeah. Dated 30th July 1946, the information of my father’s birth typed with blue ink (yeah.. it is not written) on a ½ anna post card. Believe me… You don’t know how terrifically nostalgic I got. Oh my god! I read the letter again and again. I couldn’t believe my great grand father had such an awesome English vocabulary! That too in 1946… Whoa!! I had a feeling that – My great grandfather slapped me hard and said “We used to wait for 2 days to know when a new member has arrived in the family… And here you are..  Not able to travel for 2 hours on Hosur road?” Am I seriously maturing too much or life itself has decided to teach me lessons in a nutshell with real life examples like this. I’m not able to comprehend.

I also found some old books (Tattva Vaada - A magazine which was subscribed by radical Brahmins of yester years). Now I can trace my household customs to early 19th century. Yeah. It all falls in place. Old novels and some old letters each of which tell the tale of yesteryear. Through these small artifacts of my forefathers, I’ve been able to borrow from them a proud feeling of how culturally rich my family was, how educated they all were.

For a man of my age, I'm shamelessly hoping that besides all the whining that I do nowadays (actually I only whine and complain nowadays). the courtesy of such simple things will be of ineffable help to change myself.

No comments:

Post a Comment