My Grandfather (Nanaji) : A man of wisdom

A wise man is someone who understands and has the ability to act accordingly using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight. My grandfather was one such person.

There are people who don’t become famous even by doing good deeds, but they are respected and well known by the people who will always remember them. My grandfather was one such person.

Some say that to know a person, you need to be with them for a long time, but my grandfather was a person who was transparent with everything he did, his every act was a lesson to be learnt and his words showed his knowledge. He helped those who needed his help without question, disregarding his own needs for that. He never thought about himself but the others around him first. Being punctual and so preserved, he was a person who would complete his resolutions no matter what. So if we want to know a person like him, then only a single meet is enough to know about his character.

Today is his death anniversary, a solemn occasion. I feel sad that such a good person is no more in this world, but my grandfather is someone of whom I can be proud of.

For me, “when someone you lost becomes a memory, those memories become treasures.”

My family used to visit my grandparents whenever we had summer holidays. In that time I was always excited to meet them, because they always gave me sweets to eat, made my favorite food, brought me gifts and gave me some money as a present when we left. During that time my grandfather used to teach me maths and tell me his famous dialogue when I woke up late, “Jo soya wo khoya,” meaning, those who sleep, they lose and lose they do the morning beauty and their precious time. He always told me that having a good time table is very important, as it keeps us healthy, he even scolded me lightly for not eating green vegetables but of course, he would always let me eat what I liked. Grandparents are like that only.

I have always hated doing maths because I am weak in calculations and tables, so I used to fear that he would ask me to calculate something again. And just to show him that I do study, I will write down a few simple tables (of 2,3 and 5) and solve some simple questions. He would laugh at my attempt to bribe him from making me study maths and would always say, “Maths is like a mirror, the more closer you go, the more clearly you could see.”

Despite English being a secondary language, he had mastered it perfectly and was even well versed with many well known books. Name one subject, and he would know it. He would discuss things for long with my father when they would sit down to relax. He used to think of money matters before hand with the future in mind, so he was well prepared for everything. He exercised daily, did yoga, read books, newspaper and was well versed with Indian history.

I was 5 or 6 maybe, when my grand parents visited us, at that time I liked cycling and disregarded eating on time due to my hobby, so my grandfather used to take my food and give be one bite at a time to eat while I cycled my way through the empty roads. Though those bites were always big, I liked it when he would tell me stories and his thoughts on various thing while walking with me as I cycled. He did this every day. Sometimes I even saw him making food for us because my brother was just a new born and my mother and grandmother were always busy with him and the housework and my father was always busy with office workload.

Many of my memories of him have faded, but I would always remember him as the great man he was. He died because of kidney failure as he had diabetes, but if he didn’t have that disease, I am sure he would have lived longer as he was a very punctual man. Even though we have advanced in medical field, some things are still out of reach today. If in the coming future we are able to cure diabetes or equally dangerous illness like cancer, I am sure there might be some other disease that would be incurable.

Each day becomes more poisonous than the day before due to pollution. But despite that fact, we live on. We are part of this life and this life is a part of us. Many believe in heaven, so do I. And thus, I wonder if my grandfather is in heaven right now, will he be born again?

Even if we are born again, the life we have now will never come back, so we should value this time we have got in this world. I will, just like my grandfather.