Baba

“Who is your role-model?” is a question all students are asked repeatedly throughout their school and college years. I used to often ponder about this, and although a faint silhouette used to form in my mind, I really couldn’t pinpoint any particular individual. As I write this, I am enjoying the last night of a four day parole from IIM A. My grandparents are not often in Gurgaon, as they choose to spend most of their time in Bhilai, but this is one of their rare occasions when coming home has meant so much more to me due to their presence.

Baba is all of 83 years old, and he is easily the man whom I respect the most. He is also perhaps the only individual for whom I have had unconditional love. Our association began right at my birth, for he is the one who gave me my name. Since I have always lived in Gurgaon and he in Bhilai, our interactions were limited to annual trips during vacation time. He taught me chess, table manners, and plenty of other things. Most importantly, however, he taught me how to live.

Baba has always been a man of modest means. A doctor with a degree in hospital administration, he used to be quite popular in his days as medical superintendent in the BSP hospital. Surviving on a meager salary was already hard, and raising four kids could not have been made it any easier. Today, the fact that all of them have done commendably well in their careers speaks volumes about their parents, who would never shy from eating a little less to ensure their children could eat more. After taking early retirement in 1986, he chose to live out the remainder of his life in Bhilai. Since I was born in 1992, to imagine my grandfather before retirement is like trying to cross a river in the absence of a bridge.

Baba will always be a different person for me because of his ability to simplify life, and to extract happiness from the most mundane of activities. He has always been a very methodical and meticulous man, and is usually very frugal with words. His mind is perhaps his biggest strength, for inside it is a wealth of knowledge so vast and deep that most modern day gurus would struggle to debate with him. He has an inherent love for repairing things, even though he is not an engineer. For his age, he is fairly tech savvy, considering he prefers to Skype instead of wasting money on phone calls and is more active on Facebook than I am. He always wants to learn new things, simply for the joy he extracts in the process.

Baba would always get up early in the morning at 6, have a cup of tea, and then read the newspaper for an hour or so. To watch him dress is an experience in itself, for he would always massage his scalp vigorously for 5 minutes before combing his remaining twenty three hairs neatly. He would always wear a freshly ironed kurta-pyjama, before proceeding to his own world of Solitaire, Freecell and Tetris. A nap before and after lunch would be followed by some more computer games and evening tea. After taking a walk, he would come back and spend some time talking to his sons in Dubai or Gurgaon. The usual Mehrotra drinks would be served after this, which would be consumed with snacks of some kind. He would partake a light dinner at 10, before turning in for the day. Nothing spectacular about his day, except the fact that he would do each activity so contentedly that it would fill your heart with amazement.

Tomorrow morning, he is leaving for Dubai for three months, after which he would head back to Bhilai. I would never acknowledge this to myself before, but I know he won’t live for very long, and it is something which makes me terribly sad. Frankly, I don’t know when I will meet him next, but I do wish I get to spend some more time with him. Anyway, if one thing is clear to me, it is that silhouette. My baba has always been my hero, and he always will be.