"Years back my second son during his college days had this poster in his place pasted to the wall which read: I HAVE BEEN BEATEN, KICKED, LIED TO, CUSSED AT, SWINDLED, TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF AND LAUGHED AT...THE ONLY REASON I HANG AROUND THIS PLACE IS TO SEE WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT."
This is a mail my friend, guide and Guru in the institution where I have been working for the last 33 years sent me the other day to announce he and his wife had completed 50 years of married life. I am reproducing it in my blog with his permission. NSG, as we lovingly call him, continues:
"When we shifted our Madras home I removed the poster and kept it with me. He is fond of sending wedding anniversary greetings to us. He selects funny cards and once the caption in the card was 'TO A COUPLE OF NUTS'. I thought I must inform you that we have accomplished a feat--we have completed 50 years of married life. Fifty years of happiness, sorrow, suffering, turmoil, peace, sacrifice, accusation and above all some sort of sweet satisfaction that 50 long years have gone by amidst the turbulant life we had. Life still goes on with all these. No regrets because what a life can be and should be was lived with the available resources, contentment and satisfaction. God has been kind to us all these years and was with us without fail, guiding us."
I know NSG from the time I was 21 years old. I had slept on the floor in his humble, furniture-free home those days. We used to sit deep into the night on the mirror-neat cement floor talking. His three sons, who were school-going kids then, are now in very good positions in different corners of the world, as happy as only the children of such parents could be. NSG's influence on my life is something even he is not fully aware of.
Just wanted to share my happiness with you.
*****
This is a mail my friend, guide and Guru in the institution where I have been working for the last 33 years sent me the other day to announce he and his wife had completed 50 years of married life. I am reproducing it in my blog with his permission. NSG, as we lovingly call him, continues:
"When we shifted our Madras home I removed the poster and kept it with me. He is fond of sending wedding anniversary greetings to us. He selects funny cards and once the caption in the card was 'TO A COUPLE OF NUTS'. I thought I must inform you that we have accomplished a feat--we have completed 50 years of married life. Fifty years of happiness, sorrow, suffering, turmoil, peace, sacrifice, accusation and above all some sort of sweet satisfaction that 50 long years have gone by amidst the turbulant life we had. Life still goes on with all these. No regrets because what a life can be and should be was lived with the available resources, contentment and satisfaction. God has been kind to us all these years and was with us without fail, guiding us."
I know NSG from the time I was 21 years old. I had slept on the floor in his humble, furniture-free home those days. We used to sit deep into the night on the mirror-neat cement floor talking. His three sons, who were school-going kids then, are now in very good positions in different corners of the world, as happy as only the children of such parents could be. NSG's influence on my life is something even he is not fully aware of.
Just wanted to share my happiness with you.
*****
14 comments:
Hi Venu,
That was simply nostalgic for me too as I have heard a lot from him and you too. Probably, in the next posting, you should rewind the days at CBE, the tours, the Das lodge, the Mithrasamajam,the night despatch, Sri. B.Mukundan, the walk done from Kalaikathir buildings to city centre, the vitality of the allowances etc.
Enjoyed this post...
Inshah allah .. may his and your happiness be long !
Btw, good morning !
Good morning, Deeps. This is about someone very dear to me. He will take me to task if I write more about him. I consider him as my mentor, especially in showing me the importance of certain old world values in life and profession. He will rather prefer me calling him my friend and elder brother. He is leading a quiet and happy retired life in Chennai now.
Lanhan, we were all in very great difficulties then, weren't we? I remember going with just one meal a day during the second half of every month, walking four km up and four km down to save Ps.40 on bus fare, switching to beedis to cut expenses on cigarettes... The meal at Mithrasamajam used to cost Rs.1.40 those days. And I got married too in the middle of all these difficulties and was happy and flying, if you remember. You got married much later, after the Palekar Award, which slightly changed our financial difficulties.
Dear Mr.Venu
Let me first congratulate him on this feat half century. No words to praise his qualities no dought he is guru/mentor/guding force in my life as well as official life many many thingsfrom him learnt and practised a book can be written about association.
Ravi!!! I remember an incident way back in 1980 or so, when my integrity came under question and I won't put up a defence even to save my job. I took a position "so be it, then I am ready to go." I was in CBE and NSG in Madras. Without speaking to me or making any inquiries he intuitively understood what had happened and why I was accepting the blame,He intervened to close the issue. They had so much trust in him that his word was enough. I learned about his role in closing the issue only from others. Do we have such bosses now?
Dear Venu,
Undoughtely a big no i do not want to elaborate his words always had human touch. He is great. It was a golden period/ Era.
Inspiring post. May their tribe increase.
Prabhakar, you know NSG (N.S. Gopalakrishnan), don't you?
No, venu, can you email details about the great man
your friend seems to be a man of character. one of te great fortunes in our life is to be able to work and be inspired by such people.
my congratulations and best wishes to him.
His greatest quality, madam, is contentment and from this quality comes everything else. He continues to inspire me in my search for total contentment.
My son phoned me yesterday and said he liked this post very much. It is not often I get compliments from him. He has met NSG only a couple of times, but has heard a lot about him during our discussions on this and that. So people like NSG continue to inspire down the generations without their knowing it.
Hello hello ....
Mentor .... yeah ... it's amazing how much of difference one person can make in our lives, isnt it ?
Deeps, you came back to this piece for a second time? This is really a good write, isn't it? Its simply I am writing from my heart. Mentors can come from any corner. Little incidents, subtle remarks, without they themselves knowing they are doing it intentionally, which they are not...
NSG phoned me yesterday and spoke for nearly 20 minutes. He said he would have loved to put in a comment, but he was not conversant with the skill of putting comments on the blog. He spoke of other blames he had taken on himself for his juniors. PSR, another great character who was the head of the department then had told him once: "You are always a big trouble here. As long as I am here who knows you, it is all right. But what if some fool comes in my position? Why should you take on your shoulder the problems of your juniors?"
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