Remembering Gopalan On the occasion of 13th day ceremony,Acharyan remarked that only great Souls like Bhishmar choose Ekadasi as their date of death. Gopalan also breathed his last on Parivarthana Ekadesi Thithi of divine Purattasi Month under Sravanam Star (which is also the Janma Nakshathiram of Shri Vedanta Desikar) in the early hours of Friday, 24th September in Dakshinayam Valar Pirai. My association with Gopalan can be divided into 4 phases viz,, after his retirement in 1997, during his stay at Bangalore from 1982 to 1997, his stay at Nagpur before that and our stay at 25,Vedachala Gardens, Mandaveli. When he settled down in Adyar, we used to visit Mandaveli daily since our father lost his eyesight fully. Gopalan attended ICWA final classes after retirement and enrolled for Advocate also. We used to help father take his bath & other functions till his eye operation at Dr.Agarwal's Ophthalmic Hospital. During Radha's delivery in Dec 1997, our parents stayed with Gopalan in Adyar. When Vijaya had gone to Mumbai for treatment, Gopalan did the cooking also. After our father's death in July 1998, it was proposed by Kannan that we perform the religious rites from the 9th day after death. But when mother requested Gopalan to perform the religious rites from the 5th day onwards, he readily agreed to it and performed with utmost sincerity in T.Nagar. After our mother's return from Mumbai, she was admitted in VHS in 1999. He visited her daily two or three times besides arranging for TV, radio etc. for her. When mother was in Ambattur for nearly an year in 2000, Gopalan visited on alternate days & he used to bring novels of P.G.Wodehouse/Frederic Forsyth or Reader's Digest. But for his efforts, the various amounts due to Sampath, besides the sale of Luz flat would not have materialised. For realising these dues, Gopalan made various visits to Mumbai,Kolkata to IBP/RBI etc. He also kept mother fully engaged by making her recite Thiruppavai, read Divya Prabandam etc.Mother used to say (when she was 80!) that she would read them in her last days and wanted novels for the present. When mother moved to Parthasarathy's Railway quarters in June 2002,Gopalan used to commute between Adyar and Ayanavaram and our lively discussions in Parthasarathy's house and Amritha's hospitality in Aynavaram house will always remain in my memory.Gopalan went to Mumbai in August 2003 and when he was informed that mother has been admitted in Railway Hospital, he reached Chennai by the first available flight and proceeded to the hospital direct from the airport.During mother's stay in the hospital, he used to go daily and sit there with a book and saw to it that no efforts were spared to make her last days comfortable. Mother's last rites were performed to the satisfaction of all and monthly ceremonies were adhered to and there was no disagreement between our brothers/sister since we had full faith in Gopalan's decisions. The only unfinished agenda was the disposal of West Mambalam house.Gopalan filed nearly 7 cases and followed them up with the advocate till he decided on Sept.7th, after mother's Annual ceremony, requesting Parthasarathy and me to follow it up. We do not know if he had a premonition of his death. When Gopalan stayed in Bangalore from 1982 to 1997, our contacts were only through letters and visits once in every 2 years. He was affectionate and a thorough family man. During his 6 months' study tour to USA in 1989, Gopalan saved every rupee to celebrate Usha's marriage in a grand manner.Kalyani and children were scheduled to travel with parents and Vanaja and the tickets were in Mandaveli. Due to confusion in communication, they missed the train and travelled by bus and attended the marriage. Only Vijaya used to visit Madras regularly & since Gopalan looked after Priya (dog, though I wouldn't have said so in Gopalan's presence), he visited Madras rarely. When Gopalan was in Nagpur for 15 years, I passed through Nagpur on my way to Ludhiana. Usha and Gopalan came to Nagpur station with breakfast, lunch etc. When he had his first heart attack in 1980, we corresponded regularly. As a family, we siblings never quarreled, but we were also not very close. During Gopalan's early years in school, he was a voracious reader and a Gold Medalist in his SSLC in 1953-54 and the prize books were alone worth a tidy sum. His friends were very few. I distinctly remember his vigorous exercises using ammi and kalloral kuzhavi and used to sweat profusely as we could not afford gym or equipments those days. When Gopalan joined Guindy Engineering College, we were very happy. But Gopalan became morose and went into a shell when he could not clear first year engineering drawing despite getting very high marks in other subjects. Even father was worried since students could not compete final year if they had arrears. But finally he cleared the paper. As the first batch of Mining Engineering, he joined Talcher Collieries as Mines Manager but did not complete his apprenticeship period since he came away to Madras on seeing a fully grown bear in his campus in the night. The amount earned by him had to be repaid before he joined Nagpur in the laboratory. Gopalan realised that he was not fit for shift jobs and his liking was for 9 to 5 job. By his hard work, he rose to the rank of Joint Secretary in Government of India after 35 years' service in the Indian Bureau of Mines. His concentration & memory were phenomenal to the extent that he forgot his surroundings totally. When he was in SSLC, all of us went to Kapali temple and when we returned after midnight, we could not make Gopalan open the door as he was engrossed in his studies and ultimately we entered the house through our neighbour, Venkatrama Iyer's house. He noticed us only when we were inside the house. Gopalan was a sound sleeper and slept well even during afternoons. While we were staying with our chithappa at Mount Pleasant in Coonoor for summer vacation, we returned from Mount Toddabedda late in the night. Gopalan skipped climbing up the hill and returned to Coonoor and went to sleep bolting the doors and windows. After nearly 2 hours of trying to wake him up, we broke open the window and entered the house.Gopalan asked us how we entered the house on that day. Gopalan was an absolute follower of Kannan. While we went to Soolankurichi for vacation, he wanted water when we were in the thoppu (garden).Kannan gave him one jug-full of jaggery essence which Gopalan gulped in one stretch and he was suffering from Neer Surukku (urinary problem) for 2 days and all of us got good scolding from Soolankurichi Patti. Patti also never liked children playing cards with father and grandfather. Our visits to Touring Cinema by bullock-cart are still fresh in my memory. If only I had known that September 11th was our last personal meeting in the Integral Club, we could have spent more time. Kalyani used to tell me repeatedly that we brothers are unique in that you telephone for specific purpose and end the conversations without enquiring about the health etc. We miss his SMS very much. MAY HIS SOUL REST IN PEACE S.Raghunathan (From the family e-Newsletter for October 2004)