My anna was a father-figure to me all along. Whatever advice he gave me (he was 14 years older than me) was gospel and I implicitly obeyed him. He was primarily responsible for my successful career and for my satisfying married life. It was he who took one day off from work and came with me to the College of Engineering, Guindy after my pre-university course and made me apply for engineering degree course. He did not want me to do science degree like my two brothers. It was he along with Chandra’s uncle Mr. Sampath Kumar was responsible for choosing my life partner in Chandra.

He used to stay with us whenever he visited Bangalore or Mysore officially. It was a learning curve for me whenever I interacted with him on any subject be it science, politics, human relationship, music, cricket or tennis. He was the one who taught me how to play the game of chess. He was also well-versed in both Tamil and English literature. My joy knew no bounds when he along with manni visited us in Australia for a few months. During his stay with us there, unfortunately he had an attack of 'shingles' for a few days. He faced it very boldly and even punned on it saying தம்பியுடையான் படைக்கு அஞ்சான் _thambhiyudaiyaan padaikku anjaan. The Tamil word for younger brother is Thambi and for shingles is padai.

Whenever he came to Kanchipuram during my elementary school days, he used to hum some nice Hindi songs such as yeh raat bheegi bheegi, suhana safar, chauduvi ka chaand etc and this inspired me to take to Hindi songs though I did not know the language at all then. He once came with me after my graduation to Tirupathi and climbed up the hill!. When I performed three rounds of அங்கப்பிரதட்சிணம் Angapradharshanam he escorted me through the process and shed tears when I completed the three rounds.

It was our misfortune that we could not see anna during his last days as we are still held up in Australia due to the Covid-19 affecting the whole world.

I will always miss you dear Anna

Raghu
14 May 2021