it is funny how we keep coming back to this space hoping to discover something new. perhaps hoping to re-discover something old, hold it in the present, re-live it and make it our own again. the summer is over and the kids are back in school, only this year thatha won't be there to pick them (well one of them) up or drop them off at a moment's notice. he won't be there to ask the random math question or to argue with about leaving pens and pencils lying about where they shouldn't be.
one summer when appa went to the US achala was worried that she wouldn't have enough help with her math homework. she needn't have worried. before he left, he filled three notebooks with solutions to every single problem in her maths text, some with two or three alternative solutions, complete with comments and explanatory notes on why he done it one way or another! now he has left behind several diaries; some with just a sentence or two about the day's weather did or what india scored in a cricket match. others hold insights into things he felt and thought.
of course, words on paper are never quite enough. but unlike so many others, not only do we have those words on paper, but we also have the thoughts in our heads to share and relive. and that's one of the reasons i, for one keep coming back here. hoping to discover bits of my father that others might hold in their minds.
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This summer with Ma & Baba here (Runa's parents), we visited so many of the places that we went to with Appa & Amma as well last year. Every stop brought back memories of our trips from last year. Every tunnel we passed on the trip to our traditional summer destination of Seven Springs, PA, brought back a rush of thoughts. The notepad stuck in his pocket with two pens (just in case one did not work or ran out of ink!), noting down every milestone and oddity in the route. Struggling to stay awake at times, but nodding inadvertantly to every conversation taking place in the van and suddenly waking up with a sheepish grin which almost seemed to say "You caught me napping!".
Going to the beach, doing asanas in the sand, the playful display of his adventurous nature, reminded you that though the body ages, the mind need not. There are just so many memories, so many wonderful incidents that I look back on and realise that it takes more than the ordinary person to live life the way he did.
Just like Usha mentioned, there is not a day that I don't visit this site and look for something new, and somewhere in the search for that inspiring thought we sometimes forget that we can contribute as well.
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