A daughter remembers .
My father K.C. Sundrachari was the son of a lawyer and the grandson of Mahamahopadyaya Kapisthalam Desikachariar who was a renowned sanskrit scholar,philosopher and an authority on Visishtadwaita philosophy .My father was fed up and angry at the rituals conducted non stop from early 4 in the morning till 11 in the day in his father's and grand father's joint family household daily as was the norm of orthodox Sri Vaishnava Brahmins .He was angry because he was hungry, as food was allowed to be partaken only after the numerous rituals were completed.He vowed then and there never to follow a single ritual in his life and his fascination towards communist ideology in his youth made him even more determined to stand stead fast by his daring decision through out his life !
A seasoned lawyer, was visibly shocked on reading aloud my fathers will soon after his demise in which he had clearly stated that he didn't want any rituals to be performed by his sons on his death and that they may instead feed the poor on his death anniversaries .
He was short and lean but tough to the core. He won a bet with his friends in his youth by spending a whole night all alone at a local graveyard to dispel the myths regarding ghosts and spirits! His past times included trekking Horsley hills in search of leopards.His swimming pool like all others at Chittoor was the huge well -Ranga reddy bave' where the young were initiated into swimming by just pushing them into the well whilst the older one's sat on the rim of the well ,waiting for the junior to surface and if he didn't ,plunge into the well and bring him up .This was the method devised to remove fear of water!
He scorned at the various rituals a Hindu had to perform and was allergic to 'God men' but never prevented any one from doing so nor did he fail to instill in our young minds despite his communist leanings that' Narayana ' is the only god to be worshiped and his best earthly form was as 'Srinivasa Perumal' at Tirumala.
He began his career as a excise inspector in the British government on the shores of Bay of Bengal at Ennore which he patrolled on his bullet motor bike accompanied by a fierce Alsation dog . He had to change his career as my mother feared that she may never be able to keep and rear her children after losing her first two babies to diarrhoea owing to the desolation of the place, that no doctors for miles around. He joined C.L.R.I. as a clerk and rose to become the chief of administration of C.S.I.R. by sheer hard work and merit.
Whilst I was growing up he was always there to smooth my ruffled feathers caused by my confrontations and arguments with my mother.Later when I got married , he never failed to restore my confidence when ever my spirit flogged due to the constant digs made at me by my crowing in-laws ,by reminding me that I was blessed with '2 lion cubs' meaning my sons.
His favourite grand son was my eldest son Vidat .At the age of 80 ,he visited us at Porur waving aside my mothers protests as he had become very weak owing to a chronic lung problem.He had an inkling maybe that his end was near and he made it clear that he dearly wanted to see my son Vidat.He filled his eyes [and memory maybe ] with the image of 16 year old and 6 feet tall Vidat and then, gently caressing Vidat's cheeks he bade fare well to me smiling ruefully on his way back to his house at Adayar. He died two days later.
My father never had the means to fulfill his socialistic desires - helping the poor and the needy. My share of inheritance from his estate is quite sufficient and I strive to fulfill my father's dream's which has become more or less mandatory when Vidat also left me ,by helping poor girls, orphans,and poor blind youths monetarily so as to educate and equip them to find a decent job that would enable them to lead a life with dignity.
5.9.1920 to 4.10.2000.
*************************
A seasoned lawyer, was visibly shocked on reading aloud my fathers will soon after his demise in which he had clearly stated that he didn't want any rituals to be performed by his sons on his death and that they may instead feed the poor on his death anniversaries .
He was short and lean but tough to the core. He won a bet with his friends in his youth by spending a whole night all alone at a local graveyard to dispel the myths regarding ghosts and spirits! His past times included trekking Horsley hills in search of leopards.His swimming pool like all others at Chittoor was the huge well -Ranga reddy bave' where the young were initiated into swimming by just pushing them into the well whilst the older one's sat on the rim of the well ,waiting for the junior to surface and if he didn't ,plunge into the well and bring him up .This was the method devised to remove fear of water!
He scorned at the various rituals a Hindu had to perform and was allergic to 'God men' but never prevented any one from doing so nor did he fail to instill in our young minds despite his communist leanings that' Narayana ' is the only god to be worshiped and his best earthly form was as 'Srinivasa Perumal' at Tirumala.
He began his career as a excise inspector in the British government on the shores of Bay of Bengal at Ennore which he patrolled on his bullet motor bike accompanied by a fierce Alsation dog . He had to change his career as my mother feared that she may never be able to keep and rear her children after losing her first two babies to diarrhoea owing to the desolation of the place, that no doctors for miles around. He joined C.L.R.I. as a clerk and rose to become the chief of administration of C.S.I.R. by sheer hard work and merit.
Whilst I was growing up he was always there to smooth my ruffled feathers caused by my confrontations and arguments with my mother.Later when I got married , he never failed to restore my confidence when ever my spirit flogged due to the constant digs made at me by my crowing in-laws ,by reminding me that I was blessed with '2 lion cubs' meaning my sons.
His favourite grand son was my eldest son Vidat .At the age of 80 ,he visited us at Porur waving aside my mothers protests as he had become very weak owing to a chronic lung problem.He had an inkling maybe that his end was near and he made it clear that he dearly wanted to see my son Vidat.He filled his eyes [and memory maybe ] with the image of 16 year old and 6 feet tall Vidat and then, gently caressing Vidat's cheeks he bade fare well to me smiling ruefully on his way back to his house at Adayar. He died two days later.
My father never had the means to fulfill his socialistic desires - helping the poor and the needy. My share of inheritance from his estate is quite sufficient and I strive to fulfill my father's dream's which has become more or less mandatory when Vidat also left me ,by helping poor girls, orphans,and poor blind youths monetarily so as to educate and equip them to find a decent job that would enable them to lead a life with dignity.
5.9.1920 to 4.10.2000.
*************************
posted by K.C. Sujata at
11:09 PM
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