We do come across innumerable people in our lives at different stages who leave indelible mark on your conscience and chalk out the future course. The quantum of association is sometimes not so very relevant, but the depth of the impregnation makes all the difference. The age, the relationship, the educational qualification or the conventional success parameters, just don't matter. What matters is your one-on-one connect and your deeper sense of gratitude towards them at the time of remembrance.
In today's past paced times, writing an autobiography is more of a professional endeavor which only celebrities can afford. For ordinary people like me, a blog on the auspicious day of Guru Purnima 2016 would probably serve the purpose.
This is my tribute to all of them sans the conventional methodologies of flowers, agarbattis and a formal rendition of stotras. I might be having some serious differences & hurt feelings (which I shall not touch upon even figuratively) with some of these majestic personalities but my innate reverence towards them still reverberates.
1. My Mother
Not just that a mother has to be the first guru in the shastric sense of the term, but in my little mundane un-illustrious life so far, my mother has had been the anchor of my dharmic compass. She has had been the filter around which my existence revolved since the days I gained conscience and a fierce independent voice of rebel or reason (depends on which part of the ideological spectrum you are). Whatever little goodness, which I have is all due to her long sessions of personal mentoring, which make me say that India is the only country to have a 1:1 teacher-pupil ratio. She instilled that deeper faith in the larger Cosmic Self which a Madalsa, a Kunti, a Jeeja Bai instilled in their respective progenies. His biggest asset to tame an animal like me has had been her astounding capability of affectionate reasoning, something which only one other person has been able to come closer to so far. A whole book can be authored around the anecdotes associated and the long trail of letters which I have preserved in my closet. God knows, whether this mesmerizing piece of conversation would ever come out in the open as a reference material on parenting and mentoring from teenage to adolescence to the dawn of youth.
2. My Father
I lost him quite early in my life and that too soon after college. An irreparable loss for a young man which just cannot be expressed but can only be experienced. A letter to him paying my heartfelt obeisances which I wrote to him in the last days of my college could never reach him. If an element of self-esteem, self-respect, self-drive is in me, it's all because of him. A man who sacrificed his bolstering career as a Chartered Accountant for the sake of his extended family, pinned me the value of sacrificing for family members instead of flying to greener pastures and simply remitting Benjamin Franklins back home as the only contribution. His capacity to work hard mesmerized not just his seniors, peers but his own children. He instilled that ingenious stamina of long hours which became my life long asset. His approach of inquiry, problem solving & courage for experimentation, even in the domains which had never been his area of education or experience, emboldened me to tread the same path. When the National Institute for Transforming India envisages for a national movement on innovation, I just fall in awe and reverence to my father who innovated and innovated for 20 odd years sustaining a microprise against all ecosystem hurdles and challenges. Fighting the system and accentuating course correction was something which got deeply ingrained into me from this man of unprecedented energy & integrity.
3. My Nani
The highest levels of education are already ingrained into our societal ecosystem. The more I am progressing in my life, the more I am getting convinced about it. Literacy just cannot be the lone parameter of an educated state. Wisdom smeared with devotion has been the hallmark of Indian society for ages, and we should really preserve it for posterity. She got widowed at an early age, still brought her children (my mama and my mother) with so much of affection. Her engagement with the Spiritual Leaders was terrific. The level of her philosophical quest was astounding mesmerizing even the stalwarts. The learning traditions whereby nuggets were transplanted and practiced beyond the domains of intellectual skulduggery. Her incredible affectionate ways to instill good habits and deeper values resonate even to this date. Her fearlessness and temptationlessness defines the characteristic soul of Indian women who have held the flag of dharma of this nation since ages. Her parting words to me when I was coming to join my semester at IIT KGP, when she was passing through her terminal phase of her cancerous tumour, were - never leave the path of dharma; never cause pain to your parents. Have been trying to live upto her last will indeed.
4. My Amma
The sense of punya & paap; the profound sense of optimal consumption; the astounding sense of sticking to the protocols & conventions of society; the mesmerizing sense of sacred cosmology of India; can it all be expected from a village lady having gone only to a primary school and raised a whopping family, which is well settled and prosperous. Her regularity, punctuality, commitment to the cause taken were all fine traits I learnt and imbibed in my self. Her causeless love and affection used to give the biggest of the social security which no institution of any credence can transcend.
5. Arun Mathur Uncle
Before the age of computing whereby keying in is the ubiquitous skill to blabber at length, handwriting both in terms of its calligraphic beauty and the speed at which you can race through the nib, used to be the key determinant of your academic supremacy. Thanks of Arun Uncle, an artist known to my father, I got initial lessons and enough practice to gain proficiency. Drawing and sketching was somehow beyond my competence, but writing got deeply instilled. An initial love for hindi literature too got imbibed with Maithili Sharan Gupt's Saket gifted to me by him, which adores my personal library till this date. The greeting cards we used to make by dipping a long thread into an ink bottle and then laying it out on a white paper in random sequence and taking it out at once, still fills in the artistic slot of my personal skill space.
6. Taal Waale Foofaji
Networking & Socializing is not just an elite skill limited to the metros or big towns. How to respectfully evoke meaningful relationships and help one and all in times of distress through this power of make feel good, remained the core of Taal Waale Foofaji who used to educate we toddlers as well through his never ending repository of jokes and riddles. His association with some of the finest district officials made us privy to deep wisdom at a ripe age when we used to accompany him on some of the local sojourns.
7. Sood Madam
Like a pilot who has to gain enough flying experience to qualify for a license, linguistic skill do need scribbling and parroting. Sood Madam was a champion of this pedagogy and made us do the same. She imposed something called strictly english speaking hours and imposed a framework of fine to dissuade we young rebels. She chose me as the Fine Monitor applying the doctrine of making the thief as the police. Thanks to her, I was forced to speak in the language of the Queen, starting from a funny famished intonation graduating to that of a fluent one.
8. Depo Waale Foofaji
How a person can rise oneself by his sheer diligence and perseverance. From a simple official with the Ammunitions Depot in my hometown Bharatpur, he rose to the rockstar status of a English teacher. He developed his own teaching style whereby grammar was not an impediment or an entity of rote learning. An iconoclast in his own right, he was a master original who defied one and all and laid focus only on applied side of learning. For parrots his doors were always closed. He only taught the senior batches as he felt that they alone had the audacity to defy conventions, which were wrongly set out. I was admitted to his august batches having seniors double my height, after a long ordeal of testing and testifying. The one month of foundational english grammar at his behest gave me the courage to fast forward my pen and compete with some of the finest chaps from ivy league schools of the country. On hindsight, he makes me further bolster my belief that there is excellence scattered across the length and breadth of this wonderful nation.
9. My Mamaji
Someone who saw his alter ego in his young nephew, granted him some of the finest privileges like taking him aboard his wedding horse; getting him type his ACR while just having crossed the primary school; taking him to his office to meet the senior officials; accompanying on official tours to expose the expanse of life quite early and pervasively, would have a special place. The penchant of using a mini-typewriter made me scribble long essays on innumerable contemporary topics at a time when you ought to be sweating in the cricket field along with your peers.
10. Bhopal Wale Nanaji
If writing postcards can be considered to be a great learning tool, Bhopal Wale Nanaji contributed to this emphatically. He had a record of responding at once and every time with his characteristic green ink pilot pen. For a senior official engrossed in the Government affairs, sticking to the athato brahma jigyasa of a pre-teen, it was something of a cherished feat. He was my early variant of google spanned aside a fortnight. But the discriminating part was that the responses were extremely filtered to my context and had no inline advertising immersed.
11. Chopra Uncle
Like arts my competency in the domain of music is of the denomination of an illiterate. Nonetheless, Chopra Uncle, my Mom's music teacher was an affectionate mentor. He bade me to learn the sargam, which my over activated senses couldn't take the toll off, but I internalized some of the finest life learnings from him. A humble Post Master in his professional life, he had a different avatar of a coveted musician in the personal life. He sensitized me for the first time about the inter-linkages between the cosmic rhythms and the natural manifestation at large. The three ubiquitous bathroom exercises have got into my daily dosage and the incredible nabhi bathing is a wondrous medication whenever I am in anxiety or have a stomach upset.
12. Pujya Gurudev Sri Narayan Das Bhatkmali ji
In the strictest sense of the term, he was my yugal deeksha guru with whom I had the great opportunity to exchange correspondence at length. The dilemma which an adolescent faces in terms of balancing between "prarthana & purushartha"; the implications of the chaturtha purusharthas "dharma, artha, kaam, moksha" vis-a-vis the concept of prarabhadha; spirituality intertwined with the social obligations and conventions; the larger quest between nationalism and spiritual order...it went on and on. Through the methodology of "pariprashnen sewaya" he implanted into me some of the key learning anchors which do hold the entire knowledge and wisdom repository and aide in encapsulating.
13. Char Sampradaya Waale Maharaj ji
More than having an expressive intellect which is much needed for setting out the agenda, it's the affectionate relationship which a spiritual social leader evokes to run and organize a spiritual institution. The dogged patience and singular enterprise which Indian Ashrams are run with, is something amply visible in Char Sampradaya Waale Maharaj ji. India's resplendence across ages has been carried forward by these indomitable seers of lesser words but profound action.They simply inspire by their actions.
14. Aditya Bhaiya
Those 61 days at Gitapress Gorakhpur under the tutelage of Aditya Bhaiya, an IIT M grad, made me resolute about my archaic and non-conventional choices. I chose this spiritual publication house as a destination for undergoing my summer internship as I was quite convinced as to what's the use of IT if it cannot transform our very own enterprises and be of use to our grand repository of knowledge. There was a flutter on the campus, but the belief and faith that others too have taken differentiated paths, comforted me. The foundations of applied Computer Sciences, for which these summer internships are somewhat meant for, got deeply ingrained. The sheer confidence that geography is not a barrier in the creation of software applications has been pervading my conviction buds since then. Aditya Bhaiya made that happen at Gitapress and sowed those valuable seeds into me.
15. Pramod Bhaiya
If the foundations of faith were impregnated by my family and affectionate seers, my knowledge based grooming into the grand intellectual traditions of India was accentuated by Pramod Bhaiya. An IIT Madras graduate again, deeply initiated into the Ramakrishna Order mentored my initiations into the Indic heritage. He stood as a friend, philosopher and guide in my youthful meanderings and nurtured my transition from a passionate adolescent to a resonating youth. I owe my differentiated career choice largely to his in-depth counseling sessions and affectionate mentoring by various means.
16. Michel Danino
A doyen of Indic Traditions, who took his learnings of Indian under the light of Sri Aurobindo, his balanced viewpoint appealed to me. I founded the Students' Forum for India's Heritage drawing inspiration from the International Forum for India's Heritage founded by him. A man of soft words but deeper wisdom, he guided me in times of testimony and always motivated to tread on, keep on.
17. Prof V R Desai, IIT Kharagpur
The martial aspects of Indian Nationalism were introduced to me by this very profound professor of civil engineer with whom I interfaced much more after my passing out from the college, largely in the context of Braj work whereby we were digging large ponds and were in the need of civil engineering expertise. The rigor and regularity of his daily schedules including the agnihotras were a cause of curiosity initially but became the indomitable source of respect and reverence later.
18. Mitra Sir, IIT Kharagpur
How love and affection can transformation lives? I had this amply from Mitra Sir and Madam. They not only got me initiated into the practice of Art of Living, but also showered their causeless love and affection for doing good, standing for good and struggling for good.
19. Renu Masi, Seed the World Inc
Some of our youngsters have to create patriotic enterprises and get onto patriotic passions in order to make a Samartha and Prabuddha Bharat. The SFIH network should be expanded on all campuses throughout India. What more a young impressionable mind looks for. A spark of motivation and bingo. These inspiring words have been carrying me till this date with the vision, which once looked achievable at once, but now daunting due to so much of practical nuances. The vision is of paramount importance to excel in life. At least you remain glued to the aspirational cause.
20. Ramesh Baba, Barsana
Spirituality glued to the cause of a geography and society, got manifested from this avdhoot residing on the hill top of Barsana. Spirituality doesn't take you out of the world, but makes you the center-stage of the social narrative. The depiction of Krishna as an environmentalist, the stupendous fight against the plunders of the ecological heritage of Braj, the closely knit band of Sadhus whose singular objective in life was service to the holy dham, all this reverberated of the Bhawani Mandir saga so well penned down by Bankim Chandra. A man whose oratory had no match, whose content was always contextual, a man whose rose as an iconoclast, a man who defied convention and charged you up to think objectively and openly. A wanderer who rediscovered the pristine sites of Braj bhoomi connected to the past times of Sri Krishna, a visionary and scholar who gave credence to the myth by geo-spatial mapping. The integrated web of the Indian tradition got magnified by his life and times.
21. Vineet Narain Ji
A titan impregnates innumerable elements from his persona into your personality, just by the sheer induction effect. The mover and shaker of Indian Headlines for over a decade, due to his series of daring expositions, from Hawala to Supreme Court Judges converging into positive reinforcements across CVC, CBI et al. The relentless striving for the chosen cause 24*7 was the single most important endowment I got. The deeper engagement with the system from Pradhan to Pradhan Mantri was yet another learning. The never say die-spirit to tread on and on, just makes me grateful to this giant persona.
22. Bharat ji
This roving modern sanyasi believes in connecting mentors with mentees. He has an uncanny potency to find out a potential and thereby nurture it out of his profound aphorisms. Arjun to bahut hain, par kaam kar rahe hain bheeshm ke liye. Bharatiya Samaj ke char stambha hain jo use abhinav banate hain, shikshak, chikitsak, sanyasi aur naari. Krishna, Vyas, Bhishma aur Vidur mahabharat ke chaar pramukh paatra hain. He was the one who opened up my shyness to confront the conventional authority. The crux of Gita, the love for Bharat from a first principles lifestyle and what not.
23. Pawan Ji, SIDH
Raghav, you can't have the cake and eat it too. This just chilled me down when my self became too heavy once. A profound intellectual, activist and practitioner of what he preaches. The anecdotal way of making the transformation in you, is simply superb. Ananto Bharat Jigayasa, can define his childlike curiosity and tale telling. If Michel has captured the material resplendence of India, Pawan ji is a doyen in internalizing the soul of India.
24. Santosh Sir
The legacy of grandiose doesn't get diluted with an ever charming and the most astounding anti-depressant you would have ever come across. Treading the legacy of Ramnath ji of the Indian Express fame, his penchant for media and the subsequent transformation is nothing but infectious. After my second entrepreneurial debacle, he was the one who instilled the due energy and enthusiasm to come back to the arena within a year.
