I was sitting on the middle bar of the bicycle holding on to the handle tightly.. So tight that I ended up putting on the front brake... and we fell... My Aanu (Father in Konkani) and Me... I was attending kindergarten then.. That is the earliest memory I have... of my Loving Aaanu...My best friend ever... Sorry Amma (You come second there :))...
There are a few more, however, I feel I visualised them after I heard about it from my Amma..
We (Guru, my-Bro and Me) used to get very nice beatings from him... of which I don't remember much of... However, I still remember him calling me and telling me you are big now, you should obey my words and help me not picking up the stick again.. I was like 'Yippeeeee'.... After that I don't recall I gave him a reason to pick that again.... Though, I still used to get the verbal thrash...
I do remember one incident where I annoyed my father... 'Who is the oldest in our house?' I asked.. 'I am' Aanu replied... 'So you would be the first one to die'... Before my sentence ended.. I got nice ones.. :)
I still remember, every exam I wrote through out my schooling uptil post graduation.. Aanu used to wait for me at the doorstep, to welcome me back from exam hall and enquire about it.... I couldn't understand till I was old enough that he used to apply for leave from his office to be able to support his sons' during their exams... I used to love the sight of him at the door, his anxious eyes, his lovely smile and smell of sumptuous lunch he would have prepared for us....
I had a dream of attaining 100/100 in mathematics in tenth standard.. which my father had achieved.. I fell short by 12.. I was determined to beat him on his score in his 12th... and I wanted to achieve that by scoring a 100... With that detemination I entered the examination hall... I came out of it crying... which I did repeat on my father's shoulder.. telling him, 'I might fail this paper'... I was expecting a bunch of harsh words from him... 'Don't worry, Mathematics is over.. try and concentrate on the rest' came back the reply... and I was stunned.. To my surprise... I did not fail that Maths exam.. the score was exactly as per my expectation...
He was very detemined to get both of us in to technical colleges... The reason..... he had to discontinue his Bachelor's in Engineering in the final year... since he could not muster money for his final exams and also he had got a job offer from a national life insurance company.... he joined back a Arts degree course after he started working and got a degree for himself..
I did not score well at all in 12th.. which made both my parents to run from pillar to post to get me into a technical college... At the end....all of it went in vain and I joined a Bachelor of Sciences course... at the end of 3 years of jovial carefree time I spent... I went proudly with my marks sheet to my Aanu and uttered.. 'I am the only guy in our group of friends to have scored more than 50%'...... 'You don't know your worth, don't feel proud of such low grades'...that struck me like a thunderbolt...
With a second round of pillar-to-post runnings of all three of us.. I finally managed to get admitted to a Master's in Computer Applications course.. With my first semester's results of close to 80% marks... my father distributed sweets in his office.. and that made me very proud... I had taken his last comment to heart and had worked on it.. I decided, come what may.. I would make my father happy by getting the best marks ever in my Master's.. and I did...
Today, I see a proud father telling people 'My son is in Singapore and has traveled 4 countries. He took us on our first overseas trip and showed around Singapore you know...!'...
Aanu, the overseas trip to Singapore is humongously miniscule to the huge effort you and Amma took to get us here... your kind words, stern warnings, unending support... and your ever so lovely friendship.... :) I just have one wish.. to be born to you two again, again and again..
Ciao..
Annu (Aanu calls me that)
