Will miss you always.
Dad was born in a very small rural village in state of Maharashtra, India. Even though his family was extremely poor, he understood the value of education from a very young age and worked hard to become an engineer. I remember he telling me that during his childhood he had to walk 4 miles to reach his school and had to cross a river in between. After his 10th grade he moved to a town called Amaravati and later on he moved to Nagpur to pursue electrical engineering from REC (Regional Engineering College).
After completing his engineering education he decided to come to Mumbai with nothing in his pockets but just with a degree. He joined Crompton Greaves, Ltd as a salesman moving door to door selling electrical stuff. Later on he moved to Bharat Bijlee where he made some of his life long friends namely, Kulkarni, Pardhan and Bhure Kaka. I remember spending some of the best time of my life with these folks.
Papa then married Mom and they lived in a small one bedroom rental apartment. Mom told me that even though they didn't have much they had a great time together. I was born a year later and we moved to another tiny rental apartment which I still remember. Papa had saved money for a new house but was cheated of his hard earned money (that he had saved for 7 years) by the builder. Due to the disgusting judicial system of India we never got that money back. Its been more than 30 years but we still don't know what happened of that court case.
Anyway Snigi was born and we were still living in that small home but we were all happy together. Papa was touring Europe a lot in that period. He roamed through most of the Europe and really loved it. It's after that my father always wanted me and my sister to go out and live a life outside India. Since we have quite a number of relatives in the US, it was the obvious choice. Also Dad bought his own house and I still remember how happy he and Mom were to have the keys. I still remember and savor that moment.
We moved into the new house but unfortunately after a short amount of time, Papa had a heart stroke. He was very nervous about life and was worried about us since he was struck with the heart disease. He had to give up his job, undergo Angioplasty and could not work for almost a year and half. Those were some of the most tough days of our life. We had money just for our basic needs but we were together in it. No money for birthdays or vacations. I had a low morale since all the other children were having good time with their families but Snigi and me were going through a bad period.
Anyway Papa started investing in shares and he made some money out of it. He then along two of his old colleagues decided to start a small transportation company which would provided services to the electrical companies like MSEB (Maharashtra State Electricity Board) and Bharat Bijlee. He was a true entrepreneur and developed a business by combining dismantling and transportation of transformers. These two tasks were handled by two different entities, however he handled them as a single task as a result his pricing was quite less and this gave him a great business.
Papa was running his business from a small rented office however after few years he bought a moderately sized office in one on the prime locations in Thane. I still remember spending an evening talking with him in the office just before the day it was going to open. I remember he telling me, that when he had come to Mumbai empty handed he wasn't sure how he would do there. He was worried whether he would be able to buy a house, a car, provide for his family's needs etc. But that day he told me that he had achieved all of those things. He had a very happy family, his own house, own business and not only a car but a very successful transportation company.
Later on, he and Mom toured many places outside India and come to my place in the US as well. They had a great time together. Even though Papa had a rough health throughout his life, he was never put down by it and had great zest for life. He truly followed the motto "Get busy living, or get busy dying"
Labels: Dad
