The recent meeting organized for seniors is not the end of the road. It is just a beginning. I have had brief interactive sessions with at least four. All had their own interesting tales to share.
If ever you spot an elderly man in his 80s, with a decade less appearance, short in stature but alert in nature, rather in a hurry circumambulating Maple and Pine buildings, it is Dr Audityan of Maple (yes, that is how he spells his name). BTW he is Vidya Sen’s father - just in case she is more popular. He is always on the go to break his own record to complete a round.
He did his MBBS from India’s premier institution, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Family circumstances forced him to take up a job soon thereafter. He joined Armed Forces. A few years of service, and he thought that it was time he did what he could not earlier, do his Masters in Medicine. But then there were technical snags on eligibility because of the long gap between graduation and his proposed post-graduation. His mentor in AIIMS found a way out, bending the rules and not breaking them, and Dr Audityan was all set to pursue MD. The turn of events back home once again deprived him of this privilege. “So near, yet so far,” he laments. But his patients hold a different view. “What if he is not an MD? Very few doctors in Coimbatore can match his instant diagnostic ability and minimal prescription practice,” confides a Coimbatore client of his, who visits his son in SFV. So, Dr Audityan Sir, ends justify the means, and your impeccable services to the suffering humanity in your own setting eminently entitles you to rest on your laurels.
Very few can miss the Made for Each Other couple doing rounds in the Joggers’ Park, unfailingly every morning. You guessed it right. I mean Chetan Sharma and Nidhi. For the past nearly a year (ever since we shifted to SFV, to be precise), both the families have been vying to invite the other for a chat over a cup of tea. But suddenly the day before yesterday my intercom rang. “I am Chetan,” said a voice from the other end. “Sir, could you both come over for tea this evening, please?” As he walked us through his meticulously done up apartment, we chanced upon an old black and white album, and asked him if it contained his childhood snaps. No, his father was a minister in U.P., and the photos featured him with Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr Rajendra Prasad, Yashwantrao Chavan, and a few others. As for Chetan himself, we saw him as a teen-ager standing rather shyly near Indira Gandhi who was having dinner at their place. What could be more rewarding than this, I asked him, only to see him shy away, the same way as he featured in the snap. Then there were several photographs when he was on the Board of Directors of the Kanpur Stock Exchange, with several well-known personalities in the field.
Joggers’ park is undoubtedly a place where you make friends. One couple - either on the threshold of, or recently qualified to be hailed seniors - walked up to us and said, “I am Gautam and she is Nandini, my wife. We have moved in recently to Oak. Moments later came Nandini’s parents, walking in slow motion - slower than us, that is. They introduced themselves too. The Gautams are from Mysore where his great grandfather was a Vedic and sanskrit scholar having imparted training to the then Maharaja of Mysore on these. We invited the four for coffee later.
Last evening I had the pleasure to join a lonely occupant in the bench near the Swimming pool. He was Mr Chandran, who retired as the Chief Architect, PWD, Government of Kerala. Yes, he is Dr Ajay’s (Oak 2062) dad. He has several architectural marvels to his credit (including probably the High Court of Kerala?). More important, he was the recipient of gold medal from Prime Minister Narasimha Rao at a special ceremony. The 780 small houses that he built on behalf of of the State of Kerala was adjudged the best among what different states of India had constructed in Latur to rehabilitate the earthquake victims. Following on Dad’s footsteps is Dr Ajay. He was awarded 5 gold medals by the Mysore University for his academic achievements. The University promptly handed him back all the fees they had collected for his studies. Like father, like son. (It was very nice of Mr and Mrs Chandran to have accepted our short-notice invitation for coffee. They return to Trivandrum on Monday.)
Yes, at a Kavi Sammelan in Delhi years ago, a mediocre poet had once said: Kahate hai, Dilli mien bewaqoofon ki kammi nahin. Ek dhoondo, hazaar milega. Juxtaposed to that I would say something on a positive note. SFV mien intelligent logon ki kammi nahin. Ek dhoondo, hazaar milega.
V V Sundaram
Maple 3195
02 March 2017
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