Obituary: TC Ganesan : My Sammandhi no more

Obituary: TC Ganesan

 

My Sammandhi no more

 

Tarakkad Chandrashekar Ganesan, my elder Sammandhi, passed away in Delhi two days ago. He was 77. He was on medication for some years, but that never affected his daily life. But in the last few months doctors switched over to just palliative care. May God bless his soul.

 

My association with Ganesan has been somewhat of a ‘so near yet so far’ nature. As a student I go to school via his village, nay, pass through his house. Yet I had never met him. He studied in a different school. Ganesan’s brother and I stayed in the same block in Delhi, and he would visit him. But I had never met him. Later we moved to a house, which was less than a kilometer from his. Still we got no occasion to meet. Yes, we really met the Ganesans only when he and Sita visited our home with a marriage proposal for Sunita with our elder son Shankar.

 

So, when the marriage was fixed and both the families visited Shankara Mutt temple in Delhi to offer our gratitude, the purohit who knew both families very closely, was surprised that the two families knew each other in person only now. But after the wedlock, we were thick, more as friends. He would call me VVS and I, TCG.

 

His strength? He had at his fingertips all cricket statistics. When cricket is on in TV, nothing else matters to him. Then comes his acumen in investing in shares – mostly through the Initial Public Offer. Today, those shares have grown in multiples by way of bonus shares, rights shares, debentures…More importantly, he knew when exactly to exit. He may be younger to me by three years but years ahead of me in practical wisdom.

 

He is very meticulous. Sita now knows exactly which are the investments to do away with, and which ones to hold on to. TCG never missed his morning puja – nearly 45 minutes. He is very good at political analysis too, but with firm likes and dislikes. So when on a visit to Delhi, TCG and I would sit at home discussing politics or cricket, as the two ladies ransack Sarojini Nagar or INA market. That said, TCG knows exactly my preference for khadi and handloom. Some of the best kurtas I have, were bought by him.

 

His weakness? He can count the number of movies he has seen in life. This doesn’t mean he is totally detached from the film world. Waheeda Rahman, then among the top heroines, once spent two hours in his house with his family enjoying Sita’s typical South Indian snacks. The children, Shekhar and Sunita, were in splits in the heroine’s company. It was a treat for neighbours too who flocked around on getting wind of her presence. Waheeda Rahman’s husband was one of the Directors of the firm TCG worked for.

 

In the last few months Shekhar and Sunita have been taking turns to fly from US to be of help to Sita who, in her own right, has been taking care of TCG as no one could, single-handedly.

 

If only Corona had been less virulent in both Delhi and Karnataka, we would have been now physically in Delhi attending the obsequies. Thankfully Sunita flew from the US a month ago to be with him. And on Tuesday morning TCG hinted to her that he would not survive the day; and in the afternoon the end came, peacefully. Luckily for Sunita the memory that she could cherish is that before breathing his last, he looked and smiled at her. As for Lalitha and me, we could spend two full days with him in Delhi a few months back.