Remarkable ordinary men
http://www.webarticles.com/Remarkable-ordinary-men/a10374_1
By
Published on 04/9/2009
This is about people who led a quite life- seemingly unexciting. But their inner lives were remarkable.
Remarkable ordinary men
REMARKABLE ORDINARY MEN
I would like to open this blog with a brief write-up on my father.
My father was an Ayurvedic doctor at Kolar(Karnataka, South India).He was eighty five years of age when he died in the year 2000.
Looking back, I now wonder at the way he lived. His life was completely devoid of any sort of adventurous or exciting incidents.(Which may somewhat surprise a western reader.) Read on, I will just enumerate.
I have never seen him have a breakfast in my fifty five years with him.(A glass of milk in the morning was all he ever took.) He always wore a white dhoti and a white shirt throughout his life – his full wardrobe.)He never wore footwear! (Imagine it if you can.) He never went to a movie. He never watched TV. He did not own a radio or a tape recorder. He never entertained himself with music of any kind. Like a regular clockwork he always had his lunch at 1.30 pm and supper at 8.30 pm.(And took nothing else in between.) and went to bed at ten. He spent his morning and evenings attending to his clinic (attached to and as a part of our house) and preparing his herbal medicines by his own hand. He never attended any parties or weddings or participated in social gatherings. In the latter forty years of his life he did not even travel, away from his town. I never saw him indulge in idle gossip. Even with regard to his food, except for milk and an occasional cup of coffee he never took any other kind of beverage. Forget about cool drinks, soft drinks. He did not have a fridge anyway.
Present day youngsters accustomed to constant entertainment and thrill-seeking may wonder what could be the motive power behind such a man.
Devotion – to work, family and god. That was his driving power which kept him as steady as a gyroscope. For sixty years he daily opened his clinic and attended to the patients. People in the town revered him. Even patients from other towns and villages came to him for treatment - his fees were unbelievably cheap. "Consultation fees" was something he had never heard of.
And something, the present generation will not believe. HE NEVER SPENT MONEY FOR PERSONAL PLEASURE. Never ever. Every rupee he earned was spent on the members of the family and the kith and kin. I am sure that in our present day world you can count such kind of people on the fingers of your hand – one hand.
About family bond and affection, one sentence will illustrate all. My mother died first. The very next day I saw my dad's shoulders sag down- literally, physically and metaphorically. He too wanted to quit. But devotion to work pulled him on. He held out for one year. And then he went away to join my mother.
Deceit and lying - even the petty, harmless white kind we all practice- were totally alien to his nature. I never saw him speak ill of a person. I have net few, very few men of such purity in my life.
V.S.SURY
I would like to open this blog with a brief write-up on my father.
My father was an Ayurvedic doctor at Kolar(Karnataka, South India).He was eighty five years of age when he died in the year 2000.
Looking back, I now wonder at the way he lived. His life was completely devoid of any sort of adventurous or exciting incidents.(Which may somewhat surprise a western reader.) Read on, I will just enumerate.
I have never seen him have a breakfast in my fifty five years with him.(A glass of milk in the morning was all he ever took.) He always wore a white dhoti and a white shirt throughout his life – his full wardrobe.)He never wore footwear! (Imagine it if you can.) He never went to a movie. He never watched TV. He did not own a radio or a tape recorder. He never entertained himself with music of any kind. Like a regular clockwork he always had his lunch at 1.30 pm and supper at 8.30 pm.(And took nothing else in between.) and went to bed at ten. He spent his morning and evenings attending to his clinic (attached to and as a part of our house) and preparing his herbal medicines by his own hand. He never attended any parties or weddings or participated in social gatherings. In the latter forty years of his life he did not even travel, away from his town. I never saw him indulge in idle gossip. Even with regard to his food, except for milk and an occasional cup of coffee he never took any other kind of beverage. Forget about cool drinks, soft drinks. He did not have a fridge anyway.
Present day youngsters accustomed to constant entertainment and thrill-seeking may wonder what could be the motive power behind such a man.
Devotion – to work, family and god. That was his driving power which kept him as steady as a gyroscope. For sixty years he daily opened his clinic and attended to the patients. People in the town revered him. Even patients from other towns and villages came to him for treatment - his fees were unbelievably cheap. "Consultation fees" was something he had never heard of.
And something, the present generation will not believe. HE NEVER SPENT MONEY FOR PERSONAL PLEASURE. Never ever. Every rupee he earned was spent on the members of the family and the kith and kin. I am sure that in our present day world you can count such kind of people on the fingers of your hand – one hand.
About family bond and affection, one sentence will illustrate all. My mother died first. The very next day I saw my dad's shoulders sag down- literally, physically and metaphorically. He too wanted to quit. But devotion to work pulled him on. He held out for one year. And then he went away to join my mother.
Deceit and lying - even the petty, harmless white kind we all practice- were totally alien to his nature. I never saw him speak ill of a person. I have net few, very few men of such purity in my life.
V.S.SURY