SOMANNA – A SON'S TRIBUTE (08-Nov-2020)

 

My dear father Sri. H. G Somasekhara Rao passed away on Tuesday 03-Nov-2020…..

Did you all hear a lion roar on Tuesday 3^rd November, a deep one as it slowly started to fade away from the face of this earth?  20,220 nights in my life, I always knew dear pappa as I fondly addressed him, was physically present somewhere to bestow his blessings on me and our family members; deep down his strong prayers and willpower to invoke a full and not a share of the full for each member.  Tuesday was the first night he was physically not present but blessing the entire family in his celestial journey.

His colleagues and friends, a vast circle and unending, knew him outside our home.  His zeal and zest for life was infectious, and modern science failed to discover an antidote to tackle his positive energy.  We concur that he was more colourful than the rainbow, sweeter than the best honey, a roar louder than the king of the jungle, but a heart that melted away so full of love and concern when it resonated with the other person.  He had in him the ability to instantly connect with people around him and narrate the life stories that he had assimilated over a splendid 86 years, exactly one month shy!

A jovial person with an extraordinary sense of humour during his hey days and always, he introduced me to the outer world as his first ‘sin.’  “Yo Somanna how are you today?” was my usual address to him in the mornings.  Sensing his mood, I took the liberty to fondly address “Yo Somanna, bloody fellow, how are you?” and he would take me on a ride through his day’s experiences with utmost gusto which enriched my life.  He took keen interest to learn and celebrate the successes and achievements of his two sons - my younger brother and I, and his four grandchildren at each stage of our lives.

In 1998, my parents visited our family during our stay in Houston, Texas.  Enroute to USA, they experienced a planned stopover in UK for 10 days.  Pappa’s genuine burning desire was to visit Stratford-upon-Avon to witness a Shakespearean play.  My childhood friend in UK took care of the logistics; later on, I heard there was no silencing the Shakespeare in Somanna who annoyed the audience around him in his own inimitable style by delivering some of the dialogues verbatim.  The annoyed British audience, however later, appreciated his passion when they learnt about his involvement with theatre from childhood days.

America’s lifestyle is so vastly different from the Indian lifestyle, he lost any interest for the alien land very quickly.  The 2^nd day on his visit he declared it as the dreariest place with restricted freedom to move around, an antithesis to his approach to life.  During our 1^st week visit to an Indian street full of restaurants and shops, he temporarily absconded only to be discovered later in an involved discussion with an Indian ticketing agent where he negotiated an advanced travel back to India on his round-trip ticket without the physical ticket on him, his art of story-telling that had almost done the trick.  We laughed it off with a good lunch and encouraged him to develop interest in the lifestyle that America had to offer, and with a new perspective he started to cherish every single moment.

We went around USA to visit quite a few places and he lauded the upkeep and hygiene.  He appreciated the celebration of life on the Bourbon street in New Orleans.  In Los Angeles as we roamed around in a shopping mall, he took interest to learn about Chinese zodiac signs associated with animals.  He laughed at the fact that my wife’s sign was a dog, he was filled with pride when I turned out to be a dragon; a high expectation that fizzled out when it turned out that he was a dog sign too.  We all teased him that he is no more than a dog; the fondness that father-in-law and daughter-in-law developed for each other with similar signs, prompted them to address each other as “bow-bow” at the start of a telephonic conversation.  He said of what use is the spick-and-span streets if people cannot walk on them with gay abandon to enjoy the nature precincts.  He resolved to a temporary admiration for grocery shopping at large stores which offered him the escape route, a transient solace, when we knew deep down his interest was in intellectual pursuits and never in the mundane.

The pride in his voice thundered when he announced that his position as the “patria potestas” for our family ties-in with deep responsibilities.  He was the default guide-and-philosopher within the family circles, the certainty in his logic and the great strength he derived from his inside exuded confidence.  He loved life to its fullest and detested anyone existing with no purpose in their life.  He motivated me to experience life to its fullest and to share that with the larger audience.  He never positioned his two sons in front of people to plead for favours, nor did he project his status for getting any work done; instead he let both his sons grow up on their own strength to develop the self-belief in our capabilities.  His love for books and the niceties of life kept him buoyant throughout his life.  Sample this that when we brothers were young it was a custom on Sunday afternoons post-lunch to sport a wrestling match with our dear pappa, and an instance where we tore his vest right in the middle and he still remained victorious, what with the life lessons imparted to us!

A highly spiritual and God-fearing man he recited a series of shlokas incessantly.  His deep interest in Vedanta philosophy with a good grip on our scriptures gave him the ability to quote and narrate when the situation demanded.  He had read thousands of books and left behind innumerable notes from the reading.  His passion for reading extended into a study of the package inserts that accompany modern medicine. He was a vast reservoir of knowledge and could quote from a book and its page that he would pick from his collection, almost instantaneously.  He was old-fashioned and conservative too; our best efforts to influence him to embrace social media yielded the best outcome when he adopted the mobile phone, but not a smart phone.  Till the last second, his memory remained sharp and his brain stayed active.  When he had complained of lack of sleep, the solution I had offered to him was to stop thinking to overwork his brain cells, while his retort was it would materialize only after his death.

I took a passion to writing and a few of my articles got published; a couple of my most recent articles I had penned about my mother and admired her qualities, while he teased me quietly if I could write about him too.  Ironically here is my honest attempt to write about his celebration of life, and portray the side known mostly to the immediate family.  He was a fond friend to his sons, a loving father to his daughters-in-law, and a guiding grandpa to his grandchildren. He relished the successful strides made by his grandchildren.

He had published quite a few books.  He took interest in having his granddaughters’ passion for writing to assume a book form and published “Explorations.”  He brought out a book ‘Suryasmarane’ in memory of his immediate older brother in a collection and collation of beautiful writings.  He brought out a book ‘Matrusmruthi’ in memory of his mother whom he adored, and sister-in-law whom he respected.  In the recent past he worked feverishly to shape a memoir of his loving oldest brother, a great physicist at the renowned Birla Institute of Technology.  His love for the family overflowed and so he dedicated a good amount of time amidst all his activities to selflessly capture the life experiences of family members, for posterity.  An invaluable gift he has bestowed on our family’s future generations.

His love for a very colourful and eventful day made him wish for one always.  A pre-dominantly people’s person who rejoiced in those interactions, the pandemic infused lockdown and the ensued stay-at-home life had sapped his energy.  He lived the life his way akin to a lion in the jungle, till his last breath.  He aspired for a smooth movement into next life; he was dependant on my mother for all household chores and hence prayed for his death to precede hers.  Both came true as he left behind an indelible mark; the lion roared that reverberated the boundaries of Karnataka, and more specifically encapsulated the Harihar family borders as he announced his arrival in the next world to write his ‘next new chapter.’