Where do I begin? My Grandpa “My Aba”, one of my All-time inspiration who spent his last 15-20 years on just Milk and Glucose biscuits living a satvik life and supporting the Village Chinnikatte in small little ways possible. He built a Gym khana/ Exercise Room building in Chinnikatte village school in memory of my mama ‘Ratnakar Mama’ to support the school, built temple for village community and a small study room for kids of village. He had a dream of supporting Underprivileged Sector so much so that he had plans of building Old Age Home and Orphanage in his farm with elderly members and kids staying together in midst of nature… Unfortunately his dream remained dream due to some unforeseen circumstances. My younger Mama Sudhir mama expired unexpectedly and Aba had to move to City Shimoga to take care of the business (Ratnakar Automobiles) while he always wished to be in midst of nature away from city. That reminds me of time when I was in first Standard or even less when Ratnakar mama my elder mama was youngest Automobile Business man in Karnataka and he fulfilled Aba’s wish of staying in midst of nature by opening a branch in Shimoga and buying 2 farms in name of Aba… He expired at very young age of 28… Aba had taken lots of time to recover from this incident, so did all the siblings and Ajji… I had seen my mom suffering from Asthama in his remembrance for months together…
Aba passed away 4 years back in 2007… I was veryyyyy veryyy attached to him and used to write letters to him from 1st Standard till his death… Although he knew I had moved to Social Sector, unfortunately my last letter to him explaining him about my good work so far, reached him one day after he expired… Postman Sheshanna who always delivered my letters to him at Biderhalli where my Grandpa resided, always loved receiving my letters as he used to sit and chat with him and was so inspired by him that post my Grandpa he started supporting the schools in small little ways… I remember postman writing to me some 8 years back and thanking me for sending letters to Grandpa because a) those letters were one of only source of Aba being in touch with his family and getting to know everything about his daughters’ and son’s families from my letters… b) Postman got to know my Aba and got inspired by him. C) I used to write few thought for the day in letter saying Aba that he may spend few hours thinking on inner meaning of thoughts and he actually did…… Aba used to go to high school and read few of my letters and convey the thoughtful messages I penned him…
2 months back I was reading Aba’s letters written to me and also found Postman’s letter… Remembered all support he gave and wanted to give to his community people who called him as Savkar (he was only person who owned huge farms in the village then and all called him the Headman/Village leader/Savkar in Kannada)… I took Pavithra’s help and wrote letter to postman ( a letter in Kannada, after 8 years I wrote something in Kannada:)) asking if there were any small requirements of school Aba supported. Soon after he receiving my letter he called me saying he was supporting school in small little ways post Aba’s death and said the kids need Exercise books and few story books…. I was so happy to receive his call that I decided whatever be it I’ll ensure I take this initiative and not post the material but personally go and deliver it to the kids and spend some time with them… I posted this on Facebook and got good response from friends saying they want to join me for this initiative of mine by donating some materials or by personally coming with me… With support from all we collected all required materials and decided to visit the place on 26th December being a weekday Monday and my weekly off plus as Christmas was on Sunday many had off on Monday :) I freezed the date and informed the Postman Sheshanna who was very enthu about whole idea…
All who had confirmed for trip planned to leave a day before and see Jog falls too which at end moment got cancelled due to not much water in falls. Instead we decided to go to BRP (Bhadravathi River Project)… Here started our journey to Shimoga where family members and each friend gave 100% assistance right from buying required materials, informative charts, black boards, story books etc etc for children (Courtesy : Chulbuli Asha, Tejshree Madhu, Nata Raj, Sayeesha, Mamta, Vaishnavi, Pavithra) to managing stuff to distributing it not just to one school as planned but to 3 schools on request :)
Day 1: We a team of 6 Ajeesh, Sayeesh, Mamta, Cherry/Shraddha (my sil), Pavithra and self and ya our driver Jagadeesh left at 6.30 am from Bangalore…. Pavithra and Sayeesha managed uploading all materials on vehicle carrier. On our way we had loads of fun where our journey started by Mamta, Sayeesha and Cherry learning Sign language from Ajeesh (our special Hearing Impaired friend/volunteer), all got sign names, we had breakfast, watermelon, sugar cane juice and groundnuts/raw green chana on our way and reached to BRP (Bhadra River project)… We had super cool time at BRP and were in midst of water for almost 2 hours doing boating, jumping, swimming and floating (except me and Ajeesh) etc etc ofcourse by skipping our lunch…. Reached Shimoga and stayed at hotel ‘Jewels Rock’, had heavy Evening Snacks and visited Infant Jesus church where Aba used to sit for hours together to spend his lonely hours post his greatest support in life my Ajji passed away… I wanted to feel each place where he sat all alone and with me whenever I visited him… We walked down till church, had good time at church lighted candles and started walking back… Ate food at Soorya Roof top Garden and Family Restaurant (name sounds catchy isn’t it:)) Yes we were on top floor with few plants in pots in all corners:) :) I was so so so sleepy as had not slept for few days due to severe cold and sore throat, but my dearest sil Cherry and frens wanted all to enjoy every minute and make it memorable, so woke me up and we played Dum Cheddars which was super fun… Pavithra in demandJ (where she didn’t know any movie name yet successfully conveyed to all:)) ;) Next day we had breakfast and vacated the rooms and left the place for partial fulfillment of “My Aba’s Dream”
Day 2: We were accompanied by Mr. Janardhan with whom I was coordinating to see if I can do a workshop for Care Takers of NGO’s in Shimoga (courtesy: Sunitha:))… But due to short notice it could not be arranged, but he joined us for School visit… We entered the village and were welcomed by herd of cows in the village Chinnikatte moving across our vehicle:) We reached school where Aba used to visit and be part of all National events like Independence Day (Being a Freedom Fighter) As Bangarappa had expired on 26th, few kids thought it was a holiday and didn’t come to school. We spent time with roughly 100 children, played few games, spoke to them and finally distributed them books and stationeries as gifts… Kids had lunch at school and prayed before eating and finally returned home post lunch with happiness on their faces and loads of thanks to each one of usJ And BTW we learnt 4-5 claps from school kids tooJ While we were finishing our games part one teacher from Urdu school close by came and asked me if his school’s (that was close by) 20-30 kids too can join us for games as they too hardly get such opportunity… As the games were over we asked him to get kids for stationeries’ distribution and post lunch at the Government School we visited this Urdu Government school and did 2-3 games… Kids were very very enthu and enjoyed energizers and happily gave us Beautiful/Badhiya/Khoobsurat clap taught by their teacher… So one more clap learning to our list… Then it was my wish to visit school where Aba taught English to High School students and donated a building in memory of Ratnakar Mama The buildings’ one wall had Ratnakar Smriti Vyama Shale (Ratnakar Memorial Gym Khana in English) and other wall had Shri. M.N. Kerkar Smriti Bhavan…. I was so happy to see it being converted to a Library cum Computer Centre for Children… Here ended our school visits with Sheshanna teaching us Good And Best Clap (one more addition to our list) :)
My last wish ffor day was to visit our farm, see it from outside and if possible go to the farm house where my Aba resided… With help of Sheshanna we reached the place, while on way I was recollecting every moment we grandchildren spent with Aba, especially walking to this house and on way he gathering all kids and getting them to his home, which had a room outside for the kids to study… He used to sit and teach few good things to the children and send them back with either chocolates or few pennies… As soon as we reached and I started remembering how we both sat out and murmured Gayathri Mantra during Suryodaya and Suryastha (Sun rise and sun set)… Once I entered the house which is now full of spiders (we saw 2 places where they were in thousands) web and walls and just memories…, I got very nostalgic, with tears of joy my eyes expressing story behind each walls, each room, tank which Aba had built for all his little grandchildren where he used farm water pipe to pour water in force on us and we all kids in that tank… and farm and ya temple on tip of mountain where Aba Ajji sent a worker carrying Coconut water for us:) Oh my God, this was most memorable moment of 2011… Coincidentally Janardhan who accompanied us had met Aba in past and spent 2-3 long days with him planning for building an Old Age Home and Orphanage which unfortunately didn’t take shape… On our way back to Shimoga we visited his centre which reflected “Aba’s dream for his farm” We had great fun there too, place was called Parisara Adhyana Kendra, where they do nature camps for 46 Government Schools in and around Shimoga…
We all reached back to Bangalore recollecting all memorable moments of two days and ya it ended by Mamta, Sayeesha and Shraddha/Cherry communicating with Ajeesh in Sign Language reducing my Interpretation Role :) …. Thanks to each and every person who helped me fulfil my Aba’s Dream to at least .1% :) ;)
Loads of memories capture in Mamta’s and my camera, few ones uploaded on facebook (watch out for our school happy moments and my nostalgic moments, like Sayeesha says Aptamitra… lol :)
Ending my blog with Miles of Smiles and a hope to do as much good as possible…. Prarthana :) :)
More pics at:
My camera:
Mamta's camera (loads n loads of them):)
