It rained cats and dogs last night. Rain, somehow, is always welcome. In that downpour I went to meet my father this morning. What I realized on seeing him today is that he is one of the bravest men I have ever seen in my entire life!
- It takes more than courage to live alone for 26 years without marrying again, after my mother’s death in 1996. He was 57 years old then!
- It takes more than courage to stay loyal to the memories of his wife. I can swear – he never was close to any other woman from 1996.
- It taken more than courage to remain all alone @ 3-9-7/A without getting bored! He stepped out only to go hospital for checkup or to attend a funeral.
- It takes more than courage to learn technology at an age of 78! He began using cellphone for sending messages! His hands shake uncontrollably and his back pain made it impossible to send a text message. Yet he learnt to send messages and how to use a feature phone.
- It takes more than courage not to ask anything from anyone…including his four sons. He never asked till date either for food or for a tea, even if his cook does not show up for work!
- It takes more than courage, to give and keep giving something or the other to his ever demanding and never satisfied sons. (I guess, all sons are the same!)
- It takes more than courage to remain undisturbed even after undergoing a major back surgery in 2009.
- It takes more than courage to maintain, with singular dedication, the huge property at his home town Jagtial and meeting out all those expenses.
- It takes more than courage to watch the death of his beloved second son Krishna. He must have felt hell at heart, but rarely expressed.
- Finally, it takes more than courage to watch, over the years, from 1996 – the final exit of his mother, sister, brothers-in-law, friends and many more.
- It takes more than courage to witness the entire world changing before his eyes. The world he had known and those people do not exist anymore!
Hence. I say ‘He is the Man’. He is showing the same courage when his is informed that there are blocks in his heart vessels. He is the Hero of all Heroes!
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional.
What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
