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Thursday, June 15, 2006
Role Model
By SUKANYA SINHA ROY
(Editor's Note: This isn't a short story and wasn't even submitted to this blog, but it's a nice sentiment and besides, we're short on material.)
He was the inventor of the telephone! No, I don’t mean Graham Bell. I mean my father! Yes, I distinctly remember my grandmother humorously narrating how her little son assembled a contraption out of cardboard cups and never-ending lengths of string in their village home and continued to toil on it till it really worked. That was when Dad was seven years old. Today he is seventy. And most of his life was spent on inventing. Discovering ways of making the most of life.
My father is the first of six children in a simple middle class family. He was bright and adventurous but, unfortunately, the family didn’t have enough to pay for his college education. So, he decided to fund himself at a very early age. He worked. He wore a single pair of clothes throughout the week, washed them on weekends and wore them again. He braved taunts from people in whose place he got a free lodging and paid them back by running errands for them. And all this while, he never forgot to laugh. Not even when he had to spend the night inside a concrete pipe on the roadside! What surprises me now is that he narrated these incidents to us like fairy tales. He made them sound like exciting adventure stories, full of unexpected risks and fun. I feel he wanted us to share his pride at having made it rather than feel sorry for his hardships. Maybe that was what I basically learnt from him; whatever happens, never feel sorry for yourself!
And he did complete his education, took up a job and continued to lend financial support for the education of his siblings in spite of his modest earnings. My father gradually went on to achieve a commendable position in the aviation industry. Throughout my adolescence, I have never seen my father give up on his basic values. They were simple. Earn everything through hard work, perseverance and honesty. And, of course, never be afraid of doing something for the first time!
A lot of water has flown under the bridge. Today, I am an independent adult. Perhaps, I should have outgrown my childhood reverence by now. But I know I haven’t. Because he still continues to surprise me with his steadfastness and positive energy. When I was a kid, he was my swimming tutor who awed me with stunning underwater dives. Today, I respect him because I know he has proudly swum through life. Yesterday, he had solved difficult math problems for me. Today, I still talk to him at length whenever I have a problem. Not always does he have a solution. But he is a great listener and offers practical responses. From him I have learnt the joy of diligent planning and finishing a job with care and passion. Today, at seventy, he is struggling to publish his book, and enjoying it thoroughly. He will continue to be my role model of a persistent inventor who has never let negatives disturb his discovery of life!
(Editor's Note: This isn't a short story and wasn't even submitted to this blog, but it's a nice sentiment and besides, we're short on material.)
He was the inventor of the telephone! No, I don’t mean Graham Bell. I mean my father! Yes, I distinctly remember my grandmother humorously narrating how her little son assembled a contraption out of cardboard cups and never-ending lengths of string in their village home and continued to toil on it till it really worked. That was when Dad was seven years old. Today he is seventy. And most of his life was spent on inventing. Discovering ways of making the most of life.
My father is the first of six children in a simple middle class family. He was bright and adventurous but, unfortunately, the family didn’t have enough to pay for his college education. So, he decided to fund himself at a very early age. He worked. He wore a single pair of clothes throughout the week, washed them on weekends and wore them again. He braved taunts from people in whose place he got a free lodging and paid them back by running errands for them. And all this while, he never forgot to laugh. Not even when he had to spend the night inside a concrete pipe on the roadside! What surprises me now is that he narrated these incidents to us like fairy tales. He made them sound like exciting adventure stories, full of unexpected risks and fun. I feel he wanted us to share his pride at having made it rather than feel sorry for his hardships. Maybe that was what I basically learnt from him; whatever happens, never feel sorry for yourself!
And he did complete his education, took up a job and continued to lend financial support for the education of his siblings in spite of his modest earnings. My father gradually went on to achieve a commendable position in the aviation industry. Throughout my adolescence, I have never seen my father give up on his basic values. They were simple. Earn everything through hard work, perseverance and honesty. And, of course, never be afraid of doing something for the first time!
A lot of water has flown under the bridge. Today, I am an independent adult. Perhaps, I should have outgrown my childhood reverence by now. But I know I haven’t. Because he still continues to surprise me with his steadfastness and positive energy. When I was a kid, he was my swimming tutor who awed me with stunning underwater dives. Today, I respect him because I know he has proudly swum through life. Yesterday, he had solved difficult math problems for me. Today, I still talk to him at length whenever I have a problem. Not always does he have a solution. But he is a great listener and offers practical responses. From him I have learnt the joy of diligent planning and finishing a job with care and passion. Today, at seventy, he is struggling to publish his book, and enjoying it thoroughly. He will continue to be my role model of a persistent inventor who has never let negatives disturb his discovery of life!
