The month of July has a range of emotions attached for me. Love, hate, happiness and sadness this month has been a witness to all. On one hand, the birthdays of some of the people I treasure most in life like my wife, son, uncle and cousin is in this month but on the other hand, this month also gave me the most unbearable pain and sense of loss, when I lost my grandfather six years ago.
My grandfather was a unique mix of serenity, aggression, religiousness, practicality, knowledge as well as stubbornness. He was fiercely proud of his roots and in spite of gaining name and fame in his chosen field, he never let it get into his head and always remained humble in life, contented but egged on by his values and principles, he had in life.
It is from him that I have been able to evolve certain ground rules for myself, taking into considerations things that happened yesterday and are happening today, so that I can have a tomorrow that has lesser number of regrets. His rules are :
1) Indulge in life but never overindulge-
Grandfather was 87 years when he died but he still relished his malt as well as his food like he did in his younger days. He was fond of the good things in life and could never resist the chance to explore new eateries that came up in my hometown Udaipur or his own hometown of Kolkata, till the very end. But he never over indulge in anything, food, wine or for that matter in any aspect of life and that is a mantra to emulate.
2) Be disciplined and determined-
Grandfather led a very disciplined but vivid lifestyle. A typical day of his retired life would start with morning walk and include a round of gardening (his passion), a heavy breakfast (he believed in the idea of having his breakfast like a king), getting to know about the current happenings through newspapers and news channels, 2 hours of prayers in isolation, playing with his grandchildren, socializing, consulting on issues of mining and geology, his areas of specialization and acting as the patron of community we lived in and last but not the least, religiously documenting whatever happened everyday in a diary that he kept for nearly decades of his life and he still had more energy at the end of the day, than most of us, the youngsters.
3) Today is better than two tomorrows-
He hated procrastination. He always believed in getting things done instead of delaying them for the future. He tried to put forth the value of time to us and followed the idiom Time is Money.
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| Ashoke Chandra Mitter (My Grandpa's last photo) |
My grandfather was a unique mix of serenity, aggression, religiousness, practicality, knowledge as well as stubbornness. He was fiercely proud of his roots and in spite of gaining name and fame in his chosen field, he never let it get into his head and always remained humble in life, contented but egged on by his values and principles, he had in life.
It is from him that I have been able to evolve certain ground rules for myself, taking into considerations things that happened yesterday and are happening today, so that I can have a tomorrow that has lesser number of regrets. His rules are :
1) Indulge in life but never overindulge-
Grandfather was 87 years when he died but he still relished his malt as well as his food like he did in his younger days. He was fond of the good things in life and could never resist the chance to explore new eateries that came up in my hometown Udaipur or his own hometown of Kolkata, till the very end. But he never over indulge in anything, food, wine or for that matter in any aspect of life and that is a mantra to emulate.
2) Be disciplined and determined-
Grandfather led a very disciplined but vivid lifestyle. A typical day of his retired life would start with morning walk and include a round of gardening (his passion), a heavy breakfast (he believed in the idea of having his breakfast like a king), getting to know about the current happenings through newspapers and news channels, 2 hours of prayers in isolation, playing with his grandchildren, socializing, consulting on issues of mining and geology, his areas of specialization and acting as the patron of community we lived in and last but not the least, religiously documenting whatever happened everyday in a diary that he kept for nearly decades of his life and he still had more energy at the end of the day, than most of us, the youngsters.
3) Today is better than two tomorrows-
He hated procrastination. He always believed in getting things done instead of delaying them for the future. He tried to put forth the value of time to us and followed the idiom Time is Money.
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