We live in a society where your identity is based on region you come from, caste you belong and gender you are born in. It is a society which perceives and sustains relationships on the basis of status and prestige. It is here that are stories are made, created, rebuild, broken and yet carried on!
I had long been contemplating to write on people but it was so damn difficult to not just understand emotions but also to pen it down in words. No words felt right. I wrote and rewrote and yet nothing worked. That's how surmounting it was!
We might want to be unbiased and non-judgmental but that never is the case. We preach one thing and follow the other. We think we do our best! But what is enough and what is the best is defined at our convenience. Thus this story is perhaps no ordinary to tell. To talk of a person who had so many facets and shone so brightly will take more than just one article. Ananth Kumar itself signifies boundless, the one with no end. He was born with a legacy. Fondly called Kaka by his loved ones. He wanted me to call him that till the very end.
Kaka to me was like God! No more no less. He was that figure in my life whom I held so high and looked upto that everything I did only felt a little less in comparison to his life. He was an inspiration outright but I guess he was an inspiration to millions. He always smiled, so gracefully and contently that things felt easier around him.
My life in Delhi was many things but Kaka and his memories shine so bright to overshadow everything. I remember the first time I had entered city along with my father. We reached 27 Tughluq Cresent! I had always imagined politics and politicians as a matter of disgust. I thought they were haughty and unpleasant, to make people's life more than miserable around them. But that house in Delhi was more welcoming than our home. Irrespective of who we were, there was so much respect and dignity that it was overwhelming for both me and dad! He would make us sit along with him on dining table and tell us stories of all kinds, share his experience and laugh freely. Imagine for a small farmer and his daughter dining with a cabinet minister, with all his colleagues. It spoke of life that not only preached equality but practiced it singlehandedly. It spoke of the grandeur and aura the man had around him, it spoke of the kindness of soul and humbleness of human nature.
My mom and dad always said and still do so, that to them Ananth Kumar Kaka was like lord Pandurang! I had heard them say several times.
And why wouldn't they! On the day of my interview I had the opportunity to see him and discuss how well interview went. He was so patient. He listened intently and took my answers seriously. I thought I had made him proud that day. But the story doesn't end there. When he got to know about the medical emergency at home, he made me sit down and spoke at length about how his own mother overcame the illness. The busiest person that he was, it wasn't necessary or needed for him to do any of those things and yet he would do so. That day I learnt the true definition of empathy and compassion. Imagine for person who just learnt her mother had breast cancer, that she would have to go through mastectomy, her hair would fall of, she might as well have chances of relapse and would have to take the treatment for life. Kaka was the only person who stood behind me and gave me courage that day, to fight and to learn equally. He once told me " if I started counting my failures and hardship, I would not be able to dream at all! So don't worry you are made for big things!" Those words still ring in my ears.
How do you look at people? Do you see them because human nature is social or is there something more to it? Do we sustain our relationships because we are selfish or because we have the ability to love endlessly? Do we see ourselves through other's eyes or we see ourselves simply to make sense? We have changed definitions that suited our convenience. We have sheltered hope with a dream for better things and yet our actions speak otherwise! We say all living things are sacred and yet see human race as miracle. Perhaps the humbleness we crave for is just a manifestation of what we desire and hence cannot achieve. We gasp in our egos and live in our small world. We want to cherish thats around us but end being criticised more. Life is sacred. No doubt about that. But what's more sacred is respect we have for it. And that I think we are losing in our race for our unsustainable future. We aren't helping ourselves. Perhaps We are getting confused by the minute or second. The more we try to understand the more complex it gets. So do we have the courage and sensitivity to step back, ponder and realise and more importantly implement what we collectively think is right?
Kaka's life has and still is giving me hope with every passing moment. He has shown by his words, his deeds to be an epitome of humanness. He has shows us a path that will guide us endlessly in any damn situation. I feel sad and unfortunate at times for he left us so early but then I remind myself of how would he want us to remember him. His legacy is too great to fathom. Infact he is a legend in himself. A true hero, a leader, a public person, a man of immense patience and faith. A soul so pure who rose with such great hardwork and yet made it look effortless. Rest in peace in Kaka ! You are, and will always be in our hearts! Blooming everyday with new vigour.
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