MY FIRST AND BEST GURU ...MY SIR .....VASANT PARULEKAR

Whenever I pick a book to read or start something to write, either a poem or some prose or a letter I am almost always reminded of Sir.

It was a sunny Sunday morning during the summer vacations after my fourth standard primary school, about 20 years back, that I found myself standing, with my dad, in front of a tall bespectacled man with kind eyes which radiated wisdom. Peering at me from under those bushy eyebrows, sizing me up, he motioned for me to come closer to him. Seeing my hesitation dad nudged me towards him. As it is I was extremely reluctant in the first place to go this "Sirs" place as dad called him. Sir made me sit near his chair and asked me lovingly in chaste Marathi "baal nav kai re tujhe?”(Son what is our name?).I told him my pet name instead of my real name as I was a little apprehensive and wondering who this mysterious man wearing dhoti kurta is and what is it that he was going to teach me. So from that day onwards I was very lovingly either called “baal” or by my pet name “boney” but which he pronounced “boni”. Sir had apparently helped my dad during his school days by coaching him in subjects in which he was weak. As introductions were taking place sirs wife whom I came to call Madame, during the many years that I would be going there, came out with steaming cups of coffee and some of my favorite jam biscuits for me.....

From that day on started a routine which continued uninterrupted for the next five years. I came to relish these encounters of ours with this wise and learned man. Each day after school I used to go to Sirs house. There was no fixed routine as such to these classes. Some days he gave me some excellent books he had personally chosen for me to read,on other days I was told to write some part of these passages on a white lined A4 sheet of paper to improve my then illegible handwriting. I still remember how he folded the paper sheet from both sides to mark the margins in between which I was to write and was always very lovingly reminded each and every time by him to only fit a certain number of words in a single line so that the handwriting looked clean and attractive to read. On some other day’s Sir read out parts of passages from a novel or some short stories and then encouraged me to write my version of it from my memory. I am still very moved whenever I recall Sir reading to me Sane Guruji’s(a great social reformer and orator) awesome novel “Shyamchi aai”(shyams mother) which chronicles the authors childhood and in which the author speaks so lovingly of his own mother. Sir finished the entire book in about two weeks by daily reading parts of it to me everyday!!!! He was the one who read and taught me to enjoy poetry as it should be enjoyed. He was the one who introduced books by the great stalwarts of English and Marathi literature to me, from Shakesphere, Woodsworth and Hemmingway to karandikar, Vasant Bapat and P.L.Deshpande.

Sir not only developed in me a love for books and languages, Not only did he improve my handwriting from a near illegible scrawling to the neat and tidy stuff I can put down on paper now, but gave me a gift, a talent, developed in me a character, an outlook all of which I will always carry with me for the rest of my life .From him I learned patience, dignity, respect for every human being irrespective of his worth in money. He lived his life on Gandhian principles of simple living and high thinking, always wore the traditional dhoti and wore a khadi kurta on top .Sir never took any fees from me for the entire duration that I went to learn from him .Actually he never asked or demanded fees from anyone who came to learn from him.He was content with what was given to him by the students on their own accord . He never counted his teachings worth in money. He did not open a shop to sell “vidya” the goddess that he so lovingly and faithfully worshipped. There was no board put on to advertise his `classes’ .He did not cheapen nor dirty education neither did he turn it into an industry to be profited from. He followed the age old Indian tradition of the `guru-shishya’ as faithfully as he could in this modern world of ours. What a paramount difference from today’s world that charges huge fees from gullible students to make them mug incomprehensive and stupid things and fill their heads with trash. During the years that I spent with this great man I have never ever seen him get angry!!! I have never heard him speak in a raised voice, never heard him speak ill of others. If any of his students misbehaved his most potent and always working medicine was that he never spoke to that person till he realized his mistake and corrected it.

Sir used to love Indian classical music a lot. Whenever he had some spare time you could always find him either reading a book or listening to some classical music. He used to listen to the music on his small tape recorder which lay by his bedside. Everyday, come rain or sunshine sir took a long evening walk. Sir had no children of his own. He considered all his students his children. He actually did treat them as his own. You could sense the care and love in his voice as he spoke, taught, and guided, each one of us.

Whenever my dad, who worked in the merchant navy, came home on his periodic holidays he visited Sir and they had long winding discussions on various topics. Sir was very fond of my mom who was a teacher .He used to ask her all sort of questions regarding her teaching .He loved the cookies that my mom baked specially for him. So periodically I would carry a fresh batch she made with me to his house. She would also get him yellow bananas and sometimes custard apples both from my granny’s farms. But the one thing that I religiously got for them, especially for Madame was a bagful of various flowers so that she could perform her puja.

Sir’s students ranged from a wide spectrum of society, from doctors and businessmen’s children to those of the peons and one widowed washerwomen’s son who I still remember ate his everyday lunch sitting in Sir's own kitchen ,Fed so lovingly by Madame .The students did not belong to any particular religion too. Hindus, Muslims, Christians all and everyone who came in search for knowledge were lovingly taught and respectfully treated by him. There were no religious, poor-rich or even caste based divides or biases by Sir who was himself a strict vegetarian and a Brahmin by birth.

Even in his death he taught a great lesson. As Sir had no children of his own his last rites (according to Hindu customs the pyre is to be lit by the eldest son) were performed by a Muslim and a Catholic, both of whom were his favorite and trusted students, according to Hindu rites. He himself had told both these students just before he drew his last breath. In a world torn and ripped apart in the name of religion specially in our country, India, were religious fires and communal passions are being allowed to be fanned and where people are being killed in the name of religion, one man abolished these boundaries long, long time back and showed to the world that even though we may profess different faiths, even though we may go to different places of worship, we are children of the same God and that we profess the same religion.......humanity.

Just before Sir’s death when he was admitted in a hospital, my mom and I had gone to see him. I asked him about his health and told him to take care of himself; he just looked at me and smiled, and asked me how my studies were coming along. Upon learning that my engineering exams were going on he gently told me “areee itkya lamb yaychi kai garaj hoti re boni? Mi thik ahe re”(there was no need to come so far to see me re boni, iam fine ).
Before leaving I felt like touching his feet (Age old tradition in India to touch ones teachers or guru’s feet and seek their blessings) Even though he was lying on his bed I just touched his feet and touched the hand back to my chest. Sir just said “are rahude rahude …dev tula sukhi thevo...”(aree let it be ,let it be ,may God always keep you happy)

This..... My first post on Blogger is dedicated to my Sir .His full name was SHRI.VASANT PARULEKAR ....Sir i miss you