From the early childhood, Dada for me, meant maternal Grandfather. We called him Dada (and not Nana or Azoba) because that’s what we had heard others call him. Dada for me was a wonderful personality. I was afraid to talk to him in my first few encounters with him, as he was a strict old man. But, eventually, I realized that he was loving and kind when it came to dealing with his grandchildren. I remember of him as a very hardworking and a disciplined person. He must have been in his late 60s when he used wake up early in the morning daily, did lot of physical work in the garden to the extent of cutting wood for using them as fuel in the kitchen, feeding the cows, milking them, cleaning their place and an innumerable physical activities. I used to wonder how much energy an old man can possess to indulge in all these activities. I remember asking this to my mom a number of times and all she answered was that she has also witnessed the same since her childhood.
Dada was an English teacher in school before retiring. After retirement apart from all the physical activities that he was involved in, he used to teach English to the students of primary school as tuition. There were a lot of poor students also who were unable to pay his fees whom he taught without charging anything. He was a strict teacher and had his own ways of teaching the English language to the children who were predominantly speaking a dialect of Hindi in the small town of Handia in Madya Pradesh. I still remember few of his rhymes prepared for the students to cram in Hindi so that they can use them to make a decision in English grammar.
One goes like this: "Thou yaani tu ke saath, 's' pratyay ko rakhna yaad". Another one "He, She, It aur Ram, saath mein inke kriya mein pratyay nahi lete". These were few of the mantras he had given to his students for the use of 's' with verbs. He had his own method of teaching English which the students enjoyed and had fun while learning. I used to spend time with him during his tuitions as I liked his conversation with his students. I still remember when he used to encourage us read the comics as kids when my parents were against it. He used to say, let the child read, any kind of reading will always help him. He used to get very excited every time we visited his place. Out of all our cousins visiting, we (me and my brother) were the most fortunate ones as per him as we were studying in English schools. I remember him asking me to translate a Hindi story into English and he used to be very pleased and praised my efforts when I did that. Off course, he used to fix my mistakes and teach me, but, that was his favourite activity with me. He used to ask me to tell a story in English to his students and to all his visitors in the small town. People there used to be surprised at how a small child can speak in English. I knew I was not a very fluent English speaking child, but when the audience does not understand what you are speaking, your confidence grows many fold. :) Same was the case with me. If I am able to build up my confidence in English, Dada is one person; I would like to give the credit to. I used to write a daily dairy during my school days and Dada knew about it. I remember him suggesting me that you should write daily what were the good deeds you did and what were the things you should not have done. I did not understand at that age why he wanted me to write all that. But, now as grown up, I can realize that it was his way of passing me the wisdom. If at the end of everyday we look back and ponder over what good we did today and what we should not have done, it definitely helps us in improving things the next day.
People must be wondering, why suddenly I thought of writing about Dada. Well, I was reading the book "Chicken soup for the Indian Golden Soul", and reading the stories in it inspired me to write about Dada. Dada has indeed taught me so many lessons of life. A true teacher that he was, I am sure he must have touched and improved lives of so many people in his life time. Dada is no more with us today, but, I am sure he is reading this from up there and feeling so proud that his grandson, me, can really write so much in English. :)
