REMEMBERING NANA AND SHRIPAD
After nine years, I am reposting this Blog, today. I
fondly remembered it yesterday. I am sure, the story will make your hearts
smile…
GURU, EK BAAT PUCHNA
THA AAPSE...
October 16, 2017
“Guru,
kaise ho?”
It
is Shripad, checking about my well-being?
“Mein
teek hun chela… Tum kaise ho?”
“Ek
baat puchna tha, Guru…”
“Puchlo
chela…”
This
is how our typical conversation goes…
Shripad
Ragunathan came in my life the way Raghav (Nana Patekar) came in the life of
Jay (John Abraham) in the heart-warming movie ---- ‘Taxi No 9211’!
It
was 2006, the start of academic year. Shripad was about to start his T.Y.
B.Com. One morning, his mother called me up and said, “Sir, I want my son,
Shripad, to join your class. Can my husband and I come and talk to you?”
The
next morning, Shripad’s parents came to meet me. I learnt, that Shripad was
their only child and was a ‘differently-abled special-child.’… that, he was
excellent in his self-confidence and speech, but had difficulty writing,
grasping, and socially gelling. He took a lot of time to write and his
handwriting was not coherent and legible… His mother, right from his baby days,
had been copying notes for him from his friends’ books… She would request the
tuition teachers to allow her to sit during the tuition classes, so that she
could understand the subject and take down the notes as well. (For the entire academic
year, she attentively sat on the last bench in my class, while Shripad loved to
sit on the first bench)
Shripad... My 'hero!
When
Shripad was enrolled in my T.Y. B.Com class, he was my first ‘special’
student… I had a packed class room… bright, dumb... all together in it! But, my
experience with Shripad would, always, remain special to me… He never ever
thought, that he was ‘inferior’ to anyone in the class… either in studies,
debates, or general knowledge… In the midst of the lecture, he would stop me,
at least, a dozen times, to clarify some point…
“Siiiiiir…”
I
had prepared the class not to lose patience with him… I had prepared myself,
before that. Yes, I would internally get derailed… I would, often, count
‘hundred’ till Shripad completed writing… I would patiently explain to him
again, and then again, the same point… But, at the end of the day, I
would go home, pleased about the way I had conducted myself!
Shripad
had, also, joined our Personality Development Programme… He was fearless and
bold when he spoke on stage, and took part in GDs…
The
Hindi film -- ‘Taxi No 9211’ -- had just been released. During one playful
session, I teased Shripad and said, “You must watch the film… You will love
it.”
The
very next day, Shripad had asked his parents to watch the film along with him,
in a nearby cinema hall. The following day, in the midst of the lecture,
Shripad said loudly, “Siiiiir…”
“Yes,
Shripad….”
“Siiiiir,
it’s not a doubt from the Accountancy subject… It is from the filam ‘Taxi No.
9211.”
The
class erupted in laughter!
“Siiiiir,
I liked the filam… but, ek baat puchna tha aapse: Am I like Nana Patekar,
or John Abraham?”
I
took a looooong breath and then said to my Shripad, “Arey beta, that’s
not important… Just like them, we have come in each other’s life and, in the
end, we both are going to ‘change for the better’… You will change me… I will
change you!”
“My
ambition is to do a job,” this was how Shripad would, always, tell me and
others during the P.D. sessions. I never advised him on that… never tried to
set some bench marks… I only wished and prayed, that all would be well in his
life!
Shripad’s
grandparents had specially lived in Mumbai only to make sure he completed his
graduation… It was the family goal. His dad, who was a thorough gentleman with
an amazing sense of humour, his mother who was like a rock, his doting
grandparents… yes, all had stayed back in Mumbai only to make Shripad a
graduate…
Immediately
after the final exams, his parents invited my wife and me for a sumptuous South
Indian dinner at their place… Shripad was proud as a peacock, that night!
The
very next week, the whole family migrated to Chennai, where they had an
ancestral house. It was only after a couple of years, when Shripad got
connected with me on FB, that I learnt that he was doing his ‘job’ at TVS….
“Shripad,
do you enjoy your ‘Job’? I asked him…
“Yes
Guru… very much,” Shripad was a winner all along, and an eternal
optimist.
‘Guru,
ek baat puchna tha, aapse…”
That’s
how it was in those days… and that’t how it is these days, too. “Kaise ho
Guru?” he would ask me in the message box… followed by, “Guru, ek baat
puchna tha aapse…”
For
the last couple of years, never failing a single day, Shripad has been
enthralling us, his FB friends, with a short tribute to a legend or a celebrity
on latters’ birthdays…
Today
is Shripad’s birthday… To me, he is a legend, a celebrity. So, here is my
tribute to my adorable chela -- Shripad Ragunathan...
“Happy
b’day, beta!”
Well, Shripad’s birthday, October 16, is a
week away. I had posted this Blog nine years ago. Shripad’s family has moved to
Coimbatore, and he is no more doing the ‘job’ with TVS, nor is he posting on FB
his tribute to celebrities, particularly, the famous film starts on their
birthdays. Last morning, when the news broke about Nana Patekar’s sudden
demise, my mind rolled back to those wonderful moments with my one-of-a-kind chela
-– Shripad… Today, I am going to request him to write a beautiful tribute to
this one-of-a-kind film star… Nana Patekar…
Ironically, not on his birthday!
Did I say – ‘One-of-a-kind’? Or, a ‘Differently-abled’?
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: 1. Getty Images/Sujit Jaiswal 2 & 3 Shripad Ragunathan
Video: RelianceEntertainment
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