In 1950, going to America was a rare event and when my father went to Canada on some fellowship it was a big event for our family and friends. I was about 11 years old and I remember how my mother was so unhappy about the whole matter because of the pending separation for over a year. My uncles and other well wishers consoled her telling her that one year would pass in a jiffy and after all the trip was so very important for my father’s future prospects in his profession.

Those were the days when people’s needs were limited and when my father asked my mother what she wanted him to bring from Canada she simply said that she did not want anything and that she was only looking forward to his return. She would have prayed that her husband should not fall into some white woman’s trap and return with one in his arms! Ever since her elder brother married a lady from Scotland where he went for his studies in Engineering she was suspicious of all women of foreign origin!

My father used to write long letters to my mother and the children, explaining the wonderful sights in Canada and the luxurious lifestyles of ordinary citizens, the beauty of the snow-clad landscapes, how he missed the home food and so on. He sent us a view master with dozens of inserts fitted with films for viewing and ball pens of different colours, which were all novel to us. Knowing that I was crazy about bicycles he wrote to me that he would try and bring one for me if he was able to save enough from his allowance. We children were shocked to learn from his letters how much a cup of tea cost him, and how he decided not to have bed tea, which he was so particular about when he was at home! So I had very little hope that he would be able to save enough to get the bicycle for me!!

About a week before his homecoming, a close friend of my father came and informed my mother that he received a cable from my father saying that he had lost his brief case in a department store in Canada, while shopping for home coming! The bag contained all his savings and even the return air ticket and the passport. In those days it was very difficult to send any money abroad and my mother was in a fix. I do not know the sequence of events, but some how sufficient money was arranged for his return. On his way back to India he had to stop in London for whatever reason I do not know and it was there he managed to buy a brand new Bicycle for me.

The bicycle arrived about six weeks or two months after my father arrived. It was a dazzling Raleigh Sports bicycle with gleaming sports handle bar and cable brakes,areo dynamic front mud-guard 5-speed drive, sparkling rolling bell, Dynamo and light, Etc. etc. A beauty!!
It came in semi knocked down condition and my father assembled it for me. For 10 years I used it, till I left Trivandrum. My father was a simple person and to my knowledge he did not buy anything for himself during his one year stay in Canada. Other than the bicycle for me, he brought hardly anything of much value. It must have been a great sacrifice for him to buy the bicycle for me considering that he was practically penniless when he came to London and had to wait there for few days to receive the money sent from India.

Many years later when I wanted some money for buying an apartment in Bombay, he had no hesitation to give it to me though he did not have a lot to spare. He retired as Chief of a large Govt department and had many friends and some enemies during his working life. All he had when he retired was his Provident Fund savings. During his working life he did not have a bank account. He always stayed in Government quarters or the in the house my mother inherited from her father. He did not acquire any assets or build any house, which most people in similar position would have done. Every month he used to bring his salary home in cash, which he handed over to my mother. I t was entirely up to her how she spent the money. His only indulgence was cigarettes for which he would ask my mother to send the servants to go and bring

My father retired from Govt service in 1967 but even now, 40 years after his retirement, old and new employees of his erstwhile department talk of him with love and respect. His greatest quality as I see was his fearlessness. Whatever he did was out of conviction. He had helped a lot of people to come up in life and there was gratitude for him from a lot of people. His adversaries sometimes called him communal when it suited them but some of his best friends belonged to other communities and castes. When He passed away 23 years ago, lots of people came to the house to pay their respects. One of them was a rich Christian contractor whom my father had helped disregarding protests from many quarters. He could not control his emotions and wept loudly to the amazement of many people who had gathered.

During his service he had sometimes refused to cow tow the political bosses and did only whatever was the right thing to do. Once, a contractor who was very influential in political circles came to see my father with a bag full of one hundred rupees notes for getting a prestigious contract. My father fumed and practically threw him and the bag out of the house and told him never to approach him again. Weeks later a Central Govt Minister approached him on behalf of the contractor but my father did not budge, which caused bad blood between him and the political class.

Immediately after my father retired the contractor made several allegations against my father and he filed a case in the high court against my father for causing loss to him and to the department. My father was unmoved and replied to every allegation in the court and the judge exonerated him and passed severe strictures against the contractor and some others who colluded with him to tarnish the reputation of my father. Those were very difficult and stressful times for my father but he was unmoved and fought to the end.

My mother had inherited some landed properties from her parents. For some years after my father’s retirement he took charge of these properties, which resulted in improved income from them. However, with age he became frail and he found it difficult to cope with the strain and we decided to sell the properties, mainly because all the children who were the heirs to these properties lived outside the State. In order that we get a good price for the land he arranged to develop the land into small plots suitable for building houses with roads, drainage etc. At this point an influential political person who was the head of the Housing Board approached him with an offer to buy the entire property for a price, which was less that 10 percent of its real worth. My father promptly refused the offer but the politician was miffed and he wanted to take revenge. As soon as a few plots were sold, the Housing Board sprang to action. They declared that all our properties and a few small properties adjacent to ours were going to be acquired by the Housing Board and therefore no one should buy these properties. It seemed to be a gone case and we all felt very despondent. However my father filed a writ petition in the High Court to get a reasonable price for the land acquired, based on the market value. The court ordered the Housing Board to give us the market price, which was based on the price of plots sold prior to the take over by the Housing Board. The Board delayed the payments and some officials tried to black mail for bribes. So my father filed a second writ petition and the court ordered immediate payment with interest.

The sales proceeds were given to the children as per their share holdings. He had no interest in the money. But he was not a puritan either. He was very fond of Scotch whisky, which his friends used to supply to him regularly, even long after his retirement. He was a very special person and an unforgettable character for those who were close to him.