blogbyraj

[blogbyraj]

He is a Grandfather(Still).

It’s been three and half months since he left for an eternal peace. And I miss him. Okay I don’t actually miss him; I miss those memories of him and those moments I have had with him. I won’t say he was the greatest man on the earth but he was the greatest man I have ever known personally. He was a part of my life. But I can’t say without him my life is incomplete. It’s like t-shirt with tiny holes; you know you can wear it but still there are holes.

He was a self-made man. Growing up in a family of a farmer, getting a government job with a very less pay, suffering from paralysis, facing so many fall downs he still managed and give his children the best life any father could ever give. Just because of him today we are whatever we are. It all goes to him. That man stayed away from his family, worked really hard, never spend a rupee on him and devoted everything to his family because he never wanted his children to see the struggle he had seen in life.

He was a wise a man. I still remember once he told me, son you are going to grow up, have a great career and life, become successful, get everything but at what price? Are you willing to pay that price? Would that price be your family? At that time, I was a kid who just stepped into teenage. I couldn’t understand it vey well then. But as of now I know what he actually meant. He meant nothing matters like success, money, fame. There is only one thing that matters that when you come home from work and there is a lovely family waiting for you. Family means everything. It is above everything. And if you won’t have that everything else would be equal to zero. And today not only I know, I understand, I have experienced that everything will be left behind except your family. They will stand with you no matter what. Your friends and other people around you are like kidney, even if you lose one you still have another. But family is like a heart, how will you survive without it? And that’s what I learned from it.

He was a great man. We really loved him so much. When it came to spending money on grandchildren, believe me he was a Rockstar. We just asked for it and he got us. He was rich by his heart.

So, every Sunday he used to read me stories from the newspaper special edition. I could read those at my own but even though I always insisted on hearing them from him. Why? Even I don’t know. It’s been I think almost 10 years since he read me a story but I still remember many of those till this day just because he told me and I really loved it. I have so much to talk about him, so many stories it’s just this place is not enough.

He was a stubborn and brave man. But lions get old too. they get defeated by life. He knew his end was close and he literally told us that he’s going to leave soon to meet the almighty. He suffered in his last days but he never let anyone else get affected by it. He was a lone warrior.

Whenever I look at his picture, it feels like he’s smiling. He has that same charm on his face. One thing I will always regret in my life, I couldn’t be there with him in his last moments. I didn’t say goodbye. He just left us….

In memories of Shree Kevaldas Heeradas Patel(1943-2021)