My dad - Part II

Its been a year, and as I look back this past year, I realise how much more I could have learnt from him. He was a person of many talents and varied interests. I had recollected a few incidents in my first post on him. There is so much more to say about him. He loved classical music, and we were regulars at every concert in atleast 4/5 sabhas in Bombay. He had no electronics background (he was a Chartered and Cost Accountant by qualification:-)) but was a huge electronics buff and self-learnt many nuances that only sound engineers would know. He would often carry his Akai deck with mikes and set up his system to record the entire kutcheri (with permission from the artisites of course). We have concerts of M S Subbalakshmi, M. Santhanam recorded by appa and they were of such lovely quality that was rare in those days... the 1980s. Unfortunately, they are on cassettes and I wonder if they are good now.

Another passion he had was plants.. We had a nice and small garden in our house in Bombay (quite a luxury actually) and we had quite a few roses at home. I remember appa used to water the plants and the many fruit trees (so would I) and notice the pest attack as it started and wonder what to spray.. We used to go buy fertilizers, pesticides etc and tend to the garden on weekends. And I remember he used to do grafting and make crosses between yellow and red and white roses etc.. Maybe I developed my interest in plants unconsciously from him.

Another activity he would spend hours in the weekend was, wash and polish his car. Looking back it was always an Ambassador and he had all versions there was to it... but he would polish and wax it for hours on Sundays.. I remember once attempting to help him and he told me the indicator that he used - the reflection of oneself in the car must be like it is on a mirror:-). I wonder if anybody does such things today (my husband certainly does not:-)), and appa was an extremely busy person and in a high pressure job as part of senior management in Britannia Indistries, but always found time to unwind at home through these varied hobbies.

He was a perfectionist, for sure, and therefore was highly impatient with people who didn't 'measure up' to him. I do miss appa! I realise I am coping with the loss, by sharing, through this blog. Check out some of our snaps of home, car etc.

I will probably do a Part III with some photos, soon.