Love you Bai

I had a dream, a bizarre one ( all dreams are), a greeny neighbourhood, a big house we stay in, (Looked more like Kharaghpur house ) an old friendly neighbour who always greets with a smile and keeps talking, a cage full of parrots with the chirping sound, big rangoli... one fine morning we wake up to see bai.. with her usual small briefcase standing .. she comes in and says "vaanchn othen mee..kasa ki deva baalla dela uttun evungalen"Everyone flocks around her, talk a lot about some developments here and there and finally I go ..to tell some personal development that happened in my life.. give her a big hug and start crying, everyone ( my sisters- appu, meenu and nuni)try to calm me butI keep crying and crying only to find that there is no house , no bai, no neighbours but just the tear in my eyes.

and I get up to put this post..

This has been a long time due and given my urge to procrastinate things this never happened till I get a dream that makes me hop from my bed to sit down blogging...

We lost Bai last August, somehow I had never thought she will leave us. I thought for her amazing will power no disease or disorder could do her any harm..just a year ago I had seen her fight for her life and recover in record time after a deadly Angio, sheerly by her will power.

A very delicate but a bold soul who battled all alone for the last 30 years, she was always there as a pillar for guidance, a moral support to everyone and will go all the way to help in spite of her old age and limitations.

Bai and I always shared a special affection for each other. Pathu maatha bandam we used to call it...

Love you and Miss you bai!!!

Happy retired life maa....

When someone asked what my parents were doing, my reply would be "My dad is manager in IOB and mom is in Income Tax". Somehow I always had a sense of pride when I told about my parents position and especially my mom's position. Mothers seem to be the ambassadors of "sacrifice" in any home and amma is no exception. She is getting VR from Income tax today. I am very sure she is going through this with a very heavy heart.

From the best of my knowledge and memory I have seen all her decisions were in best interests of "us". She always put her own behind. Thats why when she could have retired as an Assistant commissioner of Income Tax( What would have been a perfect icing on the cake for an illustrious career), she is giving her career an abrupt end because she feels her services are more requred for us than the government.

From day 1 she has been running around for the family.When her interests lied in teaching she had to take a government job to meet the financial problems the family faced.Followed by that as the family grew she couldnt really give herself a break in teaching and continued. We as family kept moving places along with appa's and amma's transfers.Wherever she went she kept her two key values of honesty and integrity with her , the key reason why she is very popular among all the higher officials and assessees. Though she did a wonderful job she always had a sense of fear to do the right things the right way and that helped her in striving for perfection in whatever she did.

Managing dual responsibilities in Vellore and Chennai and doing incredibly well all on her own , travelling to raids with perfect ease and confidence, serving notices to strangers.. ah you name a difficulty and she has faced it with ease.

In her career in IT that spanned a memorable 30 years she made a lot of friends across offices, across geographies and bonded with them so well. She mentored the young when they came new into a govt office and was also a good guide in making them take both career and personal decisions.

She has never hesitated to learn anything new, from moving from literature to taxation to changes in taxation methods to learning and adapting to software tools and took changes that came her way with right spirit and attitude and did full justice to what was expected of her.

Everytime I went into Income tax office and utterred your name I was shrilled with the respect you got from everyone there. In a self-centered world that we live in its very difficult to earn people and you have done it with ease and thats truly because of your big heart.

I am sure ma.. though you found it difficult to cope with some of the demanding bosses and some of the non-cooperative subordinates you loved your job, and I understand what you are going through when you are dropping it off and again proved yourself to be an epitome of love and sacrifice.

You have given a lot to us all ma... you fought and got yourself transferred to all the places we all had to go, you compromised on lot of your work stuff for our health and our well being , now again this decision is in our best interests.. enough ma... its time for us to give you back atleast a millionth of what you have showered on us unconditionally.

This post is just for you.. Just to tell you that we are all very very proud of you. Love you ma..