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Saturday, March 14, 2009

A Tribute to Sabari Master

It is a sad moment in my life to write this note as I never thought that I would be writing this after his unprecedented departure. Whole of last week I started to write and then got stuck due to the burden of grief my mind was carrying…!! Such is the impact on each of us, who interacted with him at least once in our life time….! And it was evident from the size of the crowd present at the funeral function.

Though he was associated with a political outfit for all his social empowerment activities, he was respected and heard beyond his political affiliations. He used to be a consultant, advisor, a friend in need, guide, philosopher and what not…? There are few words to describe the way he used to handle others’ problems with utmost sincerity and involvement. Above all, to me, he was the most unassuming and simple social worker, who never allowed others to exaggerate his own great works.

My father used to do a lot of help to various people regardless of their cast, religion, social background or any such conditions. In many cases he used to voluntarily offer help, even without the recipient’s request….!! So, during my childhood, I used to observe my father as well as those people from various back grounds who come for help and many of them after receiving the help as well. I had seen many of them breaking down in front of my father when they explain their sorrow and the glee in their eye when they visited after successful completion of their requirement with my father’s help. I used to amaze at my father’s ability to solve others’ problems and of late, during my teens, started discussing with him how he feels after completing each such incidents….?! He used to reaffirm only one thing…the joy he gets out of each such help offer is that as if he created another fixed deposit in God’s bank, which will fetch interest in the form of help to every member of his family when they require help from others. He believed that we are all social elements and if we don’t practice the values then there is no point preaching or praying….

However, all those individuals and families, who used to come from various parts of the country with a request definitely looked forward towards my father as God and a man capable of doing great things and regarded him as an individual with great knowledge and many of them recognized him after receiving the help as someone who did something which they would never have been able to achieve on their own…!! It is true that he was really knowledgeable and for us he was a living encyclopedia and inspiration to innovate…! So the aura was always visibly surrounding him ever. Later on in my life, I received the interest of my dad’s good deeds and realized how important his words were and took an oath to myself that I would follow his path in terms of helping others and preach only what I could practice. Later in life, when I was working in a voluntary organization, which was undertaking a World Bank funded rural development project, I came across a very funny incident which gave me lot of self – realization and confidence, even though the incident was intended to discourage me.

This was during the initial days when I joined this organization and in one of the executive committee meeting, the CEO of this organization, criticized me for carrying myself in the office as the CEO of the firm. He is one of the very sharp intellects of the country, who is respected by very many in the country for his contributions for the development of the rural hamlets of our country. First of all, it was shocking for me to hear it from him as I still respect him a lot and I shall vouch that I had learnt many things in my life during our close association for about two years. This criticism initially hurt me, even though the other executive members argued for me in that meeting, but provoked a strong analytical thought process inside me. I then realized that many people from various parts and various projects used to approach me for different types of help and my patient hearing and approach was appreciated & liked by all these and made them close to me and prompted them to approach me for each & every issue. Even though I always heard them and gave a logical guideline to act upon with the help of my own experience, I used to specifically put them on to the concerned authority in the organization, whenever it was not my jurisdiction. However, the way I used to approach issues and my body language were the culprits.

This definitely made me realize the fact that why people listen to my words in a gathering….!!! I thanked my dad for the same kind of vibes he gifted me with….!! Now, the relevance of this description is to point the fact that when my dad or me did the help to others, it was well recognized or the recipient definitely acknowledged the pain behind the effort and this is the same with many people who help others. But Sabari master was very very unique and special because he never let the recipients know the pain he takes in helping them. That’s the greatness, I could very rarely witness in people like him. There may be many people like him, who helps others, but to me he’s unique for this quality of unassuming nature, which will knock down any of his opponent, with tears in their eyes.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

please insert a photo of sabari master

PaddyPal said...

I couldn't insert the photo as I don't have one..If you could help me by sending it to indpad@gmail.com, I shall insert it..!