It’s a sad irony that the people who love us most are also the ones who are taken for granted the most! Only when they forsake the material world for higher spiritual realms do we realize their Himalayan stature …and so it was with Achan.

I meet someone somewhere and inevitably he is a fan of Achan’s writing or personality! And then the manner in which that someone relates to me and accepts me is entirely different. It is as if the magic of Achan’s life has embraced me…doors begin to open, courtesies are extended and a new warmth enters the discussion. This theme has recurred time and time again throughout my life.

During one of my numerous sorties to Mumbai during the late eighties I had an amazing experience. Sitting in a taxi on the long ride from Santa Cruz airport to Nariman Point I began a sociable conversation with the cabbie. Pandit was from UP but had made Mumbai his home several decades earlier. He was gracious and well read and wanted to know about me. I told him I lived in Cochin but traveled often to Mumbai. Soon the conversation veered around to family and I mentioned that Achan was a famous name in the world of Malayalam literature. The minute I mentioned Achan’s pen name “Mali” he turned around and said that he had read some of his work. I was amazed! How could a taxi driver from UP living in Mumbai have read Achan’s Malayalam works? Apparently, Pandit had read a translation of “Mali Ramayanam” serialized in a Hindi magazine! I was dumbfounded! It was then that I began realizing the true power and penetration of Achan’s life.

A lot of the time we partake in intellectual gymnastics on the state of our country. Eroding values is a favourite topic of discussion….as if the previous generations were all pristine practioners of principles! If that were so, would we be rearing generation after generation of cynical young Indians bereft of role models ? And yet Achan stood out like a beacon by his simplicity and principle-centred life. Many, many times he demonstrated that doing the right thing was far more preferable to opting for short cuts. As a senior officer of the government he was incorruptible even when placed in the bustling business driven city of Ahmedabad.

Versatility was Achan’s middle name. You name it and he knew it because he had done it! From tennis to all sports, Indian history and culture, Malayalam, English and Sanskrit literature, music, current affairs, broadcasting….he was a master practitioner of them all. His skills and interests were all transferable, imbuing him with a world view that render the rest of us pygmies by comparison.

Excellence was the hall mark of Achan’s life. Everything he did was as close to perfect as he could get. This has guaranteed that his books have remained best sellers over the last 50-odd years; it also explains why anyone (lakhs of people by now) who has witnessed Karnasapatham kathakali (authored by Achan) has been so deeply affected by the synergistic combination of the poignancy of Karna’s dilemma and the masterly blend of ragas and verse. If he wrote a note or a letter you could bet your last rupee that the language was perfect and the handwriting was exquisite; if he produced a backhand down-the-line on the tennis court you could be sure that it was straight from the copybook! If an artiste momentarily dropped the shruti during a concert Achan would wince! There simply was no room for mistakes in anything that he was involved in!

Achan’s word was his covenant and punctuality was his style. With him you knew exactly what to expect and where you stood. The word ambiguity simply disappeared in his presence!

But more than all that, Achan loved us all….more than can be articulated; and that perhaps is the greatest of his legacies (and there are ever so many)! The shoes he left behind are so awfully large that sometimes I despair if I can ever even touch them, let alone stand in them. A father’s legacy, sadly, is visible only after he is gone…..