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My Literary Uncle (BRK, 84) and his mississ (Pinnamma, 78) are the closest to me among my elder generation, for several reasons...chief of them is that they are the youngest in that gen. And so, they are more like friends.
BRK had to stop his higher studies for the usual family reasons prevalent then and join the Post & Telegraphs Department. But literature is in his genes. So, he was always found with sophisticated books (mostly in Telugu) but didn't have time to write anything big till he retired. And then, with the encouragement of his wife, he wrote the Bhagavadgita in simple Telugu verses...simply charming.
His elder son (BVP, 60) too joined the LIC at an early age and retired recently as the Chief in his Circle. And all of a sudden he discovered that he could draw wonderful cartoons and write lovely stories in Telugu. Within a year he published a couple of dozen cartoons and 20 prize-winning stories in many magazines.
His younger son (BRB, 50) has a flair for writing and pretty soon will surely take it up in a big way. He trained as a Physicist and then turned to Computerized Banking.
BRK encouraged his mississ to pursue her studies privately and she is a graduate in Literature. This I didn't know till I retired.
As soon as I retired and quit Physics, I was at a loss what to do with my time, till I found I could write readable prose. The first (and my best) write-up happens to be a 17-page Homage to my Ph D Guide (SDM) whose very existence many youngsters didn't know. The essay is full of Physics jargon. So, I knew BRB (with his Physics background) would be interested, and handed him a copy when he was staying in Hyderabad five years ago.
It so happened that my Pinnamma, on a visit to her son, saw the copy and apparently read it in one siting and recommended it to her hubby, BRK. And he too devoured it. I came to know all this much later when BRK wrote me a charming letter of appreciation thanking his mississ for passing the 'Homage' on to him. I wondered how this elderly couple who have never had any physics background could read it. And they said:
"It is not necessary to understand a piece completely to enjoy it, if it is well-written"
That was an unforgettable lesson to me at 65.
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That was all by the way.
In our households, there is a nice Function called Aksharabhyasam (Initiation into Literacy). Every child in the family, arriving at age 3, is formally taught to write by the father who seats the kid in his lap. And on a slate teaches how to 'write' by overwriting the letter 'OM' with a slate-pencil.
The function is preceded by a Puja to the Goddess of Learning, Saraswati, and the Dispeller of all obstacles, Ganeshji. Lots of friends and family members are invited to watch and later bless the child...like Ishani was recently...
I recall my own Aksharabhyasam vividly. My Father being an English Teacher would perhaps have preferred to start with ABCD...but must have been prevailed upon to stick to custom.
After the writing lesson was over, I was made to do pranam to all the elders present and take their blessings.
It so happened that my Pinnamma, then on 12 (and unmarried), embraced me and blessed me thus:
"Study well and become an Engineer!"
Everyone laughed and quizzed her why an Engineer. And she promptly replied:
"He can then roam around in a ZEEP with a hat on and sit in style"
That was our Pre-Independance picture of an Engineer... Engineer meant a Civil Engineer supervising the construction of Roads and Buildings and Bridges and Dams, and pocketing money.
The other two branches, Mechanical and Electrical of Engineering, came below CE. Not much of mechanization or electrification was probably visible.
So, CE 'closed' first, then ME and then EE. My good friend NP once told me that an EE student defended the difficulty of his subject thus:
"We have to imagine and visualize Electric and Magnetic Fields in empty space unlike you guys who can touch and feel your cement and bricks and nuts and bolts"
By the time I joined my University in Vizagh in 1958, where instead of engineering I had to study physics (sorry Pinnamma!), the tables had turned and CE was at the bottom of the three...ME, then EE, and then CE.
In 1960, an Engineering friend who was lagging way behind in his 2nd Year and failing in many subjects met me and cried to me that he was found unfit to pursue either ME or EE or CE branches and asked to quit Engineering or:
"Get lost and join a new branch that is starting in Kakinada which has no takers"
I asked him what was that new branch called.
And he said:
"Some funny thing called Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering"
QED
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"The stone the builders rejected became the cornerstone"
......Psalm 118.22
My Literary Uncle (BRK, 84) and his mississ (Pinnamma, 78) are the closest to me among my elder generation, for several reasons...chief of them is that they are the youngest in that gen. And so, they are more like friends.
BRK had to stop his higher studies for the usual family reasons prevalent then and join the Post & Telegraphs Department. But literature is in his genes. So, he was always found with sophisticated books (mostly in Telugu) but didn't have time to write anything big till he retired. And then, with the encouragement of his wife, he wrote the Bhagavadgita in simple Telugu verses...simply charming.
His elder son (BVP, 60) too joined the LIC at an early age and retired recently as the Chief in his Circle. And all of a sudden he discovered that he could draw wonderful cartoons and write lovely stories in Telugu. Within a year he published a couple of dozen cartoons and 20 prize-winning stories in many magazines.
His younger son (BRB, 50) has a flair for writing and pretty soon will surely take it up in a big way. He trained as a Physicist and then turned to Computerized Banking.
BRK encouraged his mississ to pursue her studies privately and she is a graduate in Literature. This I didn't know till I retired.
As soon as I retired and quit Physics, I was at a loss what to do with my time, till I found I could write readable prose. The first (and my best) write-up happens to be a 17-page Homage to my Ph D Guide (SDM) whose very existence many youngsters didn't know. The essay is full of Physics jargon. So, I knew BRB (with his Physics background) would be interested, and handed him a copy when he was staying in Hyderabad five years ago.
It so happened that my Pinnamma, on a visit to her son, saw the copy and apparently read it in one siting and recommended it to her hubby, BRK. And he too devoured it. I came to know all this much later when BRK wrote me a charming letter of appreciation thanking his mississ for passing the 'Homage' on to him. I wondered how this elderly couple who have never had any physics background could read it. And they said:
"It is not necessary to understand a piece completely to enjoy it, if it is well-written"
That was an unforgettable lesson to me at 65.
*********************************************************************************************************
That was all by the way.
In our households, there is a nice Function called Aksharabhyasam (Initiation into Literacy). Every child in the family, arriving at age 3, is formally taught to write by the father who seats the kid in his lap. And on a slate teaches how to 'write' by overwriting the letter 'OM' with a slate-pencil.
The function is preceded by a Puja to the Goddess of Learning, Saraswati, and the Dispeller of all obstacles, Ganeshji. Lots of friends and family members are invited to watch and later bless the child...like Ishani was recently...
I recall my own Aksharabhyasam vividly. My Father being an English Teacher would perhaps have preferred to start with ABCD...but must have been prevailed upon to stick to custom.
After the writing lesson was over, I was made to do pranam to all the elders present and take their blessings.
It so happened that my Pinnamma, then on 12 (and unmarried), embraced me and blessed me thus:
"Study well and become an Engineer!"
Everyone laughed and quizzed her why an Engineer. And she promptly replied:
"He can then roam around in a ZEEP with a hat on and sit in style"
That was our Pre-Independance picture of an Engineer... Engineer meant a Civil Engineer supervising the construction of Roads and Buildings and Bridges and Dams, and pocketing money.
The other two branches, Mechanical and Electrical of Engineering, came below CE. Not much of mechanization or electrification was probably visible.
So, CE 'closed' first, then ME and then EE. My good friend NP once told me that an EE student defended the difficulty of his subject thus:
"We have to imagine and visualize Electric and Magnetic Fields in empty space unlike you guys who can touch and feel your cement and bricks and nuts and bolts"
By the time I joined my University in Vizagh in 1958, where instead of engineering I had to study physics (sorry Pinnamma!), the tables had turned and CE was at the bottom of the three...ME, then EE, and then CE.
In 1960, an Engineering friend who was lagging way behind in his 2nd Year and failing in many subjects met me and cried to me that he was found unfit to pursue either ME or EE or CE branches and asked to quit Engineering or:
"Get lost and join a new branch that is starting in Kakinada which has no takers"
I asked him what was that new branch called.
And he said:
"Some funny thing called Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering"
QED
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