Wednesday, October 25, 2006

80th Birthday

It was my periappa's (fathers elder brother) 80th birthday this 23rd and we celebrated it with the whole family. After all the functions we had all the family members seated and people from each generation came forward to talk a few things about periappa. To represent the first generation, chitappa(fathers younger brother) came forward. During the past few years their relationship had worsened mostly due to adult tolerance problem or should i say "adultescence". What ever it may be, i was expecting something to breakout and ruin the whole day. But much to my suprise chitappa gave a wonderful speech. He gave a good perspective for us youngsters. He started his speech by saying that we are to see the contemporaries of Periappa to understand him better. Periappa has been one uniting and loving force at yester years. He also advised us not to be like a a seive that keeps only unwanted stuff and allows all the good stuff to seep through. Point was to take only the good from Periappa's history.

From the next generation Sundar Anna and Raja anna spoke of how periappa gave direction to the families growth and his unrelentless quest for being prepared.

Myself told everyone the business acumen of periappa and how he has moulded me to be a business man from the start.

Arun (periappa's grandson) told us an interesting thing on how he has learned to keep his dressing table neat and tidy from periappa.

Vijaya meena anni (periappa's daughter in law) told everyone how he treats his daughter in laws as equal to daughters. She had the courage to tell him that if he were to soften the language in which he told everyone what to do , everyone will listen more.

From all these speeches and from the days events i learned a lot of things too
1. It is always easy to comment on our elders with retrospect,but looking from their time its a wonder how far they have brought us.
2. Everyone want to do something in life.
3. Tolerance in family is as important as leadership in the family.
4. Joint family is still beautiful


Quote for the day: "When searching for things, there are only two places to look for, the most unimaginable and the most obvious"