Father's fifth anniversary

It has been five years since my father V Gopalan died, aged 94. The date was January 5, 2004. But we observed the anniversary today, Jan.9 , in accordance with the Hindu calender. My father's death came two days after Vaikunta Ekadesi, considered so auspicious that those who die on Ekadesi Day are said to be destined for a place in Heaven. My father missed out by a couple of days.

His father Venkataramana Iyer made it. He died on Vaikunta Ekadesi. I was a schoolboy then. Grandfather had been a head constable of police at Coimbatore in Pre-Independence days. And I was brought up by him and my grandmother in Coimbatore during my primary and mid-school days. I was in 6th std. when my grandfather died. This photo with my father was taken when I was schooling in Coimbatore, during one of his periodical visits from New Delhi.

My father, in the central government service, was posted in New Delhi; and his job involved regular touring that kept him away from Delhi for two to three weeks every month. Besides, the offices of the central government those days shifted to Shimla during summer months. The nature of his job was not conducive to my schooling. It was only after my grand-father's death I moved to Delhi with my parents; and continued my schooling in New Delhi.

My parents settled in Pollachi after my father's retirement. And it was in Pollachi where he died. That my wife and I were not with him when my father expired remains an enduring regret in my life. We happened to be visiting our son and daughter-in-law in San Francisco; and we couldn't make it back to Pollachi till three days after my father's death. Irony was that my sister Bhagya, who had come from Delhi to Pollachi to spend a couple of weeks with our parents, left for New Dehi only a couple of days before our father died. She however made it to the funeral.