Happy Birthday Dear Dad

Dearest Pappa,

It's your 64th Birthday today.

Being in Bangalore, I visited Shri Chitrapur Math on the 15th cross in the morning and have offered a Rudrabhishekh and Bilvarchana Seva to Lord Shankara on your behalf. Today is a Monday luckily and I will be able to attend the Shiva Poojan in the evening as well.

Back in Grant Road, Amma has made Aamras- Puri. There also are other Amchi delicacies that you loved so much. Everything is the same, just that this time although the table is full, your chair is empty. The head of the family is no longer with us.

Since you left us in september last year, our train of life is running empty, the journey seems incomplete without our dearest co-passenger beside us. Everything I do seems to have a void in it. I miss your sparkling laughter at my foolish antics, your getting annoyed at my stubbornness, your joy at even the smallest and most insignificant of my achievements, but most of all I miss your genial but practicable advice that guided me along the right way, always. I am missing you so very much dear Dad, missing you a lot.

Throughout your life you have been the ever-helpful and very much respected Dr. Sharad Murdeshwar, always ready to help the rich and poor alike. You modestly brushed aside peoples' efforts to label you a great doctor. I realized how much people loved and revered you only in 1995 when you were hospitalized for the first time - you were visited not only by friends, relatives and colleagues, but also a multitude of people whom Amma and I had never heard of, seen or met before. They had all been your patients at one time or the other, all been given a second chance to live because of you. I was really amazed at how you had reached across the diverse strata of society to bring joy into their lives: there were farmers who had come all the way from Ozar in their tractors and there were business tycoons who came in their Mercedes; there were your childhood friends from all over India and also now famous doctors whom you had taught when they were students. It was amazing how the differences between them melted away as they came to see their beloved 'Doctor Saaheb', 'Dr. Murdeshwar' and 'Respected Sir'.

And maybe because you did such a splendid job here that God called you away so soon. He did not want such a wonderful person to suffer anymore. Amma and I will always feel vacant and sad at having lost you, but we are glad that you have to no more endure the pain and suffering you endured for the past ten years. We know you are much happier up there than you would be down here.

Dear Pappa, you have always been a steady source of inspiration for me. Didn't you tell me that the only infection worth spreading in this world is a SMILE :) Well, I have been doing my best to spread this infection. But when you passed away, it was very difficult for me to keep a smiling face so the world would still see a warm glow. Yet, I tried my best and still am, and like I promised you, always will keep smiling. You do too - cause if you stop, I won't be able to face the world.

There's another promise I made to you that I am working towards - I am going to be the next 'Dr. Murdeshwar'. I have completed my Masters in Biotechnology from IIT-Bombay and would have loved you and Amma to come together for my convocation ceremony. Anyway, I am now looking for a good Ph.D. position in either Biochemistry (like you wanted me to) or Neurobiology (like I want to). With your and Amma's blessings, I am sure that some day in the near future I will be 'Prof. Dr. Maya Sharad Murdeshwar', a doctor like you and a wonderful teacher like Amma. Hope that day dawns soon.

Happy Birthday once again dear Pappa, and don't forget to Keep Smiling :)

Loads and loads of love from Amma and me.