Today is the Birth Anniversary of my elder uncle Anna (Kaka or Chacha), Born 1934 he was a couple of years older than my father whose birth anniversary fell just two weeks back on 15th July.
Both the brothers shared a great bond ..Dad ( Bhau as he was called by his siblings) used to share their stories of School days and beyond but the true gelling began when they were both together in Nagpur for their Graduation and Post Graduation. They lived together and shared almost everything.. Anna was a sickler for English, in fact he is largely responsible for the proficiency in English that Daddy had mastered (and subsequently me too).
Anna developed in Daddy the habit of reading and reading aloud. He encouraged him to start writing too. They shared a lot of time together, right from cooking, going out and also seeing movies. (Movies were something imbibed genetically as my Grandmother was also fond of films and all the genes passed on to me ).
They got married on the same day in July just 3 mins apart ( in short they could not attend each other's marriage persay).
There were both the rare breeds having their Birthdays and Anniversaries in the same month ( Mom's Birthday added to the list )
The story of my father's marriage is a different chapter all together.
They were pretty inseparable, but while Anna settled in Amravati, Daddy moved on to Agra, USA, later Kanpur, England and finally Pune.
Always in touch very constructively argumentative with each other they were still very close.
They faced a lot of ups and downs individually but came up triumphed most of the time.
I was also ironically closely associated with Anna as for my Graduation I was in Amravati and he was my Local Guardian. He has his own way of getting things done and inspiring people.
He believed that if anyone is challenged that person has a higher probability of succeeding. His ways may have been sarcastic but he always meant the best.
His support to me during my courtship with my future wife (who was incidentally his best friend's daughter ) was invaluable.
Time waits for no one and in 2004 my Aunt ( Kaku) left us for her heavenly abode and just 4 years later my mother joined her (both after acute illness and testing Times for Anna and Dad).
Anna crossed 80 and used to not keep well.. after fighting it out he breathed his last in 2016 just a couple of months before his grand niece and my daughter was to get married.
I remember Dad was broken after that.. he has lost the second closest person to him after my mother. It was as if he lived to see Sneha get married and a year later he also succumbed to his suddenly developed cardiac and nephro illness. Possibly now together in their heavenly abode.
July makes me emotional..
The bond they shared is something rare..
So they were born two years apart , Stayed together till they married minutes apart and finally passed a year apart.
There is so much to share possibly some other time.
अण्णा भाऊ तुम्ही नक्की एकत्र आहत 🙏🏻
