Aham Brahmasmi

 

 

 

What makes a grown man cry? Is it a sudden upswell of genuine emotion, is it the sudden emptiness of having someone close being taken away, or is it something else? All his professional life, my father used to work for the West Bengal State Government , in the Audit and Accounts Service for the Education Department. For a few years, in the early 2000s, he was posted at Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College . Yesterday, a junior of his (who is still posted there) reached out on his mobile number, after having wondered about his unnerving silence from the 16th. I attended the call and broke the sad news to him. We spoke for half an hour post that, and the nearly-60-year-old man broke down in tears multiple times, as he recalled what a wonderful, honest and inspirational mentor figure my father had been for him. He kept saying again and again that he had never met anyone else like my father - so honest, so responsible, so encouraging, so compassionate, yet so humble - and that baba ha...