Remembering My Father - #4

To people who know him intimately, any discussion on my father is rather incomplete without talking about his passion for investments/finance. Thats one legacy he would have wanted us to cherish and follow even after his time. My father was a very shrewd investor, albeit very conservative. I am yet to meet a person who has mastered CD laddering to the extent he did. He took atmost care of "our" money as he would like to put it. I still remember him losing his temper at times when his accounts dint tally because we forgot to inform him of an expense we made. Even then he would end it up with a crisp - "Its all our money. And only one fourth of it is mine!" and this was when we were still mere schoolboys. When I left for college, he implemented this neat scheme where quarterly interest from one of his investments was diverted to a bank account in my college which I could withdraw at college. For all four years, thats how I paid my mess bill. His book keeping, as I flip through them today, is an outstanding work of art.

In hind sight, I feel, the retired life of my father should have filled him with mixed feelings. On one hand, I feel, he would have felt having reaped the dividends and returns of his toil and sweat. His "investments" - (me and my brother) - paying off. Being a typical father among his generation folks, I can say for sure, he was delighted at what me and my brother were doing with our lives - our graduation, coming to the US, Master's education, job, marriage and all the way down to my son ie his grandson. To a certain degree one can say, he has seen what one would have wanted him to see. In that sense, his investments paid off and he was there to see them getting paid off.
On the other hand, his health was not letting him enjoy the fruits of his labor fully. 2007 to 2009 are three years that no one in my family will forget. My mother did all she can - fighting with all her might to pull of a miracle and get my father's health back. My father, even with his health failing him, was optimistic to the last minute. My father is an open book who kept no secret of his feelings/emotions most of the time. True to that trait, I could feel him getting reflective on his life and confiding in us what he felt about his life many times. We did our best we could to cheer him up. However, I, for one, would have to live with the painful memory of not being able to be near by father during his ill-health and help him with what I could.

As a son, my father was this dutiful son to his parents - being by their side till the end, taking care of them and uplifting the family after his father retired. He had done his duties to his parents, that too commendably. His scorecard is also complete as a father as I just said. He has basically led a life of no debt.

With I and my brother, our father till the very end remained more a friend than a father. I should say, he more than respected our views and thoughts even when we were mere teenagers. I vividly remember the days when I use to come across investment info during the mid 90s in magazines and whenever I shared such info with him, he listened with utmost earnestness and even implemented my suggestions. Actually, he is the only person I have had who has never said no to anything I have to say. The morale boosting confidence I have often gotten from his unqualified support is something I will sorely miss for the rest of my life.

Dad, you have left really big shoes to fill. Now that I myself am a father, I fully realize how high a bar you have set. As I have told you many times during your last few days, my kid should feel fortunate if I were half as good a father as you had been. Wish me luck, Dad !