M. L. Puri - The reminiscences
Upma Budhraja [ Daughter]
People who knew my father (Papa) were usually struck by his thoroughness and organization, clarity of thought and analytical approach to his personal and professional life. More importantly, he was an upright man who lived by his principles and was committed to taking the right course of action in his dealings with family, friends, colleagues and others with whom he interacted. Though not always evident, he had an understated but great sense of humor. Growing up and over the years, I became acquainted with these qualities in many different ways. I would like to share some of these memories.
In school, math was one of my biggest challenges. I could not understand why one needed to know the time at which two trains traveling at different speeds crossed each other, or the age of A’s aunt who was 10 years younger than B, who in turn was thrice as old as A. I naturally turned to Papa for help with my homework. He was an engineer who thought mathematically and who crunched the numbers in his head. Papa took one look at my work and said it was too untidy. The whole problem had to be re-written neatly even though it was probably incorrect. The importance of having your facts well organized before trying to solve a problem, became clear to me many years later. At the time I thought his approach was completely unreasonable.
Any issue of interest to Papa received his full attention. He was often lost in thought, reflecting on work-related or other matters. This single-minded focus sometimes had unexpected results. Once, when we were at DLW, Varanasi, he and Mom went to the Railway Club, which was quite close to the house. After a while, Mom noticed that Papa was not there. Absorbed in his thoughts, he had walked home and gone to bed, leaving her behind. I don’t think he ever heard the end of that story!
While growing up, Papa’s younger brothers regarded him as a stern disciplinarian. When he got married, they often looked to Mom to plead their case for them. Papa had mellowed considerably by the time I came along. He was a loving father, sometimes strict but always tried to be fair and understanding. He had an unexpectedly dry sense of humor. When he was in the mood, he would have us in splits with stories about his tyrannical grandmother “Maji” and life in their ancestral village of Khunda. I still find myself chuckling over her more brazen exploits.
Papa was not one for attending satsangs or visiting temples, but he was essentially a man of faith. He felt blessed and often expressed his gratitude for a loving family, his work and a “roof over our heads”. In one of his rare letters, written in 1994, he said “I am not getting younger but I do try to have faith in the goodness of what He may have in store for me. That helps (me) to work and remain cheerful.” He recognized his limitations and put his energy into doing the right thing within his own sphere of influence, in the best way that he could. He had no pretensions about trying to reform the world or change anyone other than himself.
It is difficult to capture the essence of my father’s personality, principles and convictions in these paragraphs, but I hope I have conveyed a sense of his values, and the goodness, sincerity and humility which characterized his life.
Other reminiscences: