Through my journey of life... There are some very distinctive people I've met. These souls have direct or indirectly impacted my life in many ways. I thought it will be a great thing to put this down in words so that they'll be remembered. For without them, I am not myself today. Some of them are no longer alive, and yet some are.
- Guru Markendeyaji (Raub) - Met him in 1993. This person mentioned was the first person who brought our whole family to spirituality. How can I ever forget him? He walks bare-footed anywhere and everywhere, with his long white beard and mustache. He smiles and hold us all lovingly and speaks with utmost wisdom. He first initiated us in 1996 and showed us the path of Sadhana. He lived in a suburb area in Raub where he built his own home in the middle of jungle surrounded by caves and hills. He had a massive vegetable and fruit farm and fish pond at the back of his house. At times he used to sit for tapas under a huge tree and meditate for days without food and drinks. He is married with 3 children. As children we were very close to his kids and we used to have hell of a time together. His wife, we addressed her as Mathaji. She cooks very well and they were all full vegetarian. I can also still remember the fierce looking pitbulls that he had as his pets. However, these dogs surprisingly, were not fierce at all. I believe the dogs would have molded with lots of love and spiritualized; that somehow they turn out to be very loving animals. He had his disciples and my father being one of them, had his own Rudra tree planted in his farm. Guruji sees the progress of all his disciples by seeing the growth of the Rudra trees. It was a very remarkable experience knowing someone like him. His eyes sparkled with lots of love and wisdom and we used to have a special bond for him. After a meal, we all will sit and have satsang with Guruji. Though at time I felt it was very high level to understand his messages, but Guruji never failed to entertain us with his jokes and humor during intervals to keep us all attentive. After several years, he left wandering about - to name a few; Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia, and he passed away in Vietnam few years ago. We never got in touch with him again after that. Lesson learnt from Guruji - always perform your Dharma right and stick to the path of spirituality. Eventually, that will be our ultimate goal in life.
- Paternal grandmother - 1931 till present. Her name is Chandra Sinnasamy Pillai and she is my father's mother. I've known her since the day I was born. We call her AVAA (which means Grandmother in Telugu). We stayed with her since the age of seven and she's still with us till now. She is now 78 years old, and dad took the sole responsibility of taking care of her and Ravi Chitappa till now. When we were much younger, she used to be our playmate. I remembered all the best part of our lives that we went through with her. We stayed in a long house back in Penang and it was a government property given to my late grandfather for his long services in PPC. There used to be a wooden veranda in front of the house and just below it, we had our dog, Whacky tied to one of the pillars. The veranda was our play area. Avaa used to tell us loads and loads of stories, riddles, jokes and we used to play games such as 'congkak', 'batu sembilan' and many more. We loved her cooking so much as she prepares very yummy curries. We really enjoyed her company even till today and we cling around her all the time. Late in the day, we used to accompany her and Whacky for an evening walk to the nearby Chinese village. I still remember how Whacky used to pick dried dead frogs and dash away while Avaa will be shouting her lungs out at him. There were plenty of plantation nearby the area (Bayan Lepas) we stayed and I still remember how we used to hunt for fruits. We moved to a flat apartments many years later and we had to give Whacky away to another relative. I guess he was not well taken care of and he died after some time. Avaa is an extremely patient, fun-loving, ever-smiling, gentle, caring and devoted person. Avaa is very cute in her own ways. Though she is very old now, she never forgets her daily prayers and the amount of devotion she has amazes me all the time! She thought me many many good things in life and one of the greatest thing I learned from her is PATIENCE.
