Nagpur: What comes first to your mind when you think of the festival of colored strings embedded with sweetness of relations … ? A sister tying rakhi to her brother, and unpacking a gift of care and token of promise – a promise to stand by her side in every thick and thin, and eventually protect her from all the ills. Yes, Rakhi evokes the relations that start by birth but grows on love and affection, and nurtured by this gentle piece of promise. But here we have the story of a brother whose gift to someone else made her sister proud forever, and emotionally moved her for the rest of her life. You may think what kind of gift could that be, which has made a sister content and proud? And that too for the gift given to someone else?
This Rakhi, one thing Asha Sukumaran will certainly miss is her brother Ramchander Mudaliar who lost long drawn battle with cancer. He died in Nagpur on 9th August 2016. While Asha cries her heart out for her loving brother, she finds solace in the fact that he had pledged his body to Medical College Nagpur, before bidding goodbye to this world.
Narrating the leaf straight out of her brother’s book of memory, Asha has sent a detailed mail to Nagpur Today. Here we are presenting the same which hs really touched us.
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Asha said, “Losing a dear person although a reality of life is the most difficult part of life to bear.Recently I lost my brother and the sorrow was unbearable although he had been ailing for some time. Yet when death hits you even if it is expected one does lose one’s balance.”
She further said, “There was a simplicity and earnestness within him that shone through his character.His love for all the stray dogs in our locality was unique. As soon as his car entered our lane a beeline of the stray dogs followed him. He would first pour the milk in their container and then only have his dinner.”
She added, “He firmly believed that one should not waste anything be it the natural resources or food. I remember when my youngest brother was ill we used to have lunch in the hospital canteen. Everyday he used to ask for an empty plate and remove the excess in the plate and ask the bearer to consume it instead of wasting it in his plate. The result whenever he went to the canteen he got a royal treatment.”
It is sad to think that this Raksha Bandhan I will not be able to hear him.
He loved and thought highly about a girl child, created the poster depicting all the professions a girl can take for which he was granted a special meeting with the then President of India Pratibha Patil.
He had great love and respect for the medical fraternity and showed this in a highly commendable way by donating his body to the medical college Nagpur. The thought itself sent chills down my spine but then my brother Ranchander Mudliar was always a unique brother.
May God give his family and dear ones the courage to bear the loss. He is not there in our midst but his memories will be eternally cherished.
