Dharmarajan

My father, whom we have always called Appa, was born in 1936 in Kizhambur, a small agraharam village in what is now the Tenkasi district of Tamil Nadu. His was a home of modest means and gentle discipline. His parents grew more comfortable over the years, but they chose to keep life simple, and they raised Appa and his brothers and sisters the same way: to stand on their own feet, to keep things in order, to respect their elders, and to be content with little. He carried all of that into the home he later made for us.

He took his B.Sc. in Chemistry from Madura College in Madurai and stepped into a newly independent India where work was hard to come by. Through sheer persistence, and the kindness of a few people along the way, he found his footing. Those lean years gave Appa a belief he held for the rest of his life, and one he passed on to us: that no honest work is beneath anyone.

No job is inferior to another. Whatever comes your way, accept it and respect it.

Appa’s long career was spent in the Indian Audit & Accounts service, which took our family across the country. We spent many years in Orissa, had a memorable spell in the forested Dandakaranya region, and later settled in Hyderabad. He rose steadily to the senior cadre, and the people who worked with him still speak of his fairness, his courage when it mattered, and his gift for finding the good in everyone.

Wherever he was posted, Appa stayed the same man at heart: devoted to the Bhagavad Gita, in love with music and the stage, always giving his time to his community, living simply and giving generously. That is the father I grew up with, and the one we celebrate today.