'Ajja'- Miss You!

My Cousins and me refer to him as Mysore 'Ajja' (Grandfather). His name- Lakshmi Narayan Ballal.If I ever had an idol in life it is him. He is whom i would call a Daring, Charismatic, Free Spirited Guy, who below all that toughness had a heart that would melt easily if he as much as saw someone cry in front of him.

There was not a single thing he had not tried his hand in, may it be, piloting air crafts, Wrestling ( he would often tell me about the Kusthi(Wrestling) Sessions that would take place during Dassera in the Mysore Palace, Fancy dress competitions again held during Dassera during the good old king reign days, He supposedly even did a small stint in some English Movie/Documentary and Of course, Politics, He was with the Indian National Congress(Gandhian Congress) and was involved in the freedom struggle during the independence days. He had done it all and wanted to do more.

By profession he was a hotelier. Ballal circle in Mysore was named after Ballal Hotel that was owned and managed by Ajja. If I sit back and think, it was the best profession for him given his passion for Good Food. He truly lived to eat, he was perfectly healthy, his stroke was a result of eating loads of chakkulis, kodbales and sweets all at once on Krishna Janmashtmi, both his sugar levels and Blood pressure levels shot up together. He was bedridden for a long time before he finally passed away.

Ajja stayed in a joint family ( His Brothers and their families) in what we call as the Ballal house or dodda Mane ( Big House), he would drive to our place pretty much everyday, there was not a single day that would go by without him visiting his grandkids. He would stop at every bakery and snack store on the way and buy up pretty much everything there for his grand kids.

He would take us to visit the Mysore Palace or exhibition as though it was his first time there, chatting up with the auto driver all the way from home to the palace. He did a lot for orphan kids, Helped them with their daily food by providing free food at his hotel, free accommodation. A few years ago when my Ajji and me were walking, we came across this stranger who stopped us and introduced himself to ajji as one of the kids whom Ajja had helped during his struggling period and that now he had a good job and a family. He told us how grateful he was for what Ajja did . When Ajja died, we were surprised at the number of strangers who showed up to pay their last respect to him, telling us how he had touched their lives and helped them in one way or the other. I had always heard about Ajja's popularity but this is when I realised how much of a"larger than Life' personality Ajja had.

Talking about personality, ajja had this huge frame, he was 6 foot something tall with broad shoulders. When he was bedridden, we needed at least 6-7 Adult men to Lift him in and out of bed. His last days were hard as he slowly stopped recognising and reacting to all of us. He was living only because of his tremendous Will Power. We had our exams starting in about 2-3 days time, his Doctor who was also his best buddy told us that he would pass away slowly the next day in the morning as he did not want to trouble his grandkids during their exams (sniff sniff). That he did, exactly the same day and the time of the day the doctor mentioned, it was a miracle of kinds or may be purely his will, I don't know. At the end all that matters is that he Lived Large and had no regrets.

Sometimes I feel like I get my stubbornness, rebelliousness and Freewill from him and I don't know whether that is a good thing or a bad thing but I am who I am. This morning I was remembering him a lot and felt that he had to be a part of my blog, otherwise my blog would be incomplete. Ajja, Love You and Miss you a lot!