My FiL

 

To be honest, it was only my father's  passing five years ago, that made me appreciate the solid presence of the Father in Law (FiL), Dr. T. S. Vasan. Till then he was only the wife's father. But before I go on, a confession is in order. When I got to know   twenty seven years ago, this petite girl who I thought is someone I can spend my life with and to my good fortune, she also demurred, I came to know of an unexpected. That her father is an astrologer. It sounded strange, but more of that later. The kindly and wise visage noticed on meeting in person ( 'in person' would have sounded strange at that time, there being no other way of meeting!!) alleviated the unfamiliarity.

At his passing, I'm  reminded of the Mahatma's well known quip - my life is my message(or something to that effect). I discern several messages, rather lessons, from the life of Dr. Vasan, that ended on 9/11/20 a little after 86 years.

ZEST FOR LIFE
A child-like curiosity that he retained almost till the last few days, made Dr. Vasan, open to anything that life and surroundings threw up. He matched any youngster in upgrading cell phones, upgrading his wardrobe or searching the web for the latest trends in technology. Hailing from pre-digital generation, he easily migrated to the digital-migrant generation like me and was comfortable with the digital-native like his grandson. He retained an open mind to learning of new things, watch movies and serials on Netflix and Amazon Prime. I got to gifting a copy of Yuval Harari's 'Ascent of Sapiens' only for his 86th birthday two months ago, that I don't  think he got to read. It remains a regret that  I couldn't get response from him, who was on authority on Indian astrology, on Yuval's propositions on human history, culture and religion. I was too late.

ARROGANCE OF KNOWING BY HALF
We grew up in an environment where an occupation to provide for a decent life for self and family could be that of a doctor,  a lawyer , an auditor or land a salaried job, ideally in government/PSU/ Bank/ multinational co. or a teacher. Musician? May be,  but does it pay to make ends meet? There were several other odd jobs and occupations that people pursued, apparently not out of choice but out compulsion having missed out on any of these. Astrologer? 'Are you out of your mind?' wouldn't  have been a surprising counter to this suggestion. More so as that generation was imbibed with the vigor of  confidence in rationality that trashed anything that didn’t fit into the framework of rationality.
A person, hailing from an older generation when the freedom to choose an occupation was a luxury to most young people, choosing astrology as a profession, is something, I find extraordinary and extremely courageous. It becomes more remarkable when considering the fact that he was a qualified lawyer who had joined the Bar and had practiced for a while. Thus, it was a deliberate choice he made giving up another more attractive and lucrative profession. This is the courage part. And that is not all. It is but natural that he would have faced and sensed skepticism of his profession from numerous people around him. That he not only overcame such skepticism and was respected by not only his clients and students but also people knowing little about Indian astrology.  His mastery over his craft, his deep insight in this field of human knowledge that made him devise new methods of predictions and most important of all, the confidence he carried while putting across his views to the believers and skeptics, I’m sure, disabused many a skeptic recognize own arrogance of knowing by half, as I did. In this era, when well put 150 character expression can make a person, a celebrity and worse, an authority in any field of study, this arrogance is all pervasive. Never mind how much I know or whether  I appreciate the insights of the subject or not, superficial awareness is adequate for me to go forth and pronounce online a person demented or a field of study, heresy. When challenged professionally, his patience in explaining his craft, its logic and philosophy as also his confidence backed by his deep knowledge, showed up what I call the arrogance of knowing by half. Dr. Vasan showed me the need for me to recognize this myself.

PROFESSIONALISM

It was his desire to take up what his father had inherited and pursued that made him give up his legal career and dig into the documents and records his father, Pandit Sharma, had left behind, to start practicing Indian astrology. The remarkable fact about this is that, both Pandit Sharma and his wife, Rathnamma, passed within a year leaving behind a 17 year old Srinivasan (to become better known as Dr. T.S. Vasan later) and two younger sisters orphaned who were cared for by their aunt. Thus, it was almost fifteen years after his father’s passing that Dr. Vasan went about learning Indian astrology from the documents, books and papers his father had left behind. And indeed he did, to eventually become one of the most respected authorities in the field of Indian astrology. Thus, he inherited a tradition that he nurtured and made a profession of.  Unusual though his profession was, even in those times, in the seventies, eighties & nineties in the last century,  he persevered, dug deep to build up his knowledge and understanding of the subject to, not only become a scholar but to also practice and make a living off it. As I heard several of his students pour out their grief at his passing and express their respect for his scholarship during online condolence meetings , the thought that crossed my mind was – unlike most of them and most of his contemporaries, astrology was not a hobby, but his chosen profession, source of living for Dr. Vasan. His devotion to astrology was near total, everything else was secondary. Not only was he proud of his profession, he practiced every aspect that define a professional – deep knowledge, developed tools that added and facilitated smooth practice, client satisfaction and, punctuality.  He showed that the age-old wisdom from Manusmrti -  धर्मो रक्षति रक्षितः is a truism.

 

GENEROUS TO FAULT
It was probably the poverty (even by the standards of living in the middle of last century when Dr. Vasan was in his teens and twenties) that he survived that made him generous in his later years. He was generous in helping people, known and unknown, and more of people underprivileged – the maid servant, poor students or a relative in financial difficulties that found a ready benefactor in him. Not that he was careless with money, he certainly was not and accounted to himself for every rupee expended. He was clear on what can money be spent on and for what purpose. He is a textbook example to quote to substantiate a popular piece of wisdom that is shared generously – The more one gives, the more one gets. I can’t say if he believed in this, but for sure, he gave generously without expecting to get, but get, he did. It was not only generosity in kind that defined him, it was as much the generosity of heart. His ready smile, the pleasant demeanor, empathy  and patience that made a friend to numerous generations – his own, his children’s and grand children’s. And probably it is this quality that helped him excel professionally.

 

FOCUS

He had this ability that he had developed by practice to shift all the focus on to the project at hand. Be it a seminar he had to preside over, a paper he was publishing, a book he was writing or the next client meeting. All the attention would be diverted to the task at hand and nothing and none could divert him from that. Pleasant though he was almost to a fault, I found him irritated if disturbed at his task. He had a trick to avoid such irritations – he would completely ignore any diversions from anyone. Its fair to say, it is this focus and passion he brought to anything he did, at the ripe age of 86, that gained him respect from the outside world, even if it gained reprobation of his dear wife and children. You don’t expect your 85 year old spouse/ parent  to tick you off when interrupted while he is reading/ writing, do you? A typical 85 year-old should have all the time on the world to, indeed, waiting, to listen to the spouse/ children, isn’t it? Well, Dr. Vasan was different, he was much younger than his chronological 85 years and he certainly had not ‘retired’.

 Dr. Vasan, my FiL will be badly missed.