A very dear friend has sent me this message on WhatsApp. It is a tribute from a son to his late father who was a Medical Practitioner. I wish to share it with my readers as, this is an unusual request which touched me deeply as I am sure it will my readers.
“August 1st will mark 8 years since my dad passed away. I still think of him every day.
There are two kinds of intelligence, in my book. One is conventional intelligence, the other is disruptive intelligence. The latter is the kind that changes the world – through a scientific breakthrough, or the development of a new drug or technology.
Baba’s intelligence was the latter – a ferocious, disruptive intelligence, that, combined with his courage, his insistence on questioning everything, integrity, compassion and impish, irreverent sense of humour, made him special.
I haven’t inherited that level of intelligence, but hopefully have inherited some of his other traits.
I always remember how his shoulders shook and his eyes crinkled when he laughed. I remember how when we visited the small town of Almora in the Himalayas on vacation, he would dispense free medical advice and medicines he paid for himself, to dozens of poor villagers who would line up outside my grandfather’s door every morning. He asked for nothing in return. I remember his courage at the end of his life, when he calmly told me he would die that very day, after seeing his own electrocardiogram.
I remember everything. The greatest lesson he taught me was to take nothing at face value, and to investigate everything, and only believe something if it was rooted in fact and backed up by evidence. He was afraid of nothing, and would never back down if he knew he was right about something.
So on August 1st, it would be great if you could take a moment out of your day to remember a remarkable man.
Thank you.”
