The Brazen Gecko

This post is a tribute to a remarkable personality that I've known and admired all my life.

My paternal grandfather, would turn a 100 years in October 2010. Imagine what it would be like to have lived a hundred years! It would be beyond my understanding to even know the things he would have known, the things he would have seen change over time, the experiences he would have endured, realisations on Life he would have had ...

My earliest recollection of him was when I was about 4 or 5 years old. I remember following him always and asking him many questions, to which he always had very clever, thought provoking answers. He always encouraged learning by exploring and experimenting. Much to my mother's disgust, he let me do unorthodox things like touch slime from drains, get wet in the rain and play in the mud with the earthworms. The thought of how I'd grow up might have crossed his mind as he watched me grow and develop my curiosity to make sense of the world around.

He was not just one person. He was a master of all trades. An educator in profession, a clever inventor, a passionate naturalist, devout humanist, a mastermind, an artist, a role model, he managed all this while being one of the most compassionate and patient human beings I've ever known.

He was simple in his ways; never indulged in luxuries and was content with what he had. He never wore extravagant clothes, walked as far as he could instead of using the comfort of vehicles, ate just enough to feel satisified, preferred simple vegetarian food, saved money for his dependents, never wasted resources, spent every minute of his time occupied with something meaningful, explored new territory whenever he could, lived in harmony with nature and made the effort to be a part of the lives of all his loved ones.

He spent each waking minute, thinking, being busy, doing something meaningful which would reap results not just for himself, but for many for years to come. He would invent things in his free time. He was a mathematical genius and he once handed me a one-paged calendar which can be used to read days and dates of many years backwards and forwards in time. He once made a violin, with wood that he carved. The garden of the house he lived had, literally, every type of tree from fruits, vegetables, spices to flowers. Some of them he planted decades ago. Even to this day, we enjoy the fruits of those trees he planted any time of the year.

He did right by all his children. He treated all equally as he possibly could. He was loved and admired by many. He left no stone unturned, he excelled in his duties to his children. He even managed to touch the lives of each and every grandchild he had, quite profoundly as all nine of them would agree. He was even blessed to have 3 great-grandchildren in his lifetime. How can one single person achieve all this in one lifetime, if not by the might of their will?

From my youngest days when he would make wooden toys for me using his carpentry skills, to the time I was ready to leave to university, he was part of my life from a distance. We would write to each other and he taught me how to use an envelope twice by flipping it inside-out and pasting the edges. He encouraged me to collect stamps by sending me used stamps along with his letters. He even sent me peacock feathers fallen off wild peacocks that used to visit his garden. And later when I was older, I learnt of a children's bank account he had opened for me to keep saving and some of that money I used to buy my first air ticket to leave to university.

I am amazed by how much I observed and admired him while growing up. I still aspire to be just like him in most ways.I feel proud that I am a small part of the legacy he will leave behind and because I have alot of him in me in each and every gene of mine. And though he is now probably spending his last moments in hospital, it makes me happy to think that he will leave this world a complete person, having lived life to the fullest.

A small brazen gecko ornament he gave me when I was a little child, still sits among my most cherished items.