Holi, is one of the major festivals we celebrate in India. It is the harbinger of spring. Holi festival holds immense religious significance. It is celebrated on full moon day of Hindu month Phalgun, on one hand this festival celebrates the eternal love of Radha and Krishna, it also celebrates the victory of Lord Vishnu, with his Narasimha avatar, over demon king Hiranyakashipu.

The stories of victory of good over evil imbibes within us hope of overcoming our difficulties and applies to people of all communities and faith. Also, it is a great shift of season, from the cold winters to the warm summers.

Unfortunately or fortunately, this day also coincided with my father’s death anniversary this year. It is natural that I would remember and mourn his loss. Especially, this day makes me keep thinking about what i missed in life. My readers know that I come from a very humble background and have made huge strides with my passion and dedication.

I lost my father to a train accident at the age of four. At the tender age, I didn’t have any idea about his nature, attitude, habits and character. I didn’t even know about the traits of my father when I lost him. With time, I learnt about his exceptional qualities and personality traits from my elder brother, mother and my neighbours in the village. And i am astonished to find them in me.

As today marks the death anniversary of my father, I often share how I carried his philanthropic gene and worked on his footsteps even without knowing him very well. Back in my village, the villagers remembered how my father would help everyone in the village, sponsor education of the needy, marriage of daughters and bring goodies for the children despite being a petty worker in a big organization.

He would never think twice about spending on others, even if he didn’t have money for his family. At times, he would take hand loans to help people in need. It is the exact same protocol that I follow in my daily life. I never think twice before helping someone who needs it just to see a smile in the face of downtrodden.

Maa would tell me that he had lost all his money, was in debt trap and turned to spiritual recourse to come out of it. I have also unconsciously become very spiritual and that is attributed to my father. One interesting fact that I have heard about my father from other villagers is that my father had saved and collected money from people to build a water reservoir in the Paika river, a tributary of Mahanadi passing through our village. Water availability was scarce in those days so he was working hard to save bit by bit along with the villagers who worked in Jamshedpur just to help the villagers get water available for all days in the year.

My father could have bought himself luxury, or kept the money for himself and for us, but he didn’t. Instead of making our lives more comfortable or reducing our own miseries he was thinking about the village’s development and the wellbeing of the people. Frankly, my father had unknowingly discovered the art of giving principles and practised those in real life. I thank God for blessing me with such values because of which I selflessly devote myself to social service. My father did all he could, but he could not be very successful and succumbed to an accident.

All I have inherited in this life from my father was his values. In this process of social service I have gone to extent of bankruptcy and helplessness, taking loan yet I have never stopped my work. I have gotten these qualities from my father and I would preserve it for ever.

To sum up, the gene factor runs very strong. It ends up coming to the offsprings in someway or other. It is not even related to physical presence and affinity. In my case too i took up fathers kindness gene without knowledge. Another important lesson is that one doesn’t have to be wealthy to be kind, one just needs to have a heart to give.