MEMOIR
SETTING the soul free
Shri Uppuluri Krishna Murty ( IRTS ) Chief Vigilance Officer
I lost my father on December 26 , 2017 , soon after he was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer during the first week of September , 2017 . There was an extensive metastasis of the skeletal structure and several other critical organs , including the adrenal glands . The prognosis was poor and hence , the cancer was detected very late . At the very outset , it was evident that there was very limited scope for a curative approach to succeed . All we could do was help him with the management of his pain .
Losing his mother at age three and his father at eight , my father grew up the hard way . Despite the perils , he raised and educated me with the best conveniences . After a valiant fight with cancer that lasted over 14 long weeks ; he took his last breath at home surrounded by family members .
We performed all the rituals as per our tradition . Some may question the validity of rituals , which seem to have become obsolete , and merely exist to ensure employment to priests in these modern ‘ electronically well connected ’ times . But sociologists say that these rituals are the most economical way of reducing the fragility of social life . Rituals that are relayed from one generation to the other , are a collective memory of many from time immemorial . These rituals still seem to play a vital and reassuring role of effectively cementing the family members together . They , in a way , prevent families from breaking apart in the face of crisis . Rituals offer us thin strands of hope to cling on to during difficult times . They help us from breaking down , when a dear one leaves us on a journey to the unknown realms .
After observing the mandatory 10th day rituals , early in the day on January 04 , 2018 , at the Aparakriya Centre , Chembur , I returned home at about 08:30 AM . After the prescribed ablutions , I reached the balcony to hang the clothes for sun-drying . As I was hanging the clothes , I noticed that a group of 30 to 40 eagles were frantically flying in close circles around the top of an aged tropical Palm Tree ( Toddy Tree or Tati Chettu in Telugu ). While looking at those eagles , I spotted one entangled in the leaves of the Palm Tree . As the eagle made attemps to free itself , it got further coiled in knots and got precariously closer to death due to constriction .
This particular Palm Tree is a fully grown tall tree ; about 16 metres tall . The bird was stuck almost at the very top . It would appear tantalizingly for a few seconds and immediately disappear in to the foliage after a few gyrations . Without losing a minute , I rushed to grab my powerful 8X42 Monarch Nikon Binocular for a clearer picture . My aim was to devise a workable strategy to set the eagle free at the earliest .
Looking at the situation , I suspected that the eagle must have been caught in the thread of an abandoned kite ( patang ). My binoculars helped me
8 ISSUE 1 2018