On R.N Vaidya
My father’s father passed away at 80. He’s of that generation that built the world we live in, but is all-too-rarely, if ever, written about on the internet. Hence this.
Ram Narayan Vaidya. 1929-2010.
This is a quick overview of his story. It’s inspiring, particularly in these uncertain times.
His father died when he was young, leaving him in charge of two little brothers and a mother. He knew his task was existential, which built up an unwavering discipline that lasted his entire life, through college and law school. He instilled it in others. As a result, him and his brothers and his sons were ‘toppers’ – the number one students in their classes and all-important exams; two of his three sons graduated from the hardest technology school in the world (IIT), one joined the elite civil service, and one went on to the equally rigorous IIM. My grandfather also read voraciously and went on to write several books on everything from mathematics to religion, in two languages. (They’re now stocked at most major public college libraries throughout the world.)
The success of those around him was always important. While he was away at school, his little brother dropped out to work in the inhumane conditions of a beedi factory. My grandfather got wind, transferred schools, and took on a job of his own to support the family while his brother returned to school. As a result, he was unable to afford tuition, but a teacher, believing in his potential, actually asked for the funds to be garnished from his own wages. In India. In the 1940’s.
Without him, my family would still be, without doubt, subsistence farmers in rural central India. Instead, we’ve had the good fortune of raising two generations of doctors, scientists, military officers, government officials, technologists, entrepreneurs, and teachers. It’s why a LOT of people, many unrelated, called him “Daddy.”
Despite the role that poverty played in his life, Daddy never chased the all mighty rupee. In fact, after law school, he turned down a highly rewarding job offer from the then-infant Indian Oil Company (as general counsel) in order to serve as an officer in the Indian Administrative Service.
He was a key part of that generation of civil service officers who built governance platforms, provided services, addressed conflict, and essentially ran mini-states. He was a brevet two-star general while the country faced its most pressing security challenges. All while maintaining a firm stance against corruption, for a 30 year career. (A rare feat in any part of the world, particularly that.)
Once, when the bureaucracy was too cumbersome, he tried to retire early. Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister, personally requested he stay. And, out of a sense of civic duty, he did. Later, at the pinnacle of his career (he served as a Collector, Commissioner, and Joint Secretary as well as Chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission, among other positions) he turned down a position as a director of the Reserve Bank of India where, in his words “our lives would have been set,” to work on local-level youth affairs.
It stems from the simple fact that he knew his success was a result of goodwill, so he always went out of his way to help anyone that he could, at his own expense. He treated his nuclear family, his home, and his position as a platform. His brothers, their children, my grandmother’s family, my mother’s family, were all tutored, mentored, cared for, sometimes clothed and fed, and married off by him. He cared for the entire family as his own, and then some.
Even in his passing, he continued to do “the most for the mostest,” by donating his body for medical research so that progress could be made on Addison’s Disease, something he suffered from for most of his life.
Thanks for reading.
S
-Shlok
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