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Anna. 

Only in Karnataka and especially Mysore Tamilian's have the habit of calling their father Anna. 

There is no script for this language they read and write Kanada so also in Gujarat Father is referred to as Kaka or Kaku. meaning uncle here to they speak katchi which has no script they read and write Gujarathi only for the speaking dialect is used. , in bengali too they say dada for father.

So Anna he was for all of us I remember his friends had come home and /Father was in the last room upstairs and we children were busy playing in the courtyard downstairs near the fountain besides the children making noise the noise from the water fountain in the center of the house the sparrows chirping etc. the watchman comes and says chote saab ke dost ayehai baby papa ko bula lau so i scream anna your friends have come can you please come down. we had a very impressive visitors sitting room downstairs usually the watchman dare not enter it to come to the other door quiet close by leading to the stairways upstairs and the beautiful courtyard. but that day he did venture as probably all were busy with the Bhagvath sapta on that week. My fathers friends mistook me for his sister and referred to me as his sister he laughingly corrected them saying she is my third daughter. Anna looked very young for his age even after the four of us were born he could pass off as a handsome bachelor. He was very quick on his feet and meticulously clean and orderly stickler for keeping things in its place. my younger sister has this habit from him i suppose. his own books clothes were last attended to he would see that all our books were properly covered he did this himself would type out the labels giving full details of name class subject school all neatly piled so was our uniform neatly ironed and piled up ready for school the next day our shoes polished with the socks yes only he would fold the socks up so neatly we had to just slip into them and pull the end up no great issue even with closed eyes we could be sure it would be right and perfect (folded at the heel on the right side the wrong side coming up all the way and inserted into the shoes) On Fridays it used to be the sports white all well polished  set out in age order. that was the only discipline other of course was time to stop play and get to serious study. no matter what we had to be back home at that hour i think it was 6 pm. 

Anna's English was excellent. he loved pitman's short hand and tried to teach us short hand when wewere in college. i was so impressed that i enrolled in a typing institute to learn typing. yes i did go for the exam but was mesmerized with the music created by all the type writers in that huge big darbar hall of the womens college (where I studied later)that i gave in my paper after the time limit only quater finished. I did not care i was not secretary material more the boss type. My grand daughter says pati dont boss me when i sit with her for her online school these days.

Anna  even for that matter Tatha never drove the car he preferred his office chuffer driven car we had two drivers one Ambassador for Tatha to go to the mills and one morris minor for the children to be dropped off to school and other classes etc. I enrolled in all types of classes tailoring classes cook/baking classes typing classes driving classes Bhagvad gita classes dancing classes. I was the only one who worked before i got married and i went the gov way enrolling in employment exchange getting a job through them i preferred doing things on my own no recommendations. i did land up a job at the high court and got a preferred placement too people used to ask me how come i got into the specials department where people were selected only after experience and selections were made only after the persons were tested. we had to take a special oath that what we did was never reveled to any one outside of work. anna was proud that i had got that job. 

Anna was fond of listening to carnatic music which were broadcast on the radio late into the night on week ends. He never ever absented himself from work or other duties people loved him for that a very depended person its over nearly 35 years now we lost him. he did miss out on seeing how our life turned out to be he did of course play with all his grand children took them to parks to play etc. 

work was worship with him nothing could come in the way of his work. even before the English transliteration was available he had made all of us copies of all the stotras Vishnu Sahasranama and all the regularly recited ones on Fridays, on special paper and bound the book made it light. yes he took great pains to cut and bind rough sheets from the paper rolls we had from western  paper mills one uncle used to work there and he used to send us the paper rolls all revision and maths was practiced on those sheets good quality paper. 

another luxury was biscuits one uncle had biscuit retail shop he used to send us big 16 kg tins of  Parle biscuits assorted we would not have finished from the previous batch and a new set of boxes would arrive when ever the car happened to go to his shop on some other errand. playing with cousins and friends in that huge mansion of a house it was special nobody can forget those days. a special bond was created. i always had the best of everything in life and many envied me for that. to this day its been like that. i was the last to leave as i was the last to be married off my younger sister too got married before me. 

Anna enjoyed light music too. for on some saturdays when we used to have the weaving masters three sons come over and play light music and all the mill managers and their family members would assemble for dinner and he used to make small request slips of his favorite songs for them to play and get us to go and give it to them i realized how much he liked hindi songs.

Anna also helped in our business when he came visiting us he used to say i have four daughters i will stay three months in each of your houses he offered going to go to the bank to deposit the cheque which used to come by mail those days. that was the only visit to my house. for a month and a half i think. Mom visited me only thrice.

 to be continued.