(Updated) Pearls of Wisdom from my father's life!

( This is the updated post , thanks to what I learned from his friends/colleagues during his one year death anniversary)

As some of you might know, my father Divakarla Venkateswarlu passed away on 2nd August 2016 and he was 77. While his family and friends ( friends in 100s! ) mourn the deep loss and miss him, I wanted to compile the golden nuggets that he shared with us during his life.

The following is not an eulogy but only enumeration of  tenets he lived by.

1. 'less luggage , more comfort' - one of his favorite quotes. He applied this to many things - travel baggage, money, life!  The simpler the life is , the more comfortable it is.

2. I remember literally hundreds of nights when poor patients used to knock our door in the middle of the night . He would never get upset to get up and then treat them/provide medicines/injections ( free of cost ALWAYS!) while my mom used to be irritated by the midnight disturbances.

3. There's more to life than work!  He practiced this by learning medicine as hobby ( Allopathy/Homeopathy) and treated poor patients free of cost, used weekends to go to medical camps in villages with real doctors and met doctors in the weekends to learn/get guidance. If  30% of his life was work, 70% was spent in treating people, participate and contribute to more than 10 literary organisations !!

4. When we were kids, my brother and I used to go to his office once in a while. When we used to ask for nice paper there, he steadfastly refused us to take anything from his office. His place of work was sanctimonious for him and no question of 'Stealing' anything from there!

5. His insistence on healthy living. Forcing us to play everyday in the evening until we sweat ( thats the simple rule! ). No excess eating of anything. In the last few months of his life, he regretted being unable to see my tennis games!

6. Get happy with smallest pleasures of life!  He used to be thrilled if anyone gets him a good pen to write ( it need not be costly just write well). Given the simplicity of his life, he used to enjoy life's smallest gifts!  ( may be his secret to rock solid health until he was 72! )

7. He was completely against the Rat Race/pressure cooker lifestyles for his families. His favourite quote was ' Health is wealth. NOT VICE VERSA! '

8. Money was never important to him, never!  Everything that he enjoyed in life never came from money - service, literary pursuits!

9. Number of lives he touched! - When he got sick at 72, couple of hundred people came to the house to check his welfare!!!

10. He was human and was short tempered. But he never held anything. He said what he felt and there was no bottling up tensions inside/no talking behind someone's back/ no grudges. Any hot issue would be over in few minutes and then he would be back to normal with everyone. ( may be his secret to normal blood pressure! ).

11. He had a permanent smile on his face all the time. It used to bring people into pleasantness immediately and they felt connected immediately

12. Within his limited means, he was always exploring helping others. Be it medical advice/life style/connecting people with those who can help them... This is what has endeared him to a cross section of society,  not possible to a normal human.

13.  One of his qualities many remember even today, is he would always be the first to address someone without prompting. He would stop, call the person, check welfare and he would do this without fail to almost everyone who would cross his path. Some of them have said that he is perhaps the only one who would talk to them in the community area.

14. Long time ago, when my mother got ill briefly, he found the motivation to learn medicine as a hobby. Over time he learnt multiple disciplines of the same ( Allopathy, Homeopathy, Yoga etc) and used them to help people. He used to motivate aged doctors to go for medical camps to villages so that he can accompany them.

15. He had motivated colleagues to 'UPSKILL' ( the buzz word today) through certifications and learnings so that they can get hikes/promotions and stay relevant. He had created training materials, conducted training courses , above and beyond all his other facets of life.

16. At the age of 75, he wanted to drive a car. Many of us suggested against it given his faculties. He went ahead and bought a used car, learnt driving with the help of a driver,took the driving test, failed once, took the test again to clear it, got his license!!!


" You measure your life by those who measure theirs with yours"


Once again, the above is not an eulogy but simply a listing of the tenets he lived by which touched and helped many lives including ours.

May his soul find peace and be one with Him.

Thank you for reading this. Hope any of this above becomes useful in your lives.
Nand Kishore