Sincere smile in itself is heart-transforming. When people serve food with hearty smile, there are only few other things that can match it in its strength, intensity, and power to transform.
Lakshman is one of them. He works in A-Mess at Indian Institute of Science. His smile is not a customary smile you get to see in some restaurants. He really smiles. If you are not in a hurry, you can feel that his smile is not on his face. It is from his heart.
When he serves from the buffet place, I am sure everyone eats more happily. If you tell him, "enough". He says, "Crispy Dosa, Sir. Take two more." You cannot refuse. You take at least one.
When your turn comes, you see only two idlies on the plate. Two cold idlies. You have to tell some people to bring the new batch of hot idlies. But with Lakshman, even if you are about to take those two idlies because you have to keep up your appointment with someone, he does not allow you to take those. He rather tells, "Just a minute, Sir. Hot idlies are coming." He goes inside to serve us with hot idlies.
Thanks Lakshman for those smiling servings. Lakshman is no more. Mogadalai's tribute is here. He died in a van accident. His wife and daughter died too.
Why did not I write about his smile-and-serve when he was alive? Why did the loss of that initiate this blog-post? Is it because we will know the value of some only when we lose them?
Death is a powerful heart-transformer just like the smile of Lakshman.
Lakshman is one of them. He works in A-Mess at Indian Institute of Science. His smile is not a customary smile you get to see in some restaurants. He really smiles. If you are not in a hurry, you can feel that his smile is not on his face. It is from his heart.
When he serves from the buffet place, I am sure everyone eats more happily. If you tell him, "enough". He says, "Crispy Dosa, Sir. Take two more." You cannot refuse. You take at least one.
When your turn comes, you see only two idlies on the plate. Two cold idlies. You have to tell some people to bring the new batch of hot idlies. But with Lakshman, even if you are about to take those two idlies because you have to keep up your appointment with someone, he does not allow you to take those. He rather tells, "Just a minute, Sir. Hot idlies are coming." He goes inside to serve us with hot idlies.
Thanks Lakshman for those smiling servings. Lakshman is no more. Mogadalai's tribute is here. He died in a van accident. His wife and daughter died too.
Why did not I write about his smile-and-serve when he was alive? Why did the loss of that initiate this blog-post? Is it because we will know the value of some only when we lose them?
Death is a powerful heart-transformer just like the smile of Lakshman.
___________________________
4 comments:
Hi,
I also studied in IISc and I think I remember him as I too used to eat in A-mess.
I was very irregular in eating (only used to eat breakfast and late dinner). He used to enquire about me. Also, when I used to come for the lunch on sundays, he used to serve me extra masala-dosa and encourage to take extra ice-cream.
Can you please post a picture of him?
amar
Hi Amar,
Thanks for the comments. I will try to get a picture of him and post.
Hi,
I was the Mess President and due to that I knew all the people in the Messes. I came to know about this from Aditi just now. It is so sad that persons like Lakshman are taken away from us so early but all the white collar corrupt fellows being still there.
I remember him as a very gentle and a humane person. He used to smile always even when the pressures during the peak hours used to be a killer. Usually, almost all students would go to A Mess around 1PM or 8.30PM even then Lakshman and his fellow workers used to help.
I learnt a lot from those people in my life. I cherish whatever little company I had with him.
I am really really SAD.
-venkatesha prasad
Thanks Venkatesha Prasad for sharing your feelings.
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