Poet Mareez is searching for a person with a truly noble heart; a person who helps one readily but does not make one feel helpless. I do not know about Mareez whether he found one, but I found such a friend in Narayan Varma. He was always ready and willing to help. He helped without making one feel helpless.
I have known him for 65 years. My very first memory of Narayan goes back to the year 1950. In our Sydenham College, on the landing between the ground floor and the first floor, I saw a poster in bold colourful letters. It said “Vote for Narayan Varma”. That was my first “acquaintance” with him. Even in those days he was a leader and a public figure! I did not know him well as he was a couple of years senior and we rarely had an occasion to meet.
Years rolled by. Both of us did our C.A. from different firms. It was BCA Society which brought us closer, particularly the Residential Refresher Courses of Bombay Chartered Accountants’ Society where we all studied together and also enjoyed the warmth of true companionship. We shared truly happy times together. Narayan was very active participant and was always congenial and helpful.
Thinking of Narayan a quotation comes to my mind:
“Many people will walk in and out of your life. But only true friends will leave footprints on your heart.”
How very true! Only a few friends leave their footprints on one’s heart. Narayan was one such person, who left his footprints on the hearts of so many of us. He also left footprints on the sands of time. I am reminded of the lines from “A psalm of Life” by Poet Longfellow:
“Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time”
Narayan was like an elder brother to me, and I benefitted from his words of advice. In early 1970’s, the tax laws in our country were becoming from bad to worse, the tax rates were back breaking. We have so many taxes to deal with; income tax, wealth tax, gift tax, estate duty etc and the combined burden of all these taxes was killing. People thought of migrating. Some even migrated. Though more tax meant more work to us as professionals the atmosphere was becoming stiffing. Imagine a marginal tax rate of 97.75%, with the burden of wealth tax on top. Though I was not in such a tax bracket, it was indeed very depressing. I too started thinking of settling abroad. In desperation I talked with Narayan. I asked, “With a German wife, you can easily migrate, why are you still here?” His spontaneous reply was “Pradeep, somebody’s child may be more beautiful than my child. But still I will love my child more. India is my country; my motherland.” This put an end to my negative thinking. I am indebted to him for this valuable and timely advice.
After the tragic passing away of our daughter Amita in 1987 in the prime of her life (she was just 26 year at that time) we were lost. We wanted to do something in her memory, but did not know what to do. Narayan came up with the suggestion asking us to do something for leadership training of CAs and articles student. We accepted the suggestion. That was the starting point of leadership training courses at our Bombay Chartered Accountants’ Society. We today have Study Circle Meetings, Public Speaking Courses, Workshops on Management Books like and Annual Leadership Camps. All these came about because of the vision of Narayan Varma.
Varma passed away on 25th December 2015 after a long illness. His ailments did not deter him from action. Just a few months before he left us he received an email when in Breach Candy Hospital about someone in Ludhiana providing meals to poor people charging only Re.1/-. This galvanized him into action. From the hospital bed in ICU, he called up our co-workers of Dharm Bharathi Mission, asking them to do something on similar lines! This has resulted in a scheme to provide nutritious rich food packets to children suffering from cancer and undergoing treatment at Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital. This scheme was largely financed by Narayan. Narayan was a true Karma Yogi and toiled till the very end. Inspite of failing health, he came personally to Ghadge Maharaj Sanatorium when the first distribution of food packets was made to the children. Narayan was a person with indomitable spirit. He lived a noble life and is an inspiration to us. We cherish his memory and Endeavour to fulfill his dreams.
