NAMASKAAR

‘Namaskaar’ means a formal expression of
greeting when we meet someone. It is the beginning of a conversation. A speaker
on the dais starts his speech by saying ‘Namaskaar’. An anchor or a newsreader
says ‘Namaskaar’ and then begins his programme. This happens almost
mechanically in Indian culture. However, the dictionary meaning of the word is ‘bowing
down before somebody with reverence or respect’. It is a ‘pranaam’. That is
why we offer ‘Namaskaar’ to God, to our parents and to the elderly, or to some
great or noble person. In today’s world, finding such great or noble persons is
very difficult. Such persons need not be great heroes who perform some
super-human feats. If we look around us with open eyes, we do come across
people who are highly principled, dedicated to some constructive task, working
untiringly and relentlessly for some positive purpose, and hence respectable.

The reason for
discussing this concept of ‘Namaskaar’ is that we at BCAS are fortunate
to have had such great leaders who dedicated their lives to the noble cause of
spreading knowledge among CA professionals through the activities of the BCAS.
They brought glory to this institution.

One such person was Mr. K.C. Narang who
departed for his heavenly abode only a few weeks ago. I remember him especially
since he was looking after the quality of the BCAS Journal in general
and the feature ‘Namaskaar’ in particular, till he breathed his last.

Just to
recapitulate its history, the late Narayanbhai Varma conceptualised this
feature, the late Pradeepbhai Shah nurtured it by his regular contributions and
the late Narang Saheb looked after it passionately. Two features were very
close to his heart, ‘Is it fair?” and ‘Namaskaar’, and I had the good fortune
of working in close association with him on both these features for a number of
years. Even after crossing the age of 85 there was not even the slightest
reduction in his sincerity and discipline. He used to be simply pushing
everyone to write some quality material. He himself wrote quite a few articles
for this feature. Another amazing quality of Narang Saheb was the promptness of
his response, despite his age and ill-health. This quality was common in all
three leaders. True professionalism!

Actually, he retired from active practice
quite some time ago. But at every journal committee meeting he used to furnish
his written comments on the contents of that month’s issue of the Journal.

The passing away of Narang Saheb is indeed a
great loss to the organisation and the journal, and particularly to this
thought-provoking feature, ‘Namaskaar’.

On this
occasion, let us offer our Namaskaars (in the true sense of the term) to
all these three stalwarts. Taking forward features like ‘Is it fair?’ and ‘Namaskaar’
would indeed be an apt shraddhaanjali (tribute) to Narang Saheb.