My father used to have a secretary, who had a large family.
My father, realising that the gentleman would need financial support to see his large brood of children through school and perhaps through college too, ensured that he set aside a portion of his salary every month, to make it available for his secretary if and when he might need it.
My mother and I were completely unaware of my father’s magnanimity, as he never told us, nor did his secretary. However, whenever we asked my father to take us on a holiday which involved an expense, he would decline saying he could not afford it.
Some years later, my father’s secretary superannuated and retired with his family to his village. My father too passed on in a short while.
His erstwhile secretary one day arrived in a posh chauffeur-driven car that bore a government insignia. He paid his condolence to my mother and proudly told us his son, now an up-and-coming bureaucrat, had lent him a car to visit us. He then told us that his son’s education and even his studies abroad had been funded by my father, and sadly, he felt, he had never once properly thanked my father.
I realised that day how important it is to thank one for the gift they give us immediately on receipt of the gesture, and not wait till we think it is opportune, for we may never get the chance to say so. My father had denied my mother and I holidays for he said he could not afford it, yet he had spent much of his wealth on funding his secretary’s son’s education abroad.
The writer is an organisational and behavioural consultant. He can be contacted at ttsrinath@gmail.com
