Farewell, dear Uncle John

RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE

It was during my two-year stay at St John’s Church campus five decades ago that I came to know a few exemplary human beings who could truly call themselves Christian.

Among them looms large the figure of “Uncle John” as he was referred to by both young and old despite the fact that the old was close to his age, or maybe even older! It was a term of endearment that packed in a lot to those who have acquainted him and the many facets of his benign personality.

His name was synonymous with SU, or Scripture Union, the incept and growth of which he was primarily responsible. And his name will be inextricably linked with SU in years to come. As some of his students would recall, “Uncle John, was a disciplinarian, but never imposed his ideas on us, but such was his charisma that when we faced a dichotomy in our lives, we would try to solve it, based on what “Uncle John” would have had to say.” He kept in touch with many of those whose lives he had shaped, through calls and correspondence.

He was extremely fond of children. During my days at St John's, when I was tending to my partly-paralysed mother, he would spare more than a moment or two teaching my little boy of two-plus then, how to kick at a football without faltering or falling. And to our surprise, after a few lessons, the child had learnt to use his foot deftly to return the ball that came towards him. He grew up to regard football as his favourite game, in which he excelled as well.

Years later, I had the good fortune of having "Uncle John" over at our plantation bungalow in the Nilgiris. He not only feasted his eyes on the fascinating charm of myriad roses in our garden but imparted a wealth of information regarding the flora and fauna of the Nilgiris, which he had been all too familiar with.

A little more than a decade ago, on what presumably must have been his last visit to the Scripture Union campus at Mahabalipuram, Chennai, we responded to his invitation and visited him on what I recalled was his birthdate. It was a chance for us to do just a little something more for him, we thought, but he promptly handed over to the SU the cake and the “little something more”. Such was the man who gave of himself en toto to his calling.

To end my tribute, I quote from Helen Keller:

“With every friend I love who has been taken into the brown bosom of the earth, a part of me has been buried there: but their contribution of happiness, strength, and understanding to my being remains to sustain me in an altered world.