Let me start with thanks to rediff for giving me a chance to tell you all, about my father. Many times I thought of expressing my feelings about my father to somebody, but I never got chance to do so.
We were living in a town named Arakkonam, 60 km away from Chennai. My father was a temple archagar and my mother was a house wife. We were not a well off family. My father was doing temple pooja, for which he was given Rs. 300/- per month as salary in a temple and Rs. 250/- in another two temples, apart from what the devotees gives. We were living in a house for which we paid Rs. 350/- as rent. My father used to do pooja for 'Grahapravesam' and 'marriages', this helped him in running the family with extra income and also with grocery items like rice, pulses, etc. Though this was meager, it helped a bit. Even our close relations also were in the same field and hence no body was in a position to help us financially. With this income my father had put me, my only younger brother and only younger sister in Matriculation school for which he had to pay monthly fees.
In the year 1993, for the first time my mother was bed ridden, that time I was studying in VIII Std., my brother was in VI Std. and my sister in the III Std. Her illness started in the form of Typhoid for which she was treated, but afterwards she started having multiple problems for which we had gone to a number of physicians which she was diagnosed with a Kidney problem. She even had