Ranga Rao

Ranga: I first met Ranga Rao in 1994 while working for Counterpoint, a small and non-descript advertising shop. I was too raw even while pushing 24 but that it did not come in the way of recognizing merit. Ranga was the accountant there and inside of a fortnight, I said,” Sir, if I die with half your values and skills, I would have indeed lived a fruitful life”. Ranga cast such an influence on me.  

Ranga must 5’ 5”, a wheat complexion or even fairer, grizzled hair neatly combed with a sprinkle of coconut oil, the forehead had the tiniest black dot for a religious mark, a long nose, and rather large spectacles in front of a glistening pair of eyes with a tinge of green. The eyes can look stern and intimidating at times and narrow jaws. And when he spoke it was a Rolls Royce mouth: so smooth, so polished, so firm, and always so right. I have known him for 15 years and he has not aged in inch.

I used to wonder as to what this 45 year old man did in his pothole of an office. He explained as our acquaintance got some steam,” I was with the State Bank of India for over a decade and was one of the regional managers there”. He quit that stable job because he did not like the corruption and the political influence!!!! So idealistic,” How can I ever explain to my daughters when grown up and they question me on my living?” Ranga had a degree of idealism that can annoy others or baffle others to incomprehension. If one finds SBI is corrupt then there are no places to work in India!!!

I have not seen another human being who had such passions for his hobbies. He is the first and last word on P G Wodehouse, Martin Luther King, James Thurber, Mark Twain, Hemingway and many more. He has read all their works and even their unpublished ones and knows just about every titbit on them. His ear for music is extraordinary; he loves Western Classical music and he can rattle 5 different version of a Beethoven Symphony 9 or Mozart compositions. I sometimes wonder as to what he does in Madras when he can relish the Venice air. Whether you talk of Renaissance artists or British revolutions or any major events in History, Ranga can serve as an encyclopedia. He is fond of those BBC documentaries – he adores Darwin, Newton, Galileo, Michael Angelo – that he said one day,” That DVD costs Rs.5,000. I shall work for a fortnight and order it from London”. 
I can never repay my gratitude to him for his influence on me. Even my talking style is a deliberate effort to follow Ranga’s where the words are “curved” and there “zero abruptness”.

Ranga speaks almost in monosyllabic but when a thought captures him it is a treat to watch him extol. Most times I would rush to pen them down in a notebook for there was so much subtlety. He can talk extempore for an hour on Sydney Poitier or Martin Luther King of Nelson Mandela, I would search for those on Google a day later.  Ranga had a mind that soared far above his immediate surroundings; his was a fertile garden of knowledge and wisdom. Once he told me, "I sometimes play Bethoven fifth Symphony in my mind for relaxation." 
          He is perfect in his thoughts and even at the mental level not allow a corrupt thought to enter his mind. He is very responsible family man to his wife and two daughters and even the aunts and uncles. His grandmother died in his household at 94 and he would often say,” She was not literate at all nor gave any long sermons. She taught others by a living a life of example in a quiet and unobtrusive way”. Often he says even after 15 years of her death: More than my faith in Shiva or Rama, I have faith in my grandmother. She is my 100% inspiration. 
               As a father, he never expected his daughters to get those 80% or 90% except that they understood what was taught. He would buy those small booklets on Science and biographies of stalwarts and hope to expand their minds beyond the text books.  

        He has high regards for Mahaperiyava: My grandmother would insist that I go to Sanskrit college each time the Acharya was in the city and do a “dandam” (prostration in Telugu). Ranga mentions this often: The Kanchi sage once glared at me, I was a seven year old then and it felt he was looking right into my soul and knew all about my past births. I felt he would have known what I had taken for breakfast. He sports a tiniest of black dot at the forehead saying: I am a Hindu and this is a remembrance to my father who raised me in this culture and land. 

Ranga married his maternal uncle’s daughter, the famous Bapu, who produced and directed over 50 films. We have known each other for over 15 years and not once did I mention this.  He had a free ticket for me to watch “Rama Rajyam” and only then this relation was unobtrusively thrown in. Ranga does not live on anyone’s glory; he is more a saint.

Ranga is the sole person I invite him home for a drink. Both of us prefer whiskey – usually I get the stuff from Tasmac and the sodas while Ranga gets the side dishes. These are occasions when he talks freely on music, books, and movies. He says: the thumb rule of drinking is not to talk on personal things. It is only after concluding a drink with a gold flake, I speed rush to tell him the happenings of my life.

If there is one person I will call in trouble, it will be Ranga. To see him come in his bike and carry the helmet, and a bag strung across the chest, a cellphone encased on his jeans buckles is an image I cherish. Ranga is so perfect that one common friend said,” He is like a Zen master and I don’t know why he is in our midst. Maybe, to teach people like us!” Ranga too is like his grandmother, “Live life so truthfully that others may absorb some lessons without any high pitched sermons or display of subtle philosophy”. Ranga is 24 carat gold, no question

Verdict: Sattwic

Lesson to be learnt: The kind of brutal honesty and never over the top. Live quietly and pamper your hobbies to no end. 

Ranga posts: In Conversations with Zarathustra,  
                          Advice on curbing a big mouth, 
                          Ranga's sessions
                       Ranga's appreciation for mothers