A little Tribute…
Good afternoon SMASH crew,
Sam here wanting to pay a little tribute to my Grandad who passed away last week.
Chandrakant Madhavji Tank, born in Gujarat in India, moved over to Mombassa in Kenya as many Gujaratis did many years ago and it was here where my dad and my Uncle Yogi were born as well as many of their cousins who I got to spent time with at the funeral this week. Some of the stories I learnt about these times were fascinating - apparently my Grandad and his siblings were all taught to swim by being thrown off a boat tied to a piece of rope... if they started to sink, the adults would pull them out of the water. The technique meant that it took them 3 days to learn to swim!
One of my dads cousins told us that he and my uncle were "switched" for a little while when they were kids, so that my Grandad took care of his nephew for a while and my uncle had time with his uncle! It was a time where everyone had many "brothers" and "sisters" rather than cousins. At some point, my Grandad moved to the UK and met someone who got him a job working in a school for children with learning difficulties which is where he met my German Grandmother. It's only recently that I realised how uncommon a paring this would have been at the time, and I was told that when they married, the priest actually asked Nanny "are you sure you want to do this?"!
Fortunately she did go through with it and my Uncle Richard and Aunty Aruna were born! My dad and Uncle Yogi came over to the UK and apparently, my Grandad being the "pillar of the family" meant that a lot of the Indian side of the family felt confident enough to come and also settle in the UK.
There were so many lovely memories exchanged on Monday, and as my Brother said in his speech, we have only known him for about a third of his life, and what a life he has had! Below is my contribution to the tributes on the day. Thank you for indulging me in my trip down memory lane!
Our Grandad was one of the most interesting, generous, contented and kind people I've met to this day! My memories of time with him mostly revolve around family gatherings where he was at his happiest.
As kids, me and my brother would visit and immediately be summoned to Grandad for him to read our palms - he never told us what he found but would always seem satisfied that we were going to grow up happy and healthy!
In many of my childhood memories visiting Edgeware us kids would play and read the many children's books that Nanny and Granddad kept hold of while they watched on smiling!
It's only as I've gotten older that I realised just how privileged we were to grow up within such a diverse family. It amazes me now the life journey Grandad must have had. Having a multi cultured and multi religion family was never anything out of the ordinary for me and it was never a subject that needed to be addressed.
I do wonder if it subconsciously taught us to grow up respectful of all people no matter their background or beliefs.
I briefly lived with Grandad a few years ago before I went travelling for a year and I could have listened to his stories for hours! I went on a bit of a pilgrimage to India to visit his birth town of Mandvi and the ancestral town of Tank, as well as stopping in to spend a couple of weeks in Pune with great Aunty Savatri!
Years ago after our Nanny passed away, Grandad told me that he was in a place where he was happy to have seen his children turn to adults, happy to see his Grandchildren growing up and basically said that he would be content with his life if god chose to take him away! Fortunately for us, the universe kept him with us for a while longer and he even got to meet his Great Grandchild this year!
With the pandemic we haven't been able to see as much of him as we would have liked, though I'm glad I got to spend the evening watching this years Eurovision with him, my Aunty Aruna and Uncle Mike! He had already watched the semi finals so seemed to have his favourites before the main show!
I know that wherever he is now, he was happy with what he had achieved in his 94 years, and I certainly intend to keep making him proud by being the best person I can be. We love you Grandad x
I know I am so lucky to have had such a loving Grandad and for him to have reached such an age! Although it is always sad to lose a family member, there has been so much joy in his memory this week.
Sending gratitude to you all today.
Sam and Ash
(She/Her and He/Him)