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Swaraj Panda

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My Grandfather

This essay will disclose the life and hardship, a 65 year old man has to go through to

achieve and enjoy his golden years during the 21st

century. This essay is about my maternal

grandfather who was fortunate enough to grow in a middle class family, during the

independence years. The one whom I interviewed is my moms dad. I chose him because he is

the one with whom I spent most of my childhood. Sadly, I never came to know my dads dad

very well, because he died when I was 2 years old. My maternal grandparents were the people

whom I knew in this world except my parents. My love towards them increased as I grew up.

Sometimes, I used to prefer staying with them rather than my parents. But during these times

my grandfather explained me that I have to grow up and make him proud. My grandfathers

name is Mr. Purna Chandra Pal. His name means Full moon. He was born on July 15th

, 1946.

He will be celebrating his 66th

birthday this July. He was born and raised in the small village of

Talcher, British India. He was an Indian Administrative Officer. After years of working at many

places, he retired and expressed his desire to return to his birthplace.

My grandfather was born to a rich, patriotic family. I was amazed when my grandfather

said that he was born in British India. As I interviewed, I came to know that he is the only living

link to us from the British ruled India. His family played an active role in the Independence

movement. His grandfather was a land owner and had left enough wealth for his future

generations. His dad was a farmer, as well as a freedom fighter who fought for the

independence of India. His mom was a housewife. He reminded me that women were not

treated the same as men, during those years. His mom was the one who cooked meals and

took care of the family. He hardly remembers his dad, who was busy in the freedom

movement. His dad was hanged due to his increasing revolt against the British Government. In

present Talcher, India, there is a university named after my grandfathers dad. As his dad was

away for most of the time, it was his mom who made the family decisions for the whole family.

He said, it was a man who would generally make decisions for the family but it was his mom,

first among the women during those days, to head a family.

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Swaraj Panda

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My grandfather was the third eldest member of the family, after his mom and elder

brother. It was his responsibility to earn living for the family. But, according to him, he was

fortunate enough to have money and spend an easy life, which was not common during those

days. He devoted most of his time towards education. He graduated high school and then

college. He passed the civil services exam which was considered to be one of the hardest exams

in the Asian continent. He witnessed the inventions of wonders which revolutionized

everyones life. He saw the man land on moon and also expects to see them land on Mars. He

saw the developing telecommunications industry. He has witnessed all the magic that we are

enjoying now. According to him, all the technologies born during his youth influenced his life a

lot. Half of his time was saved when Passenger airplane industry was introduced in India. He

could talk to anyone from anywhere with a cell phone. He was astounded as he saw the

computer for the first time. Computer helped him complete most of his work in few minutes.

From his childhood to now, he saw various types of discriminations prevalent in India.

He said discrimination was born with India. India is a multicultural country with people from

different countries, religion, color, caste, language, beliefs etc. He was four years when he saw

the Hindus clash with Muslims who used to live as brothers. This terrible clash left an

unforgivable curse on everyone. This clash led to the formation of Pakistan which used to be a

state of India. There was discrimination among Hindus too. People were divided into different

castes. On the top were the king and scholars and on the bottom were the untouchables. He

remembers the way untouchables were treated in his community. The untouchables were not

given higher rated jobs. But as the days went on, more people studied and felt the harm this

social evil has caused. Now, no one cares about the caste system. Now an untouchable can

marry anyone from the Kings caste. My grandfather felt the security in this social part because

he was born to a scholar family.

Through this interview, I gained the vast wealth of knowledge; my grandfather had. I

came to know about many things more closely which I used to read in my History class. He

might not know about modern things but he has a lot of experience that will help me in future.

At the end of this interview, he said me, Our generation gave you the life you wanted, now

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Swaraj Panda

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preserve it for your future generations because I dont think you are going to see the science

fiction movies coming true. This era is the true science fiction. He is the man of the 20th

and

21st

century. He is the man of science.