My parents –wish to have same parents for next nine lives too. Why not 12 next lives? Asked my sister –well it seems cats have 9 lives and I don’t know about human beings so 9 lives is what I wrote. Every child would have great love ,respect and total dedication for parents and I would like to write pages after pages but even then would not do justice to them so shall control myself by writing about 24 lessons of life I adopted from their lives. Simple living and high thinking was their life motto – what they imbibed from their parents –have seen my parents helping by educating a lot of people every day from my very young age till I grew up to a teenager. We saw 6 to 12 students coming to our house to learn English, Maths and so much more –all given free with love . Villagers from Mallrur, kolar would state in our house to get education –was like free lodging boarding for then until they would become educated and self-sufficient and efficient. Some times when these villagers came back after visiting their village would bring the farm produce with love and that was received with love. So vidya dana was best dana that I saw being bestowed as a service. Never telling lies –was inculcated into our lives as we learnt stories of ancient mythology and my parents practiced what they preached. Both my parents were related and they belonged to a unique family and naturally adopted all these. My fathers farm was a source of learning in many ways to all of us three kids ---annadana –was a special ritual practiced there and mother would cook for a lot of people which would be distributed to many many people who came to our fields and worked for us and also for who did nothing for us .So annadana was a ritual done in many times a year. Poor and not so poor people were fed sumptuous food with no expectations in return and when we grew up we kids were asked to continue in what ever way possible. Trillion thanks to my parents for teaching us by example. Kanyadana –directly or indirectly parents helped in wedding ceremonies and it never got any publicity but we would come to know from the beneficiaries later on. My parents helped without disclosing the good deeds as it was their firm belief that –helping other people would help their children any time if they were in need. Donations to religious places and social service was an important part of their lives. My father most of the time go out of his way to arrange cataract eye camps where Dr.M,C.Modi would come to operate to bestow vision to people. So my father with like minded people would arrange these camps and do the best service of restoring vision. The other big social service was working for the Sri. Sri Niranjanad kuteera arranging spiritual discourses and doing yeomen service to Mandya by arranging musical concerts. My father started first photo studio at Mandya and those were the days when films were to be purchased to make photos. He was felicitated by Sri.Sri Balagangadhar Swamiji for his outstanding social service. Here we saw how people meant a lot for whom all the above was done with total dedication. Were my parents highly educated ?–college education with degrees ?–it is a big no but thanks to them the three children, grandchildren and close relatives have three to four degrees to be proud of. After few years my father did his masters in history in open university . My mothers marks card of her SSLC showed she scored highest in mathematics and both of them wanted to become doctors. Yes due to several reasons they could not achieve their dreams but they never showed any rancour about it. Had never seen them getting angry and saying harsh words and their good nature was infectious spread to all people working under them. Every year Dasshera parents gave dresses and gifts to all workers and we had a grand temple puja at sri.Lakshmi Janardhana temple and every Friday my father visited sri.Kalikambha temple. Every fifteen days on ekadasi day –we had sri.Sathyanarayana swami vrtha celebrated with fervour. All these created religious nature among all children. My mother was highly talented not only in cooking for the whole family but also had been creating beautiful fashionable dresses for all of us for all special occasions , weddings and birthdays. She would gift many people what was created by her. She had a flair for writing ,reading and she excelled in knitting and crochet. My mother was strong mentally and she helped with all family maters. She being the first born in the family was very responsible and logical and all the way she managed issues at home was a lesson to all of us. Mother was not very healthy as she had developed asthma but this never stopped her from being helpful and concerned about whole family. Many times, I wondered how a person who suffered from asthma whole night could without fail wake up very early and cook breakfast for all and take care of all our needs. It was as she considered needs of all others more important than herself. Putting herself last and taking care of all was the first and best lesson I learnt from her. My mother considered education and being healthy most essential and saw that we all got best schools and did our best in studies and took best care of our health. No fried or preserved food was given to us to maintain our health but good milk, ghee, sweets, fruits, vegetables was always provided in plenty. My amma was a spiritual lady which probably was inculcated right from childhood and she read and chanted Geeta daily without fail and also adopted giving and forgiving as a ritual. In fact we kids learnt most lessons by seeing their way of living. My parents loved the whole family and tried to do the best for each one of them. Grandparents were very happy and tender love and care bestowed on them was a lesson seen and learnt. Love for gardening at our home garden or in farmland was again unforgettable lessons we tried to learn and adopt. Love for family is usual affection but love for the poor and needy and acceptance of all was what cannot be preached but practised to be passed over to younger generation .So we were very fortunate to have a big family of blood relations and bigger circle of friends who were from all religions and all walks of life. Today I recall Gaffor ,a staunch Muslim gentle who had a horse carriage ,responsible to carry us from our home to grandparents home –be it religious Sri Satyanrayana puja day or any ones birthday. He was paid to carry us safely to and from any place in Mandya but he was treated like family.He was also given Sri sathyanarayana puja prasad ,which he received with great reverence . Das ,a devout kerala Christain who had a taxi MYN 10 which was always taking us to various piligrim places or any near by journey. So childhood travel with family was a pleasurable memory. Nazir ,who had a shoe shop in Bazzar street was my father’s one more friend from whom we went to buy shoes, footwear for school and daily wear. He was also a family friend. My father went to chnnai to buy photo films and photo papers and he was a dedicated professional and equally dedicated family person. An American by name Penny would come to get photo in our studio and she was invited home and we all had a exposure to hospitality –Athithi devobhava. One more Christian family who visited us was sri.Prasannakumar ,a LIC officer who was given cakes and sweet dishes not only during Christmas and Newyear but on special Hindu festivals too. Sarvadharma Samanvaya was passed down to us from great parents to parents and now to us. My father had the first photo studio had friends who came every evening to visit and one was sri.Aradhya ,a person who was friend philosopher and guide –a mutual friendship which lasted for several years. An unforgettable influence of my parents was Swamiji Sri Sri Niranjannada Saraswathiat –a disciple of sri.sri shivannada Saraswathi.If you are pleased with the life you lead –He puts you in contact with a saint it seems and my parents staunch devotes of this very special Swamiji had a life long influence on all of us. He was a masters in medicines, art, sciences and music. Swamiji never spoke but sang devotional songs in a melodious voice, he treated sick people ,he was a master painter, photographer, could create magical sounds instruments and one needs to come under this great influence to know an iota of his greatness. My parents never went after materialistic wealth but had wealth in terms of friends , relatives and influence they created on several hundred individuals. Belief in karma philosophy made them take life in such a spiritual manner and were never unhappy, depressed nor anxious and it always made me wonder how spirituality was a part of their life. Life was not very kind to them at all phases but they faced challenges, loses. adversaries and took it all as part of life. Lessons learnt are several to last a life time and it is not easy to write all these but shall write again to pass on the experiences.