he was a parent and a child.

nana was the ultimate wish-fulfiller through my childhood. encyclopaedias, bicycles, golden trinkets..it was just an ask away.
it would be jotted down on his pad right away and one could be sure it would turn up the next day.
nothing that made it to his pad remained undone.
he kept it close at all times and scribbled on it in a handwriting that only he and his trusty steno subbu could decipher.
he belted out a legendary 50 letters a day, 6 days a week for more than 30 years. a master of letters if there ever was one. also corporate dynamo, indulgent granfather.

and then one day i became a lawyer.
that singular event convinced this grand man that i was someone who's advise should be sought on important matters-business as well as family. the power structure had an unlikely new entrant. 'have you seen the papers?' replaced 'how're you beta?' as a greeting. he was dead serious in his questions. it was not to be taken lightly. he was depending on the answer.

the parent-child relationship had changed. i was all grown up now. advising, solving problems, drafting multiple wills.

that was phase 2 of our relationship. the final transition happened in the last year.
he was a man who's work had been taken away from him for too long.
i would be summoned at midnight to collect his wallet and chain for safe-keeping when he felt it wouldn't survive his company until the next morning.
sent to him by my tired mom to give him my solemn word that the salt in his meal was sodium-free.
stroke his head and explain why it would be fun to go to india gate for a drive at a time when he could barely walk.
discuss world politics with him with an authority that i had inherited from him at the lunch table over the years.
damn george bush together.
worry about the instability in east europe.
crib about the saturation coverage of west asia.

and this is phase 4-closing his bank accounts and distributing his assets. liquidating his presence. all thats left is the memories, the photo on the wall and his walking stick in the corner.