Dipika Shaw
Though his actual name is Premadhar Borah, he is known by many names as Prem Da, Borah Da, Captian Borah, Captain Sahab, Sunny Koka. For me and my brother, he is our "Dadi" - the distorted form of Daddy as pronounced by my Maa. Later when we realized the right pronunciation, we hesitate to call him "Dadi" in front of other people, so we go close to him.
He is having a very annoying personality for me. Almost every time our conversations end with an argument. My Maa never argues with him as it is of no use to her. He is having a personality of an Angry Man and that too from an Army background. Despite his such personality, I have learnt a lot of good things from him. He is a man of self-discipline, very honest, sincere about his work. In his career, he got 3 consecutive promotions in just one year. From "Subedar" to "Captain". I have seen how sincere he was with his job. In 1996, when our financial condition was not very good and my brother got admission to Jorhat Engineering College, Dadi took a job in Baruah X-ray clinic. And at that time I have seen his dedication to learning new things. Though he was not from a science background, he learned all the required science chapter for ultrasound and sono-scan from my textbooks. And in just a few months he was able to byheart all the reports.
There are a few things that I have learnt from him -
A disciplined lifestyle - Fix time to get up and sleep, fix times for meals.
Afternoon nap - No matters where he is or who came to our house, he will take his nap around 1 pm daily.
A jolly-carefree person - Where my Maa takes all the stress of closing the doors and keeping her ears and eyes open for any unusual things, Dadi doesn't bother about all these things. He is a very cool person, always busy with his programs on TV. Very fond of sports, especially cricket. He never gets bored watching even old cricket matches.
A caring and helpful person - He guided so many people in our neighbourhood with how to fill forms, how to calculate pension, DA, how to open RD in the post office and banks. He is an animal lover and I have seen that with our cow - Mainee, Rani, Bhula, Mainu, our cock Bhola and our beloved dog Sunny. People recognize him with our dog and so-called him "Sunny Koka" or "Sunny Bortta"
A learner - At the age of 83 he is keen to learn new things. I am surprised to see him operating the mobile phone so efficiently.
I hope me and my brother have inherited many of his qualities and we are really proud of him, our "Dadi".