15-10 2022 16:11
wrote:
Mr. Ajit Thakurdas
A Conversationalist, a Boxer and a Humorist
I was up on a guava tree in the Bible House, when Ajit Thakurdas came cycling in. He saw me and stopped.
I knew that he was interested in my sister. So I assumed that he would have little or no interest in me. I was just a young boy. I was surprised at how wrong I was. He took plenty of time to talk, as though I was important too. It was just my first glimpse of him as a great conversationalist. I grew and over the years took many friends to visit him. He was never at loss at words, no matter who he was talking to or on what topic.
It must have been on my second or third meeting with him that I learnt not to shake his hands. He never talked about his boxing, but his handshake was always enough to covey the message that he was not someone to wrestle with. That may have been a reason why the Lord gave him daughters, not sons. They could “box” with his verbal skills.
Back then, the annual spiritual life convention at the Allahabad Bible Seminary used to be Christian Community’s main spiritual festival. As young boys we visited all the mainline churches but found them equally dead dry. The Convention was always lively because they invited great speakers and singers. The messages impacted us seriously. Yet, Ajit Bhaiya always picked up something funny to mimic. He never made fun of the message itself . . . but made us laugh by making fun of the messengers’ mannerism, which we had missed.
I miss him.
Vishal Mangalwadi
15-10 2022 16:11
wrote:
Mr. Ajit Thakurdas
A Conversationalist, a Boxer and a Humorist
I was up on a guava tree in the Bible House, when Ajit Thakurdas came cycling in. He saw me and stopped.
I knew that he was interested in my sister. So I assumed that he would have little or no interest in me. I was just a young boy. I was surprised at how wrong I was. He took plenty of time to talk, as though I was important too. It was just my first glimpse of him as a great conversationalist. I grew and over the years took many friends to visit him. He was never at loss at words, no matter who he was talking to or on what topic.
It must have been on my second or third meeting with him that I learnt not to shake his hands. He never talked about his boxing, but his handshake was always enough to covey the message that he was not someone to wrestle with. That may have been a reason why the Lord gave him daughters, not sons. They could “box” with his verbal skills.
Back then, the annual spiritual life convention at the Allahabad Bible Seminary used to be Christian Community’s main spiritual festival. As young boys we visited all the mainline churches but found them equally dead dry. The Convention was always lively because they invited great speakers and singers. The messages impacted us seriously. Yet, Ajit Bhaiya always picked up something funny to mimic. He never made fun of the message itself . . . but made us laugh by making fun of the messengers’ mannerism, which we had missed.
I miss him.
Vishal Mangalwadi
