Satyanarayana Appari (May 5, 1942 - Sept 14, 2021)

On September 15, 2021 My father, Sayanarayana Appari, passed away after a long battle with multiple myeloma. Earlier during the second wave of Covid-19 he was in the ICU for three weeks when my mother Anantha Satya Lakshmi passwed away due to Covid-19 infection. Despite his serious health condition, in recent years, he was focused on meditation and listening to speeches of Sadhguru Jasgdish Vasudev, a modern day Karma Yogi. My father in his midlife period was a disciple of OSHO Rajneesh, an Indian mystic. He was a seeker of spiritual knowledge, a voracious reader and had deep interest in anicient philosophies - Vedas, Buddhism, Confusionism, Taoism.

He was born in May 1942 and raised in a farmer's family in Devarapalli, a small village in the West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, India. He was the eldest child among seven children. After completing his high school, he completed a diploma for vocational training instructors from the Central Staff Training and Research Institute, Calcutta, India, and worked as Instructor of Engineering Drawing at Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) first at Bilaspur and subsequently at Bhilai (Chattisgarh, India. During his professional tenure (1970s - 90s), he was very active in the labor union of ITI instructors of Madhya Pradesh state and led their union as President for several years during the 1980's. He led the ITI instructors' union several times on demonstrations and hunger strikes at the state capital Bhopal (of Madhuya Pradesh) to improve working conditions of instructors, including one union strike involving fast unto death. He was instrumental in negotiating salaray reform for ITI instructors with the state government of Madhya Pradesh. Coincidentally, he had a near miss with Bhopal Gas Tragdey (1984) since he left the city on the night of December 2nd to return home after leading a successfull negotiation meeting with the state government.

Besides his deeper interests in spirituality, he was a photographer and painter as a hobbyist in his younger days. His oil paintings and sketches were exhibited in Bhilai, Calcutta, and Raipur.

My father's teaching career as ITI instructor was one of the main influencing reason for me to pursue academic career.

Ananta Satya Lakshmi (Dec 31, 1948 - Apr 12, 2021)

In the sunny afternoon of April 12, 2021, my mother, Ananta Satya Lakshmi passed away after getting infected with Covid-19 during the second wave. At the same time, my father was hositalized in the ICU and my nephew and neice were also infected with Covid. Her demise was a major shock to our family. Becasue of the global pandemic, myself (US resident) and younger sister (Kuwait resident) could not visit our family home to attend her last rites. My late brother's family (sister-in-law, nephew, and niece) who cohabit with my parents along with relatives and friends bid adiue to my mother while we watched the last rites ceremony by WhatsApp.

My mother was a housewife. She was the eldest child in her family of five siblings and was born and raised in East Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh, India. She recieved education up to secondary school in telugu medium in Andhra Pradesh. Immediately after schooling, she was married to my father. Coincidentally, my mother and father were cross cousins and it was rumored that they were in love and had to overcome opposition from their parents (as such, arranged marriage between cross cousins was a common practice in South India up to 20th century). After marriage, she moved with my father to Bilaspur, Madhya Pradesh - a hindi speaking state. She bore four children (my elder brother Ravi in 1967, elder unnamed sister in 1969 who died as newborn, myself in 1971, and my younger sister in 1973).

My mother was an excellent cook and managed our household singlehandedly (my father was busy teaching, painting, union work, and traveling to places for spiritual seeking).