Our father Late Sri Suresh Chandra Srivastava was born on 29th July, 1933 at village Maharajganj, near Gorakhpur, U.P to Late Smt. Ishwari Devi and Late Sri Oudh Behari Lal, latter a distinguished Government Auditor. His Grandfather (and our Great-Grandfather) Late Sri Dhrup Narayan Srivastava was a leading Zamindar (Land Lord) at village Raghupur, District Azamgarh, U.P.

Our father was a self-made man. Traversing several early challenges in life with aplomb  including the unfortunate loss of his mother at the age of nine and financial constraints of a typical large middle-class family of those times, he fulfilled all his self-assumed and given responsibilities of his family with distinction including but not limited to supporting his father in the education and marriages of seven siblings, supporting the construction of the family house and later affording the best possible education to his children at that time available in the city.

However, both our Grandfather Sri Oudh Behari Lal and father Sri Suresh Chandra Srivastava went their own ways and chose higher education as a means to build their careers in government jobs, the most common livelihood choice for intelligentia at that time.

Our father completed his post-graduation education at St. Andrews College, Gorakhpur and Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi followed by further specialized teachers’ training courses.

Our father was a man of many parts. He was a great teacher, great family-man, great conversationalist, great linguist and had varied interests like music, writing, politics, cricket.  among others.

A professor of English language by profession, he served several government colleges in U.P, mostly at the celebrated 200-year old Queen’s College at Varanasi. 

He retired as a Principal in 1993 after having served as the head of State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), U.P state-level counterpart of NCERT at Allahabad.

Our father married our mother Smt. Vidyawati Srivastava in 1964 and our parents raised their four children primarily at Varanasi with care, foresight, sacrifice, love and discipline and provided for the best to them despite their modest means and financial limitations. Our father’s most favourite quote was- “Money is for Life; Money is not life “. 

Our father selflessly assumed the role of a patriarch after the passing away of his father Sri Oudh Behari Lal in 1980. He was a symbol of the large family’s unity and did yeoman’s service to keep the three  generations of family flock together.

A few years after retirement in 1993, our parents chose to move to Pune and then to Mumbai from Varanasi/Lucknow in order to allow us stay with them or closer to them. 

Keeping Mumbai as a base, our father travelled far and wide with his family and created unforgettable memories for us including for his grandchildren. 

We think it’s our privilege to have been born to our incredible parents and that we were able to spend the last 25- years or so of our father’s life with him and/or in his close proximity.

Our father left for his heavenly abode on the 25th of March, 2020 at Mumbai. He fought his health issues till the end with hope and positivity and left big life lessons for us to imbibe.  

Our father was a pious, religious, learned, compassionate and a  great human being to begin with. It is impossible for us to capture his entire life in few words here . However, our attempt herein is to show a glimpse of his life to his future generations in the hope that they will one day realise how great the patriarch was and how (together with our mother), he shaped and built our lives and gave his next generations a great future. It is entirely his capital that we will live on from hereon. His simplicity and strong value-system shall be his biggest legacy to us.

May God bless the soul of our great father !🙏🏻

*”बहुत शोर है हवा में, जैसे लोग कह रहें हो एक युग का अंत है*

*परमात्मा में विलीन हुआ यह व्यक्ति, हो ना हो, कोई संत है “*

🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Preeti, Vipul, Mukul, Minu