I endorse every word of Jayaraman's posting on our father and would like to add this. Appa was self-effacing to a fault. He had absolute faith in Lord Rama and we learnt after his death through a friend that he had started reading the Ramayana in his 16th year and continued till the end. Problems he had aplenty but he never ran from astrologer to astrologer, sanyasi to sanyasi or temple to temple. Whenever anything apparently unfavourable he would smile and say எல்லாம் நன்மைக்கே and he firmly believed that whatever happened was God's will and God knows what is good for us.