My Great Doda

Rashod Faizullaev

MY GREAT DODA

A scholar, veteran and a self-made man with formidable amount of energy, my grandfather Omonulla Fayzullaev was a brilliant personality possessing some incredible ability to remember things from his life. Knowledge and life experience are not the only things that my grandfather should be remembered by. It is ultimately his discipline, unbound energy and his hard work that we came to associate him with. For me, some of the lessons he taught only became apparent years later. As I share some of them with the readers, it will become apparent that my grandfather was, without a doubt, the wisest man I have come to know in my life who significantly shaped my personality while I was growing up.

As a young boy, I have witnessed my grandfather working tirelessly to achieve the goal of publishing his academic works. For most people, amongst them those who had the honour to study under his guidance, it is this legacy of academic excellence that my grandfather will be remembered for. However, for me it is above all his discipline and wisdom that has become the defining memory of his giant personality. Despite the fact that my grandfather worked tirelessly, I have come to know a man who deeply cared about his family, friends and country.

Graphologists always say that one of the ways to determine a personality is through someone’s signature or handwriting. Perhaps my grandfather was not thinking about the analysis of handwriting, when once as a boy, he insisted that I practice my signature. At first, he asked if I had a signature ready, to which I shook my head. Puzzled by the question, I added that up to this moment in my life, I signed my name as “X”. Over the next hour or so, he and I sat down and started practicing my very own signature. It became a very useful tool a few years later when I had to sign my signature on a passport. This was a useful demonstration of one of my grandfather’s principles – practicality.

Another great ability that my grandfather had was his relentless effort to be informed of the current events in the world. Always getting up early, one of the first things that my grandfather did was change the small manual metallic calendar in the living room. Not a single day went by that he would miss the evening news on national television, or radio (before television became popular or available). We were the only household in the street to receive the daily national newspaper! This was his strong belief that a human being should by all means be informed of current affairs.

He was also a generous and open minded man. We have a small garden in our house. My grandfather really liked the fruits that grew in the garden. Every visitor that came to our house was offered to get some fresh apples and raisins. He would also insist that they do take some away with them (most people did). His generosity extended beyond just giving fruits to guests. My grandfather was known in the surrounding areas for being a man who could give you a wise council. I would often see people who would come to get his guidance if they were offered a new job or were considering working abroad. Furthermore, when asked he would always be ready to help to the best of his abilities.

Perhaps most of all, I shall cherish the memories of my grandfather as a man who lived his life with discipline. That strong believe in everything he did created an aura of a formidably able and tough man. Once, I came home from school (early 1995) and my language teacher asked me to put together a list of proverbs for my class the next day. As my grandfather heard the assignment, he took me aside (stopped his own work) and asked me to bring a pen and paper. He started to dictate a number of proverbs to me. I wrote them down and got an excellent grade the day later. Of course, I never found those proverbs in books – they were made up. They must have sounded very impressive for my teacher to give me an excellent grade.

I have never seen my grandfather ever complain nor say anything ill about his life or people whom he knew. Looking back at his life (I was born when he was in his sixties) he had every right to talk about the hardships that he had endured. His father died while he was a child, grew up through the though times of famine, spent years in the war, and build up his life after the war from literally scratch. My grandfather was perhaps never afraid of a strong challenge. This is more than well demonstrated by his stories during the war.

My grandfather never bragged about his heroics during the World War two. Therefore, I only remember very few stories of his years during those years. Only at times, when people asked him to tell, would he share those with us. The times when I sat with my grandfather while he told those stories turned out to be important in shaping my believes. I clearly remember the two stories from that time. Once during the war, my grandfather had a bet with a fellow soldier (reward remains unknown to this day) that he would be able to swim across the River Volga. My grandfather was a physically fit man and very proud of his swimming skills. He, of course, accepted the challenge on the condition that the fellow soldier who had challenged him would also swim the across the river. It turned out, half an hour later, that the soldier was a professional swimmer and was able to complete his talk in short span of time. It was my grandfather’s turn. Although daunted by the task, he started swimming across the river. However, half way through the challenge, his body gave up on him and he started to drown. I cannot imagine what could have gone through someone’s head while drowning during the war, but his own accounts tell of a split second dramatic twist of how he remembered his life and struggles and was able to pull himself up and complete this task. He was not challenged on swimming again. Second story concerns the time when my grandfather was wounded during a battle and was taken to the hospital. One day, a very senior officer (I presume it was a general) came to see those wounded and asked if the hospital lacked anything. No one answered except my grandfather, who as a joke, said that there were no fruits in the hospital. So it happens that the next day, there was a basket of fresh fruits in the hospital next day. My grandfather was very impressed by this and very much enjoyed the fresh fruit given to him, so did most of other soldiers in the hospital.

For all the discipline my grandfather was a man of many mysteries. As a young adult, I must admit, that there were times I did not understand a number of things he used to tell me and my brother. It is only years later than I got to appreciate some of the lessons taught back then. Those years remain times that I very much look forward to remembering.

As a kid, perhaps one of the clearest things I remember was, at that time, seemed like a callous attitude towards food. I was a kid then. What seemed strange to me was that he was able to eat and enjoy eating pretty much any food that was on the table. This was an odd concept for me and my brother. When asked, he used to say that the only food he did not eat was ship at sea, a tank in the ground and airplane in the air. Although he did eat other things besides those three large objects, the morale was that he was a person with the principle. The message was clear – simple principles are important– abiding by them is a virtue.

Without a mistake, my grandfather was a very shrewd man and his attitude to life. Besides principles centralised on discipline, he also had a, his sense of duty to his work and family were of the things I admired the most in him. He was very much a proud man of his ancestry. My grandfather also called me Rashodhodja. In my passport its just Rashod but this highlighted the fact that we came from a long line of hodja’s and have a deep family routes to be very proud of.

Under his leadership, there was a genuine intellectual prosperity of the family. This vision ended up being an investment to the family for its future qualitative growth. If anything, his life experience taught me rewards of discipline, patience and above all hard work.

His courageous life remains an example to me. His towering figure, whose life symbolised the history of our country in the last century, will be a guide for what a man should aim to accomplish in life. A self-made man, exemplary to his children and grandchildren alike, I certainly do wish that I had more time to talk through some of the things he used to say. We will very much miss him.