Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Anantadevji Remembering Jonathan



JONATHAN TINAT PASSED AWAY

This morning K.S.Chandramouli smsed me by saying that he got sms from Lucy Upah of Nigeria saying that Jonathan L Tinat ( President of Nigeria National Association of the Deaf (HQ) fell into coma on Saturday and passed away yesterday ( 12th March ). I could hardly believe this shocking news.

How did I meet him for first time? In the 2nd week of November 2006 at IRYLA event, Ichalakaranji, Rotarian Dr.Dilip Deshmukh, who had arranged a double hotel room for me to stay, asked me whether a deaf male delegate from Nigeria who would arrive soon could share the same room with me. I nodded. Later Jonathan, Lucy and Antonia introduced themselves to many delegates including myself. At the very first meeting I and Jonathan became good acquaintances.

I saw that his Bible book was lying near his bed in the hotel room. This showed that he was a believer of God. In order to clear his misconception of Hare Krishna philosophy he became curious about it and learnt a lot from me about it. Jonathan remarked that this philosophy was very beautiful.

I invited him and two friends of his to stay in my place in Bangalore. They was greatly wowed by the colourful city of Bangalore and wanted to extend their stay for more days. Being comfortable with my and other deaf friends’ goodwill they spent about one week here. Jonathan endeared himself to everyone.

He loved India, her food, culture and people. He came to India for the first time and conquered people here by his friendship but were also conquered by great goodwill of people here. He presented me a Nigerian cap. Since he said it cost around Rs.1800, I am still keeping it as a token of memorial friendship.

He recognised the importance of SDD. He said that he would welcome me to establish SDD center in Nigeria. This shows that he believed firmly in communal harmony and peace. He felt strongly that my lecture on proverbs and spiritual values would be of great use to the deaf in Nigeria if I come there.

He had a good sense of humour. He shared jokes with me. He sometimes burst into laughter whenever I joked. He said he loved my jokes, wits and humours.

He was full of enthusiasm to serve the deaf. He was one of the gifted leaders for the deaf. He was the President of Nigeria National Association of the Deaf (HQ). He was popular among the deaf communities in Africa. He aspired to represent the deaf community of Africa in the World Federation of the Deaf in July 2007. But his death embraced him leaving this aspiration unfulfilled. It is God’s will which is more important than everything. My prayer to Him is to let Jonathan’s soul be in peace.

When Jonathan learnt from me that India Deaf Expo was expected to be held in Bangalore in 2009, he got very excited about taking part in this expo with his Nigerian members. But death unexpectedly took him away. Bhagavad-Gita taught us not to lament too much over our dear relatives/friends’ death. So uncontrollable lament was unnecessary. But of course! we miss our great friend Jonathan. It will be great if he is with God in His abode. We are His instruments so we cannot thwart untimely death. Death is inevitable whether it is timely or untimely.

Rtn Dr.Dilip Deshmukh described him as a genius and considered his death as a great loss.

Visit his beautiful website: http://www.laatinat.com/ . Also see Naty's blogspot: http://jonathantinat.blogspot.com/

May Jonathan’s soul be in peace.

Hare Krishna!
Anantadev

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jonathan is my blood brother. my name is Timothy Tinat and i just wish to thank you for you effort to keep Jonathan alive even when he went into enternal sleep. on behalf of myself and Jonathan's Family accept our thanks. incase you want to get in touch with Jonathan's family send mail to timtinat@yahoo.com.

Anonymous said...

pradeep more you come to beed m.s

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