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Life at 84 remains eventful for Vijayawada's British Baba

At 84, he is still doing a Good Samaritan's job. When India got freedom, British national Tony Rogers chose Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh as his home, a place to serve the people.

Affectionately called Tony Baba by his admirers, Rogers refused to leave India when his parents, four brothers and four sisters returned to England.

He helps people in need, buries the dead, drafts letters for people seeking jobs, collects funds for churches and bills for the Anglo-Indian Association, traversing through nook and corner of the town on a bicycle. He wakes up his Muslim brethren for morning "namaz" during the holy month of Ramzan.

Baba has been serving the people cycling, on an average, 30 kilometres a day on his Lady Bird.

Tony Baba, sporting a scanty French-beard, with a twinkle in his eyes, said he had no regrets for not accompanying his family to England. "This is my country. I love India. Why should I nurse any regrets?"

When pointed out that many Anglo-Indian families were migrating to Australia, England or Canada for greener pastures, Baba retorted : "When they could not do or achieve anything in India, I don't see them doing anything better in those countries."

For Baba, who settled in Vijayawada in 1938, life is not a bed of roses.

He stays in a old age home. He used to hold entertainment shows for children to run his family and carry on his social activities. His wife Bernie, aged 77, is a music teacher in a Vijayawada school. He has a daughter and a son. The latter is suffering from some mental disorder.

He said, "I have buried several infants and old people." He felt sad when he buried infants, he said.

Asked about the Baba, an old Anglo-Indian lady said, "He is always there whenever we need him. He has been serving the society for the last 40 years."

UNI

YEH HAI INDIA!

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