Last Saturday I had a most delightful responsibility to perform. Inaugurate the simple but most endearing function got up to felicitate the 94th birthday of the grand old man of Mysore Bar Association as also Mysore, M.A. Sampath Iyengar. And to know that out of this 94 years, he has spent 65 years as a practicing advocate from the lowest court to the highest court — Supreme Court — having seen many giants among judges and colleagues must be an experience only a few are blessed with. He is known to be in the league of lawyers known for their professional ethics and personal integrity.

I had first heard of Sampath Iyengar in 1975. I had planned to set up a job printing unit in Mysore, while I served in Pune, along with a couple of partners. I asked my brother late Dr. K. B. Subbaiah to suggest a lawyer to draft the partnership deed. He mentioned the names of Sampath Iyengar and also H. Gangadhar (politician and later MLA). Though I had decided to go to Sampath Iyengar discounting Gangadhar who was famous as a criminal lawyer, I could not meet Sampath Iyengar as finally the partnership deed was drafted by our Chartered Accountant as per the wishes of my partners.

Later, however, I have been hearing his name for various reasons as he was not just a lawyer but more than that in Mysore — an educationist, one who has worked for the development of temples and was closely associated with religious Mutts. In short he was a newsmaker and I being a journalist, had many occasions to interact with him. He has always been a busy lawyer and a busy man defying Chaucer's portrayal of a lawyer as one who took good care to seem "busier than he was." One of the commonest calumnies hurled against the lawyer is that his profession is one where success depends on trickery and chicanery. Lawyers are generally known as men who prove that white is black or black is white according to the fee they are paid. Whatever it be, "to the best of my knowledge and belief," our 94 – year - old Sampath Iyengar neither tried to prove “white is black nor black is white”. Not even with regard to money — in these days of two kinds of money: black money and white money!

Quite articulate in conversation, to a new client, he assumes the role of a lawyer, mentor and advisor, depending on the nature of the case. A new client has never been a new case file for him as we find with many lawyers. He even does some good counselling and I am one such beneficiary of his counselling. I have one more reason to eulogise and overly admire Sampath Iyengar — he has given me a very good and eminent urologist in his son Dr. M. S. Ranganath.

Even at 94, Sampath Iyengar is healthy, hale and hearty doing his own things, including legal practice. God's grace indeed. Our good Lord knew how to keep our good lawyer in good health. The credit for part of his good health, I suppose, must go to his parents for bequeathing him such a good gene, his own personal discipline in daily life and, of course, to his wife Vaidehi — the woman behind this successful man. And for her good health and longevity, credit must go to Sampath Iyengar as a good and understanding husband. Well, matches made in heaven cannot go wrong on earth!

Now let me ask one philosophical question: When are you too old? I ask this question because I do not think Sampath Iyengar has really become old.

Here is the answer a friend had sent me some months back and I think these answers would apply to Sampath Iyengar too. Here we go:

When asked how it was that she has lived so long, one 91 – year - old woman replied, "I think God is testing the patience of my relatives."

When is "too old?" At what age do we give up? At 100, Grandma Moses was still painting, and Titian painted "Battle of Lepants" when he was 98.

At 93, George Bernard Shaw wrote 'Farfetched Fables.'
At 91, Eamon de Valera served as President of Ireland.
At 90, Pablo Picasso still drew and engraved.
At 89, Arthur Rubinstein gave one of his greatest recitals in New York's Carnegie Hall, and Pablo Casals, at 88, still performed cello concerts.
At 82, Winston Churchill wrote the four-volume work, “A History of the English - Speaking Peoples”, for which he won the Nobel Prize (literature). Leo Tolstoy completed “I Cannot Be Silent” and Goethe, at the same age, finished "Faust”.

At 81, Benjamin Franklin engineered the diplomacy, which led to the adoption of the US Constitution.

When are you "too old?" Only on the day when you truly have nothing left to give. And the good news is this: that day never has to arrive!

Moral:
Grow old gracefully, creatively, all the time giving and like old soldiers simply fade away…

Here is my wishing Sampath Iyengar and his wife Vaidehi many more years of happy and healthy life crossing the proverbial Rubicon — 100 years.