WHAT IS A FATHER
My first memories of my father extend to the time when I was three years old. My father was the Superintendant of the Mental Hospital (now Psychiatric centre) at Jaipur. He had just been diagnosed with hypertension. There were very few medicines like Rauwolfia and Adelphane for hypertension at that time, and the prognosis was considered rather bleak with a great risk of coronary artery disease. My father went into a depression, and once I saw him in tears. I used to love to sing and my father had bought me a HMV gramophone so that I could sing along. One such song was form the film Nastik. I began singing that song Himmat na haar, Prabhu ko pukar, Who hi teri naaya lagayega paar Tanik bhi tilmilana na, zara bhi dil hilana na Hazaar haathwala hai Bhagwan Ho naiya wale ho, savdhan He stopped crying and hugged me At the age of six, I left him to stay with my maternal uncle to take care of my education. Thereafter, I used to see him only when I came home during the