Hemant Kumar .....

My father had a wonderful collection of music- one of the greatest gifts my father gave me was an introduction to singers like Hemant Kumar. We had songs like "Halke Halke Chala savre" and "laut Gaya Gham ka jamana" and 'yaad kiya dil ne kahan ho tum.' This particular song is simply remarkable for its extraordinary melody, composition and lyrics, and is sung superbly. My love for Hemant-Lata duets developed from my father and his Hemant selections. My dad also had a wonderful song titled "manzil wohi hai pyar ki" by Subir Sen, whose voice bears quite a resemblance to that of Hemant. I always wonder how that song would have been rendered by Hemant- it is a Shankar Jaikishen tune.

Come September

Father had a great love for rhythm- he loved the song Come September by Billy Vaughn and his orchestra, as well as Berlin Melody. Both songs are simply superb instrumentals. Dad also liked House of Bamboo a lot. Along the same lines he also favored Dum Dum Diga Diga and Ruk Ja o Ja-ne Wali, both fast lively songs by Mukesh.

My favorite story

I remember sitting down with father every Vinayaka Chaturthi evening as he read the story of Lord Vinayaka. According to the mythology, one is not supposed to see the moon until after reading the story. Dad would make the story fascinating for me. Nowadays, whenever I read the current versions of the story, I feel rather depressed- the story is changed, shortened, and has almost no relationship to the original.
This was one of the very happy moments of our childhood.

Firecrackers, Dad's way

Deepavali was always a great festival for us when we were kids. Lots of excitement, but the special attraction was the opportunity to explode firecrackers. Our dad used to buy us the crackers- sparklers, rockets, explosive crackers, and other variants. While I could manage many of the crackers, the Vishnu Chakra was big and generated tremendous force when it started spinning fast. Father would hold our hand while we held on to this fabulous display of light. These were more colorful and attractive than the ones that just created a loud bang and exploded.

Listening to cricket commentary- father and son

I remember the night- I was in tenth class. April 1976. India was touring West Indies. The third test was in Port of Spain. I was in my bedroom in the back of the house, listening to the commentary at two in the morning. India was winning, and my father joined me in listening to the radio as India went on to win. Viswanath hit a brilliant century in the match. Some of my fondest memories are of listening to cricket commentary with my father. He encouraged me to go and see many of the cricketers play.

Picture Perfect Human

When I was in the sixth grade I had to draw the anatomy of the human body. I was struggling with it and my father helped me draw (he actually did the work) the perfect picture of the human anatomy.

When I was in Little Flower, I had an extra-ordinary teacher, Mr. M.N. Reddy. Every math topic was just beautiful to me, but I was especially enchanted by set theory and set operations- what was referred to then as Modern Mathematics. One day we learnt in class about operations, and that we could define a new operation or a function and called it addition. I remember going to my dad that evening and telling him that I could make 2 and 3 add up to 6, with my new function. He had a lot of fun teasing us about the fancy "Modern Mathematics."

Chemistry buff...never rebuffed

I was a big Chemistry buff when I was in Little Flower Junior College. Having Usha Iyer as the Chemistry teacher was a big motivator- she really made the subject fascinating and interesting. I bought many chemistry books including Physical Chemistry by Lewis, and quite a few books on inorganic and organic chemistry. My father never questioned me and always encouraged me to buy the books I needed and gave me all the money I needed. I never wasted the money on frivolous things, but did spend a lot of books. Thanks for the education, father.
I remember one afternoon- we had just finished our experiments and were leaving the lab. One of the students asked our teacher a question regarding a specific reaction and what ions would be released. The teacher said that she was not sure, but told the student "Ask Gopal- he will know." It is one of the highest compliments I have received.

Covering the book but uncovering the inside

One of my most vivid memories of my father involve the beginning of the school year. We would all get our new textbooks and notebooks, and rolls of brown paper. Our father would painstakingly cut the brown paper and create neat, beautiful covers for all our books. This was a humongous job, because we often had three notebooks for each subject. Education, diligence, cleanliness and dedication were a hallmark of my father. He wanted us to have all the books we needed, and he wanted to make sure that the books were packaged so that they could survive the handling.
What a childhood!

Traveling with father in a Mahindra and Mahindra Jeep

I remember going with dad on one of his work trips. We went to Chittoor and Nellore and Kalahasti. Father always made sure that the driver had a good meal before he came in to eat. I remember going to the house of one of our fathers' colleagues in Chittoor and the host's wife served me a huge quantity of food. I was obligated to eat it all.

A musical trip down memory lane....

Today I performed the taddinam on the anniversary of my father's death. My brother sent us a few songs that were some of my father's favorites, and from movies that my father and my mom saw together. While I finished my education at IIT and left for the US, my brother was the backbone who kept the family going in the eighties. Today my memory goes back to my high school, St. Pauls. I remember my brother sitting in the front of my father's bike, and I in the back, as he took us and dropped us off at school. Sometimes, at the end of the school day, I would stop by his office and he would pour some coffee from the flask he brought from home.
I also have strong memories of my father biking all the way to his office in Malakpet- certainly more than 20 kilometres each way. It was a brutal killer- doing that distance in the scorching heat of Hyderabad. At the time I was too young to understand the toll it can take on any human being.
Today I was talking to one of my students, JB, whose parents expressed great appreciation for me when I met them some time ago. I remembered my father meeting Usha Iyer and Narasimha Reddy, who were my teachers in College. They were nice get-togethers.