Each morning my father woke me up at dawn and took me for a dip in the river Hemavathy. This became an unchanging ritual. Even in pouring rain we went to the river. After the swim we returned home for breakfast. He then took me to the coconut and areca-nut plantations that stood like islands in an ocean of paddy-fields. Being different, he never performed sandhya vandana, the tribute to the Sun god, but the act of bathing in the river at daybreak was for him a gesture of reverence.
