And Then One Day: A Memoir

by Naseeruddin Shah

If I had to wipe out all memories of my father and keep only one, this is the one I would keep. He actually wanted me to stay on another day, he actually wanted my company! He had never sounded anything but authoritative in all my conversations with him, but this was a side of him I had not known before, or had completely forgotten. He was almost plaintive, well aware that I might refuse; and instead of the authority which came naturally to him, there was the tone of a father who had begun to feel he wanted to spend the little time he had left, or as much of it as he could, with his son. This feeling was new, I was never the son he had wanted to spend time with, but that day I stayed on and for once in my life I was able to talk to him about my dreams. He listened but his universe was too far removed from mine. His only concern was what would become of me.