We finished lunch. It was naptime of my thatha (grandpa). Naptime usually meant one thing story time. I rushed to my closet pulled out the latest Amar Chitra Katha that my dad had gotten and I ran to my thatha’s bench. We had a long bench in the drawing room and that was his resting spot. He looked at me with the usual smile on his face. He knew what I wanted. The bench could hardly fit that 6 footer man. We both lay side by side resting our heads on a couple of pillows. “So what did Bheema do till yesterday?” asked my thatha. I’d reply and hence began my introduction to the world of Ramayana, Mahabharatha and the whole set of affiliated stories. My grandpa was a great literate. He knew 14 languages and had won many a prize for literary work. He was the president of the Author’s Guild of India and our house never ran short of his guests and affiliates. He used to work as the personal secretary of Sri Rajagopalachari and a freedom fighter. His heroes were Mahathma Gandhi, Nehru, Tilak a...