The year was 1998. I was just out of high school and was in Pune. This was the first time I was living in any other city than Mumbai. It was also the first time I was living away from my parents.

October arrived and it was my father’s birthday (17th October). Papa as both my sister and I would call him was nice, gentle with a calm personality. This calm and stoic personality would be cast away during his birthdays.

He would be extremely excited about his birthday. His excitement could rival that of a six-year-old child. It might have something to do with him being the youngest of all his siblings. 🙂

His birthday in 1998, I got a good peek into what he was probably like as a young boy of twelve or thirteen. My father grew up in the 50s and 60s. For some reason, as a kid he loved the character of Zorro. Zorro was a swashbuckling sword-fighting acrobat with a trusty horse called Tornado. He had managed to read a lot of the comic books about Zorro. Even when I was a child, he would tell me about this comic character. It made no sense to me.

In 1998, the Antonio Banderas and Anthony Hopkins starrer, Mask of Zorro was playing at Sterling Cinema. And being Diwali holidays, I was in Mumbai during his birthday.

So a plan was hatched on how to celebrate his birthday between father and son.

We started on a local train to Churchgate station and then walked around that part of Mumbai. We stopped at a restaurant for some sandwiches. Papa had a Thums Up. I wanted to not do what my dad was doing as a teenager. So, I opted for a Pepsi.

I vividly remember walking around Churchgate. Crossing through Azad Maidaan and stopped to watch the green Bombay Gymkhana cricket ground. There was a match going on and we watched for a while.

He described in a very imaginative way how the Bombay Gymkhana had temporary stands put up. It hosted the first test match played by India in 1933.
England’s captain was Douglas Jardine (from the infamous bodyline series) and India’s captain was CK Nayudu. 

He set up the game excitedly.

India lost the match predictably. However, Amarnath went on to score a fighting hundred. This was in 1933.

Fifty years later, Amarnath’s son Mohinder stood with Kapil Dev outside Lord’s balcony in England. They held aloft the World Cup. He could be a pretty good storyteller when he wanted to be one.

My father was a cricket romantic. He was also a bit of the history buff. He did pass that along to me.

Then onto watching Mask of Zorro at Sterling. On the way back, we decided to get into a taxi for the long way back home to Goregaon.

He told me about the comics he would get on his birthdays and how some of them were about Zorro. He then launched into adjacent explanations. Some Zorro stories were set in Spanish California. Others were set in Mexican California. Now that I think of it, it was no surprise he was a fan of western action films.

That birthday was a good one for Papa. He had watched a western action movie at one of the great old cinema halls of Mumbai. Then he took a good walk through Mumbai maidaans and watched some cricket. Finally, he went back home for cake and dinner.

After my mom passed, it affected him severely. I could see it, sense it. Generally not very expressive, he opened up a lot to me those final years. He would call me almost every evening. I still miss recommending a cool movie or talking at length with him about a cricket game. I miss his ability to remember random factoids about history, geography, culture, movies and cricket.

I got my first car ever 4 years ago. I bought it mainly to visit my father in Mumbai during the pandemic. The first long trip in this car was on his birthday in 2021. I am grateful, I managed to do that as he did not make it to the next one.

Today he would have turned 75. ♥️