January 1, 2021 • 22 mins
This story, the last chapter of the season, is all about my father.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
In the beginning of this show, I told you about
this mission I am on. Over the course of nineteen chapters.
I wanted to tell you stories from my life, the
lessons I've learned through swimming and falling and flying. I
also wanted to bring you stories from other people in
other places in the world, stories to help us remember
(00:31):
the sweetness of life, everyday acts of kindness, and the
differences we can make in the world around us. Together,
we have met wizards in New Zealand, caught ducklings in Washington,
traveled across the world on bicycle, and I've taken you
through my hometown him. Today, I want to do something different.
(00:57):
Instead of bringing two stories together, I want to tell
you about the many people connected by a single story.
My father's So today is about my dad and how
through trains, newspapers and the mall road is light reached
every corner of our little town. Welcome to one of them.
(01:20):
Cares Chapter twenty, Live Life. My father pushed Cannot Care.
Was full of kindness. He always said, the easiest thing
in the world is to make somebody else happy, and
(01:42):
he practiced it in ways big and small. When my
father would go out to buy groceries. If he met
somebody on the way home and they said, push, what
are you carring? You would say, oh, I'm care eggs
or whatever it was that day, and then he would
(02:03):
suddenly realize, maybe this man also needs eggs, so he
would take out four or five eggs and give them
to him. This was how my father bought groceries. Thank you.
He sometimes came home empty handed and was greeted by
a very heavy hand from my mother. They used to
(02:25):
have major arguments about it. My mother would say, what
the hell is wrong with you? You're basically taking those
things from our home, and my father would say he
needed it also, so I gave it to him, barking
story samand it. Of course, sometimes this generosity got him
in trouble. One day, my father bought two lipsticks for
(02:49):
my mother, and when he was heading back home, he
ran into a local woman, Mrs Malutra, and when she
asked what he was carrying, he ended up giving her
one of the lipsticks. It was the biggest mistake of
his life. That was the day my mother really gave
it to him. She said, how dare you give lipstick
to somebody? And he would say, what will you do?
(03:11):
With two lipsticks, and that's how it always went. Even today,
my mother says that he was too charitable and let's
say complaint, but he would say past Japan set them on.
What do I need to save money for? Let's give
it to people. Nobody takes money for himself for herself
(03:32):
up there. My father did funny little things too. Once
he stole my phone and raided my director. He copied
down every actor's number, and soon he began to call
them up and he hello, alkor I'm push push father, yes, yes,
(03:53):
how are you everybody? Fine? Family? Fine father, find mother,
fine wife, fine kids. Fine. Over time he'd be friended
so many famous actors, Jackie Shroff, Mnder And like me,
my father wouldn't mind the spotlight. He would get into
every picture he could. He would even take pictures with
my fans on his phone. Then he would take down
(04:14):
the fan's phone number and send them the photos. He
was a funny man and he had a big heart.
So now that you know a little about him, I'm
going to start the story at the end and tell
you about my last moments with my father. In two
(04:38):
thousand twelve, my father got very sick. He was taking antibiotics,
and he had a rare reaction. The antibiotics changed his
ability to taste, so water became like acid and food
became like sand. Over the course of a few months,
my father began to staff. We took him to the
(05:01):
hospital and did everything we could. The doctor gave him
food through tubes and infused him with vitamins, but this
condition only worsened. Eventually, the doctor said there's nothing more
we can do. Of course, this broke my heart, but
my mother and my brother Raju, and I knew we
(05:22):
had to be brave for my father. So we took
him home and made him as comfortable as we could.
Some time passed and I was invited to a wedding
in Goa. I was hesitant to go too far from home.
My dad didn't seem to be getting better, but he
also didn't seem to be getting any worse. So I
(05:46):
decided to go. But as I was preparing to leave,
my brother called. He said, he wants to talk to you.
I canceled my trip. When I got home, Raju was
standing out shut of my father's room. He said he
(06:06):
wants to say something, and he's insisting that he will
only tell you. I took a deep breath and entered.
By the time, he had very little energy left. It
was too hard for him to speak. But I saw
there was a blank piece of paper and depend on
(06:28):
his chest. I went to his side and said, Papa,
I'm here. When you mar you wanted to tell me
something with great difficulty. He nodded his head. Then he
started writing something. He even hit the paper from me
(06:53):
so that I couldn't see what he was writing. It
was hard for me to watch. His movements were slow
and labored, but every so often he would look up
with an expression that seemed to say, don't you speak,
no cheating, which made me smile. So he was weak,
(07:15):
his spirit was strong as ever m and he finished writing.
He let the note fall to his chest. I slowly
reached for the paper. I wasn't sure if I was
ready to read what he had to tell me, But
when I turned the note over, I saw there were
(07:37):
only faint lines dragged across the paper, no words. I
looked at my father, who was staring at me expectantly.
In his mind, he thought he had written me a message,
but in reality he didn't have the energy to actually
form letters on the page. I didn't know what to do.
(07:58):
My father was clearly waiting for an answer. I had
no idea what he had written. The last thing I
wanted to do was to make him feel defeated, So
I said, yes, yes, of course, Papa, you're right here,
You're you're right, of course. Do you take? Go on,
take to Luke Mud. My father's face fell. He was disappointed.
(08:20):
My mind race trying to figure out how else could
I respond to this mystery message. But our interaction had
exhausted my father. He closed his eyes and drifted off
to sleep. As he slept, I turned the paper upside
down and sideways, trying to understand. I left his room,
(08:43):
consumed by curiosity and then guilt. I worried that I
had missed my only chance to hear my father's last words.
At various moments in my life, my father had caught
me in a lie, and each time he had taught
me the importance of honest team. I was going to
prove to him that I had listened. Later, I went
(09:06):
back to my father's room and waited for him to
wake up, and he opened his eyes. I said quickly,
I'm sorry, Papa, I couldn't read what you wrote. To me,
But I want to understand what what? What? What did
you want to tell me? My father opened his mouth
(09:28):
and I leaned in very close, and with all of
his strength, he whispered two words, live life. Those were
his last two words to me. Twenty minutes later, my
(09:49):
father passed away. At that time, all I wanted was
to be alone and let his words sink in. But
there was no time. We needed to plan the funeral.
Raju and I wanted to spare my mother this burden,
so we decided to short the details ourselves. A traditional
Hindu funeral is supposed to be very, very solemn. All
(10:14):
the guests dressed in white. We sing somber hymns. That's
what Raja and I had intended to do. We sat
down to plant the ceremony, but as we did, I
couldn't get my father's words out of my head. Live life,
Live life, Live life. Suddenly a blooded out. I think
(10:36):
we should book a rock band, rock band. Lab Raju
looked at me like I had lost my senses. I
repeated myself, I think we should call a rock band
who will sing our father's favorite songs, and let's tell
people to wear colorful clothes. What are you talking about Rajas? Confused,
think of who our father was. We should not moan
(10:57):
his lost, We should celebrate his life. So we called
everyone and said, in four days we are going to
have a prayer ceremony. Please come, and when you come,
please wear your most colorful clothes and bring your funniest
stories of my father. We want to honor his memory
with joy and laughter. The day of the ceremony, I
(11:20):
began to second guess myself. Did I make a mistake?
What if the concept was too strange? What if no
one shows up? I was getting nervous. To take my
mind off the service, I decided to pick up a
copy of my hat's favorite Shimla newspaper. That the very
much this newspaper was local, I mean really local. To
(11:44):
put it into us terms, if they Marchell was in
New York, it would be printed in Queens and we
called the Queen's Necklace and only cover news from a
three block radius was something like that. But my father
was ast with this newspaper, and he and I used
to bicker about its importance. I would tell him about
(12:04):
a fantastic review of one of my films, and my
father would say, what does the Muchell have to say
about it. I would invite him to a premiere of
a movie I had started, and he would say, I
will see the film after that. The Way Marchell review
is published, I could have been written up in Time magazine,
But my father would say, talk to me when you
(12:27):
were in the Way Much. There was one time when
I was talking to my father and I told him
that I felt like I had entered a golden period
in my career. But to this, my father said, I
don't know a bit too. I have not seen anything
about you in the Way Much lately. Can you believe it?
So I told him, fine, I want to talk to
the editor of The Way Muchel and settled this once
(12:49):
for all. So the next day my father called me
from the Way Much a editor's office. The editor, who
was probably only a part time editor and a full
time street sweeper practically of his German. I answered the phone,
so listen to your mr. Editor. If you don't carry
one story about me each week for the rest of
your life, I am going to have to buy your
(13:09):
newspaper and write the stories myself. So from that day on,
it became my manager's job to send the editors some
material on me. The rabbit us to carry today. An
opum kid smiled this weekend anpum care to a walk.
But when I opened their way much along the day
(13:31):
of my father's prayer ceremony, an obituary for my father
was on the front page. The article began, we will
not see Pushka nat on the streets of Mall Road now.
The obituary carried on for three pages. In that moment,
I was overwhelmed with emotion. I knew that there were
(13:53):
plenty of people like this editor who had crossed paths
with my father and had some memory something they needed
to say about him, and by sharing these stories we
would truly be honoring his life. At that moment, I
knew that even if no one came to this strange service,
it was the right thing to do. But everyone came.
(14:20):
We held the service in the Haradamahrikisha Temple. It was
an auditorium that could hold a couple hundred people, but
on the day more than six hundred people packed in
for the service, relatives, neighbors, local vendors, directors, film stars,
the ex Chief Nistry of Kashmir. Every chair was full
and people were even spilling into the aisles and sitting
(14:42):
on the stairs. When the service began, I got up
in front of all these people moaning, and I told
the funniest stories I could think of. I told them
about the bread cellar. I told them about the in
apple pastries, an event. I told them about two lipsticks.
(15:06):
This was not done at Indian career ceremonies. And I
went on and on and everyone laughed and they laughed hard.
People were falling from their seats. And after me, more
people got on stage. My wife told hilarious stories. Then
my first director but got on stage and made me
laugh until tears rolled down my face. The other thing
(15:29):
which is never execated, to put their hands into the pumps,
in fact, I often. And then there was the band.
When I first suggested working the rock band, Raju had
looked at me funnily, and yes, we did get a
(15:51):
rock band. They weren't playing led Zeppelin, though I had
asked them to play all of my father's favorite Bollywood
songs journey Okay see look Jink Miller, But instead of
playing the tune slowly and mournfully, I asked the band
(16:13):
to play them fast. Look. That was a celebration. So
we laughed, and we danced and we sang, and I
knew my father would have loved it. Yea. After the service,
(16:39):
crowds of people came up to me to talk about
my dad. A stranger came up to me and said,
do you remember getting a call at to thirtm in
the morning from your father on a train asking you
to speak to a passenger? Yes, I said, slowly, that
was me, The man said, excitedly. Your father entered the
coach compartment and announced, everyone, do you know whose father?
(17:01):
I am? A palm kid, I must admit I laughed
at your father. He heard me laughing and said, you
don't believe me that. I'll prove it to you. Then
he called you at two thirty in the morning and
he called you something I don't remember, bit too. I answered, yes,
but too. Your father said, but to talk to this man.
He doesn't believe that I am your father. So you
(17:22):
got on the line Hello, but I didn't recognize your voice,
probably because you were so sleepy. So I said, okay,
how do I know you are really on the palm care?
Give me some famous dialogue from one of your films.
And then in the middle of the night you gave
me a monologue Dr Dang creates war. Yes, yes you're hello, Hello,
(17:47):
this is the stranger and I started quoting lines to
each other like long lost co stars, giggling the entire time.
Yea undt donible. Then the Shimla mailman came up and
said he remember how your dad would send you letters
(18:08):
addressed to a pum care the film star Bombay. I
think he did that just so I could get a laugh.
Then one person told me that my father had been
sending him five hundred rupees a month for the last
ten years. And then another person came up to me
and told me the same thing, and then another, and
then another, until at least twenty people told me the
(18:31):
same story of my father's quiet generosity. I had been
sending money home to my father for about the same
amount of time, and now I knew where the money
was really going. By the end of the day, there
was a long line of people waiting to talk to
me about my father. But instead of a q I
(18:53):
saw the streets of Simla. In every phase, I saw
a house, brit shop or a school, some part of
the city that my father had reached and so laid
out before me I saw the whole map of my home,
but most notably, my mother approached me. My mother and
(19:17):
father had been married for fifty nine years. She lost
not only her husband, but her lifelong companion, her best friend.
I was most worried for her, but throughout the whole service,
she was cracking up. She rode with laughter from my stories.
(19:38):
After the ceremony, she said to me and Raju, thank
you for celebrating your father's life like this. I did
not know I was married to such a great man.
May God bless you. I say this often when I
(19:59):
speak about man Dad. I think many people in my
line of work would overlook my father's story. No one
in the industry is racing to make a film about
his life. He wasn't rich or famous, but he was extraordinary.
And as I looked around an auditorium that was buzzing
with love for him, I knew it was because he
(20:22):
had followed his own advice, the same advice he passed
down to me, and the same advice I'm passing down
to you. Live life. That's all for this season. I'm
(20:57):
an open care be kind to yourself, and thank you
for listening. Palm Cares is a production of I Heart Radio.
(21:18):
I'm your host a pump Care Our executive producer Is Mangis,
Senior producer Julian Weller, Associate producer Morgan Lavoy. Sound design
and mixing by Julian Weller and Dan Bauza. Music by
Aaron Kauffman. Production support from Emily Marinov and Mary du
(21:40):
Writing by Lucas Riley, Matt Riddle, Margon Lavoy and Julian Weller.
Lucas Riley and Matt Riddle are our story editors. Thanks
to Sicken par Herman, Desuza, Godwin Amana, Sidium Studios, Cornel
Byrne and Bob Pittman. Yeah M Live, Lift, dangelously, live, fiercely,
(22:11):
live completely, and a sense of wonder, which is something
that every human being loses. It's so important to retain
that
In the beginning of this show, I told you about
this mission I am on. Over the course of nineteen chapters.
I wanted to tell you stories from my life, the
lessons I've learned through swimming and falling and flying. I
also wanted to bring you stories from other people in
other places in the world, stories to help us remember
(00:31):
the sweetness of life, everyday acts of kindness, and the
differences we can make in the world around us. Together,
we have met wizards in New Zealand, caught ducklings in Washington,
traveled across the world on bicycle, and I've taken you
through my hometown him. Today, I want to do something different.
(00:57):
Instead of bringing two stories together, I want to tell
you about the many people connected by a single story.
My father's So today is about my dad and how
through trains, newspapers and the mall road is light reached
every corner of our little town. Welcome to one of them.
(01:20):
Cares Chapter twenty, Live Life. My father pushed Cannot Care.
Was full of kindness. He always said, the easiest thing
in the world is to make somebody else happy, and
(01:42):
he practiced it in ways big and small. When my
father would go out to buy groceries. If he met
somebody on the way home and they said, push, what
are you carring? You would say, oh, I'm care eggs
or whatever it was that day, and then he would
(02:03):
suddenly realize, maybe this man also needs eggs, so he
would take out four or five eggs and give them
to him. This was how my father bought groceries. Thank you.
He sometimes came home empty handed and was greeted by
a very heavy hand from my mother. They used to
(02:25):
have major arguments about it. My mother would say, what
the hell is wrong with you? You're basically taking those
things from our home, and my father would say he
needed it also, so I gave it to him, barking
story samand it. Of course, sometimes this generosity got him
in trouble. One day, my father bought two lipsticks for
(02:49):
my mother, and when he was heading back home, he
ran into a local woman, Mrs Malutra, and when she
asked what he was carrying, he ended up giving her
one of the lipsticks. It was the biggest mistake of
his life. That was the day my mother really gave
it to him. She said, how dare you give lipstick
to somebody? And he would say, what will you do?
(03:11):
With two lipsticks, and that's how it always went. Even today,
my mother says that he was too charitable and let's
say complaint, but he would say past Japan set them on.
What do I need to save money for? Let's give
it to people. Nobody takes money for himself for herself
(03:32):
up there. My father did funny little things too. Once
he stole my phone and raided my director. He copied
down every actor's number, and soon he began to call
them up and he hello, alkor I'm push push father, yes, yes,
(03:53):
how are you everybody? Fine? Family? Fine father, find mother,
fine wife, fine kids. Fine. Over time he'd be friended
so many famous actors, Jackie Shroff, Mnder And like me,
my father wouldn't mind the spotlight. He would get into
every picture he could. He would even take pictures with
my fans on his phone. Then he would take down
(04:14):
the fan's phone number and send them the photos. He
was a funny man and he had a big heart.
So now that you know a little about him, I'm
going to start the story at the end and tell
you about my last moments with my father. In two
(04:38):
thousand twelve, my father got very sick. He was taking antibiotics,
and he had a rare reaction. The antibiotics changed his
ability to taste, so water became like acid and food
became like sand. Over the course of a few months,
my father began to staff. We took him to the
(05:01):
hospital and did everything we could. The doctor gave him
food through tubes and infused him with vitamins, but this
condition only worsened. Eventually, the doctor said there's nothing more
we can do. Of course, this broke my heart, but
my mother and my brother Raju, and I knew we
(05:22):
had to be brave for my father. So we took
him home and made him as comfortable as we could.
Some time passed and I was invited to a wedding
in Goa. I was hesitant to go too far from home.
My dad didn't seem to be getting better, but he
also didn't seem to be getting any worse. So I
(05:46):
decided to go. But as I was preparing to leave,
my brother called. He said, he wants to talk to you.
I canceled my trip. When I got home, Raju was
standing out shut of my father's room. He said he
(06:06):
wants to say something, and he's insisting that he will
only tell you. I took a deep breath and entered.
By the time, he had very little energy left. It
was too hard for him to speak. But I saw
there was a blank piece of paper and depend on
(06:28):
his chest. I went to his side and said, Papa,
I'm here. When you mar you wanted to tell me
something with great difficulty. He nodded his head. Then he
started writing something. He even hit the paper from me
(06:53):
so that I couldn't see what he was writing. It
was hard for me to watch. His movements were slow
and labored, but every so often he would look up
with an expression that seemed to say, don't you speak,
no cheating, which made me smile. So he was weak,
(07:15):
his spirit was strong as ever m and he finished writing.
He let the note fall to his chest. I slowly
reached for the paper. I wasn't sure if I was
ready to read what he had to tell me, But
when I turned the note over, I saw there were
(07:37):
only faint lines dragged across the paper, no words. I
looked at my father, who was staring at me expectantly.
In his mind, he thought he had written me a message,
but in reality he didn't have the energy to actually
form letters on the page. I didn't know what to do.
(07:58):
My father was clearly waiting for an answer. I had
no idea what he had written. The last thing I
wanted to do was to make him feel defeated, So
I said, yes, yes, of course, Papa, you're right here,
You're you're right, of course. Do you take? Go on,
take to Luke Mud. My father's face fell. He was disappointed.
(08:20):
My mind race trying to figure out how else could
I respond to this mystery message. But our interaction had
exhausted my father. He closed his eyes and drifted off
to sleep. As he slept, I turned the paper upside
down and sideways, trying to understand. I left his room,
(08:43):
consumed by curiosity and then guilt. I worried that I
had missed my only chance to hear my father's last words.
At various moments in my life, my father had caught
me in a lie, and each time he had taught
me the importance of honest team. I was going to
prove to him that I had listened. Later, I went
(09:06):
back to my father's room and waited for him to
wake up, and he opened his eyes. I said quickly,
I'm sorry, Papa, I couldn't read what you wrote. To me,
But I want to understand what what? What? What did
you want to tell me? My father opened his mouth
(09:28):
and I leaned in very close, and with all of
his strength, he whispered two words, live life. Those were
his last two words to me. Twenty minutes later, my
(09:49):
father passed away. At that time, all I wanted was
to be alone and let his words sink in. But
there was no time. We needed to plan the funeral.
Raju and I wanted to spare my mother this burden,
so we decided to short the details ourselves. A traditional
Hindu funeral is supposed to be very, very solemn. All
(10:14):
the guests dressed in white. We sing somber hymns. That's
what Raja and I had intended to do. We sat
down to plant the ceremony, but as we did, I
couldn't get my father's words out of my head. Live life,
Live life, Live life. Suddenly a blooded out. I think
(10:36):
we should book a rock band, rock band. Lab Raju
looked at me like I had lost my senses. I
repeated myself, I think we should call a rock band
who will sing our father's favorite songs, and let's tell
people to wear colorful clothes. What are you talking about Rajas? Confused,
think of who our father was. We should not moan
(10:57):
his lost, We should celebrate his life. So we called
everyone and said, in four days we are going to
have a prayer ceremony. Please come, and when you come,
please wear your most colorful clothes and bring your funniest
stories of my father. We want to honor his memory
with joy and laughter. The day of the ceremony, I
(11:20):
began to second guess myself. Did I make a mistake?
What if the concept was too strange? What if no
one shows up? I was getting nervous. To take my
mind off the service, I decided to pick up a
copy of my hat's favorite Shimla newspaper. That the very
much this newspaper was local, I mean really local. To
(11:44):
put it into us terms, if they Marchell was in
New York, it would be printed in Queens and we
called the Queen's Necklace and only cover news from a
three block radius was something like that. But my father
was ast with this newspaper, and he and I used
to bicker about its importance. I would tell him about
(12:04):
a fantastic review of one of my films, and my
father would say, what does the Muchell have to say
about it. I would invite him to a premiere of
a movie I had started, and he would say, I
will see the film after that. The Way Marchell review
is published, I could have been written up in Time magazine,
But my father would say, talk to me when you
(12:27):
were in the Way Much. There was one time when
I was talking to my father and I told him
that I felt like I had entered a golden period
in my career. But to this, my father said, I
don't know a bit too. I have not seen anything
about you in the Way Much lately. Can you believe it?
So I told him, fine, I want to talk to
the editor of The Way Muchel and settled this once
(12:49):
for all. So the next day my father called me
from the Way Much a editor's office. The editor, who
was probably only a part time editor and a full
time street sweeper practically of his German. I answered the phone,
so listen to your mr. Editor. If you don't carry
one story about me each week for the rest of
your life, I am going to have to buy your
(13:09):
newspaper and write the stories myself. So from that day on,
it became my manager's job to send the editors some
material on me. The rabbit us to carry today. An
opum kid smiled this weekend anpum care to a walk.
But when I opened their way much along the day
(13:31):
of my father's prayer ceremony, an obituary for my father
was on the front page. The article began, we will
not see Pushka nat on the streets of Mall Road now.
The obituary carried on for three pages. In that moment,
I was overwhelmed with emotion. I knew that there were
(13:53):
plenty of people like this editor who had crossed paths
with my father and had some memory something they needed
to say about him, and by sharing these stories we
would truly be honoring his life. At that moment, I
knew that even if no one came to this strange service,
it was the right thing to do. But everyone came.
(14:20):
We held the service in the Haradamahrikisha Temple. It was
an auditorium that could hold a couple hundred people, but
on the day more than six hundred people packed in
for the service, relatives, neighbors, local vendors, directors, film stars,
the ex Chief Nistry of Kashmir. Every chair was full
and people were even spilling into the aisles and sitting
(14:42):
on the stairs. When the service began, I got up
in front of all these people moaning, and I told
the funniest stories I could think of. I told them
about the bread cellar. I told them about the in
apple pastries, an event. I told them about two lipsticks.
(15:06):
This was not done at Indian career ceremonies. And I
went on and on and everyone laughed and they laughed hard.
People were falling from their seats. And after me, more
people got on stage. My wife told hilarious stories. Then
my first director but got on stage and made me
laugh until tears rolled down my face. The other thing
(15:29):
which is never execated, to put their hands into the pumps,
in fact, I often. And then there was the band.
When I first suggested working the rock band, Raju had
looked at me funnily, and yes, we did get a
(15:51):
rock band. They weren't playing led Zeppelin, though I had
asked them to play all of my father's favorite Bollywood
songs journey Okay see look Jink Miller, But instead of
playing the tune slowly and mournfully, I asked the band
(16:13):
to play them fast. Look. That was a celebration. So
we laughed, and we danced and we sang, and I
knew my father would have loved it. Yea. After the service,
(16:39):
crowds of people came up to me to talk about
my dad. A stranger came up to me and said,
do you remember getting a call at to thirtm in
the morning from your father on a train asking you
to speak to a passenger? Yes, I said, slowly, that
was me, The man said, excitedly. Your father entered the
coach compartment and announced, everyone, do you know whose father?
(17:01):
I am? A palm kid, I must admit I laughed
at your father. He heard me laughing and said, you
don't believe me that. I'll prove it to you. Then
he called you at two thirty in the morning and
he called you something I don't remember, bit too. I answered, yes,
but too. Your father said, but to talk to this man.
He doesn't believe that I am your father. So you
(17:22):
got on the line Hello, but I didn't recognize your voice,
probably because you were so sleepy. So I said, okay,
how do I know you are really on the palm care?
Give me some famous dialogue from one of your films.
And then in the middle of the night you gave
me a monologue Dr Dang creates war. Yes, yes you're hello, Hello,
(17:47):
this is the stranger and I started quoting lines to
each other like long lost co stars, giggling the entire time.
Yea undt donible. Then the Shimla mailman came up and
said he remember how your dad would send you letters
(18:08):
addressed to a pum care the film star Bombay. I
think he did that just so I could get a laugh.
Then one person told me that my father had been
sending him five hundred rupees a month for the last
ten years. And then another person came up to me
and told me the same thing, and then another, and
then another, until at least twenty people told me the
(18:31):
same story of my father's quiet generosity. I had been
sending money home to my father for about the same
amount of time, and now I knew where the money
was really going. By the end of the day, there
was a long line of people waiting to talk to
me about my father. But instead of a q I
(18:53):
saw the streets of Simla. In every phase, I saw
a house, brit shop or a school, some part of
the city that my father had reached and so laid
out before me I saw the whole map of my home,
but most notably, my mother approached me. My mother and
(19:17):
father had been married for fifty nine years. She lost
not only her husband, but her lifelong companion, her best friend.
I was most worried for her, but throughout the whole service,
she was cracking up. She rode with laughter from my stories.
(19:38):
After the ceremony, she said to me and Raju, thank
you for celebrating your father's life like this. I did
not know I was married to such a great man.
May God bless you. I say this often when I
(19:59):
speak about man Dad. I think many people in my
line of work would overlook my father's story. No one
in the industry is racing to make a film about
his life. He wasn't rich or famous, but he was extraordinary.
And as I looked around an auditorium that was buzzing
with love for him, I knew it was because he
(20:22):
had followed his own advice, the same advice he passed
down to me, and the same advice I'm passing down
to you. Live life. That's all for this season. I'm
(20:57):
an open care be kind to yourself, and thank you
for listening. Palm Cares is a production of I Heart Radio.
(21:18):
I'm your host a pump Care Our executive producer Is Mangis,
Senior producer Julian Weller, Associate producer Morgan Lavoy. Sound design
and mixing by Julian Weller and Dan Bauza. Music by
Aaron Kauffman. Production support from Emily Marinov and Mary du
(21:40):
Writing by Lucas Riley, Matt Riddle, Margon Lavoy and Julian Weller.
Lucas Riley and Matt Riddle are our story editors. Thanks
to Sicken par Herman, Desuza, Godwin Amana, Sidium Studios, Cornel
Byrne and Bob Pittman. Yeah M Live, Lift, dangelously, live, fiercely,
(22:11):
live completely, and a sense of wonder, which is something
that every human being loses. It's so important to retain
that
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