Even in his school days, he was always seen reading some book or other in english, Hindi or tamil. He had read almost all the novels of Kalki and Devan before he was 16! Even by the age of 12, when he was a Praveen in Hindi, he had read all the novels of Premchand, a great social reformer. He had a great admiration for Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, Shakespeare and Winston Churchill. When he was preparing for IAS exams, I have seen him discussing with 'Delhi' a man of erudition on the famous books of Will Durant and Arthur Kolstyler ,great philosophers. His taste for all good things in this world is something astonishing and could never be copied. It was God's gift to him.
Vasu was also a great music lover. He enjoyed Ariyakudi and GNB so much that in his leisure time, he was imitating their voice to entertain his brothers and sisters. He loved film music too. But we used to make fun of him on his face, when he attempted to sing like Mukesh. He used to call Mukesh as Moookesh to mean that he was singing through his nose. He aways supported me for my interest in Film music and encouraged me when I took to playing the harmonica.
I was a great fan of Shankar jaikishan. When he was collector of Alibagh where Shankar was having his beautiful bungalow he invited me to Alibagh so that he could arrange for my meeting with Shankar. It was really thrilling for me that I would be meeting a great music director with the help of my brother but due to certain circumstances beyond my control, I could not make it to happen. But after about 20 years, after this
incident, I went to meet Vasu in Shankar Jaikishan avenue at Church gate!
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