By Jagmohan Singh Barhok
(28 August 1920- 19 June 1991)
Sending birthday wishes to your father is the perfect way to show him how much meaning he brings to your life. The bond between a father and child are everlasting and although words cannot capture the love completely, they can have power and hold strong emotion. A birthday is a wonderful time to celebrate the happiness of having a friend or family member brought into the world on that special day.
For decades, Dad has been a pillar and a founder in his entire family who helped everyone in general and his sisters’ families in particular throughout his life. He helped his nephews fulfill their dreams of going to London and guaranteed huge amounts in early 1960s and helped others get a permanent job in the SBI, the premiere Banking Organization in the country.
A person like me is considered to be lucky. I say this because I have had an amazing teacher all these years. He was a master craftsman whose expertise in English, French, & Urdu was acknowledged by many including Firaq Gorakhpuri, the well known Urdu poet and Head of the English Department at the Allahabad University who had once said that in India only two people knew English-Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (the first Vice President & second President of India) & Firaq Gorakhpuri. I learnt some tips of writing from dad like using 3-4 adjectives and verbs in a sentence with aplomb & grace. Dad contributed over 4000 articles to the leading dailies and periodicals -Screen, Filmfare, Pointer, Indian Express, Surya India, Observer, Mystery, Movie, Society, Gentleman, Take 22, Sun, National Herald, Patriot, Pioneer, Film Mirror,& Northern India Patrika to name some. He also won many writing contests. As Agent Imperial Bank of India & later SBI he met so many top personalities the likes of JRD Tata, Birla, J K Singhaniya, Akbar Ali, former Governor, Rajasthan, Sumitra Nandan Pant, B. K. Nehru , P.N. Mehta- Director Escorts Limited, Jyoti Basu, & Homi Bhabha. Olympian Balbir Singh Senior, & Inderjeet Singh Tulsi were dad’s friends in 1950s.
