Dehradun, May 5 -- Uttar Pradesh is very close to my heart. And for good reason. I grew up in Dehradun in the 1960s when it was a part of UP. All my childhood memories still revolve around it. I studied in school, college, university, married, had my only child as a resident of UP. My mother and father were cremated in UP. In the year 2000, my umbilical cord with UP got cut, when Uttarakhand was created. As luck would have it, at that time I was the Principal of DPS about 80 kms away from the capital of UP, Lucknow. Dehradun became the capital of the newly carved state of Uttarakhand. With one stroke of the pen, I became a resident of Uttarakhand. But too much of UP flows in my blood. And hence my love for it.

I am a part of the rich his...