Dehradun, Aug. 3 -- Nilanjana Singh Roy

My friend, the author, who has since grown in stature, could not stop laughing, not till the tears were streaming down his cheeks. After a while, we too joined in the raucous laughter, which seemed funnier as the time slipped by.

Professor Sudhakar Misra and I had been colleagues in the local college. His parents were living in Dehradun with his younger brother Kusmakar. This tale begins when Kusmakar was boarded out by the Air Force and has not found employment since. In the 1970s, the family decided that we two would take him (for he did seem slightly touched!) for psychiatric treatment to Noor Manzil in Lucknow. It was the best mental health facility in undivided Uttar Pradesh. The train reserv...