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did not believe in marriage; she did not believe in
many things. He was a brilliant man, no doubt
about his genius, but when it came to life, I didn’t
approve. As an artiste I admired him and always
appreciated good work.
I wept and cried, kept on asking her “aren’t you
coming home?” and she did not answer at all. In
fact, the last day when I was leaving from Calcutta,
she didn’t even come to see me off, Bhupen da
showed up and he said “she will stay on with me.”
I felt let down by Kalpana. Children don’t know
what all parents go through to bring them up. I
realised crying was of no use because she had
already made up her mind. The first few months
of living with Bhupen da she did not respond to
us very much. And all I yearned for was to hear
Kalpana with her mother in Germany Kalpana’s voice.
It was difficult to find like-minded people. When Kalpana and Bhupen da lived together and she
Kalpana had left I thought she was coming back managed his life. Bhupen da would perform in
but I happened to open her cupboard and found shows and that was their livelihood. He gave
that everything was gone. She had left for good. It music for her first documentary, and even later on
came as a big shock and I burst into tears. I asked all Kalpana’s films music was done by him. And
Shyam to write to her, and he did, asking her people who loved him would say the film is doing
to come back and join him in film-making. She so well because of Bhupen da’s music. Whatever
refused. I was teaching in a school that time and the people were saying – the music enhanced the
as soon as the vacation began, I left to get Kalpana film. I used to feel that if she would have remained
back. in Bombay, her life would have been better. She
Kalpana had begun to live with Bhupen da had already worked with Shyam and she was a
openly. I tried to convince Kalpana to come back talented girl, she was ahead of her times.
home with me. Yet she refused. The shock of not Years later there was a slump and Bhupen da
only her having left home for good but the way she wasn’t getting work. When everything began
was living crushed my heart. We had brought her to slow down in Calcutta, Kalpana wrote to me
up with such ideas and ambitions and there it was saying she was coming back to Bombay.
Bhupen da’s home, his way of thinking – and he
was a difficult man. He would have mood swings,
he had a temper, and he was an alcoholic. Though
she says that her father was also a heavy drinker
and she escaped from this home to another home
thinking she will find happiness… but I don’t
know, it felt the same. Bhupen da would always
have a flask of alcohol with him.
I saw her living with all that. They didn’t get
married then but she was living like a partner. In
the beginning Bhupen da could not accept their
relationship because he was conscious of his
image. And Kalpana was a person who wanted
things her own way; she was very bold and
unconventional right from the beginning. She Memories are made of these
33 SENIORS TODAY | Issue #8 | February 15, 2020
