Berhampur People: NARGIS NATRAJAN

‘The place that had clawed itself out of the Madras Presidency of British India and made it’s presence felt in Orissa. A place called Berhampur- my Daddy’s hometown and the city where I was born. Just to annoy me, Shankar often referred to it as the ‘filthiest village in the world’. But for the Alice in me it is a wonderland. For the child in me it is a Disneyland. For the adult in me, Berhampur was, is and always will be… Paradise!’ (This is an excerpt from Nargis Natarajan's book...'Daddy')

Nargis Natrajan's `Daddy: A Bouquet of Memories', is memoir and tribute to her father, Dr. Ferose Ali, affectionately known as the `poor man's doctor in Berhampur. For a girl from the unpretentious town of Berhampur to have written an excellent book of such richness is commendable. Although the book is about the father of Nargis, in a deeper sense filled with local flavour it is more like a historical account of life in the provincial town of Berhampur and its progressive environemnt in the 70s. Dr. Ferose Ali stood out by his iconoclastic and unorthodox views- a man of goodwill and a great humanist. It is these idealistic aspects of the father’s personality that are the substance of Nargis’ literary imagination.

Source: Sulekha, The Hindu etc.