“‘That motor garage is no place for you’...

GULZAR, 86

This momentous encounter with director Bimal Roy led the lyricist—and later filmmaker—to give up his job as a mechanic, give songwriting for films a chance, and imbue it with a sensorial richness never seen before

The edifice of our life follows no blueprint, nor does it take the shape you imagine. You just have to keep exploring it.

Our family had moved to Delhi just before Partition. There was a shop on or books by Teerathram Firozpuri. It was two annas a day, and I would run through a lot in one night, making the booklender wonder about the profitability of the trade. One day, he gave me a book that he thought nobody cared for much. That book—Rabindranath Tagore’s my interests, my entire life. Now I muse: how could this refugee from Punjab, who ran a lending stall for newspapers, magazines and books—and made a living offering unlimited reading at two annas a day, or four annas a week—have known he was changing my life?