I hated studying when I was a kid but I did well in school anyway. The trick was to be very attentive in class and listen to everything the teachers said. I rarely put in any work at home. I loved sports and enjoyed playing all kinds of games — marble, chess, cricket, tennis, football and hockey.

I am the second among my brothers and sisters. I would bully my younger brothers and sisters quite a bit. Taking advantage of the fact that I was older than them, I made them do things for me. I would tell them, ‘‘Let’s see who can get me a glass of water faster.’’ And both of them would run to fetch me a glass of water.

I began reading like crazy when I was barely six. I started with Enid Blyton like every other child. The other books I read as a kid were Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and The Three Investigators series.

I would come home from school, make myself loads of jam sandwiches and lie down on a bed with a heap of books on the side. Tucking into the sandwiches while I read furiously took care of the better part of the day. I would get Rs 20 every month as pocket money and I spent all of it on books. Those days we were not allowed to watch too many films. We only got to watch one in three or four months.

Even though I was naughty, I did have a sense of responsibility. If my parents told me to do something, they could be sure that I would do it on time. When we went down to play in the building compound, I had to ensure that no one stepped out of its confines.

I would regularly get into fights with other kids in school. I would either beat them up or get bashed up. It happened on a regular basis till I was in Standard VIII. And then in Standard IX, I was shifted to another school where everyone was so proper that I became much quieter and started behaving myself.

I was closer to my mother as a kid because my father was very strict. We were really quite scared of him. So we always tried to keep out of his way.

But I was very lucky to have had an exciting childhood.