Saumya Tandon on Father’s Day: One day, I shall return to writing for my dad

Actor Saumya Tandon misses her father, late BG Tandon, each moment of her life. Whatever she is today, she credits it all to his father. One thing that Saumya can’t thank her ‘super proud’ father enough for is the fact that he instilled a lot of confidence in her.

“I used to write and scribble my thoughts when I was as young as six and he recognised the talent and encouraged and motivated me to write. He’d often say that writing is the true calling in my life,” says Saumya, whose father was a doctor and a writer, who has written several books in his career including 17 books on different branches of English literature.

Saumya also shares that while she was in school, she used to go to various radio stations all over the country to recite poems and all the poems she wrote between the age of six and 16 years was published and also nominated for the Modi Young Writers’ National Award.

“My father used to leave his work and take me around. He gave me classics to read. I had finished Children’s Shakespeare by the age of 12. I was taken to all Hindi big poets recitations. He used to read out Wordsworth, Shelly and Keats when I was in school. He also made me read easier versions of Gita, Kuran, Guru Granth Sahib, Kabeer,” she adds.

The actor feels that it was because of this extensive reading, that she got an understanding of the world. “I owe my fantastic upbringing to my father, he gave me knowledge and encouraged me to hone my talent, and most importantly, asked me to question everything in life and never follow anything blindly. I think that’s the best a father can do for a kid. He was much ahead of his times in thinking. I miss him every single moment of my life. One day I shall return to writing for him,” says Saumya.