There is so much of youth in Prof. Bhatia - the 84-year-old young man.

No wonder, his friends arrange his each birthday with gusto, some of them even aspiring to learn the tricks he plays with life. But, every time Prof. Bhatia dodges their queries, leaving all at sea. I am lucky, as he recently budged to my persistent quizzing.

“What gets you kicking Professor?” I kept asking him for over three months. One fine day, he yielded: “A game of football and divine imagination.”

No. There are so many things other than these which keep Prof. Bhatia erect. He is a fantastic human being and an out of this world poet. A good chess player too. To me, he is also an invaluable friend.

I have always seen him smiling, and extending his scrawny right hand to all who choose to wish or ignore him.

Born at Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, Prof. Neb Raj Bhatia migrated to India a couple of months before India became independent. Starting as a typist, he got educated in French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Urdu and Persian besides doing his MA in English from Punjab University, the credentials that earned him different Central Government jobs and visits to various countries across the globe.

The “Spanish Professor”, as he is called, also worked as interpretor-cum-translator with some top Indian leaders including Indira Gandhi whom he refused to give tuitions, saying: “One cannot create the class room atmosphere of teaching and learning in a wealthy person’s living room. You have to come to my class.”

Presently, I believe, he has more than a few ailments including asthma, but that does not deter him from taking his regular dose of six-to-eight pegs of wine, while his all time buddy – a hat - silently keeps an eye on him. Surely, Prof. Bhatia seems to have taken more from alcohol than alcohol has taken from him. Today, as I wait for his collection of Urdu poems “Awaargi”, may I put to the professor the famous lines from the film Arth:

“Tum itna jo muskura rahe ho; Kya gam hai jisko chhupa rahe ho

Tum itna jo muskura rahe ho…

Aankhon mein nami, Hansi labon par; Kya haal hai, Kya dikha rahe ho

Ban jayenge zahar peete peete; Yeh ashk jo peeye ja rahe ho

Tum itna jo muskura rahe ho…”