I was born in a small town in Amin Nagar Sarai (Tehsil Baghpat, Distt. Meerut) in a well to do family on 10th May 1927. My ancestors belonged to a very well known and popular clan. They were addressed as ‘Seth Ji’ in the whole town and were in the money lending business along with being a ‘Zamidar’. My grand father Seth Asa Ram Ji, was the only son of his father, Seth Kallu Mal, from whom he inherited the money lending business & the ownership of vast cultivable land. But he fell in great difficulties. Times had vastly changed. The money lending profession and the Zamidari, were both defamed in the society and the money lenders and zamidars were looked upon with scorn by the general public.

When the borrowers became defaulters, they became defiant and started having feelings of animosity against the money lenders, with the result that civil suits had to be filed in the courts of law for recovery of debts and daily rounds of courts became a routine.

My grand father was a very kind hearted and compassionate person. His heart ached at the poverty and misery of his borrowers and, sometimes, he used to waive off the interest and the principal as well. But even then, he could not earn their goodwill.