My father was the youngest of his father's three sons and two daughters. In addition to his own five children, my grandfather Kashinathpant had to look after two of his brother's - a son, (my "Uncle" Gangadharrao) and a daughter. When my father was three years old, his mother died, leaving Kashinathpant to cook for the children, clothe them, educate them and work ten hours a day for his meagre salary of some twelve rupees a month.

My grandfather wanted his sons and his nephew to be well educated. Uncle Ramuanna passed his Matriculation examination and got a job as a teacher. Uncle Vasudevrao studied at Grant Medical College, Bombay, and started his practice at Sholapur. "Uncle" Gangadharrao, after qualifying as a doctor, settled down at Hyderabad (now in the State of Andhra Pradesh).Not so my father. As determined in spirit as he was frail in body, Laxmanrao's failure to master the three R's must be laid at the door of his devotion to two hobbies. The first of these was to take apart any mechanical object that he came across and reason out how and why it worked. The second was to paint : he would draw or paint with anything he could lay his hands on - chalks, water-colours, even pieces of charcoal. When he was fifteen, he informed my grandmother that he wanted to give up school, go to Bombay and join the Jamshedji Jeejibhoy School of Arts to learn painting. My outraged grandfather refused to consent. he warned his youngest son that no painter could earn enough to maintain himself and a family.

The warning passed over Laxmanrao's head. he appealed to his eldest brother, who cherished a strong affection for him.