This week Manoj Bajpayee rushed to Delhi to be by his ailing father’s side.

When I inquired about his father’s health Manoj said, “The ailments are all related to old age. He is stable one day unstable the next.We can only wait and watch.”

Manoj also spoke about the final futility of all ambitions. “Death is the final truth, the rest…everything else is just irrelevant.”

As he keeps a constant vigil on his father’s health Manoj hopes for a recovery.

In June, Manoj had hurriedly left Mumbai for his native village Belwa in the Bettiah district of Bihar to meet his ailing father..Manoj’s wife and daughter had also accompanied him.

Says Manoj, “I am very close to both my parents.They named me after their favourite actor Manoj Kumar. My father had to struggle to put my siblings and I through our basic education.From my childhood I dreamt of being an actor. My father supported me in my dream. That’s how a boy from Bettiah with no connections in the film industry dared to venture into cinema.”