Being secular...

I (we) celebrate Christmas more than any christian after my son was born on 25 Dec 1988. Frankly, I started going to midnight masses of 24 December after my sister Vijaya was blessed with twin sons on 24 Dec 1982. I have been closely associated with hundreds of Christians and yes, my musical instruments teacher were always a Christian. Interestingly, my best friends of Vizag, where I have done my schooling and MBBS were Muslims. The famous orchestra of Vizag ...Shruti was conceptualized and started by me and my very close friend a well known guitarist and a drummer Mr Yusuf Khan of Visakhapatnam in 1980. Yusuf Khan was very close to me and I used to be the first recipient of Seviyan of Eid from dear Yusuf every year as long as I lived in Vizag ( Visakhapatnam ).
My best friend during my intermediate days at Mrs. AVN College of Visakhapatnam was Gurmeet Singh. He was my best friend and also a teacher of Physics although he was my classmate. His father was a priest of Gurudwara, a granthi and also a caretaker of the Gurudwara which was located next to police barracks Visakhapatnam those days. I used to sleep in the same Gurudwara very often and I was almost a part of their family. That's the place, I learnt Japji Saheb ...even now, I can recite Japji Saheb without any reference...you can watch me reciting the same on my YouTube...Col Pendyala Pradeep, Anaesthesiologist.