Nivedita Basu: In our time most kids wanted to become a doctor or engineer… just for the fun of it, I used to say that I want to be a sweeper in America

 s a kid, Nivedita Basu was quite notorious, just like her daughter Oyshee Yadunath karimbil ,3.8 yrs old. The writer-producer-director loved playing with friends in the park so much that most days she used to be literally dragged back home.

“During our time there were not many options as careers were concerned. Most people wanted to be a doctor or an engineer… I remember for the longest time, just for the fun of it, I used to say that I want to be a sweeper in America… (Laughs) But then me and my sister wanted to pursue the medical profession because we were close to our grandfather, who used to run a charitable Hospital in Vrindavan at that time, and we wanted to carry his work forward,” she says.

Talking about how her parents were, Nivedita shares that her father was in the army and therefore extremely strict and competitive. “It was like if you came second there would be a war for him. But my mother was just the opposite, happy about everything whether I play or study, she just wanted me to be a good human being. They are still the same. I think this interesting mix of my parents moulded me well,” adds the writer, who was good in studies and also held the position of school sports captain because of her good performance in sports.

Interestingly, both her parents were into sports as well. “So they would encourage us to play something. As a child, my favourites were swimming, cycling and playing table tennis. I still do all these things, except that squash has replaced table tennis,” she says, adding that along with her friends, she would spend five to six hours daily at the pool near her home.  Revealing the craziest thing she did in school to help her classmates, Nivedita adds, “I used to take the responsibility of the mistakes committed by my friends a lot of the time. Since I was quite naughty myself, our teachers anyway believed that I had only done those things. The good part was that I was one of the top two students and that used to compensate for everything. Imagine if I was not good in studies and also doing all those notorious things, I would have probably gotten rusticated from my school at an early age.”
Nivedita had started pursuing engineering when after her first semester got over her father suggested she take up advertising given her creative bent of mind.  “But if I would not have got the opportunity to work with Channel V, I would not have taken a career in showbiz seriously,” she concludes.