Early Childhood and family background (keep this name instead of “Early Childhood”)
Daulat Singh Kothari was born in Udaipur on 6 July1906. His paternal grandfather was Mohan Lalji, whowas working in the Customs Department, and died inthe 1918 plague. Mohan Lalji had a son, Fateh Lalji,and a daughter. Fateh Lalji took his MA in Englishfrom the Allahabad University, appearing as a privatecandidate. He was a popular teacher, who first workedas a headmaster in a government school at Bhilwara,and later as a headmaster in a government high schoolatUdaipur. (It is perhaps his father’s influence thatinspired Daulat Singh to fall in love with teaching inhislaterlife.)FatehLalji’sfirstwifediedearlywithoutanychild.By his second marriage to Lahar Bai(niece Ordia) he had four sons (Daulat Singh, MadanSingh, Duleh Singh and Pratap Singh) and a daughter(who died early). Among the sons, Pratap Singh is theonly survivor at the present time. Mohan Singh (b. 1909)retired from service in the government of Rajasthan.DulehSingh(b.1912)retiredasreaderinthe Departmentofphysics,UdaipurUniversity.PratapSingh (b. 1914) is a paper technologist who served asManagingDirectorofNEPAMills.

Fateh Lalji kept indifferenthealth and, after hisfather’s death, at the persuasion of his friend BapnaSahib,the thenHome Minister of the State, he went toIndoreformedicaltreatment,where he died inJune 1918. Bapna Sahib took Daulat Singh {who wasnot yet 12 when his father died) under his care. DaulatSingh matriculated from the Indore Shivaji Rao HighSchool in 1922 with science. He could not have donescience had he stayed at Udaipur, where there was noprovisionforscience- teachingatthattime.Aftercompleting his intermediate in science from Udaipur,Daulat Singh, it appears, wanted to become a watch­maker, but, thanks to a special scholarship awarded bythe Maharana of Udaipur at that time HonourableMaharnaShriman Fateh Singhji (who was a very intelligent and strong leader having a very tall figure) on the basis of his outstandingperformance in the intermediate examination, he wasabletogotoAllahabadUniversityforhishigherstudies.

Daulat Singh married Sujan Kanwar (nee Surana).With her gentleand self-effacing personality,Mrs Kothariwasindeedanidealcompanionandlife-partner for him. It is in the fitness of things that hisfirstson,Lakshman,followedhisfather’sfootsteps•asa physicist; like his father he was a professor in thephysics department of Delhi University, and, like hisfather, continued asEmeritusProfessor for many years. He expired few years ago.Lakshman’sresearchinterestsareinthefieldsofneutron physics and solid-state physics. The second son,Lalit,isadistinguished(retired)professorofphysiology and currently staying at Jaipur and is around 92 years old but very active. The youngest son, Jeevan Singh, is a well-knownarchitect.