Who is Hemadpant, and what was his character like before he began documenting Sai Baba's life?

As explained in Chapter 2, Hemadpant is the name of the author who composed the "Sai Leela" book, with his name appearing at the end of every chapter. The text introduces a sub-story to explain how he received this name. Before this, the author describes his own initial character as being quite flawed. He states that he was mischievous, talkative, cynical, and critical. Furthermore, he was arrogant about his own knowledge, possessed a logic-driven mind, and was always proud of his wisdom, which made him prone to argumentation. He admits he knew nothing of a Satguru's greatness and had a "bad intellect."