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Naniji's memoires
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To start with, Naniji belonged to a very Royal Family, her Father Rai Bahadur Banke Bihari Lal being the District & Sessions Judge of his time, and tremendously respected by the people of the city. When he used to travel in the city in his Royal two horsed Bagghi, people used to stand on both sides of the road in awe and respect. She was brought up Royally, not knowing the hardships of life. A born scholar, her father arranged different tutors for different subjects at home. She went on to qualify “Prabhakar”, an exam equivalent to B.A., at the time when education was not prevalent for girls, which was quite an achievement in those days. By virtue of inheriting the lively and jovial nature from her mother, Shiv Rani Kunwar, she was the heart and soul of functions and gatherings. Then the time came when she was only 16 years of age, and it was decided that she was to get married. Who was to be the groom? Kunwar Kailash Shankar Mathur of Fatehpu Sikri. He was the eldest son of his Father, who was the King of 80 villages, owner of the entire mountain ranges in Fatehpur Sikri. They were the “Zamindars” of Fatehpur Sikri, and stayed in the ancestral palace of “Raja Todarmal”, one of the nine jewels of Mughal Emperor “Akbar”. Such was the royalty of her Father, that at her magnificient marriage ceremony, she was presented with buckets full of golden ornaments!, and believe it or not, she had not seen to whom she was married! Well, she remained in her home till the time came for the “gauna”, which is a ceremony in which the bride leaves her home town forever to go to her husbands home, after she is proclaimed to be an adult. Kunwar Kailash Shankar came to Agra to take her away. When she was at the station with her brothers, she complained to her elder brother that one “fat” person is staring at her from a very long time, not knowing all the time that he was the one that she had gotten married to!! She stepped in the Royal Haveli of Fatehpur
Sikri with all the magnificence that could befit Royalty. Naniji
was a person who never lied in her life, and by this virtue she could see what
others couldn’t. Once, while sleeping on the top of the Haveli, she noticed a
feat which nobody else had ever seen. Some distance across from the Haveli, was
the Royal Fort of “Jodh Bai”. To her horror and disbelief, she saw headless
figures, all clad in white, with lanterns in their hands, dancing and merry
making on the terrace of the Palace. She could not believe her eyes, and
immediately tried to waken her mother-in-law and told her what she had seen. Her
mother-in-law hushed the matter by telling her that this happens every Thursday
at 12 p.m. in the night, and that they never harm anybody. After that incident,
she couldn’t sleep peacefully ever in her life, and developed an uncomfortable
sleep pattern. In Fatehpur, she gave birth to Rajkumari & Sarvesh. Naniji saw the golden period of her marriage during that period. After some years went by, came the bad times. Zamindari was lost owing to the policies of independent India. After living for a good period of 12 years, the Family left Fatepur and came to Agra. All was lost, and hardships began for Naniji. She never complained. With a never diminishing smile on her pious face, she managed all the hardships like routine work. In Agra, she gave birth to Beena, Meena, Neeru, Devesh & Gyanesh. It was in this house in “Pratapura” that these kids grew up, inheriting her invaluable qualities and virtues. Hardships continued as Nanaji could not gather the strength to do any other small time business, having seen the imperial days where there were innumerable servants in the house, and wealth, food flowed in abundance. He started selling the bonds from the time of Zamindari to maintain the household. Then came more hardships. There was a time when there was nothing to eat in the house, and the supplies came from Naniji’s Mother’s home. Naniji kept smiling in these days also, firmly believing as the optimist she was, that good days will come. Sarvesh (Bhaiya Mama), being the eldest son, had inherited all the good qualities from Naniji and Nanaji, and went on to complete his M.B.B.S, wearing the same overalls to medical college, which when torn, was lovingly stitched back by younger sister Meena. From then on, he took over the charge of the Family, and never looked back. He had all his sisters and brothers go to college, made all the expenses for the house, and brought back the much needed stability to the house. Naniji couldn’t ask for more. Everybody got married in good Families, much to Naniji and Nanaji’s joy. Sarvesh got married to Uma, who was also a doctor. Naniji couldn’t ask for a better “Bahu”. Uma treated the younger brothers & sisters like her own children, wearing a torn “saari” herself, but giving a new one to Meena or Neeru. Then cam back the good days. Sarvesh migrated to Liberia, West Africa, and went on to become to head of the J.F.K. Medical Centre. Gyanesh also worked in a very good company by virtue of being a Chartered Accountant. Her children brought back the dignity and fame back to the house. Naniji couldn’t ask for more. In his last days, Nanaji developed a very rare skin disease called Pemphigus, and could not recover from it. He died leaving his wife, and seven children. After recovering from this shock, Naniji visited Liberia where she stayed for one year in which she became very popular amongst the local ladies to whom she used to teach "Kroshiya", and many delicious recipe's. She also visited Denmark on her way back to India, where she stayed for one month with Neeru Mausi and her family. These days of her life spent with her children, were some of the happiest and most memorable days of her life. Then the house in “Baluganj” was constructed under the supervision of Devesh Mama. Since Gyanesh had also gone to Liberia with Sarvesh, Devesh alone had to sweat to have the house constructed. Devesh Mama was of a very jolly nature, lived his life spontaneously, and had humor involved in whatever big or small he did. For this reason, he was much adored by everybody, and was most attached to Naniji. Everything was going on well, when all of a sudden one day, a heartbreak struck the family. Devesh died following an accident with a bullock cart, and wrong diagnoses / treatment by doctors in Agra. Naniji couldn’t take it. Her health started deteriorating day by day, and she made no efforts to regain it. She took to the bed, and lost her activeness, which once when she possessed, would go alone to her mother’s residence in the Rickshaw taking loads of packing. Now she even required support to go to the bathroom. Following the Civil War in Liberia, Sarvesh had a narrow escape back to India, leaving a fully furnished bungalow with all the luxuries possible back there. Naniji was relieved to see him back safe and sound. She was an avid reader and philosopher. Among others, “Guru Prasad” was her favorite religious journal. She loved to be with kids. Composing wedding songs, dancing in functions, making the entire atmosphere lively, was in her blood. While being with children, she used to compose spontaneous stories, and narrate to them at length. She slowly started forgetting what was going on around her, but at the same time, had an uncanny remembrance of her illustrious and magnificent childhood and adolescent times. She also had an acute memory of the good times after her marriage. Upon seeing that everybody spoke to the pet dog in English, she once lovingly said “Insaano se baat karne ke liye hindi ki zarrorat hoti hai, lekin kutton se baat karne ke liye angrezi ki zarrorat hoti hai” Being very religious, she made everyone learn some religious phrases. I will share with you some portion of phrases, which she taught me when I was 11 years old. “Twamev Maata, Chapita Twamev, Twamev Vidya, Twamev Sarvam, Mam dev deva”
“Hari Om Tatsat, Hari Om Tatsat, Hari Om
Tatsat”
“Sukh kar, Dukh Har, Pranat Pal Prabhu, Jai Raghurayee, Jai Jai”
“Kanscharud
Mardanam, DevkiParmanandam, Krishnam Vande JagadGurum”
NANIJI, WE ALL LOVE YOU! |