Life Back Then

Savithri Natarajan, now a homemaker who lives in Chennai, has travelled a great deal, in India and in other parts of the world. Her interest in History has helped her enjoy those travels, especially as regards her fascination with the temples of India. She has taught high school and been a Vice-Principal. In addition, she has helped some underprivileged children to become literate. She now spends her time reading, following the current news, and listening to music and spiritual talks. She is also interested in needlecraft. She believes that her early education, upbringing, and close family ties have made her what she is today.

Editor’s introduction. This is Chapter 1 of a book of family memories, edited and produced by Kamakshi Balasubramanian and her husband Mohan Raj. The book, Moments in Time: A Family Remembers, has already been privately printed. The Introduction is available here: http://www.indiaofthepast.org/editors-kamakshi-balasubramanian-mohan-raj...

. Kamakshi Balasubramanian, an educator and occasional writer, lives in Mysore in calm retirement. She enjoys reading and listening to good fiction, as well as books on history. She regularly plays bridge and one or two addictive computer games; she tries to stay healthy, has a few patchwork projects on hand at all times, and is committed to the practice of vipassana. Her life’s richness comes from the varied people she has known. She loves languages and knows English, Russian, and Hindi, in addition to her mother tongue, Tamil.

. A long-time resident of Hyderabad, D.R. Mohan Raj has lived in retirement since 2010 in Mysore, in southern India. A communications professional who worked across continents, he taught University courses in Journalism and Business Communication for one half of his professional career, and edited research and academic publications during the other half. He enjoys reading and watching Sports, especially Cricket and Tennis.

Editor’s introduction. We are happy to introduce here a family memory book edited and produced by Kamakshi Balasubramanian and her husband Mohan Raj. The book, Moments in Time: A Family Remembers, has already been privately printed. The whole book will be added as a downlodable pdf fie, once all the chapters have been posted on this website.

This article reproduces the front and end pages. The individual chapters will be posted on this website over the next few days.

Mahen Das studied mechanical engineering at IIT BHU. He retired from Shell International, in 2002, after 43 years of work in their petroleum refineries and gas plants. He practiced as an independent consultant until 2009. His learning and experience has been acquired from hands-on work, at all levels of asset management, at 40 sites in 22 countries. This includes Process Management, Maintenance Management, Engineering Management and Optimisation of reliability, Integrity and availability of plants. Mahen is a co-author of Case Studies in Maintenance & Reliability. He plays golf and bridge.

Editor’s note: The author’s memories of Lahore 1937-1945 are available here. http://www.indiaofthepast.org/mahen-das/life-back-then/my-memories-lahore-1937-1945

Our home and daily life

In 1946 Papaji was transferred to his company, The Delhi Cloth and General Mills (DCM), headquarters, Delhi. We moved there in April of that year. We were given accommodation in the company officer’s housing compound at Rohtak Road, Karol Bagh.

Mahen Das studied mechanical engineering at IIT BHU. He retired from Shell International, in 2002, after 43 years of work in their petroleum refineries and gas plants. He practiced as an independent consultant until 2009. His learning and experience has been acquired from hands-on work, at all levels of asset management, at 40 sites in 22 countries. This includes Process Management, Maintenance Management, Engineering Management and Optimisation of reliability, Integrity and availability of plants. Mahen is a co-author of Case Studies in Maintenance & Reliability. He plays golf and bridge.

I was born on October 12 1937 in Kila Gujjar Singh, Lahore, which was then a part of India. My ancestors came, a few generations ago, from Afghanistan and settled in Leiah, a village in district Dehra Ismail Khan, North Western Frontier Province. They owned land which was tilled by hired labour. Leiah was on the bank of river Sindh. They were also de facto leaders of the minority Hindu community in the predominantly Muslim province. Because they had built a Krishna temple in Leiah and did other services to the community, they were awarded the title of Gosain.

Subhash Mathur is a resident of Jaipur, after his superannuation from the Indian Revenue Service in 2007. Presently, Subhash is engaged in social and charitable work in rural areas. Subhash is also Editor of http://www.inourdays.org/, an online portal for preserving work-related memories.

My earliest memory of International cricket goes back to 1956. At that point of time, I was living in Bikaner, where my father, Shri Khemchand, was posted as Collector & District Magistrate upon transfer from Jhalawar.

List of Bikaner Collectors, starting November 1949. My father was the fifth Collector of Bikaner, from February 1954 to September 1957.

We used to live in the huge bungalow earmarked for the Collector of the District. The same bungalow is being used by the Collector at present also.

Collector’s Residence, Bikaner. Photo is recent but looked the same in the 1950s.

Pradeep Kumar Banga was born in Narsinghpur, Madhya Pradesh, where his father worked in the Government’s Public Works Department after leaving Bannu for India.

Pradeep did his Mechanical Engineering from Maulana Azad College of Technology (now NIT), Bhopal in 1977, and joined Steel Authority of India Limited in May 1978. He retired from the Bhilai Steel Plant in Dec 2015.

Author’s note: I was born in India after Independence. Hence, all the information I have about Bannu, which went to Pakistan, is through what I have heard from my elders.

My grandparents’ generation

My grandfather, Dr. Partool Chand Banga, practiced medicine in Bannu. He got his LMP (Licensed Medical Practitioner) degree from Agra in 1922.

I C Srivastava was born in 1943. A student of English Literature, he joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1966. During his 37 years tenure, he served as Collector/ District Magistrate of three districts, rising finally to the position of Chairman, Board of Revenue, Rajasthan. Shri Srivastava worked as Secretary/Principal Secretary of as many as 17 Rajasthan State Departments, including Revenue, Irrigation, Education, Culture, Tourism, Sports, Women &amp\; Child Development Department. He retired as the Chairman. Rajasthan State Mines and Minerals Corporation.  Shri Srivastava has authored several books on Administration &amp\; Current affairs in Hindi and English. Nowadays, he is associated with various social and cultural voluntary organisations in Jaipur.

The journey of life unfolds and reveals many a memorable incident and experience which stand out any time one tries to recall any of them. Memories of childhood are more incisively etched and are easily brought back in a flash back.

One such experience of the early 1950s relates to my childhood in Allahabad. One day, at the age of eight or nine, when I was on my way back from my school (RR Inter College, Daraganj) to my home, which was about 2-3 kms away, I felt almost giddy in the scorching heat of the early October sun, after the rainy season was over. My head and feet, which especially absorbed the sun rays, prompted me to stop somewhere for rest for a while.

Meenakshi Hooja (nee Mathur) was born at Jhalawar on 26th June, 1952 and after spending early years of her childhood at Jhalawar, Bikaner and Ajmer moved to Jaipur with her parents and family.
Meenakshi taught Political Science at the University of Rajasthan before joining the Rajasthan Cadre of Indian Administrative Service in 1975.  She served on many important positions in Government of Rajasthan and Government of India.
She is widely travelled in India and abroad and was a visiting fellow at Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford in 1999-2000.  Post retirement, she was a Member of the Central Administrative Tribunal.
She has written on a number  of development and administration  related subjects  She has also so published books of poetry in Hindi and English.

I appeared for my high school Indian School Certificate Examination from Maharani Gayatri Devi (MGD) School, Jaipur in December 1968. Our results came out in April 1969. I scored reasonably good marks. As there was not much competition then for college admissions, I had the option to join any College, including the well-known ones in Delhi. However, I chose to join Maharani's College, Jaipur for two reasons. First, my elder sister Manmohini (who sadly passed away this year) had studied there, and enjoyed it. Second, it was the established College at Jaipur with a very competent, experienced and dedicated person like Mrs. Savitri Bhartiya at its helm.

I was born in Bannu, NWFP to Mr. Hira Nand Batra and Mrs. Subhashvati (aka Mukandi Bai Banga). I studied at IIT Madras (B Tech Chem E 1964 1^st Batch)\; IIT BHU (M Tech 1966), Taught at IIT BHU and IIT Delhi before going to the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada in 1968. Got my PhD in 1973 and moved to USA. I served at PEDCO-Engineering Firm and Procter &amp\; Gamble in various Business Units. Retired in 2000 as Associate Director R&amp\;D from Health Care, P&amp\;G.

Author's note:  I have covered our experiences of partition and journey to India. https://www.indiaofthepast.org/contribute-memories/read-contributions/life-back-then/663-suffering-the-partition-in-bannu-kohat-and-parichnar

When we reached Delhi after leaving Pakistan in 1947, in late November 1947, we ended up in Shadipur village, which no longer exists except for its name on the bus depot in South Patel Nagar. We stayed in a mud hut. Shadipur was the closest village to the Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, where my dad, Mr. H.N. Batra (Pitaji), was expecting to be hired, starting at the lower rung of the ladder. He got reinstated on December 10^, 1947, and joined IARI.  We moved to Government Quarters (Bloc D-22) in 1948. My education started in Pusa Elementary School near the bus station.

This page will feature college photos from all colleges. We are looking for ‘official' photos - class photos, photos of various events such as sports day, debates,, and others. Please send your photos to the editor at indiaofthepast@gmail.com.

1930s

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