Life Back Then

Chandra Sayal is a retired doctor, now living in Derby, England. She worked for over 30 years in the NHS in UK. She was a specialist in Community Medicine and Public Health.

As narrated to Rakshat Hooja, Usha and Bhupi's grandson.

Hooja family. London. 1953.

My brother Bhupendra Hooja took this photo in London in 1953. We used to call him Bhupi. At that time, Bhupi was working for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). He later returned to India and become an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer in Rajasthan. After retirement, among his other activities, Bhupi edited and published Bhagat Singh's jail diary, which you can read here.

The boy in the front is Bhupi and Usha's son, Rakesh Hooja. He was born in London in 1950, grew up in Jaipur and like his father, became an IAS officer in Rajasthan. After he retired, he became the head of the Indian Institute of public Administration (IIPA).  He passed away in 2012 while he was still in this post.

If, like me, you were a young boy residing in Tambaram, a town just 25 kms southwest of Madras, back in the 1960s, there were only two ways to learn swimming.

One way would be to trek all the way to the Corporation swimming pool at the Marina beach. But at one rupee for a round ticket on the suburban railway line that took you close enough to the swimming pool, it wasn't cheap.

(A girl would have an extra option. One of the city's women's colleges boasted of a swimming pool. But rumour has it that you ran the risk of being ogled at by an old man, through a binocular from a building nearby. Granted that women's swimwear back in those days were designed more on the lines of a tent than anything that Pamela Anderson had sported in the Baywatch television serial. But still ...).

Vijay completed his ISCE in 1966 from St Xavier's, Jaipur. He was actively involved in editing the school paper 'X-Rays', was Troop Leader of the Boy Scouts group, participated in social service activities, etc. He also played a key role in staging of the school play "Dial M for Murder". Then, he moved back to his home town Tinsukia, Assam to join his family business of tea machinery manufacturing. He completed his B. Com (Hons in Business Management) in evening classes. He has been an active Rotarian since 1972, has tried to keep pace with computers, and enjoys photography, (though he does not possess a proper camera).
Vijay and his wife Shashi have two sons Ashish &amp\; Gauravh, and 4 grand-children.

The roots in Rajasthan

This story is primarily of my grandfather Kedarmalji Agarwal and his family down the generations. (Agarwal was the popular community title that changed to Bagaria as I have explained later.)

His ancestors belonged to Lacchmangarh in Sikar district of Rajasthan. Kedarmalji's father, my great-grandfather Lakshmi Narayanji, had purchased a small plot of land for farming about six km away from Lacchmangarh. Several people moved to the same location, which eventually came to be known as Bagri village.

Map showing Bagri. 2018

I studied in eight different schools - moved around with my father who was in the Army - before getting a BSc degree from MSU Baroda in 1973.
Worked in Hotels in both India and USA for 41 years.
I have a blog  preetigurung24.com, and a Pinterest page - check it out.

My family had a sojourn at Nowgong, Madhya Pradesh from September 1962 to April 1963.

In 1962, my father, Major C. K. Panemanglor. was 2IC (2nd-in-Command) for the 1st. Sikh Light Infantry - they were known as The Fighting 1st Sikh L.I. He was based in Ambala, Punjab.

In September 1962, he was unexpectedly transferred to Nowgong in Chhatarpur District, Madhya Pradesh, as Commandant of the Army Cadet College (formerly known as Kitchener College for Army Cadets). He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel to take up this position. At that time, there was a great deal of tension going on between India and China. My father was genuinely upset that he was not going to fight in case war broke out between India and China.

We arrived in Nowgong in early September 1962 to great fanfare! There was a welcoming party with garlands, and a brass band playing. The Commandant from whom my father was taking over had already left to join his Battalion.

My parents - Lt. Col. C K Panemanglor and Mrs. Mira Panemanglor, Nowgong. 1962

Born in 1933 in Dijkot, a small hamlet in district Lyallpur (now Faisalabad, Pakistan), I came after about eight attempts, including miscarriages. I grew up in Lyallpur as a pampered child. At the age of five, I was sent to nearby one roomed primary school where spartan old Jute Hessian bags (borian) were used for mats.  I refused to study there, and was enrolled in Sacred Heart Convent School for the next 9 years.  After getting his college degree in India, he moved to Singapore in 1954, and then to Malaysia in 1957, where he worked for Guthrie &amp\; Co., a large Scottish plantation company. He retired in 1988. He lives in Malaysia with his wife.  More about him at this link.

Editor's note: In February 2018, the Friday Times published an article on the cafes in Faisalabad, which used to be called Lyallpur before Pakistan was formed.  The article states: "One is not aware where the intellectuals of the city used to meet before Partition ...". This came up as a response.

In 1947 the only hotel of some note was the Grand Hotel that produced unsliced bread. They also had a hand slicing machine attached to the table. The only other heavenly product, at least for me, was cream cone, that to this day remains unmatched.

Kanwarjit Singh Malik was born in Rawalpindi in 1930. His family moved to India at the time of Partition in 1947. He joined the Flying Club in Jalandhar, and was later selected by the Indian Air Force. After the retirement from the Air Force, he served as a senior captain in Air India and Air Lanka. He got married in 1961, In 2011, when they were living in Chandigarh, his wife fell ill, and passed away in spite of the best available medical aid. Then, his daughters, who live in Dubai, California and Hong Kong, requested him to move back to his old flat in Mumbai, as it was easier for them to visit him there. He passed away in Mumbai on July 24th, 2017 fulfilling his desire to visit his Rawalpindi one last tim.

Editor's note:  After Captain Malik's passing away, this story has been finalized with the help of Gurpreet Singh Anand, who had accompanied Captain Malik to Rawalpindi. In the original text, Captain Malik had quoted Gurpreet: "For us brothers who had got a 30-day visa [for Pakistan] after much persuasion the trip was solely to go down memory lane. I am content we made your dream come true, for there is no greater satisfaction than taking someone to the place he is born and yearned for all his life .That one's wish is fulfilled is indeed a blessing."

Gurpreet has facilitated another story about pre-Partition Rawalpindi, available here.

Reginald was born in Lahore before Partition. He writes books on various subjects pertaining to South Asia. A former London journalist, he now lives in Mid Wales with his actor wife Jamila. His latest book is Shaheed Bhagat Singh and the Forgotten Indian Martyrs, Abhinav Publications, New Delhi. A member of the Society of Authors, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Ed. Note: Mr. Massey's recorded memoirs of 1947 are available here in the UK National Archives. Another recording is available here.

Wedding of John and Mary Massey.  Catholic Church on Empress Road, Lahore.  1931.

My father, John Massey, was from a landowning Sikh family which had accepted Christ. They were Protestants. Read more about them here. http://www.indiaofthepast.org/contribute-memories/read-contributions/life-back-then/378-my-paternal-sikh-christian-muslim-family-

His best friend was one Sunny Massie, who had an unmarried woman cousin, aged 19. My father was then about 25 years old.

Renu Jalota, born in 1942 in Lahore, grew up in Tatanagar and Benares with two brothers and three sisters. Father was a Professor of Psychology.
At age 16, I trained in 80-meter hurdles. Came second in national semi-finals by split second, and narrowly missed representing India in the Asian Olympics. I got my MBBS in 1964 from Government Medical College Amritsar, and then my M.D in Pathology in 1968 from the Post Graduate Institute, Chandigarh. In 1969, I joined the University of Utah as a resident in Pathology. After some job changes, in 1982, I moved to Denver as a family physician. I retired in 2007 to pursue my hobbies, but ran into medical problems.
I am an avid mountain climber and have climbed up to 22,500 ft. without oxygen. I have trekked in both Indian and Nepalese Himalaya. Have also done glacier travel in New Zealand and Tasmania. Never married, I have remained independent and active in social and political circles. I visit India often.

When Banaras Hindu University announced the results of I.Sc. (Intermediate science) in June 1959, I was placed in the first division (more than 60 % marks), in premedical subjects. So the next step was to get admission in to a medical college. Mom's best friend suggested to her to try the medical college in Amritsar, as it was established by the faculty of the Lahore Medical College (before India's Partition). Students were selected on merit basis, and minimum age was 17.

I came to the United States with my mother and three year old sister in 1964. I was in the fifth grade. My father had come six months earlier to work at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Washington, D.C. as an internal medicine resident. I grew up in Washington and Maryland, and attended Wellesley College where I met my wonderful Indian friends at MIT.  I was a young woman straddling two cultures, and my friends were so kind and welcoming that I felt I had returned to India.

Shakuntala  Puranik (bride) and Surendra Rishi (groom)
My parents' wedding ceremony took place in the house, where they later lived with my grandparents. They had just bought it. Indore, Madhya Pradesh, May 15, 1953.

From the left, Professor Borgaonkar\; my father, Surendra Rishi (groom)\; my grandfather Dr. Ramchandra Rishi\; a friend of the family (name unknown to me)\; my mother, Shakuntala  Puranik (bride)\; my father's sister, Usha Rishi\; my grandmother, Leelavati Rishi, and another friend of my grandfather. Indore, Madhya Pradesh. May 1953.

Epilogue

We come into the world through our parents, and their wedding day is the first day of our lives too!

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TCA Srinivasa Raghavan grew up in Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. He has a Master's degree in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics and a BA degree from Hindu College, Delhi. He worked for Macmillan as the Economics Editor before switching over to journalism in 1980. He has been the Opinion Editor of various newspapers, worked on the RBI's history project, and written two books on the government and the economy in India. His novel centred around publishing is due out soon.

I arrived in Delhi at the age of seven in 1958 when my father was posted there. I went to Sardar Patel Vidyalaya for six years. There were many children there whose parents had come from Punjab, both West and East. They had many prejudices, of which the three major ones were that all Madrasssis were black, that they all ate only rice and that they were darpoks (cowards). I didn’t fit this description, and was therefore a bit of a curiosity. I describe some consequences below.

Until the 1950s, Delhi was largely a Hindi-speaking town. But, in 1947 came the refugees from West Punjab (now Pakistan), and my memories of Delhi in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s are of a predominantly Punjabi town.

What stands out particularly is the amazingly insensitive term of reproach or derision -yateem (orphan) - referring to a Partition orphan. A badly dressed or poorly-off person would be described as such.

And then there was the pronunciation. So, Connaught Place was Knaatplace\; Karol Bagh was Krol Bagh, Rajendra became Rajinder, and Ashok, Shokki - or, more usually, OySokki.