Life Back Then

साला, मैं तो साहिब बन गया!

Author: 
Subhash Mathur

Category:

Subhash Mathur is a resident of Jaipur after superannuation from 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 late father, Khem Chand Ji (1911 -2004) joined the Indian Administrative Service soon after Independence. He, along with a few others, was selected through a special recruitment process. He was the first Collector and District Magistrate of the newly formed Alwar district after Independence, which became part of United States of Matysa, and then was merged into Rajasthan

Daddy Khem Chand

Khem Chand, my father. Circa late 1990s. Jaipur. He was about 85 years old at that time.

My father was tall and handsome. Every inch an imposing personality. He exuded the St. Stephen's confidence (see his college photos here) with a camouflaged snootiness. He was widely read and up-to-date on all matters.

He not only spoke impeccably and but also wrote sharply. He surprised most with his fluency in Urdu and Farsi. In fact, he made all his personal jottings in Urdu and Farsi.

My School Days at St. Paul’s and Burma through Turbulent Times

Author: 
Gautam Banerji

Category:

Gautam Banerji has a Master's from St Stephen's College, Delhi, an LL.B. from Delhi University, and an M.Sc.(Econ) degree from the London School of Economics.  He taught at an undergraduate college in Delhi, 1973-85, and worked for UNICEF 1985-96.  Then he moved to London to practice law. He served as the Judicial Advisor to the Judicial Development Institute, Baghdad, 2009-10 as a U.S. government contractor. He was a member of Commission for Sustainable London (2007-13). He continues as a Trustee and Board Member of Hindu Council, UK. Now fully retired, he lives in Dilijan, Armenia, with his wife, who teaches at United World College, Dilijan.

I was eleven years old when my father decided that my English was not English enough. So, he decided to send me to St. Paul's School Darjeeling to be groomed into a gentleman in the best of English public school tradition. In those days, St. Paul's was rated as Eton of the East, served by Scottish matrons and Irish nurses while Oxbridge graduates were tasked with ‘educating' young Indians for higher aspirations in life.

Moniti Meliora Sequamur ran the school motto: having been taught the higher ways, we followed. And the school song echoed much the same sentiment: "From the low and steamy plains, upward the old school calls!" rising to a crescendo with "Upward the old school calls, St Paul's! St Paul's! St Paul's!"

St Paul Darj

My grandparents, my parents, and I

Author: 
Gautam Banerji

Category:

Gautam Banerji has a Master's from St Stephen's College, Delhi, an LL.B. from Delhi University, and an M.Sc.(Econ) degree from the London School of Economics.  He taught at an undergraduate college in Delhi, 1973-85, and worked for UNICEF 1985-96.  Then he moved to London to practice law. He served as the Judicial Advisor to the Judicial Development Institute, Baghdad, 2009-10 as a U.S. government contractor. He was a member of Commission for Sustainable London (2007-13). He continues as a Trustee and Board Member of Hindu Council, UK. Now fully retired, he lives in Dilijan, Armenia, with his wife, who teaches at United World College, Dilijan.

Mandalai, where I was born, was a quaint village fringed onto the outskirts of an equally small town in rural Bengal. Pandua, the nearby town, has a claim to connections with epic heroes of a bygone era. The Pandavas, according to legend, passed through it in their sojourns. Ruins of an old monument, rebuilt several times through its history, stand testimony to this tall claim of local residents. It’s a somewhat miniature version of the Kutub Minar and cannot be missed as the train approaches Pandua. Mandalai is only three miles away from Pandua but it’s a world apart.

My maternal grandparents and family

Author: 
Indira Pasricha and Neera Burra

Category:

Indira Pasricha was born on 17 January 1917 in Sidhpur in Multan district. She studied in Kinnaird College, Lahore. She married Prem Pasricha on 28 April 1940 in Lahore. She was a social worker and played an active role in saving Sikhs during the riots in 1984 in New Delhi. She was an active member of the women’s wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party. She and her husband Prem Pasricha helped the tribals in Orissa in setting up the Ekal Vidyalaya and eye camps.

Neera Burra, a sociologist, has a Ph.D. from the Delhi School of Economics. As Assistant Resident Representative at the U.N. Development Programme, India for several years, her focus was issues related to gender, poverty and environment. She has published extensively on the issue of child labour in India, including Born to Work: Child Labour in India Oxford University Press in 1997. Her most recent book is A Memoir of pre-Partition Punjab. Ruchi Ram Sahni 1863-1948 Oxford University Press 2017. A great granddaughter of Ruchi Ram Sahni, she maintains a blog about him https://ruchiramsahni.wordpress.com/.

My paternal grandparents and family

Author: 
Indira Pasricha and Neera Burra

Category:

Indira Pasricha was born on 17 January 1917 in Sidhpur in Multan district. She studied in Kinnaird College, Lahore. She married Prem Pasricha on 28 April 1940 in Lahore. She was a social worker and played an active role in saving Sikhs during the riots in 1984 in New Delhi. She was an active member of the women’s wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party. She and her husband Prem Pasricha helped the tribals in Orissa in setting up the Ekal Vidyalaya and eye camps.

Neera Burra, a sociologist, has a Ph.D. from the Delhi School of Economics. As Assistant Resident Representative at the U.N. Development Programme, India for several years, her focus was issues related to gender, poverty and environment. She has published extensively on the issue of child labour in India, including Born to Work: Child Labour in India Oxford University Press in 1997. Her most recent book is A Memoir of pre-Partition Punjab. Ruchi Ram Sahni 1863-1948 Oxford University Press 2017. A great granddaughter of Ruchi Ram Sahni, she maintains a blog about him https://ruchiramsahni.wordpress.com/.

Pre-Partition Punjab Vignettes

Author: 
Joginder Anand

Category:

Dr. Anand - an unholy person born in 1932 in the holy town of Nankana Sahib, central Punjab. A lawyer father, a doctor mother. Peripatetic childhood - almost gypsy style. Many schools. Many friends, ranging from a cobbler's son (poorly shod as the proverb goes) to a judge's son. MB from Glancy (now Government) Medical College Amritsar, 1958. Comet 4 to Heathrow, 1960.
Widower. Two children and their families keep an eye on him. He lives alone in a small house with a small garden. Very fat pigeons, occasional sparrows, finches green and gold drop in to the garden, pick a seed or two and fly away.

 

Ed. Note: The text has been extracted from an extended informal email discussion with Jatinder Sethi. Some of what Mr. Sethi wrote is available in Pre-Partition family memories.

Shahukaar. This spelling reflects more accurately, the pronunciation of the local Punjabi word for moneylender. I am sure it was also called Sahukar.

The Shahukaar would generally speaking, sit or rather lie, on the rich Persian carpet, propped up on big, fat, round, pillows. Possibly smoking a hooka. The clients came, requested help, addressing him as "Shah Jee" or "Lalla Jee."

Shah Jee also very often did Aarhat (acted as a middleman). 

Shah Jee had the most impressive house in the town. With a two-horse carriage. Forget what it was called. A few cows, and perhaps a buffalo or two in the courtyard at the back. Generous with lassi and even milk for anyone.

Pre-Partition family memories

Author: 
Jatinder Sethi

Category:

Tags:

Jatinder Sethi was born in Lyallpur, now Faisalabad, in pre-Independence India. He finished his M.A. (English) from Delhi University in 1956, and went off to London to study Advertising in 1958. He passed his Membership Exam of The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (M.I.P.A) in1965, and joined Rallis India in Bombay. Later, for over 20 years, he worked for the advertising agency Ogilvy &amp\; Mather. Now retired, he helps his son in his ad agency in Delhi.

My Nanaji, I think his name Mulakh Raj Ahuja, was a Surgeon and headed the administration in Sargodha (now in Pakistan) in around 1910.  In those days, Civil Surgeons were also the Head of all District medical administration-it was a very powerful job. He married his older daughters in Bhera and Khushab to men from big Zamindar (landlord) families.

His youngest daughter, Lajwanti, my mother, got married to a man from Jhang who lived in Lyallpur (now Faisalabad, Pakistan). He was my father, Chaudhry Jai Ram Dass Sethi, BA LLB, who was a lawyer.

My eldest Mamaji, Shanti Narain Ahuja, who lived in Sargodha, was Punjab's leading criminal lawyer\; he had studied law in London. He had a big convertible car. And he was a very close friend of the Turray Waalay Khizar Hayat Khan and Sir Sikander Hayat Khan.

Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan

Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan with a turray pugree

A time to depart for Saat Samundar Paar

Author: 
Joginder Anand

Category:

Dr. Anand - an unholy person born in 1932 in the holy town of Nankana Sahib, central Punjab. A lawyer father, a doctor mother. Peripatetic childhood - almost gypsy style. Many schools. Many friends, ranging from a cobbler's son (poorly shod as the proverb goes) to a judge's son. MB from Glancy (now Government) Medical College Amritsar, 1958. Comet 4 to Heathrow, 1960.
Widower. Two children and their families keep an eye on him. He lives alone in a small house with a small garden. Very fat pigeons, occasional sparrows, finches green and gold drop in to the garden, pick a seed or two and fly away.

It was the 29th of January, 1960. My parents had insisted that I spend the day with them and my maternal grandparents in Karnal, before departing from "India". Yes, India as it then was. Not the India I had been born in. "My India" was really Trans-Ravi. One could stretch it to Trans-Sirhind Canal. Sometimes, we Punjabees regarded Sirhind Canal as the boundary between the Punjabi speakers and Hindi Bhasha speakers. It was often just fun, but sometimes ended in anger and in quarrels.

On the evening of 30th January, I caught a flight from Delhi's Palam airport to London's Heathrow airport. (London was Saat Samundar Paar - seven oceans away.) In those days, the airport was very, very quiet. The check-in was very civil. I hugged my parents and my uncle (my father's sister's husband). Shook hands with my cousin. Then, went in through the Departure Gate. Literally on to the airfield.

History of Hope Circus, Alwar

Author: 
R C Mody

Category:

R C Mody

R C Mody is a postgraduate in Economics and a Certificated Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers. He studied at Raj Rishi College (Alwar), Agra College (Agra), and Forman Christian College (Lahore). For over 35 years, he worked for the Reserve Bank of India, where he headed several all-India departments, and was also the Principal of the RBI Staff College. Now (2017) 91 years old, he is engaged in social work, reading, writing, and travelling. He lives in New Delhi with his wife. His email address is rameshcmody@gmail.com.

It was at some stage during his 30 years’ reign (1903-33) that Maharaja Jey Singh, a great builder, found that his capital city Alwar had great potential of extension, modernisation and beautification. The city was encircled by am old wall which was surrounded by a moat. The moat was expected to remain filled with water, thus giving the city protection against an invader. But the moat was for long without water and with the advent of 20th century, there remained no possibility of any military invasion. Thus, both the wall and moat became anachronistic, and, in fact, an obstruction in growth of the city. 

Channo’s mother and her boys

Author: 
Vinod K. Puri

Category:

Born in 1941, Vinod was brought up and educated in Amritsar. He attended Government Medical College, and subsequently trained as a surgeon at PGI, Chandigarh. He left for USA in 1969, and retired in 2003 as Director of Critical Care Services at a teaching hospital in Michigan. Married with two grown sons, he continues to visit India at least once a year.

There was something quite intriguing about the two widows who lived on our street in Amritsar. No one symbolized it better than Channo's maan (mother). She was the mother of a girl, Channo, and four boys. I have little remembrance of Channo. In my childhood the ‘boys' were actually grown up men. I have dim recollection of them in 1947 when my father patronized a retinue of toughs to guard our house from attacks by marauding Muslims.

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