MY CHILDHOOD MEMORIES -
III
There is always one moment in
childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.
-
Graham Greene
8.
After the Summer Vacation spent in our
village, Babuji had returned to Chhapara. On the Great War front, Japan had
surrendered on 15 August, 1945 after the atomic holocaust and the Indian
Freedom Movement’s negotiations were continuing in a hard bargaining with the
British govt for an interim power-transfer. Dr Rajendra Prasad and all other Congress
leaders had been released from prison after their three-year incarceration during
the ‘Quit India’ Movement. While in prison, Rajendra Babu had completed his
Hindi ‘Atmakatha’ which was soon to be published and released in the incoming
Congress session at Meerut. A festschrift volume ‘Abhinandan Granth’ was also in
preparation in Bihar to be presented to Dr Rajendra Prasad, and because of his
long and intimate association with Shivpoojan Sahay, he wanted him to edit it
thoroughly before publication. The college authorities had granted my father
one year’s special leave for this purpose beginning from August, 1945. At
August-end, Babuji went to our village home where he stayed with all of us till
October-end.
For the next two months, Babuji was at our
village home. Some of his diary entries evoke memories of those days spent with
Babuji in our village:
1945: Aug. 2. Work of subject-wise
arrangement of books began in the library … A ‘Charkha’ school was opened today
in my village under the tutorship of a co-villager trained at Meerut (30/8)…
Explained in the evening Surdas’s verses to my co-villgers in the Thakurbari (31/8)
…Sessions of ‘Ramkatha’ also began from tonight (4/9)…Two ‘Sarangi’ player
‘Babas’ from Gorakhpur came today. Their grandfather used to come in the time
of my parents (10/9)…’Ramkatha’ continues as usual with the explications in
Bhojpuri for their convenience (19/9)…Chanting of ‘Valmiki Ramayan’ took place
(9/10)…’Ramkatha’ continued as usual. I narrated the story in ‘Hanuman Natak’.
The erotic contexts caused hesitancy in some places. But why did Hanumanji
write about the the sex-episodes of Ram and Janaki, who are the creators of
this world?(6/11)1.
On October 27, Babuji left with me for
Patna staying in the guest house of Pustak Bhandar which had now shifted (from
Laheriasarai) to its new location at Govind Mitra Road. Its proprietor
Ramlochan Sharan had also moved with his family to Patna in the same premises,
now known as ‘Himalaya Press’. Preparations had been going on for bringing out
a literary monthly magazine ‘Himalaya’ with Shivpoojan Sahay and Ramvriksh
Benipuri as editors. Soon a house was rented nearby in Machhuatoli where the
two editors were to stay. A common kitchen was run for the inmates by a
cook. With Babuji and myself, Benipuriji
also now lived there with his two sons, and I immediately struck a merry friendship
with Jittin (Jitendra), his younger son who was just a little older than me. A
few month later, in July 1946, Benipuriji took us both – me and Jittin (his
moniker) - to get us admitted into the local St Joseph Convent School. Daily a
servant would take us there and after school hours would bring us back to the
Himalaya Press premises where we would spend our time playing with Shyam Babu
(Seeta Sharan), younger son of Ramlochan Sharan, the proprietor of Pustak
Bhandar, before we returned late in the evenings to our Machhuatoli house. Some
of my father’s diary entries record the details of this period:
1945: Oct.-Nov. A plan has been drawn
for the publication of a monthly literary journal ‘Himalaya’, with myself and
Benipuri as editors, with every issue published as a royal-size hard-bound book
(1/11)… Benipuri’s younger son, Jitendra, and MM are now friends. MM shows his
proclivity for singing and drawing pictures. Throughout the day he keeps
drawing pictures. He has great interest in making drawings, and while drawing
he also keeps crooning – ‘Tu Ram-bhjan kar prani, Teri do din ki
jindagani’(Keep chanting the name of Ram, because this life is only of two
days) (30/10) …On two occasions, MM started crying inconsolably because of his
feeling of lonesomeness. A motherless child, he craves for the loss of his
mother’s affection, even though I always shower him with my love. Even while
his mother was alive, he would only like to stay with me, but how can a father
take the place of a child’s mother? (11/11)… Considering his talent in art and
music, I wish I could have sent him to Shantiniketan for his education, but where
are the resources? (13/11)…I left with MM by the morning train for Gaya for the
annual Gaya District Hindi conference under the chairmanship of ‘Dwij’Ji
(14/12). [In Gaya Babuji had also taken me to the Mannulal Library there,
famous for its collection of rare books and MSS.]
Most of my time after my school hours was
now spent in the press premises where in a couple of thatched-roof rooms was
situated the editorial office of ‘Himalaya’ and ‘Balak’. Jittin and Shyamji
would be my playmates and we would often go and play in the upstairs hall where
there were mounds of press paper-cuttings for our jumping and bouncing. I would
also wander round in the premises where in a large hall the large printing
‘flat’ machines kept grinding ceaselessly, or where the the book-binding
section was. Quite often I also went with Shyamji into his house located in the
same premises where his mother would feed us sweets and snacks. Babuji records
the main events of the first half of the year in the following diary entries:
1946: Jan. 24. Bought the ‘Naughty’
shoe for MM. The MS of Rajendra Babu’s ‘Atmakatha’ was given for composing for
the first issue of ‘Himalaya’. I read the beginning parts which were to be
published without any editing (21/1)…Got remunerations sent to contributors for
their articles published in the first number of ‘Himalaya’. Rs 100 to Rajendra
Babu and 50 to Acharya Narendra Dev (11/2)…Went with MM to B.N. College in the
‘Harishchandra Sabha’ seminar (31/3)…The pressure of work in the office is so
heavy that I have to work from 10 to 8 in the evening(5/4)…Left in morning with
MM by steamer in Shivkumar’s barat (son of my sister-in-law’s husband) who’s to
be married to Jayprakash Babu’s niece, and met the great revolutionary leader
of the 1942 ‘Quit India’ movement. I hugged him in the ‘Milni’ at the wedding
ceremony (18/4)…Preparations are on for the grand welcome of JP. 42 gates have
been erected in his honour. He arrived in Patna with his wife Prabhavatiji by a
motor launch. He was smothered under loads of flowers. There was a massive
procession on which flowers were being showered from an airplane. A meeting
with thousands in the audience took place in the lawn where Dinkar recited his
poem on Jayprakash (21/4)2… Editing of ‘Rajendra Abhinandan Granth’(RAG) started
from today(5/5)…Wrote a letter (enclosing a reply-paid envelope) to Shri Hazari
Prasad Dwivedi (Shantiniketan) for admission there of AM and MM (10/6).
The editorial work
on the monthly literary journal ‘Himalaya’, on Rajendra babu’s ‘Atmakatha’ and
the ‘Rajendra Abhinandan Granth’ was going on apace simultaneously. Babuji’s
diary entries in 1946 when I was staying with him in the Machhuatoli house are
full of accounts of the heavy pressure of work causing health issues: “Felt
tired with body ache, and giddiness; with restlessness throughout the night
(25/5).” Yet there was no respite. The fourth number of Himalaya had come out
in June with early chapters of Rajendra Babu’s ‘Atmakatha’being serialised in
them in their unedited form.
On Aug. 1, Babuji took me along to
Suryapura (near Ara) on invitation fom Raja Radhika Raman, the famous novelist
of ‘Ram Rahim’ which had been edited by Babuji and published in 1936 from
Pustak Bhandar, Laheriasarai, when Babuji was still working there. We stayed in
Suryapura for five days as Raja Saheb’s guest in his ‘Udyan Bhawan’. I was now
about 10 years old and have vivid memories of that visit. Babuji’s wrote in his
diary: “Had dinner with Raja Saheb in his Udyan Bhawan situated by a pond. MM
was also with me (5/8)”.
That was, indeed, the most exciting experience in a child’s life, born in a
thatched hut and now growing in a thatched-roof house in Chhapara or Unwans. I
have written that memoir in my book ‘Darpan Me We Din’. Here is an excerpt from
that memoir:
बाबूजी
पटना में रह कर ‘हिमालय’ का सम्पादन कर रहे थे। सूर्यपुरा राजा साहब के बुलावे पर वे अक्सर
सूर्यपुरा जाया करते थे, और उस बार मुझे भी वहाँ साथ ले गए थे। उस छोटी उम्र में
किसी रियासत में जा कर मेहमान कि हैसियत से रहना एक ऐसा सुखद अनुभव था जिसका
स्मृति में टंक जाना स्वाभाविक है। बाबूजी के साथ उस वक्त जो बचपना लगाव था उसमें
उनसे बड़े किसी आदमी की छवि मेरे मन में शायद बन ही नहीं सकती थी। और बाबूजी का
प्रभाव और उनकी व्यस्तता देख कर मुझे नहीं लगता था उनसे बड़ा कोई और भी हो सकता है।
लेकिन सूर्यपुरा जाकर वहाँ कि रियासत और शान-शौकत देख कर भी मेरे इस खयाल में किसी
खास तरमीम की जरूरत मुझे नहीं महसूस हुई, क्योंकि मैंने अपनी बचपन की उन आँखों से
यह देखा कि उस रियासत का जो राजा था, जिसके चारों ओर नौकर-चाकर हाली-मुहाली लगे
रहते थे, वह खुद बाबूजी को कितनी इज्जत बक्श रहा था। मुझे अच्छी तरह याद है, सुंदर सरोवर के किनारे
बने महल की वह खुली दालान जहां बड़े-बड़े चांदी के थालों में केवल सब्जियों के बने
बीसों तरह के व्यंजन परस कर लाए गए थे। और
खुद राजा साहब एक-एक व्यंजन की विशेषता
बताते हुए हमें खिला रहे थे। उस सारी
शान-शौकत और तामझाम के बीच भी मुझे कभी ऐसा नहीं लगा कि मेरे सामने किसी रियासत का
कोई राजा बैठा है। बाबूजी से हँसता-बतियाता वह उनकी ही उम्र का व्यक्ति मुझे
बिल्कुल बाबूजी जैसा ही लगा – उतना ही सीधा-सादा, स्नेह-भरा और बाबूजी की तरह ही
एक बड़ा आदमी। उन दोनों व्यक्तियों को आमने-सामने देख कर ही शायद बचपन के मेरे मन
पर यह अमिट छाप अंकित हो गई कि धन-दौलत से भी बहुत बड़ी चीज होती है बड़प्पन।
FN 1. The diary entries during these village
stays are also filled with details of his religious discourses and his various writings
on village reforms generally sent to various journals for publication, later
collected in ‘Grm-Sudhar’.
FN 2. My English translation of this poem on JP by Dinkar is published in my collection of English poems TWO-WAY MIRROR (2020) Which can be read on my blog - murtymuse.blogspot.com.
9.
Babuji’s one-year special
leave was now coming to an end, and we were back in Chhapara by 19 Aug.’46. I
got a school Transfer Certificate from St Joseph’s Convent school in Patna and
soon theafter was
admitted in class VII at the Rajendra Collegiate School which lay close by the
Rajendra College. Every day now I used
to walk with my father, under his umbrella, to my school. After my classes were
over, I would go to the staff room in Rajendra College, or if Babuji was in a
class, I would slowly walk to and stand outside the lecture hall’s main door in
such a way that only Babuji could see me, and not the students. When he saw me,
he would come out of the lecture hall as soon as the class was over and holding
my hand take me to the staff room. Every one in the staff room – Profs Dwij,
Murlidharji, Virendra Shrivastava et al would hug me and give me their love. And
then I would walk back with Babuji to our house by the same half-kilometer
route through the fields where vegetables grew. This remained our daily routine
on all week days as long as I was at school in Chhapara during the next two
years. Babuji writes: “Everyday MM, after his school, walks back with me. As
soon as his classes are over, he comes to the college and walks back to home
with me. He would even eat and sleep only with me (29 Apr, ’47)”.
Because of my
mother’s death, the household affairs were now managed largely by our maternal
aunts and uncles. The presence in our house was never less than a dozen
relatives. My old Mausi (maternal aunt) ‘Badi Didi’ was the virtual
housekeeper. I remember, there was a servant, Bhagawat, who had been with my
father since his Kashi days (1930-). Because of the absence of my mother
(homemaker), and the crowd of ever-present relatives, Babuji was always hand to
mouth. At one place he writes: “Today I’ve only three paisas with me. For one
paisa took pan in the evening. And now only two paise are left (25 Oct.’49).
But first, here I’d
recollect one incident of my providential escape from drowning. During the
monsoon rains, the Ganga river – 2-3 kms south of the town, with the Dharmnath
temple (on the same read, 100 yards east of our house) at its sothern edge – is
enormously flooded to reach the broad platform just behind the temple. At the
end of the platform are 4-5 steps down to the ground below, which naturally get
submerged in the flood waters.
During the rainy
season that temple-platform became a crowded bathing ghat for the worshippers
at the temple. One day Bhagawat also took me along for a bath on that temple
ghat. By an unlucky chance – I must have been 5 or 6 years old – in a moment’s
inattention I stepped into the river water and was momentarily drowning. I
vividly remember how I saw grey water lighted all round my open eyes without
realizing that I was accidentally drowning. Luckily, Bhagwat saw me drowning
and at once pulled me out of the water saving my life which was nearly lost
that day. He was very nervous and apologetic for his negligence as he brought
me home and narrated the whole incident to ‘Badi Didi’ (our old widow aunt). Somehow Babuji later came to know about it
and I was very strongly reprimanded; and thenceforth never allowed to go for a
bath in the Ganga river with the others.
Babuji, in his
diaries, has often written about many picnics held at the river bank in which
he participated with his colleagues, but from that day visit to the Ganga river
for me was strictly forbidden. And then I remember the day when
everyone in the family had gone for a bath in the river, which in the dry
season usually withdraws about 2-3 kms south to a point where two other rivers,
Saryu and Ghaghra join it, and I stood holding the iron bars of the window in
our southernmost hall, crying my heart out, with only Babuji staying with me in
the house.
This drowning
incident must have happened during the Monsoon months of 1942-’43, or, may be,
a little later; because there is another memory associated with the flood
waters which usually came right up to the hedge of the reeds fencing our little
back garden. This other memory must be precisely of August, 1942 – when I was
hardly 5 years old – and it was the time of the great ‘Quit India’ movement for
India’s independence. Here are some relevant entries from Babuji’s diary first:
1942: [Aug-Sep.]
Aug 9. Heard that Gandhiji & others have been arrested in Bombay, and also
Rajendra Babu in Patna…Today only Muslim students (members of Muslim League)
came to the college (11/8)…Rail tracks have been uprooted & several
stations are burnt down. The steamer service is off, telephone & telegraph
wires cut everywhere…Chhapara station was looted today in day time, and an
Englishman was brutally thrashed…British forces, about 150 as reported, arrived
in Chhapara. The whole town is in fear…With my children I’m under great
stress…Devnandan and Lallan came from the village to take the children to the
village home with them… All my children went by boat to Ara. It has caused
silence in the house…The number of Hindu students coming in the classes is
minimal. But all Muslim students come in full strength as is the directive of
the Muslim League. (11 Aug-22 Sep,’42)
So it must have been around Aug 13-14. I remember standing at the window in our southern room holding the iron bars of the window – looking at the flooded river just touching the reed-hedge boundary of our small garden. And what did I see floating in the wildly swirling flood waters? – Corpses with crows and vultures sitting on them and pecking into the bloated bellies of the corpses! Not one, not two – but quite a few floating one after another with the waves in the river with scavenging birds sitting on them. And then I was told they were corpses of Britishers killed by ramapaging mobs at various places in the district. I was too small a child to understand the full implications of the sight, but it did frighten and sicken me much. And then, I also remember, seeing British troops with machine guns trained on, and passing by on military trucks on the road in front of our house. I remember seeing them – through the chinks in our closed front doors - throughout the day pass by in lorries and trucks with theit machine guns trained on tripods. I still shudder to recall those days. It was soon thereafter that my uncle had arrived to take us to the safety of our village home by the river route.
Below: The only photo of my childhood days taken around 1950 by my first Kodak Baby Brownie camera - me standing in the Kochan river of my village UNWANS. More such photos can be seen on my photo blog -MURTYRAMA, which is a purely personal & private family blog of a photo gallery where I also write about my long career in photography.
[To
be continued.]
All photos &
Text © Dr BSM Murty
