Twilight Years: Sun rises in the east with all its splendor, throwing its crimson rays all over the earth, heralding the beginning of a new day with all its hopes and aspirations, accompanied by a burst of fresh energy, will and enthusiasm for every living being, to look up to a fruitful future. Sun burns the whole day, so that, the world can live and get its life-giving light, heat and energy. Ultimately, it crosses the horizon in the west. The heat and shine goes off, but the sun looks much bigger, much broader, magnanimous and magnificent, lighting up the horizon with the parting rays, radiating from the golden disc. People all through the ages have looked spellbound at the setting sun. It mesmerises the people with its calm, cool and dignified glory and seems to be transmitting a message of peace, love and affection for the deeply fractured communities of the world.
Life is almost like that. When the child is born and radiates his first smile, the whole environment is lighted. As he grows, he becomes a symbol of love and affection for almost everybody. Gradually, he finds his feet and becomes a symbol of strength and support to all those, who come in contact with him. Finally, he enters into the twilight years providing a healing touch to all and sundry and freely showering love, affection and blessings to all those who happen to be with him. As the time rolls on, the body becomes old and feeble and bears all the scars and strains of lifelong struggles for survival and trying to keep the head high. Unfortunately, the people at large look at the bodies, physical disabilities and outward appearances of the people running through their twilight years. However, there is always something inside these bodies, which keeps flickering and sustains the unsatiable desire and yearning for love and affection.
Our Father: Looking to the times, our father had a satisfied run from 1910 to 1920 at Bharatpur, looking after Ajan Bund and its channels, running life giving waters to the scorched fields and putting a hand in the construction of Moti Mahal, the palace of the Maharaja of Bharatpur. Thereafter, another decade from 1920 to 1930 at Banswara as secretary of the Municipal Council placed him directly in touch with the lives of the common people and the basic needs of development. His next stint of 10 years from 1930 to 1940 as state engineer of Bundi was extremely fulfilling, trying his hands on almost all phases of development of the princely state. Finally, his business phase as a contractor and supplier of goods and services to the military engineering services during the second world war, turned out to be the most hectic and eventful period of his life. Our father did not have any personal needs or hankerings. His feelings and thoughts always centred round his children, his family, his extended family and close relations and all others, with whom he came in contact.
Father moves to Bareilly: My marriage was celebrated at Meerut on December 10, 1946. Most of the members of the family stayed on at Meerut for a week or ten days after the marriage. Those were the days, when prolonged stays of girls at the parental house was considered as something normal. Most of the time at Meerut was taken by post marriage rituals and ceremonies and man to man chatting and interaction between siblings and other close relations. Ladies knew how to keep themselves happily occupied and nobody seemed to be in a hurry to leave. Fifteen days after the marriage, our bhabhi Bhanwati and Moona jiji wound up the show at Meerut and moved to Bareilly accompanied by our father, sisters, their children and the bride Krishan Bala, known in the family as Kiran.
Administrative quarter of the irrigation department at Bareilly was one of the prestigious places in the civil lines of Bareilly. It covered an area of four acres with towering trees, lush green plants and shrubberies and well laid out lawns. The main building had two suites of three bedrooms each, built in colonial style. That was the place, where our family stayed for the first few days on landing at Bareilly. Everybody was totally relaxed. Elders were busy in their morning and evening strolls and chatting and frolicking with children. The children were busy in playing in the lawns and running all round the building. It seemed, as if time had frozen. Those were perhaps the happiest days of our lives and the life of our father.
Bhojipura: Bhojipura was a small village located about 15 kilometres north of Bareilly on Bareilly-Kathgodown –Nainital highway. Bhojipura was also a junction of Oudh and Tirhut Railway with Kasgunj-Bareilly-Kathgodown metre gauge line running from south to north and Bareilly-Lucknow metre gauge line bifurcating from Bhojipura and thereafter, running east through Pilibhit and Sitapur to Lucknow along the foothills of Himalayas. Rohilkhand Canals had a beautiful inspection house, by the side of Bareilly Kathgodown highway at Bhojipura, close to the Bhojipura railway junction. The inspection house was spread over an area of 10 acres and was connected to the network of canal telephones and telegraphs. The main building had two spacious suites. The kitchen was located about 50 metres away from the main building. Further down, it accommodated establishment quarters and quarters for staff of touring officers and maintenance personnel. That was the place where we moved with the family after our short stay at Bareilly. The whole setting and environment was rural, with open space, lush green fields and fresh air. The children found a lot of space for playing all types of their improvised games and the ladies got a lot of fun in making their frequent trips to and from the main building to the kitchen. Fresh vegetables could be picked up directly from the fields. Milk, butter and other food items were readily available from the village. Canal telephones and telegrams were freely used for all types of odd jobs. A number of convenient train services were available between Bhojipura and Bareilly. That provided an opportunity to the elders to make almost daily runs from Bhojipura to Bareilly to see off the members, who were leaving and to receive the newcomers. The whole environment was very relaxing, with all the freedom for the members of the family. Our father remained busy with the whole flock. In the meantime, I was busy with my drives, trots and strolls on canal banks in the mornings and camp fires with the family in the evenings.
Our habitat at Bareilly: Sometimes, during March 1947 the family shifted into a residential house at Bareilly. The household at Meerut was wound up and our brothers Jai Narain, Krishan and Hari and our sister Uma joined us at Bareilly, after completion of their studies at Meerut. Our house had a number of rooms with a big courtyard in the back and a lot of open space in the front. There were four outhouses, which were shared by ten to twelve regular members of our staff. One side room in the front was occupied by our English clerk for his office and another side room was occupied by the Urdu clerk ( Peshkar ) and revenue staff. The open area in the front was fenced and a hand pump was pushed into the ground and gradually, our father converted the land into a flourishing kitchen garden. Our father was happy to find that our staff joined him and the garden started yielding sufficient vegetables for our needs and the needs of our staff. Those days, with ten to fifteen cots spread out in the back yard, the morning hours of sleep under starry nights was extremely relaxing and refreshing. Our eldest child Mohan was born at Bareilly on 23 September 1947 and that brought about a tremendous change in the life of our father. He found a long lost purpose in life and developed a convenient daily routine from early hours in the morning to late hours in the evening. Thereafter, on my transfer to Mohammadpur and Pathri Power Station Division, our father moved with us to Roorkee.
Roorkee: We landed at Roorkee in November 1948. Rai Sahib Kanahiya Lal the elder cousin of our father was extremely happy to see all of us there. He had about nine bungalows in the cantonment area at that time. He made one of the bungalows available to us for our short stay at Roorkee. We stayed in that bungalow for about a month. Rai Sahib used to take about six to seven kilometers of morning walk every day, touching almost every corner of the town and we got used to his knocks on our door every morning. Mohammadpur power house was located on Ganga Canal about 20 kilometres downstream of Roorkee. The structure of Mohammadpur Power House had been completed and I was expected to provide all facilities and structural support to the erectors for the installation of turbines, generators and other associated equipment in the powerhouse. The site for Pathri power station was located on Ganga canal about 20 kilometres upstream of Roorkee. It was in the initial stages of construction and I was expected to mark the alignment of the power channel and the power pit and to organize the supply of construction materials and equipment and necessary tools, plant and other services, that, may be needed during the construction. I was also responsible for the construction of temporary buildings for the stay of officers and other project staff at site, during the construction period. The job involved regular shuttling from Mohammadpur to Bahadarabad and Bahadarabad to Mohammadpur with brief stop overs at Roorkee. Our father enjoyed his long walks on canal banks at Mohammadpur and Pathri and dropped at Roorkee off and on for reviving memories of the good old days with his cousin Rai Sahib Kanahiya Lal and enjoying the cool breeze and fresh fruits of the sprawling orchards of Ganesh Vitika. The marriage of our sister Uma was celebrated at Mohammadpur in March 1949, which kept our father busy for about a month in looking after the conveniences of close relatives and other guests. Thereafter, on my transfer to Ghaghra Canal Survey Division, our father moved with us to Jaunpur.
Life at Jaunpur: We landed at Jaunpur in September 1949. Jaunpur was a small sleepy town in eastern part of United Provinces. River Gomti ran through the city and divided the city in almost two halves. The western part of the town formed the old city. The eastern part of the town accommodated the civil lines and almost all government offices and residences. We got a neat, clean and spacious accommodation in the western part of the city to serve as our residence during our short stay at Jaunpur. Mohan was our first child. He was two years old at Jaunpur. He was the centre of attention for all members of our staff and visiting families and friends. He kept our father busy for most of the time and our father was for him, almost all the time. The children need whole time care and attention and incidentally, the grand parents are always available to provide loving care to the grand-children most of the time. Our second child Rashmi was born at Jaunpur on 8 November 1949. Our father welcomed the new arrival and Rashmi could be seen giggling on the shoulders of our father, off and on. We had good time at Jaunpur, deeply involved in land surveys for Ghaghra Canal. The survey work at Jaunpur was almost drawing to a close, when our sub-division got marching orders for Banaras for picking up some more challenging jobs. We left Jaunpur, log stock and barrel and moved to Banaras in December 1949 with our father and full complement of our staff.
Banaras: Banaras is the holiest of the holy cities of India. Known as Kashi or Banaras, it is located on the banks of river Ganga, almost midway through its run from Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal. The country had witnessed unprecedented floods during 1948. River Ganga flows through Banaras and Ghazipur and meets river Ghaghra in Ballia before crossing over to Chapra in Bihar. The spread of the river channel during floods of 1948 covered about two miles ( 3 km ), which submerged almost everything standing on its flanks. GT Road ( Grand Trunk Road ), which followed the left bank of the river from Banaras to Ballia was under 4 feet to 6 feet of water during the floods of 1948. The fury of the river submerged large tracts of land and caused untold damage to land, buildings, crops and livestock on its route. Our task at Banaras flood survey division was to conduct field survey of flood affected lands and villages along the left bank of river Ganga from Banaras to Ballia and to suggest suitable works and remedial measures for the protection of cities, towns and villages and safety of people, property and livestock. Clarks Hotel was a prominent landmark of Banaras. It had a big annexe built on spacious grounds attached to the hotel. Incidentally, in the aftermath of the floods and lack of tourist traffic, the rooms of the annexe were freely available, which helped us in getting sufficient accommodation for our offices, as also for our residence at the annexe. Our daughter Rashmi whose name was Rajkumari at the time of birth was always seen with our father. She was the centre of attention for everybody working or living at Clarks Hotel Annexe. Rajkumari Amrit Kaur happened to be one of the cabinet ministers in Pandit Nehru’s cabinet at Delhi at that time. Taking some queue from that, everybody took pleasure in addressing our daughter Rashmi as Rajkumari Amrit Kaur. After spending about two months in the holy city of Banaras, we were again on the move with our father from Banaras to Ballia, in February 1950.
Ballia: Ballia is a small district lying on the confluence of rivers Ganga and Ghaghra, bound along the south by Ganga and along the northwest by Ghaghra. Ballia was in prominence during the quit India movement of 1942, when it declared independence from the British rule for a brief period of eleven days. In 1950, Ballia was the smallest district of U.P. but it had a high literacy rate and had the highest number of secondary and higher secondary schools in U.P. The floods in rivers Ghaghra and Ganga during the year 1948 were unprecedented. The flood levels of rivers Ganga and Ghaghra were higher than the general ground levels of Ballia tehsil and therefore, barring some high grounds in the villages, almost the whole of Ballia tehsil was under six to eight feet of water. There was water and water everywhere. All local roads were under water and people moved from place to place by boats. During our camps in the flood affected areas, our father had opportunities to interact with the people of Ballia, who had got used to witness wide spread devastation face to face, year after year, clinging delicately to the dangling strands of hope for better days. We left Ballia in July 1950 and moved to Kanpur with our father and the young toddlers Mohan and Rashmi for fresh responsibilities at Fatehpur Division of Lower Ganga Canal.
Kanpur: Kanpur happened to be the biggest city of northern India in 1950. Situated on the right bank of river Ganga, Kanpur developed into a flourishing industrial town, in an era, when the development of infrastructure and growth of industries were the most neglected sectors in the country. I was associated with irrigation department of U.P. for six years from July 1945 to July 1951. My first regular assignment in irrigation department of U.P. was at Rohilkhand Canals at Bareilly. Incidentally, my posting in Fatehpur Division of Lower Ganga Canal at Kanpur turned out to be my last assignment in the field. Those were the most formative years of my life.
Transition from the sheltered life of a boy, whose smallest needs were looked after by an exceedingly protective and loving parents, to the life of an officer in the field responsible for running and maintenance of irrigation and drainage systems, which were directly linked with the bread, butter and life of hundreds of thousands of people, scattered in remote and far flung areas, provided all the excitement and a lifetime opportunity for interaction with different types of people. Our father was always with us, sharing our nomad life through thick and thin.
Our life at Kanpur: The city of Kanpur had its spread all along the bank of river Ganga. Our inspection house and other offices were on one end of the city in the cantonment area. Our relatives were living at Aryanagar and Nawabgunj, which were located on the other end of the city. We had opportunities to make one or two trips to Kanpur during a month and our father utilized those visits to have some free moments with close relatives and other known persons living in the town. Everybody was familiar with our Cheverolet tourer car and our entourage. Whenever, we happened to stay overnight with them, ringing of the bells, by our guards heralded our presence in the neighbourhood. Everybody seemed to be enjoying all those tinkling sounds. We left Kanpur in July 1951, changing tracks from a field job and moved to Lucknow for a teaching job as a lecturer in Civil Engineering School at Lucknow, accompanied with our father.