A lost Charitable Trust

A lost charitable Trust

A charitable trust which could have been a reality for a good cause of the society and community is lost for no reason. 

One of my uncle had very lucrative job and earned a lot of money even after his retirement from the active service. He had no children and while young , he wished to adopt one. My mother very clearly refused his request as he very keenly wanted to adopt me . He took me several times to live with him and lured me with many of the gifts and toys etc. He and my aunt were very much interested in adopting me as their child. They loved and cared for me a lot. I stayed with them in Meerut and Lucknow even though it was difficult for me to stay alone without the company of other children and especially my friends from the village. Finally, they adopted the daughter of my aunt’s sister.

My aunt died after a few years of my uncle’s retirement. She was never satisfied and happy in her life as she wanted children of her own. My uncle was very rich with wealth and property. His  adopted daughter also settled nicely with her family. Her family and children were all quite well off in their jobs, wealth and property, etc. The children of his extended family (like all of us and the children of my other uncle) were also well settled independently. None of us needed his money, wealth or property.

On various occasions, I mentioned to him that he should establish a charitable trust for the benefit of less privileged ones as he has no other responsibility and obligations for his friends, relatives including his daughter. I also tried to convince him through some anonymous letters that he should establish a trust in the name of my aunt to get at least some rewards of his good deeds in his next life. Perhaps, the influence of his daughter was so much that he could not do anything. The resources which could have been used for some good cause of the society went all to his daughter after his death in December, 2008. He certainly had some special interest in me. 

I intuitively visited him with Sameer and his family in September 2008. I have a special photograph showing him with me, Sameer and his chiIdren - a photograph showing four generation together. 

Having no children of his own, his karam Kshetra was limited which he could have easily extended by establishing this trust carrying on his memory and legacy. It is the destiny that my mother did not agree for the adoption, otherwise, those resources would have passed on to me and I would have put his wealth to good use for others. 

Otherwise also, as per my destiny based on my life experiences and reality, I am not destined to own unearned wealth and property. That is explained in another blog.

Know yourself and your history

I would like to re-post this article for the information of my friends;


June 12, 2015
Knowing Your History
Unearthing Your Roots

by Madisyn Taylor

Knowing where you came from helps bridge the gulf that divides your past from your future.

Each of us is a piece of a larger puzzle. We are all born into the unique and complex network of individuals, settings, and circumstances that constitute our heritage. Whether or not you are aware of your ancestors, you family’s country of origin, the cultural history of your people, or the trials faced by the people responsible for bringing you into the world, these forces have had a hand in shaping your values. Knowing your family history and reflecting often upon your own personal history as it relates to your heritage empowers you to look at your life in a larger historical context and to understand that you are a vital part of an ongoing drama greater than yourself. 

Researching your heritage can prepare you to meet the future. The traits of your ancestors can give you insight into how your character has developed and the beliefs that form the foundation of your worldview. The knowledge you gain can help you appreciate your values and your character, giving you the confidence to be more expressive where both are concerned. At a cellular level, you carry a genetic code from your family determining things like how you age, your blood type, and personality traits. But as a spiritual being you bring in what you chose to do with that genetic coding, your free will. Unearthing your heritage is not simply about uncovering who did what when or reconnecting with long-lost relatives. Rather, it is a method of building self-awareness and bridging the gulf that divides your past from your future. 

In researching our individual histories, however, we may encounter relatives who made interesting choices or were involved in traumatic events. It’s easy to overestimate the importance of these pieces of our past and to cling to them. Balance is key. While your heritage has influenced the development of the person you are today, you are more than an ethnicity, a culture, or a family name. You should not feel driven to alter your likes and dislikes, dreams, preferences, or values because you feel your heritage demands it. Knowing your history is about loving who you are, understanding where you’ve come from, and preparing for your future. 

old friends, JHALU

Right from childhood, a person becomes so busy that he/she does not have time to think around. As the life progresses with education, career and later with family, you mostly forget childhood friends and loose their contacts. I know that unconsciously, at time to time, they all come to mind  but due to several limitations, it becomes very difficult to trace them and to contact them. Now in retirement when, there are no such limitations and obligations, they are well remembered. There is some kind of inner force to contact them, talk to them and meet them. Thanks to Communication technology and social media, I recovered most of the the lost contacts of my friends. Once I found a few, the they provided the links to others to contacts. I feel so happy about it , contacting them, and knowing about them, their progress and family etc.It is quite rejuvenating.
 I contacted some of the old friends from JHALU and I was happy to know their progress;
SATYA BHAN AGARWAL: younger brother of Gahnsyam Das Gupta ( settled in Lucknow after retirement from PWD ; has two daughters, Kajal and Guugun ) settled in Meerut (Ph # 121-251-4821); He has been doing a lot for the renovation of our THAKURDWARA Temple and attached dharamshala in JHALU. But he was disappointed not getting any cooperation from any one in the town and other friends and family members.He was quite critical about Satyendra younger brother of Jitendra; Jitendra's Uncle , Shri Jagdish Prasad recently died at the age of 98;It was quite refreshing my memories about these people. Satya Bhan provided me the leads for Gyanendra and Ravindra, Ravi Bhushan and Vijaya Bhushan etc.

( unfortunately died recently)
Dr. GYANENDRA KUMAR:A friend from JHALU ; we had wonderful time while he was living with his Bua and studying in CHANDPUR; seems to be quite a changed person; settled very well  in Meerut (Ph# 121-260-3549 and Mobile # 941-166-7811); has one daughter and one son, both nicely settled in medical profession; briefly talked about MAHESH and his family ( Gyanendra'swife, RAKSHA is the cousin of Mahesh,; his Mausi,s daughter from Kandhla ) and his younger brother , Yogesh. He also mentioned about my old friend, RAM GOPAL VIDHU ( His son, PRACHUR is a medical Professional ) from JHALU. He has also settled in Meerut after his retirement from defence services.( Ph # 121-262-0366; cell p# 963-948-8117);
RAVINDRA KUMAR; younger brother of Gyanendra also settled in Meerut ( Ph# 121-257-5289 and M# 992-716-9493);
They have another two brothers, PUSHPENDRA and UPENDRA ( an advocate in Binor ;Ph#1342-262-080);

A few months back, I was talking to JAI PRAKASH AGARWAL from CHANDPUR now settled in Baroda after his retirement from ONGC (ph # 265-265-5664).He mentioned then about his younger brother ,

SATYA PRAKASH who has settled in ALWAR after his retirement as PRINCIPAL of a popular Public School of ALWAR; later talked to him; He is quite happy with his family, achievements of life etc.

He then mentioned about JAI PRAKASH son of Shri Hazari Lal, younger brother of my teacher Shri Ram Avtar ( other brothers are Syam Lal, Radhey and ... ); an old friend from JHALU. It was great pleasure talking to them after a long time and knowing that all of them have nicely settled in their lives. 

RAM NATH Goel, ( ph # 942-502-4616; 755-246-5242); retd. as Director, Orthopaedic Services, and settled in Bhopal , now very spiritual; has been writing professional and religious books; one of his daughter is married to the son of our common friend in Chandpur, RAM MOHAN Zindal ( ph # 941-253-4512; 941-101-2394; 983-705-0512);
There is a long list of friends. I will continue supplementing the information about them in another blog.
I wish all my friends very enjoyable life in their future.

Whatever has to happen, will happen

Posted on April 8, 2015

Destiny is very strong which guides and controls all our decisions and actions. Although according to typical human nature, we think that we are in control of our actions and events, and we can change them with our efforts, but this is not so.
There are many such stories given in the literature. A recently published book by Sushma Gupta; https://www.scribd.com/doc/254965698/Whatever-Has-to-Happen lists a few such stories  showing that Destiny is much greater than man-made efforts.

Well those are stories taken from books, but here, I wish to narrate a true incident of my own experience. It was 1962 when I was working in a field party of ONGC and that was my first job and assignment with ONGC. We were working in Moradabad and Badaun Districts of Uttar Pradesh. Mr. P. N. S.Chauhan was one of our party members and was working as a field surveyor. Initially, I was living with him and another surveyor, Mr. Tuteja. Mr Chauhan was a very nice person with all the good traits – personal and professional.
It was the month of May, peak of the summer and we were camping in a garden near Bhakarauli, Badaun. One day Mr Chauhan was looking very sad and worried. On asking he told that he knew that in the same month he was going to die in an accident.

We did not believe him and laughed at it. He took all kinds of precautions not to involve in any kind of accident. He pitched his tent outside the garden to avoid the fall of the tree, although it was very hot outside. He would not light the lamp inside the tent to avoid any fire accident. (We had already witnessed a fire accident in the camp in the month of January when the tent and belongings of one party member, Mr Sharma, were completely destroyed). He was not only taking these precautions but he did not marry also for this reason only.

Mr Saxena, our Party Chief, was kind enough to give him rest from the field work so that he could avoid any kind of accident in the field or while traveling in the jeep or anywhere else. Mr Chauhan became very quiet and was not talking to any one. He would like to be alone; very careful in his actions to avoid any kind of accident. He would go for evening walk alone and sit down on a culvert on the road side. The traffic on the road was almost negligible especially in the evening.
The final day to meet his destiny was coming nearer. He was sitting on the culvert as usual. Normally, no body used to go out of the camp for any work or duty in the evening. But this evening, as the Destiny of Chauhan had decided, Mr KC Saha, one of our party members was going to Moradabad for certain work. It was only one and a half hour drive from the camp. So Mr Saha would come back to Camp within four hours or so.

Mr. Saha insisted Mr Chauhan to accompany him for this short trip. Mr. Chauhan tried his best to avoid this trip and convince Mr Saha not to accompany him for the said reason but Mr Saha dragged him to the jeep to accompany him. To meet his destiny and the bad luck, he joined him in the jeep taking the outer front seat.

After an hour, it became dark, jeep was in its full speed and then there was a road cut to build a culvert there. There was no sign posts for the repair of the road. It was dark, driver could not see the ditch ahead. The jeep fell in the ditch.

The jeep was completely destroyed in the accident. The driver and Mr Saha were injured badly and were admitted in Moradabad Hospital but poor Chauhan could not escape his death from the accident. Since, he was sitting on the outer seat of the jeep, he was thrown out with a big thrust, died on the spot, perhaps instantly.

Later when we got the news from one truck driver going on that route, we sent a rescue party; could help the other party members but we could not do anything for Mr. Chauhan as he was already dead.
Mr. Chauhan took all the precautions but destiny had its own plan and he could not save himself from it in spite of all the precautions.So, whatever was to happen, happened.

JHALU: A small town and its communities in Uttar Pradesh, my town, JHALU;

JHALU: A small town and its communities in Uttar Pradesh, my town, JHALU; 

Here is the description of a typical small town in Uttar Pradesh and the various communities lived with peace and harmony during 1940s and 1950s. Everyone knew every other person or family in the town. People from all the communities used to work together, celebrate social events together.

JHALU in District Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh is/was a small town during 1940s with a population of about 8,000 or so.It was almost kind of a big village.

Infrastructure was very poor with no cement roads, most of the roads were either brick roads or mud roads; no drainage system; a drain for the used over water used to be in the middle of the road; no sanitation facilities; no electricity; no roads or rail roads to connect with other towns.Means of transport was only the bullock carts. Some times, we used to walk from Bijnor to Jhalu in the absence of any kind of transport.No railway Station, no Bus Station. There used to be a coal run bus from Bijnor to Chandpur, used to ply on Katchha road and we used to wait for it near Gol Baghia , sometimes for hours.Now they have good network of roads with all kinds of means of transport.
Education; Only one Government Primary School was there catering the need of neighboring villages where there were no schools at all.Gradually, later a Junior High School was also established with local efforts with very poor infrastructure. The medium of instruction was Urdu, at the fringe, Hindi. English was just to learn elementary things in Junior High School. But the teachers were dedicated and the standard of the education was very satisfactory. After Junior High School, children of well to do families who either had the connection or could afford the expenses of the education will go to other near by towns like Chandpur, Bijnor, Nehtaur, Nagina and Dhampur etc. These towns had good Intermediate Colleges. For Higher education one has to go to Moradabad, Meerut, Chanduasi , DehraDun - only a few towns had Degree Colleges. Agra University was the only University in those days which was an Examining Body for most of the colleges in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab. A very few students used to go for higher education.

A very few shops to cater the essential needs of the people. The main source of shopping used to be Friday weekly market when farmers used to bring most of their produce, the vegetables, grains and the other things of daily use. This weekly market used to be very  crowdy and interesting; exciting for us to see so many things on the road. Market will start early in the morning and will last late in the evening.Local people will buy the produce brought by the farmers and farmers will buy goods of their daily use/ consumption from the local shops. I liked the seasonal fresh vegetables and fruits in the market. Cart full of water melons and melons of special quality. I especially liked the jafrani watermelon. The most interesting part of the weekly market was that you will get small things, very unique which you never get in the local shops.There were only very few things which people needed during those days.A very busy day for every one in the town.

Medical Facilities:People were normally healthy because of their own and natural way of life style; There was very limited medical facility in the town, my father was the only qualified doctor in the town and for nearby villages. Even the medical facility in District Head Quarter , Bijnor were very limited. Only a few medicines were available.

All comunitives with various castes mainly based on their profession lived in the village; MUSLIM:: Weavers/झुलाये  ( our immediate neighbors and elsewhere ), Saiyads/सैयदस  ( shiyas) , Pot makers ( Kumahar * ), Dhoone/धूने   *, Barbers/नाई , Teli/तेली * , Butchers/कसाई  ( Kasai*) , Pathans/पठान, *, Faquirs/फ़क़ीर *, washermen/धोबी * (Dhobhees), Tailors/दरजी  (Darjees *), Kunjras/कुंजड़े *, ; HINDU:: Farmers/किसान, , Mali/माली  *, Barbers/नाई  *, Brahamins/ब्राह्मिंस , Vaish/वैश , Khatri/खत्री *, Kayastha/कायस्थ *, Jatजाट *, Chowdhuries/चौधरी , Blacksmiths*, Goldsmiths/, Carpenters/बढ़ई *, Gadarias/गड़रिये *, Padkwas/पदकवास , Saini/सानी *, Kalal/*, Bhadbhuje/भड़भूजे * and Schedule castes/ शूद्र , ( charam kars/चर्मकार , Janitors )/सफाईकर्मचारी ;
* a very few families, in some cases only one family only;

Festivals; We used to celebrate a few festivals together like HOLI; Dussehra ( with Day time Ram Leela and in the night Dramas etc.); Diwali though individually celebrated but the lights in the market were very exciting event; Muharram procession was also another exciting event ; Nautanki ( swangs), magic shows, Katha ( especially Ramayan ) , Keertan were also occasional and interesting events;

All the communities lived in perfect harmony, and peace affectionately, friendly and respectfully ; Helpful to each other; very cordial and peaceful environment.

I love my village where I have grown up till 1950 and I have been visiting till my parents were there almost up to 1974. I still go whenever I get an opportunity though I feel like a stranger as no body of my time lives there and children ask my identity. My brothers also have settled elsewhere, so now it looks like that our village will be forgotten by our next generation. Of course, they have no association and attachment with it.
Things have been changing over the years with better facilities of transport, roads, electricity, education etc. connectivity with road network and telecommunication etc., I wish all the best for its development;

Living Conditions in a small town during 1940s: Jhalu, my house

Living Conditions in a small town during 1940s: Jhalu, my house

One can not imagine the living conditions in a small town like my own town, Jhalu. Here, I would like to share with you my impressions  as how we lived in a small house during 1940s. The basic amenities were not there and we were so many people living as joint family in that house. After living in urban areas and big cities and now living with all modern , perhaps the best facilities in USA and Canada, it is simply not imaginable about those poor conditions. A few years back, I took my children and grand children to my town to given an idea as how we lived in that house.

I come from a small town, kind of a rural setting . About my village , I have written somewhere else in detail. https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/7434278182063497637/2213017834987711381

My house like other houses in the neighborhood was a small house, and my family lived independently in that house without sharing any one. All of us, my brothers, sisters ( seven of us )  , my parents and my grandparents lived in that house.
The house had two medium size rooms, two small rooms ( kothries ) on the ground floor ; two rooms and a common toilet on the first floor . The toilet was open toilet without any door or roof. It has to be cleaned every day morning by Mehtrani /janitor . It was highly  unhygienic , can not be imagined now that worms could be seen all over in the toilet space with naked eyes. foul smell from the toilet all around and the flies would be hovering all over.
No bathroom , either you go to the well side or fetch the water from the well and take bath on a small raised platform (chabootri ). Normally gents and boys used to take bath outside on well side and ladies and girls in side on chabbootri. A very small kitchen just for cooking the food and keeping a few utensils.. Our roofs were not cemented, only made with clay which used to leak during rainy season and lot of clay used to be washed away to be replenished every year before rains. Our room floors were also not cemented . They were also made of clay , used to be maintained by cow dung paste with special clay occasionally. Even our court yard was also the same; you can imagine the condition during raining season.. No proper ventilation as rooms were made wall to wall and houses in the neighborhood were made wall to wall. I wonder as where we used to store our personal things and school books etc..Not enough space for every one..But one could imagine as so many people were using this small housing facility ( may be up to 500 sq, ft in all ) for toilet, shower, and sleeping and all other activities There was no electricity or gas facilities during those days, storing materials for cooking was also limited. For lights in the night , we used to have either oil lamp (Diya) or Kerosene

oil lantern.  No chairs or tables or any other kind of furniture in the house; used to have various size of ordinary home made cots with locally made spreads and covers etc.The best part of the house was the chabbotra outside the house in between the kitchen and the well where all of used to sit in the evenings during summer days. Myself and my grandfather used to sleep there during summer.
But I think that we managed all this with no complaints what so ever.In fact life was simple and going..Our needs were limited and we were contended whatever we had. It was not the condition only of our house or our living, all other families in the town were living with the same conditions. Perhaps many other families in the worst conditions than ours.I wonder as how the guests and visitors were also accommodated in that limited accommodation?
During late 1950s and early 1960s, my father renovated the whole house with brick flooring all over; changing the walls in the first floor with big size windows etc. Electric connection was also taken with moderate electrification of the house with light bulbs and a fan in one room. The look of the house changed to be more beautiful and comfortable.
I love my house where I lived for most of my childhood and visited till my parents lived there. It is now gone, sold now to several hands. In fact, nothing is there, the shops, the other houses of other family members; our land, our gardens etc. all gone, nothing remains there to say that this is my village or this is my house. Well, nothing is permanent.

you may ask some questions like as the toilets were cleaned on daily basis? How the guests were accomodated on special occasions llike weddings etc? How the religious rituals like SatyaNarain Katha, Sharadh , community feedings etc.were organised ? Where people used to sit without any kind of furniture?

Organized Crime: A Very Strange Incidents:

In a separate blog, I have written about the brahamin community of the town. These are my childhood recollections from when my perception was limited to understand and analyse the people and their circumstances etc. But this is a strange and exclusive story of a single brahamin family of the town. Ram Swarup Soti was our neighbour, lived with a family consisting of his three sons ( Keshav, Hari and Sooraj) and his wife. Keshav was almost of my age. His house and campus of the house was big, though main living area and boundary walls of the house were made of mud, no bricks. In the courtyard he had some trees and a small flower and vegetable garden. I very frequently visited his house and his family. I was especially attracted  to his nice flower garden. The family liked me very much and always treated me very well.
I never saw any body in the family working for income. Of course the boys were young and school going. So I wonder as what was the source of their income and how the family was managing day to day living expenses?
The family was socially isolated; though the family was a brahamin family but I never observed them performing any religious ritual. At what stage, under what circumstances, the family developed a kind of enmity with some families in the town and Soti ji became very revengeful and criminal to go to any extent to take the revenge. Lala Bhajju Mal's family (Bhajuu mal was also known as Chowkrayat: a person to guide the community for social activities) was one of the victims of his crimes. Bhajju Mal was a small business owner as grain merchant though he was doing well in his business. On one occasion, Soti ji opened the roof of his shop and burnt it; the shop was completely destroyed with its contents. It was a complete  and great loss of the property and his business; other time he mixed the poison in the floor at the grinding mill itself. Most family members were very timely saved, yet still lost their youngest son. This was a great tragedy and unbearable shock for the family. Later, the family left the town to avoid further victimization. Another family was of Dr. Dwarka Prasad. His young son was killed brutally by Soti's family just in the next house. Soti already declared that not only will he kill the boy, he will also drink blood from his heart. He did so by cutting the  chest of the boy and taking out the heart from the body. Later, he proudly declared that he did it what he said. Terrible incident, I never heard of such an inhuman act before or later in life. A devilish (rakshash act) act from a brahamin to a brahamin. I could notice the anger on his face, in his voice and his eyes. In fact, he was born criminal and his family suffered with him with his criminal acts.
Every one in the town was scared of him and would never dare to come to him or talk to him. But I was never scared though I knew all of his acts; I wonder why I was not afraid of him and his family ? The worst part was his training to his youngest son: He used to tie him with a tree and rope and used to beat him with stick for a long time. When I asked him as to what and why he has been doing to his son, he said that he is making him strong enough to tolerate any kind of pain, even the hardest beating by the police. He was preparing him to be a hard core criminal and later of course, he became one of the most famous robber and criminal of the area. He committed all kinds of crime including murders. It is very strange as how a father and mother watched their own son, turn into a criminal before their very eyes??
The family committed several crimes and in the acts of murders and counter murders among the rivals,the family vanished in these acts of crime except that one of the boy escaped, left the town and got employed in some job somewhere .
No wonder such people meet this kind of end.

Daily Worship according to Vedic Religion

According to Vedic Religion, five Devtas are worshiped daily; Ganesh ji;  Durga ji,    Shiv ji,      Vishnu ji   and SUN;

Among all the devtas, SUN is the only one who is visible to us every day; Sun  provides us and all the living beings with Light and life without any prejudice or discrimination. It rises every day to give us HIS blessings. Light means knowledge as Darkness means Ignorance. I very strongly believe that we must worship Him daily. The best way to worship Him is by chanting the  Gayatri Mantra:

ॐ भूर्भुवः॒ स्वः ।तत्स॑वितुर्वरे॑(तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यं) ।भ॒र्गो॑ दे॒वस्य॑ धीमहि ।धियो॒ यो नः॑ प्रचो॒दया॑त् ॥

Proper chanting of Gayatri Mantra improves our intelligence and wisdom - a path for spirituality.

Its meaning and details are provided in several documents and websites; I would suggest:

www.AWGP.com

Born only to suffer; miseries, miseries and miseries only.

A strange but true story of a person who was born to suffer throughout her life. The story is of one of my grandmothers who lived very near to us in the main big family house.
Shri Jagan Nath was the second to youngest brother among five brothers of my grandfather . He died very young, even before I was born and after his death, his family met a very tragic end. I was told that he was not smart and very active person with no means of earning.  He was not very capable or able person to do any thing meaningful in life. He was perhaps the poorest of all his brothers, in all respects. His family gave him responsibility of attending social obligations on behalf of the family ( such as attending wedding ceremonies, other functions in the community, and funerals etc).
My grandmother was born in another nearby town, Tajpur- a famous Riyast in our region. They were two sisters with entirely different fate/destiny to live their lives.

She was married to my grandfather while the other sister was married into a very rich and prosperous family in Bijnor. Shri Ajit Prasad was the top most lawyer of those days in Bijnor . There is no comparison in the lives of the two sisters. One enjoyed the best of the world while the other suffered through out her life with all kinds of miseries and pain.
They had two sons, Krishan Kumar and Om Prakash (commonly known as OMI); all their uncles, especially one of my grandfathers, Shri  Bihari Laj ji  ( who retired as Executive Engineer, and settled down nicely in Delhi) tried to improve them and to EDUCATE them but of no avail.  They had very poor IQ and EQ. They did not do any thing in their lives except loafing around and living on the little income they had from their property and support from the family members(our family  was very strongly bound, collective and united family, impossible now to imagine that kind of cooperation and feelings for each other in the family); They lived  in extreme poverty and very miserable conditions. They had very little intelligence, common sense or understanding otherwise. All of them in that  family came together having very poor destiny. My grandmother had, perhaps the worst kind of fate, never saw any thing good in her life, very pathetic. I never saw her wearing a nice dress, eating good food etc. She struggled through out her life with poverty, starvation and all kinds of miseries.
After having two sons , she became widowed at a very young age. She had to bear the responsibility of bring up her two sons alone. They tortured her through out her life at every stage as they were born with a specific purpose to trouble her and make her life difficult and miserable. She lived in the other house of the family though used to come to our house on a daily basis for something or the other. She was comfortable only with our family. She was never free from problems and troubles. She was very nice person by her nature, very loving, affectionate and soft spoken person.  Though surrounded with all kinds of problems, I never saw her angry or disappointed. I had special consideration and great sympathy for her. I always had a desire in my heart to help her in any way. I always visited her and asked for her welfare. Her sons used to beat her to extract at even the smallest thing she had and used to ask her to come us and ask for money etc.My own family helped her in all possible way, all the time.
 I never saw her praying or worshipping, going to temple etc. as, perhaps she had lost her faith in God. I never saw her visiting any other person or family except our family. Almost socially isolated.
Years passed, her sons though now grown up and adults , but never came to age even to help themselves. Always bothering their mother for their needs.

Her younger sister in Bijnor who was very rich and prosperous visited  her very often and wanted to help her every possible way. But according to the social system an elder sister will never take any help from her younger sister, hence my grandmother never took any help from her. She tried to help her sons in all possible ways but of no use and it was somewhat never ending.

The last part of her life is really pathetic and worth mentioning here. Baba Har Prasad ji, once came from Muzaffarnagar and scolded Dadi ji that she is the only one who has given her sons undue shelter and support and spoilt them. Let her come with him to live in Muzaffarnagar  leaving them alone behind on their fate. This way they will learn their lesson and will do something to live with out depending on her. Fed up with her situation and every day trouble from her sons, she decided to go with him to Muzaffarnagar for some time After she left they started doing some thing here and there as no options left for them., Krishna Kumar  was working in a watermelon farm as watchman , was caught by LOO ( very hot and dry air during the month of May, causing dehydration and many other ailments to the population) and ultimately by severe Cholera suffered a terminating situation and died in a very short time, all of a sudden. Due to poor transportation and medical facilities in the town, he could not be given adequate and proper treatment. Perhaps, he could have been saved if timely help was available for him to take him to District Hospital in Bijnor.(Perhaps, he was not alone, as in those days, how many would have died in the town with out proper or adequate medical facilities?). Dadi ji was called back immediately after his death from Muzaffarnagar, and for what? Just to mourn her elder son. She was terribly shocked and saddened and was broken down from this event. She was very much unhappy, angry, frustrated and disappointed with everyone in the family. She had no option except to accept the fact of the life. She became very quiet and silent after she lost her elder son.
My grandfather, assessing the situation, thought perhaps the marriage of the younger one may bring some relief to her and a difference in her life. He  arranged the marriage of Om Prakash, the younger one with a  girl from a village in Garhwal . Our family arranged this marriage(rather bought that girl for Rupees 5000/-, which was very common practice in those days for the rich people). Anandi Chachi was one of the most beautiful women in our family. She was quite young and certainly no match for Om Prakash who later never cared for her, never treated her as his wife, had no love, attraction or association at all with her. It was his incapability to give any importance to any relationship , not only to his wife. However, it gave some consolation to Dadi ji in her grieved situation. She got busy in looking after her with some hope for the future. The burden of expenses, directly and indirectly came to my grandfather.
Time passed and Dadi was blessed with a grandson, very handsome boy . She forgot all the previous sufferings and got busy looking after  the child. She was very happy, satisfied and contended with this changed situation. I used to go very often to meet Dadi ji as I had great sympathy with her and she was also very affectionate to me. She was very glad whenever I visited her. Once, she asked me that I must take care of this boy and develop him. I promised her to do so and she had a trust in me. I also decided that I will do my best to bring up the boy . After a few years, when the boy was about five years old, he got very severe attack of smallpox and died with its complications(again a case of poor medical care and facilities at home and in the town). Dadi was completely shattered and completely exhausted with the calamities and miseries of life; tolerated the loss of her husband at her young age; tolerated the death of her adult and fully grown son and now the last hope of the beloved grandson is also gone. After the death of her son, frustrated and ill treated by her husband, Chachi ji went back her home in the hills not to come back again. Dadi ji was left alone to bear all the sorrows and loneliness. She died soon after that. No one cared for her son Omi after her death.  He wandered here and there and survived perhaps a few years with bare minimum resources and died in mysterious circumstances. The government did all the last rites. During his last years of life for his survival, he sold out whatever property was left after the death of his mother ( a small house, some shops etc.) .
This is the end of the family, their property, and everything . I do not understand as why God punished Dadi ji and that family so much that they never saw any thing good in their life except the troubles, miseries and sorrows all the time. VERY TRAGIC END. I do not understand the purpose of their coming to this world and their existence.

THAR DESERT, Rajasthan

While working for ONGC, during 1968-69, I was posted in Jodhpur to work in a seismic party headed by SK Verma. We were working deep in the Thar desert very near to the Pakistan boarder . The experience living and working in that area is worth describing here.Personal experience of living in that special and harsh environmental conditions and dealing with different kinds of people working in the party is really quite unique. In fact, the people including the party chief sent over here to work in this exploration party were under punishment of some kind or the other , transferred as the bosses in Head Quarters were not happy with them. ( My own story is quite funny; my immediate Boss called me to tell me that I am transferred to Jodhpur; I said to him that is fine; He was not satisfied with the response, perhaps expected me to pray/ request him not to transfer me for that place; He called me again and told that do I know the harsh conditions of working in the  desert and also working with kind of people etc. In reply, I have to say to Mr. MNS Rao, the Boss that do not worry Sir, I am always prepared to work even in the hell so far working with you and ONGC; and finally, I was transferred) .Dealing with such people was not easy. NC Sharma, PN Mathur were other two more geophysicists working in the party. We were working in Ghotaru area covering upto Shahgarh. Names of the places were given not as they were the villages or townships of any kind but they were known with other identifiable marks like a water well etc.
From Jodhpur to our camp Ghotaru, one has to go through Jaisalmer , Ramgarh, Gamnewala and Longenwala. Jodhpur to Jaisalmer was a tar road and Jaisalmer is the last or terminal Railway station in this area; also Jaisalmer is the biggest town in Thar desert area with lots of tourist attractions.From Jaisalmer to Ramgarh is also tar road and Ramgarh is also the last small town with stable population in this area. After Ramgarh, there is no road , it is only the desert with sand dunes of varying sizes. We have to change our mud tred tires to sand tred tires in Ram Garh. Our drivers were very experienced ones from the local area and knew every bit of the place. It was possible to reach from one place to another only with the help of these expert drivers. Our vehicles were strong ones with high powered engines , could climb those sand dunes without much problems. The journey from Ram Garh to Ghotaru was really treacherous , difficult with lots of ups and downs on the sand dunes. The desert is just empty without any visible vegetation or living animals. The journey is monotonous and full with wilderness; tiresome and takes more than twelve hours if the weather conditions are favourable ( no dust.storms and other disturbances ); During our work, we combed almost the whole north western part of Thar Desert.
The work was interesting, quite different what we used to do in plains and other areas, mostly because of the sand cover of several feet ; topography of the area, having no land marks, even the temporarily created land marks by our surveyors used to  disappear due to sifting sand.;weather conditions being overbearingly hot and dust storm etc.So, mostly our work was done during night.
Our camp was - Ghotaru camp was established on mostly flat and hard surface though surrounded by sand dunes. One of the partial camp was in Shahgarh, very northwest side of the desert. Typicaly, there was no flat place where we could put two tents together ; it was so uneven place on a sand dune.
Camp was fairly big as big as of any other seismic party camp should be. We had all the facilities for living; used to get a few hours of electric supply from our own generating unit; used to have one big air conditioned trailer for our office work equipped with wireless communication set; wireless communication set was necessary to be working in the  field  to know each other,s location and situation; also to communicate regularly with Head Quarters in Jodhpur- a really very useful and effective means of communication and being connected with each other. We had regular supply of drinking water from Longenwala which was just around 40 kms from our camp.  Our camp was just about 20 miles from the border with Pakistan. In this area, as there was no local population, only source for our labour force was from nearby villages on the other side of Pakistan. Our drivers were quite familiar  and knew all those places.So most of our helpers were from Pakistan , most of them muslims- very hard working, sincere and honest . I must not forget to mention the name of our security guard and my personal care taker- KARIMA.
In my next blog, I would be writing about the living conditions and experiences in Ghotaru camp.

Introduction; Blogging course; Assignment #1

I am Davendra K Gupta, now a retired person live in Canada since 2000.
I was born in a small town , JHALU (Bijnor), Uttar Pradesh, India in 1938. My town is a kind of village with a population of about 8,000 then in 1930s with meager facilities of basic things like education, health , transport and infrastructure.Had a junior High School with Hindi and Urdu Language mediums only ; no health facility of any kind; no good roads in the town and connecting town with other towns and hence no road or rail transport facilities for traveling; no electricity.
It was really hard to live and get education or to do anything meaningful over there. From this town to another town ...., I have been going to various places for my education without any guidance and mentoring as what to do in life. I was not alone in this situation , this was the fate of all the children born in this town; almost no education for the girls except for a few up to primary school only. Any how I completed my education from the most prestigious University in India , Banaras Hindu University in 1961; I got my M.Sc, Degree in a very special subject in those days- GEOPHYSICS;
I started my career as a teacher of a secondary school, then as a Chemist , later as Geophysicist and Documentalist with ONGC ;  , finally I retired as a Professor teaching Library and Information Science  courses at various levels in Nigeria (West Africa) University of Ibadan , Ethiopia ( East Africa ), Addis Ababa University,
Married in 1961 and I always moved with my family ( my wife, son and daughter ) to all the places of my working; I got vast and varied experience of living and working in various places, situations and communities in India and in Africa, Later , after my retirement, living in USA and Canada.
I got opportunity to interact with different people all over.
Traveled to Singapore, Indonesia, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Lesotho, France, UK, Switzerland, Italy, Canada, and USA ,  
During all these years of my life, I have gathered very rich experience from various communities, cultures, places and situations. I wish to share this with my friends, relatives and others who may benefit from it.They may learn from my mistakes and from experience and knowledge , can easily apply in their practical life.
I especially want to cover topics on Social Capital and Spirituality and Destiny etc. I have already written some of my blogs on these topics and got good feedback. I hope that people will certainly benefit from the writings in my blogs.
I look forward to write more and more and expect good feedback from my readers and followers.

Birth Certificate ; Date of Birth

In old days in my town, children were born at home in natural Birth with minimum assistance from the local experienced midwives ( dayees) in the town. No health facility like hospital, maternity centre or a clinic in the town. The child and mother used to be separated for ten days from the rest of the family, most probably for hygienic  reasons to take precaution for the health of the child and the mother. They used to join the family only after ten days or so. ( It was only after forty days later that the child and mother were supposed to go out of the house for the first time, normally used to visit a temple and perform some kind of worship ). On that day , a ritual of naming ceremony of the child used to be done by performing some kind of pooja and havan etc. Pandit ji used to prepare the horoscope with usual details about the birth of the child. so, at least we used to have some kind of record in the family.During 1930s and for long time even later, there was no standard system of recording the Date of Birth of the children in our town. There was no clock and watch in the town to record the Time of Birth. It was all approximate. Though, there was an office of the Town Area supposed to keep the record of any births or deaths in the town.But it was never done and hence no record.Therefore, no Birth Certificate or Death Certificate for a person from any Government office or agency could be available or issued ..

Only standard and authentic source of getting the record of Date of Birth was the Primary School Register where the DOB of the child was randomly and approximately recorded by the Head Master as the parents also may not be knowing exact DOB at the time of admission in the school.Most of us, the children of our time have wrongly recorded DOB. No standard or any kind of admission form for the admission in the school, hence no records of any kind of details. Therefore, many of us have even wrong spellings in the names of the individuals and their parents. This.official record is carried to Junior High School and then to High School records. It was quite possible to change any personal details till the Examination Forms for High School are filled up and submitted to the examination Board. After the Certificate for High Examination is issued by the Examination Board, it used to be permanent official record  for all other purposes in future- like Graduate Exam Certificate, Passport etc. 

I am sure that most of the people contemporary of my age carry wrong record of their DOB, When ever, any of us was asked to submit such certificate, there was no way to do that except the court affidavit in lieu of.,Same problem and solution for the Birth and Death Certificates for the parents when ever they were required to be submitted.

Any way most of us celebrate two Birth Days, one official and one the real one.

Encounter with Robbers

Here are three very interesting stories of my father encountered with robbers;

1. With Revati Dacoit: Revati was a local robber from Jhalu- our town and from Padkuwa community ( community goes around begging on Saturdays ). He was very famous for his robbing activities like Sultana Dakoo , robbing from Rich people and helping the poors. He had already declared that no robbers should dare to come our town and rob any one. So, our town was free and safe from any robbery during those days because of him.
We used to go to Dhampur to visit our Buwa ji after Diwali for Bhaiya Dooj. We will start after dinner and after performing  Goverdhan  pooja, normally about 9; 30 PM to reach Dhampur early in the morning . It used to be by Bullock cart via Navada and Nehtaur . the road was kutcha and sandy, hence the cart would move very slowly and making cracking sounds in the sand..It was perfect dark night and silence all over. After 3 miles or so, before Nevada village, my father noted that some one was following us behind the bushes.This area was known for notorious activities of robbers and criminals. Thinking to scare the follower, my father took out his walking cane and displayed it vertically to give an impression that he had the gun. The person followed us for another half a mile and then stopped us .He saluted my father addressing him as Doctor Sahib ( my father was quite popular for his medical services and respected widely in that region) . He respectfully told that thank God that it was he and could recognize my father but otherwise, with the impression of that gun, his gang member would have shot us and things would have been worst. He further told us that up to Nehtaur, there are so many of his men who are busy for the night activities and it would not be safe for us to travel like this alone. He offered himself and followed us for our safety up to Nehtaur. A lucky escape...

2. With Sher Singh: Sher Singh was most famous robber in the Khadar area of Senadwar, Shekhpuri and beyond. My father and our munim ji and some other assistants used to go every year for the harvest of main crop of wheat in Shekhpuri. April is normally quite hot month . All of them used to stay in our own dera ( a residential compound with a boundary and few huts ) . It had a water well outside for the village people also. It was late night, around 1 AM that my father came out to drink some water and noticed some one with a gun and a horse near the well. Before, my father says anything, he saluted my father and fetched the fresh water from the well for him. He then told that he was like his own son-in-law being the son-in-law of Chobdar ji ( my nana ji was known over there as Chobdar). He then requested my father to follow him on another horse to his camp without any fear. He told him that this night they have special entertainment programme and that my father should join him. My father had no choice, he has to follow him. The camp, deep inside the Khadar (Khadar on the bank of Ganga river has tall weeds up to  seven  feet tall and quite thick; no one could see any one inside  from outside and vice verse ); ..
These are places of hide-outs of these robbers. My father told that it was a grand gala music and dance programme and they felt that my father obliged them by coming there . They respectfully accompanied him back to his summer camp in the village.
An interesting encounter with a wanted criminal and robber.

3. Shyam Singh (Syahma Dakoo); shyam singh and his elder brother were very simple people living in the village. They were very good in their carpentry job , rendering day to day services to the farmers making and repairing their farming equipment. Shyama was very skilled and creative person , In his leisure time he used to make toys for the children like gulli danda, gulels and a few others. He was very affectionate persons and used to love children, will give toys to the children as gifts. Children liked him and used to be around him. He made some kind of small  toy gun and gave to the children. the toy was very good , put a small piece of stone or clay and shoot. It could hit the target but with no harm as after all it was a toy only.
It was a nice, simple and poor family . Once a police informer, when he  had nothing to inform, informed the police that he has been making guns. Police rounded him, took him , put him in lock-up, grilled him for nothing. No case to prove, after a few days , he came back home but very upset and stressed with the treatment he met from the police. later on several occasions, when ever, there was any crime in the town or nearby villages, he will be rounded up, questioned. Finally, he was implicated for nothing and convicted for the crime he never committed. This continued time to time. He was harassed and finally a simple, honest and nicer person was made a criminal especially by the environment of the prison . He became a most famous and notorious criminal and robber of that time.
Finally, he was convicted for the severe crimes was supposed to be hanged in DehraDun. He was being taken by special police squad in the special train compartment from Bareilly to DehraDun. His gang was very strong and organized. The people of his gang managed in Moradabad to feed the police with intoxicated food . The gang members entered the compartment when the train departed from the station. Police was already under the influence of intoxicated food. The gang cut off the hand cuffs and foot cuffs and jumped out the train along with Shyama.
My father had the revolver as he was allowed to keep it for his personal safety while going to visit the patients in the night within the town and nearby villages. Shyama knew about it. After jumping off the train, he directly came to our house, knocked the door in the middle of the night. My father to his surpise, saw Shyama alone who is asking permission to enter the house. My father knowingly fully well that he is dangerous criminal, had no choice, allowed to get him in. He was in hurry, he explained his story that how he was implicated to be a criminal and as what happened to his family in all these years during his absence ( remaining in jail or committing the crimes, remained absent from his family and the village );
. that his mental set up has changed and he has been transformed to be a criminal by police;
. the informer in the police who implicated him, is responsible to make him a criminal to make my
  fate like this; He has no right to remain alive. He was in police security and that he was not able
  to eliminate him. Now is the time that he has to do it;
; that during my absence, police has been harassing and torturing  my brother for no fault of his own;
. During my absence, my brother-in-law instead of helping my family, took my wife away and sold
  her forcibly ( considering that she has no future , one day or the , I will be killed or hanged though
 he was right but he had no business to sell my wife ) ; so my brother-in-law and the person who
 bought my wife have no right to live. I have to eliminate them;
. The time is limited , police on look out and will find me soon. I need your revolver to do this last
  job of my life. I will return the revolver as soon as the job is over. Nothing to worry.
My father assessing the situation, had no option except to hand over the revolver to him and remain silent about it.It was really a testing time for my father.
After two days, he came back again in the middle of the night and gave back the revolver. He narrated the rest of the story like this.;
He went first to his brother-in-law and pardoned him as his sister begged him for her own life and the family and convinced him; He also pardoned the person who bought his wife on the plea of his wife that so much time has already passed and now she has new life and children. For their sake he must pardon them, otherwise also her life in his absence was terrible with poor condition of his family.
Finally, he did eliminated the police informer.
He then asked for a dhoti / rapper; He threw away all his cloths and belongings etc and told that now onward he would live a life of beggar for rest of the life. Otherwise, also very soon, police will find me and shoot me. Pl. give me some food , the first alms to begin with.
He left the house and the town. Later, after a few days, he was killed by the police.
I feel sorry for the person who loved the children and especially me; gave us so much love, affection and toys to play and enjoy. This is the end of the simple man, made criminal by the circumstances.
We missed his love.

My Regrets

Decisions and actions change from time to time according to individual's circumstances- conditioning according to environment, perception ( knowledge and understanding ) , experience , exposure , priorities and many other social, religious and economic factors; At every distinct stage of life when you evaluate and assess your past, you feel that you could have done this or you should have done that or you would have done a particular thing in some other way. Every sensible person may realize this kind of situation at various stages of life . It is quite normal for every person.In fact it  just happens to be like that unknowingly  because of our ignorance and negligence or being busy with different perspectives and priorities; do not think to give back something to them who so rightly deserve though never demand or expect anything from us. Even to day , I may not be knowing as what I am supposed to do.  I wish if there are some standard guidelines available at the appropriate time to all of us in the society.
In my retirement when I look back at my past, I do realize that for my ignorance, negligence , inexperience or different priorities at particular time, I could not do certain things which I would have done. I would like to mention  a few of my regrets of life here:

1. My maternal grandmother ( my nani ) was the person with whom I spent the core of my life , 1950 to 1955; I have separately written my thoughts about her. I can never forget for her care, and love for me. It appears to me now as she was born to take care of me and my other siblings. I owe to her. I can never be free from her debt she left on me. I regret that I could not do anything for her; She died too early , I was not even settled properly in my career and life. Perhaps, I was unable to realize, understand to do anything for her at that time.Certainly, whatever I would have done for her would have not been enough. I carry this regret every day with me.

2. My Mentor- My college Principal, Shri C S Sinha; We had special relationship, may be from our previous lives. He was very caring and loving person. He treated me like his own son. He gave away everything he had for the academic cause and the development of the College. He retired with nothing with him, any money, assets , house or any such thing as his savings to live in his retirement. I wonder as how he lived rest of the life. Once, in 1968 after a long break of time, he wrote me a letter mentioning his pitiable condition of living; living with only two sets of shirts and payajama and with meager earning by giving private tuition; further mentioned that families where he goes to give tuition, taunt behind his back that what kind of MA( London )  and DIC , he is ? and what kind of Principal he was as he was observed wearing only two sets of cloths for long time and that too not properly washed and ironed; He requested me to send Rs.50/- so that he may get another set of cloths. I did sent him Rs. 100/ instead of Rs.50/- but never asked again if he needed my help in any way. I should have asked him again and again if he needed my help. There was no body to support him in his old age. I do not know as he passed his last day of life. I feel utterly regret about my negligence in this regard.

3. My father; My father died as a pauper leaving almost nothing behind; a few cloths, no money rather some debt; died because of poor health; I have seen him in real miserable situations having nothing with him. When he died, I could not cry but felt guilty that I did not take care of my father especially about his health mainly due to his financial bankruptcy. I took care of his responsibility like education of my younger brothers; marriage of my sisters especially almost 100% of my youngest sister Rajo but could not take care for his personal health and other aspects. I would have done it as my own responsibility though my brothers who were also well -to-do could have shared some of it. They simply did not care or thought about.

4. My Grandmother- mother of Om Prakash (OMI) and Krishan Kumar; She was poorest of us; I saw her living only with a few dirty and most used cloths even on festivities also, she did not have some thing nice to wear. Though at times, I helped her financially but why I could not help her materially with small things like some new saries or even some good used ones. Sushma shares my regret that why we could not think in this direction. Now when we feel to help others even the strangers, why at that time, we could not think about the people who were so near to us.she loved me the most and expected a lot from me .Time has gone; She has also gone and now what is the use to think about it.

5. My neighbours like Shri Ram Narain, Shri Gharib Das, who were so loving and caring for me. I never thought anything to do for them; they have been haunting me every day since long; I wonder why such thought of doing something did not come to me when they were alive and I was in a position to do something for them. They had no body of their to take care or to do any thing for them. So lonely and uncared by the society. At least some small gifts or a gesture . They would have been so happy even for the smallest gift for them.

6. Others; There are people they love us and care for us without expecting anything; During our active life, we simply forget to think about them; NARAIN is one who comes to my mind, our block servant in Braucha Hostel, BHU; was so affectionate and caring that without even my noticing , he will take care of my personal things, cleaning the room, washing the room, giving cloths to washer man etc; reminding to get up early in the morning; I remember one of his typical comment: " Sahib Uthiye,nahi tau exam ke time par rikshaw mangwai " : Sorry about him; I did nothing for him like most students who might have not done also anything for him; Students after leaving the hostel, just forget them. Master SHIV PRASAD; my childhood teacher in Chandpur , very strict ; used to even beat me on my fingers but bent upon that I must learn; I used to take tuition with him at home as well as in his small place where he used to teach some other children also; I very often remember him for his personal interest in me though it was there for all his students. Why should I have forgotten him through out my life and remember him now in retirement. I owe to him as I did not do anything in return for him. I am seriously thinking to initiate a scholarship in his name for primary school children in Chandpur.

My expulsion from BHU hostels; 1960

A very strange and interesting experience , I had in April, 1960. I was the student of M.Sc.Previous (Geophysics) and living in Broacha Hostel- special corner room 13A. My room mate was C.D.P.Singh - a student of M.Sc.(Geology)., The life in BHU hostels is very smooth and comfortable with all necessary facilities available. Broacha Hostel had six wings, known as A,B,C,D,E and F blocks. Most of the students of Science faculty lived in this hostel. Each block had a separate warden  to facilitate day to day affairs of the students living in that block. Each block had a few messes to provide the catering facilities for Lunch and dinner. Each mess having about 20 members was managed by them and a monitor to look after the mess. There was a central Cafeteria for tea, coffee, tiffin and breakfast etc. even the lunch and dinner was also served with their own menu and price.My warden was Prof. A.K.Bhattacharyya from the Department of Geology.A wonderful , helpful and very caring person.
I was the monitor for the month of March-April, to manage the mess. The quality of the food supplied by our Cook ( known as Maharaj ) was deteriorating every day. All the members were fed up and complaining about. After several warnings, I removed the cook. I never  knew the system of hostel management except that we had a Chief warden, Prof Y.R.S.K Sarma, also the warden of B block. I did not know even the role or function of the Chief warden. As a student who will never bother for these things, just be busy with your studies and other activities. The cook reported to Prof Srinivasan, warden of C block and also the in-charge to look after the messes of the hostel. Prof Srinivasan called me and asked me as why should I remove the cook??? I explained him in detail but without understanding  our problem, he ordered that if we want to have the mess, we have to have the same cook. I requested him that he should visit our mess and see the quality of the food , he was supplying to us. He rebuked me and asked me not to argue any more.He further reported to the Chief warden that I was arguing with him and misbehaved with him.Prof. YRSK Sarma called me for my explanation and without listening me for any thing told that a disciplinary action would be taken against me for my misbehavior. I did not take it seriously as I never considered this as a matter of concern  or grave. Got busy with my studies for coming up examination.
At the end of the month of May, after the examination, I got a letter to appear before an Inquiry Committee to explain about my behaviour with Prof. Srinivasan. Some times , later I came to know as what happened. Chief warden reported the issue to the Dean of the Students , then Prof. S.C.Dasgupta and he then to the University Authorities . University formed the Inquiry Committee:

The INQUIRY Committee: comprised , the Principal of Science College, Prof. Raj Nath, Dean of Science Faculty, Prof. Ram Lochan Singh, Dean of the Students, Prof. S.C.Dasgupta, Chief Proctor, Prof. R.S.Chowdhry , Head of the Dept. of Physics, Prof. Anant Ram Verma. I wonder, they could not find any more members to investigate this silly and petty issue of a graduate student of the prestigious Department of Geophysics. Twelve students are selected on the basis of strict merit in this department. Each student is expected to be very responsible and  serious.
When I saw the Board of Inquiry with so many members of those positions sitting in the Science College Office, I was amazed and several questions of why why ...??? came to my mind. This looked me a kind of joke- very funny, a mockery of the system. The deliberations of the Committee were still the worst and funny. No body wanted to listen my point of view or any kind of explanation. Only question they had that why I insulted the Prof. Srinivasan and rest of all the statements or funny statements were among themselves ( just one to mention here; Prof Dasgupta said, " Dr. Rajnath that this boy is from your Department" Dr Rajnath replied " Do you think that he is learning these things from me " ) . A few minutes and it was all over , wasting their valuable time . I never thought such kind of deliberations, Board of Inquiry etc. within an academic Institute of this size and type like BHU. for such a petty matter ; I came out and laughed at myself and did not take it seriously.
Before, I left my hostel for summer vacation after my examination, I got the verdict from the University Office:
1. My parents would be informed about the incident,
2.I must write a letter of apology for the incident,
3. I am expelled from all the BHU hostels with immediate effect.
4. I should pay Rs.50/- as fine to the University.
5.It is understood that all the privileges of any scholarship, fee concession etc. would automatically would be withdrawn.

I never imagined this kind of consequences and multiple punishments for no fault of mine.
For all these years , I have been thinking about this incident , told to my friends and other well wishers and they all laughed at it.
Well, I went away on my vacation and forgot about it. When I came back, I noticed that it was serious matter to stay away from the campus and study for my final examination.Well, another funny incident to mention here about the meanness of the Chief warden, YRSK. When he found me sitting with my classmate , Mr, M.L.Gupta in his room. He warned me for further consequences and ML Gupta that if he provided me shelter, he would also be expelled from the hostel; How funny and mean on the part of an academic.....
Well, I found a room in Kailash Lodge in Lanka, outside the BHU campus, not very far from it. Mr. Guha , my another classmate joined me in that room. I do not remember as how and why, he was expelled from the BHU hostels. Kailash Lodge and especially our room was very big and comfortable; had an open terrace towards the market of Lanka. Kailash Lodge had all the basic facilities of a hostel.Absolutely no problem. I purchased a bicycle to commute to the University. But, still problem of loosing Rs.150/- pm scholarship because of the punishment clause of the University , if punished for any thing, loose all the benefits and privileges including the scholarship. That means that unless the whole process of the punishment is reversed , it was not possible. Cashier will not accept the fees unless I pay the fine and if I pay the fine, a punishment is already imposed. I am unable to pay my tuition fees and scholarship is already stopped.
Reversal Process;

I worked out the strategy to get back to the University Hostel and get reversed the verdict of the Inquiry Committee;
1. I wrote a letter of withdrawal from the course to my Head of the Department ( which was not easy for the University Authorities , Geophysics being a special course supported by the Government of India )  mentioning that staying outside of the university would not be suitable for my studies and I may loose my rank etc. ( though some students like A.K.Ghosh, BB Bhatacharyya  were living only outside ); My letter was supported by the Warden of Kailash Lodge with good moral and character and behaviour ; got convinced HOD ;  Prof. Rajnath as HOD and Principal of Science College ( just to mention here that he was my mentor also; I was there in the Department only because of him ) wrote a strong recommendation that I should be given a seat in BHU hostel to carry out my studies smoothly for my final examination. With this letter, I have to visit , Dean of the Science Faculty, Prof, R,L Singh, Chief Proctor, Prof RS Chowdhary  and the Dean of the students, Prof Dasgupta; not in their offices but at their residences, requesting them very humbly, innocently; they all recognized me, laughed at me and several visits to them, they finally endorsed the recommendation; With final recommendation and order by Dean of the students , Prof Dasgupta said " I am putting under the control of a very strict warden of Dhanrajgiri Hostel-( Hostel meant for Mining and Metallurgy Engineering students ), Prof Bhattacharyya is very strict ".Thanks and thanks to all.
With that letter, I visited the Warden of Dhanrajgiri Hostel who knowing nothing of the background of the case, logically and sympathetically told me that I would be misfit in this hostel, I should go to another hostel ( Aiyer Hostel) next to Broacha hostel and nearer to my own classmates etc. though just a new hostel, I would be the first person to enter the hostel and immediately, there wont be any catering facilities. On the contrary of the statement of Prof Dasgupta, I found Prof Bhattacharrya to be wonderfully nice person.
I entered the NEW HOSTEL with all new furniture and excellent facilities of Bathroom and canteen etc. A reward in disguise. slowly, more students joined me in the hostel and it was full with the students. My immediate neighbour was Mr. Jain, a student of Ceramics Engineering from Ferozabad; and S. Guha, my classmate and recent room mate in Kailash lodge ( He automatically got his seat in the hostel once I got in ). My stay in this hostel was very comfortable.
Once I settled down in the hostel, I requested that with the current development, I should be pardoned of Rs.50/-fine imposed on me; it was done with due recommendations and with that all the punishments were reversed and I got my unpaid Stipend retrospectively .

When, I see the whole process, actions and decisions in an academic Institution like BHU, it looks funny but any way organizations are run by human beings only . Great experience of meeting varied and critical situations, solving the problems related to them, meeting authorities of BHU, knowing them and with some establishing my personal relationship.

Regrets3

At some point in life when we are little free from our main responsibilities, we go back in time and try to assess or to evaluate our actions of the past and find that we could have done certain things in a different and better way or some times feel guilty that why we did not  do a certain thing or did a certain thing. Not all of us do this kind of assessment or do it judiciously. Though it is too late to do such assessments as you can not reverse the action and there is no use regretting for your actions in the past but, I fell that still useful for the young generations to learn from our mistakes before it is too late for them.Any way, I do and get disappointed and feel guilty that why I did not know that then.. Reasons could be:
(1) when we are children, our perception is limited as our exposure, experience and knowledge even understanding are limited, no concept or do not think as what we should do.We are mostly guided by our parents, mentors and teachers etc; so no regrets as such for our actions;
(2) when student, trying to build the career, hardly any time to evaluate our actions, though we make certain corrections to our decisions and actions at time to time according to the circumstances, still little scope to do much; Our focus is somewhere else and psychological built up is different and hence the orientation is different.
(3) when young, pursuing the career and looking after the family, we have plenty of things where we could have made certain corrections to make our lives better but the situation and circumstances are quite complicated and our orientation is different for the self, family and the society; do not give serious thought about several things and have regrets later in life.
Certainly , these are very personal and individual considerations even later in the life. I have several things to consider. Here is one about my teachers of childhood who laid the foundation of my career and life. my first teacher pre-primary school education , Pandit Shiv Prashad ji from Chandpur was one of them; Munshi Haider Ali of KG class, used to take care of very seriously, used to make our pen to write on Takhti; Munshi Makhan Lal ji of class one teacher, Munshi Ram Chandra Mal and Munshi Fateh Ulddin of Class three were very good teachers, teaching us as to their own children, very dedicated. We forgot them completely for long time, rather than doing any thing for them by giving them some gifts; they were financially poor people, could have supported them financially a little bit or could have done some thing for their children. We ( many of our classmates and seniors and juniors ) completely missed that opportunity to serve them in any way. I feel sorry about it and wish to point out to the young ones to think early about it before it is too late. Though I understand that now a days education is getting more formalized and personal teacher-student relationship, care and interest are gradually diminishing..
To compensate this and to satisfy myself, I am seriously considering to initiate some scholarships in their name and to honour  them from my small savings.

My Education

My parents did not plan or looked after my education; also for my brothers and sisters; never knew as what we were doing in the school; never knew about our home work or helping us in any way; They did not do about our education right from the primary school till we finished our education. Surprisingly, it was not only my parents but the parents of other students in the school were also not involved in the learning process of their kids. Perhaps, teachers were taking enough care about it.

I had my primary education in the village primary school run by District Administration with bare minimum facilities but with very good school teachers and good curriculum to teach various creative and learning skills.
Middle School in the town was also run by District Administration. Did my middle school education also in Jhalu ; school had even lesser facilities than primary school but good dedicated teachers. I did my primary and middle school education in URDU language medium ( Urdu was most popular language in our region ; our teachers were also mostly muslims ); English learning started in middle school and I learnt just elementary English ( though my grand father gave me at home English tuition with Shri Bharat Singh ji- a very strict teacher); In the school, I had my very good English teacher from Haldaur- Shri Chandra Pal Singh );
In 1950, I moved to Chandpur to live with my nani and to join Hindu Inter College as there was no further education facilities in my own town .HIC was one of the best known Secondary School in our region with good facilities and teachers. I finished my High School and Intermediate education there with science background- Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. ( with a short break of a few months at DAV College, DehraDun ). As there was no Urdu medium in the college and Hindi was compulsory language, I have to do rest of my education here only in Hindi medium; With Elementary Hindi in High School and Hindi in Intermediate Examinations.