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;