My life and my Destiny 2

 Passed my B.Sc (Physics, Maths and Geology ) in 1958; Initially , I was not interested in further education especially to go for Geology or Mathematics , but later some how I tried my admission to Lucknow University for LLB; I stayed with Prof Gyan swarup Sharma, then Dean of the Law Faculty; He was from Jhalu , cousin of Shri Om Prakash Sharma - a very close family friend. Could not get admission because of late; though not interested in Geology but on the advice and recommendation of Prof Raj Nath, I tried my admission with Aligarh University ( with a letter of Dr Raj Nath in the name of Prof Sapru, the Head of the Dept); could not get admission; So, it was too  late to seek admission to any programme in any University this year. DESTINY decided that I must try something else during this year.

I tried some teaching jobs here and there however landed in SJ High School Gajraula for a short period. Detailed account of my job , life and experience is given in another blog;  https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/7434278182063497637/1652779700775160573

I got very rich experience of  managing to live and survive with bare minimum facilities; knowings that the private schools are run as commercial ventures; also teaching various subjects including English to High School students.

I never liked Chemistry as it cheated me at Meerut College and I have to waste my one year that. But DESTINY forced me to work as a Chemist in my second job in Katni. Detailed description about is already given in another blog ; https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/7434278182063497637/2473737783465933451

That job provided me real good , rich and practical experience working in a private enterprise .

The story of Destiny goes on explaining as how it controlled all my decisions and actions in life. I had no control for any aspect of my life , education, career, marriage , family life ( including children or my parents etc) . I did what it dictated me and I followed the course like a river , meandering on its way, finding its way to destination.

My life and my Destiny 1

When young, I never realized many facts of the life as there was no time to look back and assess the events of life. As usual, most people are busy in making the career., looking after the family and extended family ; busy at job and many such things. It is the retirement when, you are free from such activities and you have time to go back and look into past happenings and analyse them with new perspectives and perceptions with cumulative knowledge and experience through all these years of life.
I feel that my life was guided and shaped perfectly by my destiny especially after 1953. I passed my High School Examination with good scores . Having no more facility for science education in Hindu Inter College, I decided to go DehraDun to study Science for my Intermediate Examination at DAV College- one of the best school around in those days. I had no guides, mentors or consulars and my parents and family members were not capable to guide me for my education and career. Who decided to choose DAV College for my further education? my destiny !!! I was living in Pooran  Ashram (Hostel on the campus ) sharing the room with Satya Prakash Agrawal from Jwalapur - a very serious and brilliant student. My grandfather, Shri Har Prashad ji once came from Muzaffarnagar to visit me and guided and directed me to change the subjects from Biology to Physics and was switched over to Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics Group as he thought it would provide me wider opportunity for my career instead limiting myself only for medical career with Biology group. My course of career was changed for ever. Destiny guided my grandfather to visit me and advised me, rather forced me to change the courses. The College was good with very good teachers who cared about good students and especially about me. Laboratories were good. The education was of very high quality. I was satisfied with my education and environment and rest of the things. I made some very good friends in a very short period. I liked the place and I wished if I could live here for ever. ( Perhaps, GOD listened to me and kept in mind for some other time; Later in 1961, I got the job with ONGC with its Head Quarters in DehraDun ). If I would have continued over here, my career and life would have been different. But, my Destiny changed the course of my life again.

Some times in Late August, I got a letter from the Principal of Hindu Inter College that they have started Science courses over there and I must join back the college. Thinking that I will enjoy to live at home with my Nani who loved and cared for me so much, without any second thought , I came back to Chandpur .  This changed the course of life again- the DESTINY. This new environment for science courses did not provide appropriately good education and motivation and hence lost my scores to second division mainly based on my memory not understanding the concepts properly ( not realized at that time ).

Joined Meerut College for my B.Sc. I have separately written about a loss of my year education over there: Read that blog here; It was designed by my destiny to leave this college and place for some other program in its plan for future. Having no reasonable idea as why should I go to BHU for my further education, I went there. why ?? Even my friends and parents asked me as why should I go to BHU? I did not know for sure?? Even , my attempt to seek admission to BHU was half-hearted; In-spite of the fact that my admission would be cancelled if I did not deposit the fee in time, I paid only some amount , a fraction of the fee, not full.I did not like Chemistry, so I decided to take any other combination without Chemistry. The best option was Physics, Mathematics and Geology ( known popularly in BHU as PMG group.) Knowing nothing about Geology, I chose this subject but in the first and orientation class Prof Mukherjee told as what we have to study in Geology and had shown the Books, Holms Physical Geology, ........ for all the various branches of Geology; It was so scaring that I went back to College office to change it for any other subject but College office refused not to make any changes at this time. All the programmes were finalized by then. Destiny decided to go for this group. Perhaps, preparing me for Geophysics as PMG was the requirement of admission for post graduate programme in Geophysics.
The story is getting longer, I passed my B.Sc. in 1958; continued.........

My grandfather; Shri Ram Swaroop Mal jee (Bhagatjee )

The father of my grandfathers was a visionary and very forward looking man . He was known for several things /changes brought  to the family;
1. Changed the tradition of Daal Roti replacing with Kachodee, Puree etc. during the major festivals ;
2. He wanted that his children must receive highest education; the result was that Baba Behari Lal jee was a graduate Civil Engineer from Thomson College of Engineering ( later known as Roorkee University and now IIT )  and honourably retired from State Services as Executive Engineer - a very difficult thing  to achieve during those days; Shri Har Prasad jee had his Matriculation ( now known as High School); I t was not easy for any one to get educated during those days as our town had very limited facility of Primary school with Urdu Medium; How my grandfathers got their education out of the town is another big story. This tradition continued that my grandfather wanted all his sons to be properly and professionally educated; My father went to Agra Medical School , my uncle did his B.Sc. with first Div and joined Civil Service, another uncle went to Thomson College of Engineering and joined MES;
3. Very wisely , he distributed his wealth and property according to the ability of his chidren; Almost nothing to my own grandfather , knowing fully well that he can develop of his own and he did; nothing to Babab Behari Lal jee; half of his wealth went to Baba Chhangi Mal jee, he established his workable business ; half of it to Baba Jagan Nath Prasad jee; and nothing to Baba Har Prasad jee.
My own grandfather was not educated; never knew how to read and write but very wise man  with very good intelligence and management skills. He developed his wealth and property in a very wise manner.
Being the first child in my generation in the family, I was very priviledged person. I got the love, affection, care and attention of every person within the family and outside. My grandfather spent lot of time with me explaining many things with facts and logic. Some of them, I would like to share here with you;
About FESTIVALS: He explained that besides religious beliefs, our festival are arranged according to the society and their living environment that is why they are celebrated differently in different places and in different way. Festivals in our region are based on agriculture and local weather conditions. In those days, roads were not there, if some of them were there , they were in very poor conditions; means of transport were very limited not like now ; rivers without having bridges were difficult to cross even in normal days , not at all possible during raining season. Most of the population was living in villages or small towns, urban population was very low; the living conditions were very hard, I have written in anothe blog about my own town and during my own chiildhood days;https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blogger.g?blogID=7434278182063497637#editor/target=post;postID=8136542096939563207;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=7;src=postname
festivals thus celebrated acoording to local conditions, weather and mainly agriculture;
1. HOLI: major festival , known as festival of colours ; comes at the end of winter season , main crop of wheat and gram etc. is ready for harvesting 

Large collection of Forein folk tales translated in HINDI; देश विदेश की लोक कथाओं का हिंदी में अनुवाद

FOREIN FOLK TALES TRANSLATED IN HINDI

 

While on assignment in different countries Nigeria, Ethiopia, Lesotho , Canada, North America etc, I had the opportunity to access the hard-to-find resources of information in Research Libraries (Institute of African Studies, Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Institute of Southern African Studies etc). I collected  more than 1600 folktales of those countries.

After my retirement I, have been working on the project "Gyan Daan" without any objective for any financial gains. Thinking that Hindi speaking people in India and abroad, especially the children ( more in rural areas ) need to know about the  cultures of other countries  than of India - foreign countries. Literature of Folktales was a good medium to develop  this awareness. There is a lot of literature in English and other languages but nothing  in HINDI, so, I started translating the folktales in Hindi. During last twenty years, I have developed a kind of mini-library of HINDI FOLKTALES with more than 1600 stories packed in 105 books. ( see the list of all  compilations/books , attached herewith);

I have arranged those folktales in several books for publishing in PRINT media, ELECTRONIC media, and Braille also;

Most of the folktales from Africa and South America ( about 450 or so ) are not published anywhere. Stories from Europe, America, Canada, China, Russia etc. are too many and published in standard print media. Only the most popular ones are selected and translated. These stories are so popular that they are even dramatized on TV channels, and You tube and dramatized through films and documentaries. They are most popular throughout the world. Unfortunately, nothing in Hindi language.

I am not a professional translator but tried to translate these stories in simple " BOL CHAAL KEE BHASHA" so that children in rural areas may read them comfortably without looking for meanings of the word.

CLASSIC BOOKS

In 1850,  a literary Critic and Historian, Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve stated his answer to the question " What is Classic?"  " The idea of classic implies that has continuance  and consistence and  produces unity and tradition , fashions and transmits itself and endures ..   " ( Literary and Philosophical Essays ,1909-1914; vol 32, Oct. 1850).

. work translated in several languages (work admired in various countries ),

. work published by reputed publishers all over the world (work admired in various countries ),

. work being published over and over again for a long period  ( contents have powerful message  and value for the society ) ,

. they are powerful , have a certain eternal and irrepressible  freshness,   healthy, elastic and everlasting recognition,

. Read again and again with ever deepening  pleasure.

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with above mentioned definition and criteria , when a literature survey was conducted  for WORLD CLASS Classic LITERATURE of FOLK TALES, it was found that out of very few books , there were only three following books related to Indian folk tales:

1. Folk-Tales of Kashmir : Rev. J. Hinton Knowles. London, (Ludgate Hill )  Trubner & Co. 1888, 510p;

2. Folk-Tales of Bengal: Lal Behari Dey, MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON, 1883; 271 p

3. Tales of Punjab told by the people; Flora Annie Steel; London; Macmillan & Co; Ltd. 1894 422 p;

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Above mentioned three books of Folk tales of India have been published by most reputed publishers of the world including Forgotten Books, Penguin Classics over the period of 125 years or more , being published even recently in 2018;  published over and over again; translated in several languages ; now available in digital media , " Goodreads.com " and " Gutenberg.org"

Considering that such popular classics are not available in HINDI, books are translated in Hindi for a wider Hindi speaking population in India and abroad. " FOLK TALES OF BENGAL " is  published by the National Book Trust of India (NBT) , the other two should also be published soon.

 

 

Our project "GYAN DAAN "  has so far  published some of them in print media ; Indira Publishers, Bhopal and Prabhat Publication of Delhi have already published FIVE books; and other three are going to be published soon by PRABHAT. One is  published by NBT and other three are being considered to be published by NBT.

 

NAB ( National Association for the Blinds) , Mumbai and AICB ( All India Confederation for Blinds)  , Delhi have  already converted Four books in HINDI BRAILLE , published them and distributed them to more than two  hundred Schools of VH Children in Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, M.P,. U.P , Rajasthan Haryana etc.

A list of all the books is attached herewith .The list shows of all the books with titles in Hindi and English and the number of stories and number of pages  ( A4 size) in each book. Another list gives a few lines of description of each book.

1. the number of stories and hence the pages of any set of books can be increased or decreased as appropriate ( for example 10 books of Italian Folktales can be reformatted to 15 or less );

2. At the moment all these folktales are compiled in 105 books; which can be published as a series on Hindi Folktales as "" DESH VIDESH KEE LOK KATHAYEIN);

you may read some of the stories on my face book page/group;

https://www.facebook.com/groups/hindifolktales

also you mat browse another website;

http://www.sushmajee.com/

A CAR ACCIDENT CHANGED OUR LIVES

This car accident in December , 1998 completely changed our lives. I was coming back escorting Sushma from her office in the evening that SNOWING started. It was the first snow fall of the season , traffic was high and very slow because of slippery road and poor visibility. just a few yards away from our residence , my car started skidding and simply went out of control. I knew that something is going to happen. It was multiple cars accident ; In fact, all over Detroit Metropolitan , hundreds of cars were involved in such accidents.

Car was completely smashed, I broke my finger with very minor injury but Sushma broke her shoulder with seven fractures; The help was almost immediate with ambulance and fire brigade and police etc. we were taken to Hospital and promptly attended; car was towed to some towing/parking facility. Sameer or Sapna were not available over there, however, they were informed about the accident. They came next day. Sushma,s injuries were serious and Hospital waited for three days for Dr. Shea, Specialist in Sports Medicine , to take care of surgery of her shoulder. He was very much concerned about her shoulder and really spent several hours replacing the shoulder and saved the amputation of her hand. Great man who really took personal care. Angle in the form of human being; He did so perfect job that it worked for the rest of her life.

She has to go through a rigorous sessions of physiotherapy for about a year or so. gained wait, lost her mobility; developed arthritis. Finally, she lost her job and we lost our status living in USA. Fortunately , we could get our immigration to Canada well in time and then landed in Windsor , Ontario, Canada in 2000  . Since then , we have been living here without any job or gainful activity- kind of complete retirement life. Thus, this accident changed our status from USA to Canada and thus complete  life style.

Lost opportunities

What we get in life is just according to our prarabhad  ( प्रारभ्ध ) ! several opportunities come in the life but we get what is reserved for us. At this stage of life, in retirement when I go back to the life journey, I find that I lost many very good opportunities , here I would like to give a few important ones which have changed the direction and the situation ( दिशा तथा दशा ) of my life .
1. ACADEMIC opportunity with BHU:
I was a very favourite student of Prof. Rathor , who was my guide also for my M.Sc. Thesis. I was his  most trusted student ( He gave me even an examination  Question Paper to set for final examination on his behalf) .Prof Rathor wanted me to join the Department as Assistant Professor and simultaneously register for the Ph.D research. He even discussed the topic for Ph.D. work and the whole process of completing the work and also the future academic program and career. I would have been certainly benefitted  under his  care  and my future would have been safe and successful under his  guidance. I would have been a faculty of a very prestigious University not only of India but of the world. A house on the campus, academic environment and an institution with full of  activities. etc etc. I missed the opportunity. DESTINY never wanted me to go that way.

2. HIGHER EDUCATION in Canada :

My external examiner for my M.Sc. Thesis was Prof A.E. Beck, Professor and Head of the Department of Geophysics, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada. He was very much impressed with my thesis work and invited me to work with him for a Ph.D. program. He was quite keen and interested  that I should join his Department. I missed the great opportunity by declining his offer as  my own priorities and responsibilities at that time were different and forced me to take that action. When I think about that opportunity now living in Canada as what could have been my life and career if I would have come to Canada in 1961 ( almost 60 years ago). Unthinkable and unimaginable . Lost the opportunity . DESTINY never wanted my life to be that way.


3. ONGC:
I joined ONGC in 1961 with my first attempt of interview. Dr. Hari Narain, One of the Superintending Geophysicist ( SG) , next to the Director, Mr. B.S.Negi in seniority was the Chairman of the interview Board, Mr. Sengupta, and Prof. Amlendu Roy were the other members of the Board. During the interview process , Dr. Hari Narain asked me to show the copy of  my M.Sc. Thesis to him and all the members of the board, complimenting my work that this report has given the idea of the Offshore prospecting  about which even ONGC did not know so far. He further told that he was the examiner of this thesis work and he was very much impressed with it and thinking to write to the Department of Geophysics, BHU that he wanted to see me.
I was selected and enjoyed working with ONGC till December 1976 in different positions, different kinds of responsibilities , doing different kinds of work; Obtained very rich experience . Describing my work and experience will take very long space here, hence some other time and in another context. ONGC is and was the best organization in India to work. . My Director, Shri S.N. Talukdar was not happy that I was leaving ONGC and even mentioned that if I wish he could get the whole process reversed for me to join back. Any way, now when I see my friends and colleagues who retired from ONGC, nicely settled with all the facilities one could think of, I feel I committed a mistake. I came later in 1980 to visit India and went to see Mr Talukdar . In fact he really helped me out of way  to get my Visa for Nigeria. He invited me for the breakfast at his home, though I was little shy to be with such a high ranking person, I visited him at his home; He was then Member Exploration and told me that if I was still interested to come back to ONGC. He will fix me with proper rank and salary etc. Also mentioned the concept of Voltage and Amperage  (Power and Income); He gave me time to think about it. I declined the offer and certainly lost the opportunity to work for ONGC and enjoy the life in my retirement like my friends.  DESTINY never wanted me to live that kind of life.

4. LAND in DehraDun:

I have been looking for a small piece of land to construct a house. I got a very good deal and arranged the land for my friends and well wishers; The plots were taken by Mr. Talukdar, Mr Mathur, Mr.MC Agarwal, Mr. MP. Agarwal, Mr Chaudhry and me; it was a great location on EC Road , very near to MKP College ; I decided to go to Nigeria hence returned all the papers for buying the land , deciding not to buy the land. Others constructed nice houses and enjoyed living in DehraDun: The cost of land appreciated not hundreds of time but thousands of time because of Uttrakhand and its capital as DehraDun , Lost opportunity;

Another land piece just by the side of my younger brother , Mohan was available to me through Pradeep Gupta : Mohan took half the land for Rs.20,000/- and the double of it on the corner side ( roads on three sides while Mohan had only on one side) was offered to me for Rs.40,000/- not grabbed , recently sold for Rs. 10 Lakhs. Lost opportunity; 

Thus, lost academic opportunities to get better qualifications and career  ( Twice) ; Lost my wonderful career with ONGC; ( Twice ); also lost financial gain opportunities by not having land in DehraDun ( twice); Well, I very strongly believe in  DESTINEY which carried me along as it was decided.