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Shri Ram Swarup Mal , my grand father was popularly known in the town as Bhgat ji. He was very simple, disciplined and religious person, kind hearted and generous person. He did not know much about vedic scriptures but perhaps, even unknowingly, he was following them. He was not educated, he was not even literate; hardly travelled out of town, knew nothing about the external world; his needs and desires were bare minimum; he was very healthy person, I never saw him sick and asking any help for his personal matters. He was land lord, managing small farm lands in various places and earned good amount of money by doing some petty business also; He was married in Bijnor , but no body or any property etc exist in their name in Bijnor; my grand mother ( Moongia Devi) had one brother and one sister ( married in Kiratpur, had one son, Shri Mangoo Lal ji who had his small nice family; uncle Mangoo lal ji disappeared in mysterious circumstances, never returned back and his family was shattered; Dadi ji, his mother, my grand mother,s sister came to live with us and aunt with her children went to her parents in Chandpur). My grandmother's brother had one son and one daughter; daughter was married in Mandawar to Shri Mahasheya Raghubir Saran ji ( had two sons, Ram Awtar ji and Prem Awtar ). We used to visit them occasionally on various occasions, very affectionate family, now lost contact with them since long, may be fifty years or so ); My grandmother's nephew Shri Krishan Lal had one son , Rishi, very handsome personality died very young a very tragic death with brain cancer ( thus the last of their family was gone to end the family line); two daughters, one married in Hasanpur and the other married in Roorkee ( unfortunately, I never met them); Grandmother's nephew, Tau ji used to come to live with us in Jhalu at time to time, a nice but sad person for obvious reasons- loosing every thing, he had, very unfortunate situation);
My grandfather though very much living in the world but with least attachments, interests and concerns but very responsible and duty bound; most contended person. He had three sons , Brij Bhushan Saran Gupta, Shri Kanhaiya Lal Garg and Ved Prakash Garg and a daughter, Chameli Devi.I am the most lucky person among all my brothers and cousins having all the love and affection from my grandfather. In fact, I received maximum love from all my relatives and people in the town. My grandfather died without any ailment through out his life, at the age of 85 or so , within a few minutes by heart attack, on July 1, 1953 . It was a great shock for me as I lost the person who loved and cared for me the most. He told me so many things of practical life and importance of our religious and cultural rituals, though his conversation with his family members was bare minimum. I never saw him talking to his sister or daughter but just casually.He built a water well and a small shelter near the village of Redhwa, Gandaspur and Sikandarpur; planted two pipal trees; incidentally , it was June, 1, 1936 , the day I was born. In those days , it was a great help to the people traveling or working in that area as there was no water source or shed near by. There is small platform of our family deity ( grah devta) . We worship them ( a pair of white snakes , locally known as Bhure Singh Devta )on special occasions like some one's marriage in the family; a son born in the family etc.It is supposed that they take care of our family. We give them full honour. In 2008, when I visited the place, I found that the geography and topography of that place has completely changed; It is now all green with lot of water sources around .
My grandfather and grandmother used to go for Ganges bath at Ganj every year on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan. I always accompanied them and enjoyed the trip; two incidents to mention here :
(1) one time, I was watching that young boys and people were taking dives into the ganga which used to flow in very turbulent and floody state during this month and at this time. I thought if they could do that diving and swimming , why not I can do that. It was only the direction of GOD that at the last moment I got scared and did not do that deadly diving, otherwise, in those high currents of Ganga, I would have just gone;
(2) I do remember visiting with my Baba ji an ashram of Brahamchari ji in Nizamatpura/Islamabad about 2 miles south of Ganj. This place strangely and spiritually recognized by the local people for many miracles and mysterious happenings . No doubt, Brahamchari ji had great Devine powers to help really needy people with out any self interest and greed . ( 2008; when, I visited Ganj and the place where Ganga ji used to flow, there was no sign of Ganga,s flow even during the flood time in rainy season. It was all dry for a far distance place. One could see some kind of garden and farming at a long distance in the middle of Ganga ji. It was very shocking to look at this devastating change. Only the old ghats, temples were lying on the bank side of Ganga and waiting perhaps, for their further destructions in future.
