Sample Copy Not For Distribution · 2017. 7. 11. · Singh Mahna who has been my guide and...
Transcript of Sample Copy Not For Distribution · 2017. 7. 11. · Singh Mahna who has been my guide and...
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Printed in India
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Shelter of The Golden Rosewood
~Gulab Di Tahli~
(Indian Edition)
Pritam Singh Mahna
EDUCREATION PUBLISHING (Since 2011)
www.educreation.in
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Dedication
I dedicate the book to my revered
father, the late S. Sant Singh Mahna.
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Acknowledgments
I am wholeheartedly indebted to my father, S. Sant
Singh Mahna who has been my guide and
pathfinder throughout. He has enriched me with the
knowledge of our past, which I have tried to put up
in words in form of this book. I am also obliged to
my Grandson Akshay Mahna who had all through
been assisting and guiding me in compiling the
script on computer and also for his dedication to
create the fascinating Book Cover. Last but not the
least, I also express my heartfelt gratitude to Sneha
Sharma who has been helping and guiding me in the
finalization of the script through her fantastic
editing in a very beautiful manner and design.
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Préface
The book “Shelter of the Golden Rosewood” is the
true story of my ancestors and the family as a
whole. The sub- title of the book “Gulab Di Tahli”
is derived from the name of one of the rosewood
trees (“Tahli” in Punjabi), planted by the great
grandfather of my father, Gulab Rai, on the sides of
the road leading to his village, Bhutta Nau, for the
comfort of the travelers. Incidentally, on my visit to
the village (in Pakistan now) in 1999, I found the
tree to be still there.
All the incidents in this story are based on
information given to me by my respected father S.
Sant Singh Mahna throughout his life (1898-1986).
I have made no deviation, whatsoever, from what
was narrated to or was subsequently experienced by
me.
The story consists of four parts: (1) The struggle my
father had after the demise of my grandfather in
1901; (2) acute problems faced by our family due to
the partition of the country in 1947; (3) my hard
work in cooperation with my beloved wife Shrimati
Raj Rani, and (4) prosperity and progress made by
my subsequent generations.
As per the information collected so far, I have been
able to reach the history of Mahna family back to
the late Shri Nand Lal, (MAHNA FAMILY TREE
refers) who was the great great grandfather of my
great great grandfather Shri Gulab Rai. According
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to the available information, my ancestors
possessed a lot of agricultural land in the village,
Bhutta Nau (then called “Bhutta Mahnia Da”, since
the majority of population of the village comprised
of „Mahnas‟, a Punjabi Khatri family) on the banks
of river Chenab in district Mandi Bahauddin.
However, due to lack of adequate irrigational
facilities, the land had become barren.
Consequently, the yield was very meager. As such,
their financial position was very poor. To make
both ends meet, most of the people of Bhutta Nau,
including my ancestors, were engaged in spinning
and producing yarn from bushes for cots, etc., and
undertaking other labor jobs.
I am not embarrassed to narrate the situation of
poverty then faced by my ancestors. On the
contrary, I feel proud of my great father that,
despite all these odds, he enabled the subsequent
generations to achieve their position as of today
through his hard work, saintly nature, and honesty.
I admit that I am not a professional writer and,
therefore, might not have been able to present the
story in the modern style. Besides, the story
embodies the true experiences of my grandmother,
my father and finally by me and my wife. In these
circumstances, I did not find it appropriate to
change the original beauty of the story, which, I
feel, would have converted it into fiction. I,
therefore, urge you to enjoy the true experiences of
my family from 1893 onwards without any kind of
tampering or fiction therein. I am, as such,
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confident you shall patronize me by ignoring the
omissions, if any, thus encouraging me to publish
my next even more fascinating book.
Pritam Singh Mahna
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MAHNA FAMILY TREE
Disclaimer: The years of birth as indicated are
based only on calculations, except for Pritam
Singh Mahna and the members of his next
generations.
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CONTENTS
S.NO CONTENTS P.NO
Acknowledgments vi
Chapter 1 Bhutta Nau 1
Chapter 2 Rukkan 5
Chapter 3 Mandi Bahauddin 22
Chapter 4 Entry In India 24
Chapter 5 Bhareli 28
Chapter 6 Allotment of Land In
Distt. Yamuna Nagar
37
Chapter 7 Life At Delhi 38
Chapter 8 West Delhi – Ramesh
Nagar
50
Chapter 9 Shrimati Raj Rani 54
Chapter 10 Finance Business 60
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Chapter 11 Sunder Singh
Wadhwa – A
Fantastic Friend
62
Chapter 12 Mansarovar Garden-
My Dream Home
66
Chapter 13 Setting Up A Factory 68
Chapter 14 Delhi Transport
Corporation
70
Chapter 15 My Darling daughter
Seema – My lifeline
77
Chapter 16 Progressing Ahead 81
Chapter 17 Struggle By My
Grandson Geetansh
Mahna To Settle In
Australia
84
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Chapter 18
S. Sant Singh Mahna,
My Saintly Father –
An Analysis Of His
Fluctuating Fortune
87
Chapter 19 My Most Affectionate
Mother - Shrimati
Maya Devi
92
Chapter 20 My Wonderful Lovely
Family
94
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Tributes
References
95
96
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1.1 Extreme Poverty
Our story begins from the days of my grandfather S.
Hakim Singh of Bhutta Nau. To the best of my
calculations, he was born in 1843. He married my
grandmother Smt. Lachhmi Devi in the year 1893 at the
age of 50 years when she was only 22 years old. My
grandmother had narrated to my father the status of
women during the said era stating that they (women)
used to be badly trodden and treated like dumb animals.
There were other traditions, for example, the girl was
required to shed tears (real or otherwise) when her
marriage was announced in the family in her presence.
Talking about or mentioning anything related to her
ensuing marriage was considered to be a reflection
against her character. Besides, she was not even
permitted to see her to-be husband before the marriage,
or express her opinion in the matter even if she was
aware of the facts against him, such as his looks, source
of livelihood or even his habits. My grandmother was
well aware of my grandfather‟s age even. She was no
stranger to the abject financial condition of my
grandfather, because of which he could not even afford
to pay one rupee towards rent for the horse ride at his
marriage procession. But as per the traditions and
1 Bhutta Nau
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customs, she was not at all in a position to express her
concern about her future married life to any member of
her family.
My grandmother had further revealed to my father how
one of the intimate friends of my grandfather gave him
his horse and asked him to treat the charges as a
marriage gift. However, he was still not lucky enough to
enjoy the ride since his ailing elderly father (my great
grandfather Ram Chand) was carried on that horse while
my grandfather reached the bride's house on foot.
After a year, my great grandfather Ram Chand passed
away. There were no funds at all for performing his
death rituals and carrying his last remains to Haridwar
for immersion in the Ganges as the last rites.
Consequently, it had to be deferred for some time. After
a period of another six years, my grandfather Hakim
Singh also breathed his last, and my young grandmother
was left a widow with three children, viz. my father Sant
Singh (3 years), my aunt Lakhmi Devi (5 years), and my
uncle Lakhmi Dass (1 year). However, the never-say-die
spirit of my grandmother prepared her to face all tough
situations. Her two major responsibilities were (1) to
dispose off the last remains of the two members of her
family in Haridwar and (2) to take care of the family
since she was not left with any patrimony after my
grandfather‟s demise.
In order to generate funds to be able to dispatch the last
remains, my grandmother had to sell off some household
items like hand woven bed sheets (‘KHES’ in Punjabi)
and other household items. She then deputed her
Brother-in-law Musaddi Lal to perform the last rites at
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Haridwar. On his way, he ran short of funds and,
consequently, had to walk up to Lahore (about 100 miles
from Bhutta Nau) on foot and then catch the train to
reach Haridwar. This shows my grandmother‟s patience
and strong will power in successfully shouldering all
family responsibilities.
My grandmother, thereafter, managed her life without
approaching either her in-laws or parents for help.
Subsequently, when my father turned 7 years old, she
took a tough decision of sending him to work as a
domestic servant. During this time, she too had chosen
to work in the cotton fields for plucking the ripened
cotton balls as a laborer besides cotton yarn spinning.
Subsequently, she would get the thread converted into
bed sheets (KHES) from the weavers. All this had helped
her to feed the family during the intervening period
before deploying my father to work as a domestic
servant.
1.2 Life as a Domestic Servant
During my childhood days, I am lucky to have shared
my bed with my revered late father. He used to wake up
at 4 a.m. every day to recite Gurbani (prayers), which I
enjoyed listening.
One day, my father told me about one of his childhood
incidents. He narrated that at the age of 7 years, his
mother deputed him as a Mahant‟s (a Hindu religious
person) servant to carry his baggage from one village to
the other. He was also required to massage his limbs
and was paid merely Rs. 2 per month. The Mahant used
to unduly scold him frequently.
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One afternoon, when the Mahant was enjoying rest after
sleeping, my father too fell asleep while massaging his
limbs. When the Mahant woke up, he took out a stick
and hit my child father hard on the forehead. He was
badly hurt and started bleeding. He cried a lot and
subsequently, on finding an opportunity, slipped away
later in the night. He crossed the fields amid heavy rains
and returned home. On seeing his condition, my
grandmother was aggrieved. Consequently, he stopped
going with the Mahant thereafter and instead did
domestic jobs like cleaning utensils and dirty clothes in
various houses. He was so dedicated to his work that
once while washing the utensils at a nearby canal, he
jumped into the chilled water to get a tray that had
accidently fallen into it. He was almost unconscious for
a while.
My father further narrated that at a later age, he was
deputed with petty cloth vendors touring all over India.
At such a tender age, he had to deal with such harsh
situations so that he could meet his family requirements.
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2.1 Partnership in Business
In the year 1921, when my father was 23 years old, he
witnessed the epidemic of plague that had spread in all
the cities and small towns, resulting in numerous deaths.
To evade its effect, his cousin (son of his father‟s sister)
came from Rukkan, a town at a distance of 30 kilometers
from Bhutta Nau, with his family and stayed there. After
about a month, when it was time for them to return to
their native place, my father‟s cousin asked him to
accompany them to Rukkan. He assured my father of all
facilities including an independent house and share in
the running business without making any investment.
However, my grandmother was not in favor of her son
leaving the village and joining a partnership business.
Having experienced an arduous life, she had a gut
feeling that he might just dodge my father at any stage,
as she was well aware of his cunning nature. My father,
however, did not care about her opinion and left for
Rukkan along with my grandmother and uncle Lakhmi
Dass.
My father told me that both he and my uncle involved
themselves in every kind of labor, including looking
after the cattle in all respects and other jobs entrusted to
them by the cousin. He (cousin) was an eyewitness to
2 Rukkan
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their gentle nature, honesty, and sincerity, and, thus, he
entitled them to join the family business. This was a life
changing experience in my father‟s life. Through it all,
the family witnessed good times and soon they both (my
father and uncle Lakhmi Dass) got married in 1930 and
1937, respectively. During this, we three brothers, Ram
Singh, Jai Ram and I, were born. It was really a happy
span of life of our family.
2.2 Involvement in Cousin’s Dispute with Third
Party
My father further narrated to me that one day in the year
1939 some members of cousin's family picked a quarrel
in the bazaar over a trifling matter. The dispute then took
a serious turn. On learning about it, my father rushed to
the spot to help them. During the course of the
altercation, many people, including my father, were
seriously injured. In the meantime, the police arrived
and took my father into custody because the cousin
unduly chose him to bear the consequences. He (my
father) remained behind the bars for about a month.
Criminal proceedings were also initiated against him
alone. Subsequently, to compromise the issue, it was
demanded by the other party that some part of the body
of any of the cousin‟s family members should be
chopped off. Here too, my father was treated to be a
Bali ka Bakra (Scapegoat). The cousin‟s family, finding
him to be submissive, pressurized him into bearing the
agony in place of his four sons. Treating him to be the
weakest person, his little finger was chopped off to
please the opposing party, even though he had a badly
injured face and had become very weak for having
remained in jail for a month.
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Now, I can correlate the happenings to the low-income
family background of my father. He worked for his
cousin and was under his debt like a slave and a deaf and
mute animal which was not in a position to resist while
being butchered. My helpless father could not speak
even a single word against all these atrocities.
2.3 Dismissal from Partnership
Even after such incidents, the painful spell for my father
had not yet ended. After the police confinement and
sacrificing his finger, the cousin immediately called my
father, placed before him the details of the expenses
incurred in litigation of the matter, and asked for
reimbursement of 50% of the total amount. My father
was taken aback by such a reaction from his cousin. He,
however, after prolonged arguments, emphatically
refused to share the expenses, since he had nothing to do
with the dispute. He was assertive of the fact that he was
being unduly picked by the cousin‟s family members
and that he had simply gone to help them. He also
argued that, surprisingly, no one else from his (cousin)
family had come forward to intervene in the matter or to
face the people of the opposite party who had first
attacked the ladies of his family and then my father with
a sword. He complained of having been made to face
police custody alone and losing his finger (while the
cousin and his four sons had remained passive during the
dispute). He had already fulfilled his duty, which,
undoubtedly, did not include facing the opponents alone
in the matter solely connected with the cousin's family.
In these circumstances, my father had clearly stated that
he was not liable to contribute any amount towards the
share of expenses incurred during the litigation.
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Upon hearing these arguments, the cousin got enraged
and threatened my father for filing litigation for
recovering the mentioned amount. At this stage, my
father replied with confidence that he was well-prepared
to face the consequences.
My father had full knowledge of the situation/Accounts
of the partnership business. Hence he sent a legal notice
asking his cousin to finally settle his account before the
formal dissolution and pay his share of Capital to the
tune of Rs.10,000.00 that stood to the credit of my father
in the books of account This feud spread quickly and,
resultantly, the allies of the cousin rejoiced the occasion.
They approached my father and asked him to hand over
the case he did initiate to get the amount in question in
advance from them (the cousin's allies). However, my
father did not lose hope; rather he remained honest and
informed the people about the factual position that
nothing was due on him in the business account from the
cousin and that he had raised this issue only to pressurize
him so that he could be stopped from unduly harassing
him. He also admitted that on the contrary, he had made
some overdrafts from the business account, which he
was prepared to square up by selling his personal assets
and belongings.
Finding no merit in his plea, the cousin stooped down to
adopting a vindictive attitude against my father. In the
first instance, he dismissed him from the partnership
business. Then he forced my father to vacate the house
earlier allocated to him in the Haveli, as a measure of
vengeance.
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Before my father left the house, the cousin, in order to
recover the excess withdrawals made from the business
account, took away all the gold ornaments of my mother,
one cow and a buffalo that my father owned to feed the
children, and all other household items, before finally
disowning him.
When the cow was being taken away, my eldest brother
Ram Singh, who was then seven years old, started
crying. My father slapped his cheek and asked him to
keep quiet. The irony of the matter was that my uncle
Lakhmi Dass continued going to the Haveli for about
three months to milk the buffalo because it would not
allow anyone else to do so because of the bond it had
developed for uncle. There was a dark confusion
surrounding our family, as my father was homeless in
Rukkan with no source of income. Again, he had no idea
how he was going to support his big family which
consisted of my grandmother, our mother, and we three
brothers, our uncle Lakhmi Dass and aunt Ram Pyari.
My father told me that he recalled the incident when he
was already warned by my grandmother not to trust the
cousin and that he thus repented of what he had done.
2.4 Establishing an Independent Shop
Even though life is not always fair, it gives a fair chance
to all. Among all such hardships faced by my father, a
miracle took place. My father narrated to me the incident
when a noble person came to them, who was already
aware of the whole episode. My father stated how he
interacted with him in confidence and asked him to
establish his independent shop afresh. My father was
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stunned to hear his remarks and requested him to stop
making fun of him. The noble man assured my father
that he was serious enough in what he was suggesting to
do. After the first few minutes of conversation, my
father regained confidence in the man and revealed his
condition to him, where he was standing at a crossroad
and was directionless, with no financial assurance and
house to accommodate the family. The noble man then
gave my father four currency notes of Rs.100 each. He
assured also to arrange a shop and a rented house for
residential accommodation for the family. The man
advised my father to start a small scale business of
selling agriculture equipment, the steel knives for the
plough. The proposal struck my father. He was, now,
ready to work on the plan and to go ahead with it.
My father continued telling that in the first instance, the
gentleman got him a shop on rent. Then, my father
immediately contacted a scrap dealer and purchased
some pieces of broken spring leaves of railway wagons.
He passed them on to the iron smith for conversion into
plough knives. One piece of broken spring leaf cost him
8 Annas (Re.1/2) at that time. After paying another 8
Annas to the iron smith towards conversion charges, one
piece of the broken spring leaf would fetch him 10
numbers of plough knives. He sold these equipments at
Re.1 each, yielding a net profit of Rs.9 in the transaction.
This item became known far and near and the sale was in
abundance, with about 90% profit. This alone paved a
smooth way of progress through the miseries.
Encouraged by the results, my father started selling big
steel pans used in the preparation of jaggery, fodder
cutting machines, big steel chains for animals, hand
pumps, and other sanitary items.
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