Part-III
Though
the place to which she was coming was not entirely unknown to her as she had
visited this town as a student of the college who had come on a picnic tour of
Chittorgarh which was a place of historical significance with a stately and
strong fort. But as a married person she was entering this town for the first
time. As the car stopped before a house in Housing Board Colony of Pratap Nagar
she observe that the house to which she had come was much smaller and humbler
as it was the house of a simple retired teacher of a school while her house was
spacious and grand by all means as her father was an engineer in the Irrigation
Department of Government of Rajasthan. But seeing their small familythis
accommodation of three rooms, two halls, a kitchen and two wash rooms appeared
to be quite sufficient. As she came out of car first of all she was welcomed by
her mother-in-law at the entrance of the house and then she was taken to a
small room situated on the first floor of the house which was their worship
room. As her father-in-law had holy Guru Granth Sahib ji in that room so the
first thing that she did in that house was to pay her respect to the Guru
Granth Sahib ji followed by tea and snacks. Then she started getting ready for
the evening reception ceremony that was to be celebrated at the entrance of
their house in a large tent put up by a famous tent house of the town. Her
class fellow, or rather their common class fellow as she had studied with groom
up to graduation level and them with her in post graduation classes, who lived
in the same colony came to help her in getting ready for the reception
ceremony. In the tent there was a raised platform on which two ceremonial
chairs were placed for the bride and groom to sit and in front of then chairs
for the guests were placed and on the fringe of the tent tables were place
where food for the guests was served.
In the evening guests started
arriving and sitting on chairs placed for them . After some time Bride in
Cherry red saree and groom in black suit with a bow tie entered the tent and
occupied their high back ceremonial chairs on the platform. After that dinner
started. In those day there was no such thing as caterers. Cook as he was
called halwai with his accomplices cooked the food and that was served by the
family friends and relatives to the guests. After the dinner every guest came
to meet bride and groom and photographed by a photographer by standing behind
the chairs of bride and groom. Due to this busy schedule of the whole day they
very much tired. That night the couple could hardly sleep as somebody knocked
at the door of their room early in the morning who turned out to be groom’s
mother who was quite apologetic as she did not want to disturb them but the
issue was that snacks were in that room and groom’s sister’s in-laws were
leaving for their place early in the morning so that by night they could reach
their place as the distance was nearly 500 kms.
Next day they went again to Bhilwara
and returned back in the evening. Her husband had to leave for his work place
as he had limited number of leave as the wedding was held in the mid-session.
In his absence she used to go for morning and evening walks with her
Father-in-law and Mother-in-law. In the evening she used to give company to her
mother-in-law in watching several soaps on Television and movies as he
father-in-law was not interested in watching movies or TV serials or soaps as
they were called. Just after a week of their wedding her husband lost the job
as his name did not appear in the list of appointments. Though he left his work
place Karauli but stayed at Jaipur only to await the next list to appointments
to come. After a week another list came and he was posted to the same place and
so he decided to join his job. As he went to join the job he got a letter from
SSB that he had been called for interview at Bhopal in response of his application to the
post of Commissioned Officer in Army Education Corps. So taking leave he came
to Gangapur city by bus and then by train came to Kota
and from Kota he got another train that took him
to Bhopal after
an overnight journey. Though he attended the interview but could not succeed in
it and in the process his hands were badly injured while doing Rope climbing
exercise in Obstacle Course. Army bus left them at Bhopal
bus stand from where another person accompanied him who belonged to Udaipur. So together they
got a bus from Bhopal to Indore. By evening they reached Indore and from Railway
Station they got Meenakshi Express train coming from Secunderabad and bound for
Jaipur. Though the general coach was crowded and they could barely get space
for standing at Indore
but after a couple of hours they got seats and after the overnight journey they
reached Chittorgarh in the morning. Here her husband parted from his fellow
aspirant of AEC officer interview at Bhopal
who got another train from Chittorgarh.
When he reached the home in the
morning it was a pleasant surprise for everybody as they were not expecting
them so soon. After spending a couple of days her husband again left for his
work place. Though this time he wanted to take her also along with him but she
wanted to serve her parents in law for some more time so she turned down his
offer politely. On the day he was to leave for his work place an interesting
incident took place. He was to leave for his work place in the night bus that
started from Chittorgarh at 9 p.m but in the afternoon her nephews and niece
barged in their house along with her. They took her away after evening tea as
she was needed in Bhilwara as her brother’s wife had a miscarriage. So she went
away with her father leaving her husband in very morose mood because he had
never expected that he would have to see her off before his bus. So he left
alone for the bus stand in a very grim mood and boarded the bus though his
father had come all the way to bus stand to see him off. As the bus started the
journey he fell asleep due to hectic schedule during the day that had tired
him. Bus in one hour after covering the distance of 50 kms reached Bhilwara and
when the bus stopped he was dreaming about her. As he was in a dizzy state when
the bus stopped he had a pleasant surprise when he saw her coming along with
his brother to meet me at the bus stand and that her image was not a dream but
a reality.
After the colleges closed for winter
vacations and her husband came back it was decided that she would accompany her
husband when the vacation will end and her parents-in-law will accompany them
and hell them in settling as it was wish of his parents to set up the house of
their son after his wedding. Vacation ended after one week and all of them came
to Jaipur by making overnight journey by bus and then getting another bus from
Jaipur. At Karauli they found out that there was only one room and one kitchen
hired by their son as a result of which their son and his wife slept in the kitchen
while they left the remaining one room to the elderly couple. Her father-in-law
went tohe market of the town to buy various things like candles, match box,
rope to hang clothes on and pegs to hand other things in the room So after
spending a week at Karauli his parents decided to return to Chittorgarh.
At Karauli they used to go on long
morning walks during morning and evening as there was no conveyance in the town
so everywhere you had to go on foot. It was an ancient town divided by a dried
up stream that became active during the heavy down pour. Though the old town
was surrounded by a circular moat surrounding it having certain gates like
Hindaun Gate, Wazirpur Gate, Mandrayal Gate , etc and there were windows also
through which people could go out side the walled town easily. On the western
side of the stream new town was coming up as Government College
and most of the offices were coming up on the western side of the stream among
the boulders and ravines formed by the stream. Here they lived in one room, one
kitchen apartment that was situated in front of palatial Dak Bungalow of PWD that had sprawling lush green lawns along
with Tennis and Squash Court.
As Karauli was a state ruled by a Maharaja till 1950 when it decided to accede
to the state of Rajasthan so this palatial Dak Bungalow was constructed as a
Guest House for the British Agent to stay whenever he used to visit this place.
As her husband was interested in playing Tennis so most of their evening and
mornings were spent in the garden encircling the Dak Bungalow that contained a
cemented Tennis Court
and an enclosed Squash Court
where spectators sat on the roof while the players played below in the open
cemented compound. Maharaja of Karauli had formed Ganesh Sports Club for the
entertainment of the British Agent who used amuse himself by playing Tennis and
Squash with Maharaja and his friends.
Her husband who had learnt playing
Tennis during his school days at Sainik School Chittorgarh used to play Tennis
here with an Additional district Judge, a doctor, PTI of the college and his
another colleague Mr Rishibhan
Chaturvedi. Sometimes she also accompanied him to the court even in the
morning. Sometimes they went for a walk even in the wilderness in the ravines
and valleys formed by the dry stream running through the town. During the
annual games in the college she came to college too with the daughters of their
neighbours who was a science student in the college but by the time she reached
college her husband came back to the house. He also used to give tuitions to a
girl who was pursuing post graduation in English Literature. Whenever he was
not at home she used to give company to this girl.
While at Karauli they visited a
number of religious places around the town like Kaila Devi which was 23 kms
away from the town and Mahaveerji which was near Hindaun nearly 40kms from
Karauli. They also saw the local temple
of Madanmohanji which was quite grand in appearance. As the
place where her spouse’s sister’s in laws lived was also not much far from this
place. So they used to go on Saturdays to Bharatpur and by taking one day’s
leave they used to visit the places of historical and religious significance.
Once they went to see the historical Buland Darwaja and shrine of Sheikh Salim
Chisti at Fatehpur Sikri. Next day they also went to see Red Fort and Taj Mahal
at Agra. Once
they went to see places around Bharatpur like world famous Ghana Bird
Sanctuary, Ganga mandir,Lakshaman Mandir and
Lohgarh- the Bharatpur fort. Once they went along with her husband’s
brother-in-law’s sister and her family to see various temples around Mathura and Vrindavana.
In this trip she came to know that her husband was highly allergic to horse
because they had hired for four of them and as soon as they boarded the tonga
he started developing symptoms of bronchial asthma and became so severely ill
that ultimatlely he vomited. During their stay at Karauli one of her father’s
old frind S. Jaspal Singh, who was working as an Agricultural Officer in
Government of Rajasthan at Sawai Madhopur came to meet them and invited them to
visit Sawai Madhopur. As the colleges closed for Summer Vacations they went to
Sawai Madhopur to visit the family of Jaspal Singh ji. From Karauli they went
to Gangapur city by bus and from Gangapur
City they took a train
that took them to Sawai Madhopur after a couple of hours journey. From railway
station they went to Jaspal Singh’s house by tonga. Next morning they went to
see Rantahmabore National Park that is well known for
Tigers in an open jeep of Agricultural Department that had been arranged by
Jaspal Singh ji. As she was meeting Jaspal Singh ji’s daughters after a long
time so they also joined us in this forest safari. Here they saw a tigress
eating the carcass of a cow at a distance. When she spotted our jeep she
stopped eating and started snarling looking towards us. We quickly moved our
jeep. The person who was driving the jeep was also a Sikh who had his relatives
at Chittorgarh. Suddenly he stopped the jeep at once and we were thrust forward
due to sudden brake and were thrilled by the sight of Tiger crossing the path
two hundred metres away and after crossing the path it went and sat in the cool
shade under a tree. This was the life time experience of being so close to wild
life. Next day from Sawai Madhopur we came to Jaipur by train to stay with her
sister-in-law and her family who used to live at that time in Barkat Nagar. At
Jaipur we went to see Jaipur Zoo and Alber
Hall Museum
at Ramniwas Garden and to have Dosas and a cup of
Coffee at its famous Kiran Café. Next day we boarded the train from Jaipur to
reach Chittorgarh where were to spend the summer vacations for the next two
months.
At the end of the month of June when
colleges were again to open after the summer vacations her spouse again lost
his job. By this time she had got pregnant also and they used to go to Shastri
Nagar area of the Chittorgarh town to visit one of the famous gynaecologist of
the town for her regular check up. As there was only one scooter so her spouse
used to do two rounds. In first round he used to take his parents to the
doctor’s home as they also insisted on going and then in the second round he
used to take her. Though her husband lost the job for some time but there was
no financial crisis in the family as her father in law was still working and
earning well as a part time teacher in a private school of the town besides
taking tuitions at home in the morning and evenings. Then her husband also
started working as a part time teacher in two organizations. One was part time
teacher of English at newly opened Government Polytechnic in the town and at
another private school. That way still he was earning nearly one thousand bucks
per month. After a gap of nearly six months he got his job again and at the
same place where he was working earlier. As the place was known to him so he
quickly joined it in the month of December. After a fortnight colleges closed
for a week for winter vacations and her husband came back on 24th
December at Chittorgarh. On the morning of 25th December they got
the news that she was experiencing labour pains and her parents had taken her
to the hospital. It was the day of Christmas and as soon as they got the news
her parents and her spouse set on the journey to Bhilwara by bus like three
magis who had gone to bless the child at Bethlehem
nearly 2000 years ago. At about 7 p.m in the evening of 25th
December she gave birth to a healthy and normal male child. He was
instantaneously named as Ishupal to observe the great day of Christmas when Jesus
Christ who to Indians is known as Ishu. Some time later he was nicknamed as
Tito after the great Yugoslavian leader Marshal Tito. After a few days she came
back to her house at Bhilwara and her husband went back to his job after the
end of vacations. And after a month she returned back to Chittorgarh. Her
husband came to celebrate Holi at Chittorgarh and then he met her after a long
time. Her husband again came back to Chittorgarh when colleges closed for Sumer
Vacations. Now this young child was growing well and he had started crawling.
Just a month before the birth of Ishu his father’s sister had given birth to
another girl child at Bharatpur, Nidhi’s sister, who was named as Anshu or
Divi. In the month of June as had become tradition of their house all of them
had assembled at Chittorgarh. Her in laws daughter and her husband also came
from Jaipur to celebrate their birthday. At that time she used to spread
mattresses in the hall and put cooler in the afternoon. Ishu and Anshu used to
play on the mattress. As Ishu had learnt to tumble so he used to go from one
corner of the hall to another within no time. As her spouse’s job was temporary
so she many times thought of augmenting their income by utilizing her
qualification by doing some work but as child was small who needed her care and
attention so she gave up the idea and then she saw the hurdles that her
sister-in-law faced, who was a government teacher, bringing up two children.
That year was the year when for the first time her husband was not relieved at
the onset of summer vacations due to court’s intervention that had granted them
stay on their being relieved from job. So he went back to work at the same
place when colleges reopened after the summer vacations in the month of July.
When the colleges closed for winter vacations that year he had decided to bring
his wife and child to his work place. Now Ishupal had turned one year and so as
to celebrate his birthday his grandfather arranged a grand function at their
house It was a difficult phase of her life as she had to work nearly around the
clock to look after the guests who had come for function, look after the child
and pay special attention to the team of priests that had come to their house
to perform religious ceremony of Akhand path.of Sri Guru Granth Sahib. She was
determined to make this function a success as she considered this house as her
own house from the day one of her entry into the house even at the cost of
displeasing her husband. It was arranged at their house and its samapti was done
in front of their house in a Pandal and in the evening a dinner party was
arranged where the cake bearing the name of Ishupal was cut by the young child.
Even her relatives from Punjab joined this
function. At the end of the vacations she and child along came with him to
Karauli but reaching there they came to know that he has been transferred to
Bharatpur where his sister’s in laws lived. After getting a highly charged
emotional farewell from the staff and people of Karauli they took the bus to
Bharatpur and reached there in the evening and landed at the house of her
sister-in-law.
After a few days of transit at this
house we took a two room rented accommodation of my brother-in-law’s elder
brother who was working as Engineer in the Irrigation Department of Government
of Rajasthan, the department in which her father was also working and going to
retire in the same year. Though this house was quite far from the college but
as this family was a joint family so there was no shortage of peer fellows for young
Ishupal. It was here that Ishupal learnt walking by practicing on the ramp in
front of the main gate of the house. Ishupal attended a function along with his
mother and at the function he wanted to eat a certain round sweet named Gulab
jamun. But he did not know the name of this sweet but by its shape he could
make out that it was like a ball. So he told his mother and landlady who had
accompanied them to this function that he would like to eat one more ball.
Ishupal liked being taken out of the house in the evenings. So we used to take
him on Scooter to the market or some open place like Ganga Mandir or Lakshman
Mandir where he could run and play freely. It was at this place that he tasted
the first ice cream of his life and I think that was vanilla flavour of Vadilal
Ice cream. Sometimes he also used to accompany his father who used to go to
play Tennis with his colleagues at the college. Ishupal used to act as Ball Boy
quite enthusiastically and willingly. Even some of his father’s colleagues were
impressed by the alacrity of such a young child. They also went to see the
world famous Ghana Bird Sanctuary at Bharatpur. Now Ishupal who was nearly 18
months old used to blabber a number of words and things and as he was quite
energetic so he used to run in the compound of the house whole day. Ishupal was
very much enchanted with the music of Television of the owner of the house who
lived on the first floor of the house. As soon as this music started playing
and it fell on his ear he used to climb the stairs as quickly as he could to
get in front of Television screen that was placed in their bedroom. There was
an iron gauge placed between the room and the stairs on which there was a swing
hanging with the help of hooks on the ceiling. Once another child dropped spoon
and some edible material through the gauge to the ground floor. Ishupal was
observing it carefully and he climbed down the stairs uttering that things can
drop through the gauge I will not drop down. Mean while Ishupal’s mother again
got pregnant. At that time her parents-in-law had gone to Punjab
to attend the wedding of their grandson( Ishupal’s grandfather’s elder
brother’s grandson) at Dharmakot. Though
her parents insisted on staying at Bhilwara during the pregnancy but her spouse
insisted on taking her to Bharatpur to the extent of stubbornness. So she
accompanied her husband to Bharatpur and after a few days her mother and
parents-in-law came too to facilitate the birth of the child. With the help of
their land lady , who was a health worker in Ayurveda Department of Government
of Rajasthan and mother in law of her sister in law who was an experienced
veteran lady the birth of the younger son was facilitated. Just a fortnight
before the birth of her younger son her husband was sent on deputation to a
near by college Government College Hindaun which was roughly 100 kms from his
present place of working. Though he used to come Bharatpur almost daily but per
haps it was due to tension she did not give birth to the child till her spouse
finally joined after completing the tenure of deputation.
It
was evening when she felt labour pain, Ishupal had already gone outside along
with his grandfather. She told her spouse and he took her to hospital on
scooter. When they reached the hospital shift was about to change and nursing
staff was in mood of going away to home after the shift is over, so they took
her quickly to labour room. Meanwhile her mother and mother-in-law and her
husband’s sister’s mother-in-law alsoreached the hospital and when Ishupal came
back with his grandfather they were confused when they saw lock at the door of
the house but when they got the news. They quickly went to hospital but by the
time they reached the hospital Shivpal was already born. The first news of his
birth was given by her husband’s sister’s mother –in-law. Soon her
mother-in-law came in a very happy mood as she was overjoyed to see a young
infant with dimples in his cheek. That night they spent in the hospital and
came back to the house in the morning. As this child was born a day before
Shivratri so he was instantaneously named as Shivpal and Citu as his nick name.
Ishupal was confused for some time at seeing the child. As her maternal uncle’s
younger son was born a few months ago at Bhilwara that Ishupal had seen so when
he saw this child he believed that his maternal uncle’s son had come there.
The
birth of Shivpal proved to be lucky for her and her husband as a few months
after his birth her husband was transferred to his home town Chittorgarh,
though for a brief span of six months but after that she did not have to leave
Chittorgarh after that her spouse most of the time remained within the
commuting distance of Chittorgarh. After that most of her life was spent at
Chittorgarh except for a brief visit to Bhilwara where her parents lived and
annual visit to her village in Punjab where
her grandparents lived.
In the year 1992 her husband’s family decided to go on a
pilgrimage and sight seeing tour of south India that included places like
Nanded in Maharashtra that was associated with Guru Gobind Singh ji as he spent
the last days of his life here and Bidar in Karnataka that was associated with
Guru Nanak Dev ji who visited this place in 15th century and gave
respite to people of this area who were struggling with salty water of the town
by giving then a fountain of fresh water. As her maternal uncle lived in Hyderabad so they also included it in their itinerary.
There was a direct train from Chittorgarh to Nanded named Meenakshi Express and
as there was only quota of three berths in the train so her husband got
reservation from Bhilwara quota where he was working at that time. Though he
was transferred to this place withing six months of his arrival at Chittorgarh
but as this place was only 55 kms away so he used to commute daily to this
place.
As it was time of winter vacations but as they moving
southwards where winters are not severe so most of them took only blankets but
her mother-in-law insisted on taking quilt in her luggage. They boarded the
train in the night together as her husband had given option of boarding train
at Chittorgarh though his berth was reserved from Bhilwara. After boarding the
train and showing tickets to Conductor they slept on their respective berths
and both children sleeping with their mother and grandmother. After the journey
of 36 hours they reached Nanded and from there we went to the main gurudwara
and took accommodation in the inn known as Ranjeet Singh Hostel at Gurudwara
Complex. After seeing the main gurudwara and attending evening ceremonies there
in which the weapons used by Guru Gobind Singh were exhibited to the spell
bound audience next day we went to visit banks of River Godavari. As it was
quite a distance so while coming back from the River Godavari we thought of
hiring the cycle rickshaw who were feeling tired. As the rickshaws of South India are quite low so as soon as the rickshaw
stopped both Ishupal and Shivpal jumped into it. Their grandparents also asked
rickshawwala to take them to the place where they were staying. That was the
time when people were so sincere and trustworthy that he took them to the
destination and even did not stop to get his fare but came next day to take his
money. Her father-in-law was working at that time as a part time teacher in a
private school. Principal of the school had a class fellow who belonged to
Begun town of Chittorgarh and now was a great business man at Nanded. So he had
taken a letter of introduction from his Principal so next day her husband, her
two kids and his parents went to visit this man at his house over a cup of tea.
Though he had gone to Pondicherry
as he was disciple of Sri Aurobindo but his two sons, who were quite humble and
courteous met them. They even insisted on them to stay at the guest room of
their house. But her father-in-law insisted on staying at Gurudwara so as to
participate in the ceremonies of the Gurudwara in the morning and evening.
After visiting the historical Gurudwaras around Nanded like Shikar Ghat we went
to Bidar by taking bus from Nanded which was a journey of four hours. The bus
dropped us at the historical Gurudwara known as Nanak Jhira after the fountain
of fresh water discovered by Guru Nanak Dev ji to give relief to the people of
this town. After staying here for one day we took another bus from Nanded to Hyderabad and after a journey of another four hours we
reached Hyderabad
and from there we reached the house of her maternal uncle that was situated in
Vanasthalipuram Housing Board by evening. Our hosts were very glad to see us as
they had guests after quite a long time. Next day her maternal uncle whose name
was Ranjeet Singh Mann and his son took us in his car for sight seeing to see
the historical Salarjung
Museum, which was so
large that if a person visits every room of it then even couple of days would
not be sufficient to see entire museum. We saw several rooms of the museums for
about couple of hours like the room containing sculpture pieces, portraits,
watches and the like. We also witnessed the central clock of the museum in
which a man of steel came out of the watch to strike the hour. After the museum
we went to see the famous Zoo of this town and while going to Zoo we had a
passing view of famous iconic building of the town Char Minar. At zoo we rode a
train that took us around the zoo showing all the significant animals of the
zoo. From Zoo he took us for a long ride to Hussein Sagar that joined the twin
towns of Hyderabad
and Secunderabad. Here we also saw the statue of Lord Buddha in the centre of
the lake. Next day Her souse went alone to the town and bought a gun metal
replica of Char Minar that still graces the drawing room of our house. In the
evening we boarded the same train by which we had come from Chittorgarh from
Kaccheguda and after journey of 36 hours came back in the morning to
Chittorgarh.
Now Ishupal was old enough to go to school and he was
admitted to a nearby school named St.
Pauls School.
His grand mother was still fit to look after Ishupal after he returned from
school so she decided to utilize her qualification to work as a part time
worker in some organization so as to augment her family’s income as well. As
she was computer professional so her attention turned towards Computer
Institute of the town. She joined a firm founded by the son of her
father-in-law’s colleague. But soon its owner closed it as he moved to Delhi as he got job in Apple Computers and then to Houston in USA.
Then she joined another institute named Computer Corner but the problem with
Computer Institutes of the town was that they were unable to pay well to the
workers as the paying capacity of the client of the town was not much. Then the
ownership of most of these institutes was in hand of some petty businessmen
whose main motive was profit motive and they tried to take out maximum from a
worker and wanted to give minimum possible remuneration to them. So after some
time she left this institute too and then she joined APTECH, which was an
institute of international repute like NIIT but these organizations had
auctioned their franchises to petty business men in different towns. So they
did not care about the payment to the teachers and workers their only concern
was the revenue that they got from the fees of the students. But here she
learnt a lot as well taught a number of engineers of the town who required to
be trained in Information Technology to update their skills. Her husband also
learnt computers for a month in which he leant some of the basics of the
computer like MS Word, MS Excel and Powerpoint. So due to lack of stability and
good remuneration compelled her to move towards teaching this subject in a
school though she was not qualified to work as a teacher a she was not graduate
in education faculty. However she still remembers some of her colleagues of
Computer field like Shyam Suner, Sumit Dasgupta, Bhatti who helped her in
giving contribution to this field.
Her coming to field of education was also an interesting
coincidence. Her husband who was working as a faculty in a local college was
called by the leading school of the town as a subject expert in English.
Principal of this school was not only his teacher but he was also a colleague
of her father-in-law who took up this job after retiring from Sainik School.
He contacted her and offered her a job to teach Computer as a hobby subject up
to Class X. Remuneration in teaching job was fairly well and which was much
more than what she earned in the computer Institutes. Since this school was run
by a Corporate body so they more or less followed government rules including
salary of the staff. As the school was a senior secondary school affiliated to
Central Board of Secondary Education so it was mandatory for the school to
follow all regulations. So the salary of teacher in this school was almost
equivalent to the salary of government of teacher the difference was only in DA
or Dearness Allowance. So she started her job as an Ad hoc teach with the lump
sum remuneration of Rs. 4500/- per month. Slowly with time she became a purely
temporary teacher in the pay scale of Rs. 4500 and she also started getting
increments and dearness allowance. Then with time she became a TGT with the
basic pay of Rs. 5500/-. Meanwhile she enhanced her qualification by doing
M.Phil in Economics through correspondence from Vinayaka Mission
University, Salem Tamil
Nadu whose study centre and exam centre was at Bhilwara where her parents still
lived. The same year school decided to open Commerce Faculty at Senior
Secondary level of Class XI and XII. School was in need of some person who
could teach Economics in English medium to the students of the school.
Principal gave this opportunity to her and she accepted in gratefully as a
result of which she was promoted to PGT in the pay scale Rs. 6500/-. She was
also made Head and Incharge of Computer Department of the school. As in those
days there was a shortage of teachers who could teach subjects like History,
Civics, Geography and Economics to English medium students of the school. So
she got promotions easily and within a decade of her service and she celebrated
this achievement by giving party to Principal and management of school at a
local hotel. Perhaps this was the first party that she had given outside the
house in which both her sons and parents-in law also participated. So she
reached the optimum but by now the fellow who was her father-in-law’s colleague
had left the job of Principal and went to Bikaner.
With the coming of new Principal her troubles started cropping up. Earlier also
she participated in all the activities of the school with enthusiasm and
prepared children for debates and cultural shows and dramas. Besides she was
given the job of typing paper of every subject on the computer. As in a private
school there is unending circle of setting question papers, typing them,
evaluating answer books and preparing results so she became patient of
Sponadilitis and as she had to look after the children as well as ageing
parents-in –law so she was always tired and sleep starved.
As her parents and relatives as well as relatives of her
parents-in-law lived in Punjab so it had nearly become annual feature of life
that they used to visit Punjab during the
Summer Vacations in the month of May and June. During these visits they also
used to go on sight seeing excursions. One such excursion to Haridwara, Rishikesh,
Dehradun and Mussorie. In this journey they were joined by tenants and their
family who lived in her father-in law’s house at Moga in Punjab.
We hired a Tata Sumo SUV for the journey. And started from Moga in the morning
and after crossing Ludhiana, Ambala, Yamuna Nagar
and Saharanpur
we reached Hardwara by evening. We stayed at Pawan Dham Dharamshala that was
suggested to us by one of her relative who lived in the village nighbouring the
village in which her husband was born in the same month, same year as she
though not the same day. In the evening they visited the banks of holy river Ganga and witnessed its famous arti. In the morning next
day first of all they took holy dip in the river Ganga
at Har ki Pedi. Her mother-in-law was very happy that both her grandsons were
helping her to take dip in the holy rivert. Then they went to see Mansa Devi
temple which was on a hillock and tourists were taken there on the rope way. In
the trolley she sat alone with her husband and the trolley started with a swing
and nearly took them two hundred metres above the ground in no time. Perhaps
this was the first time that she had gone off the ground in the air for such a
height. After that they visited a number of temples and went to nearby town of Rishikesh where River Ganga is still at the of the Himalayas. Here they visited the famous rope bridge
across the holy river known as Lakshaman Jhoola. There was another bridge also
known as Ram Bridge.connecting the two shores of the town. After that we went
to see Swarga Ashram where there were accommodation and cooking facilities in
the rented flats.
From Rishikesh they came to Dehradun in the evening. As her
father-in-law had worked at this place for about 10 years as Physics
Demonstrator in Indian
Military Academy
and as he and his wife had spent some of the memorable moments of their life so
both of them were quite enthusiastic about their visit to this town . Next day
we went to see museum of Indian Military Academy where we met one of her
father-in-law’s student who was a Lieutenant Colonel there, he took us around
the famous Chetwode Block where officers of Indian army passed out and
adjoining to it was its famous museum where we saw portraits of some of the
great military leaders of independent India including Field Marshal Carriappa,
Field Marshal Maneckshaw and Air Force Marshal Arjun Singh. Here we also saw
the pistol of the Commander of Pakistan
Army Lt. Gen Niazi which was handed over as a token of surrender to Indian
Commander Lt. Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora that marked the end of Indo-Pak 1971
conflict resulting in the birth of a new nation Bangladesh. We also saw the museum of Forest Research Institute and then we
went to see a natural sight named as
Sastradhara which is a waterfall whose water has curative properties for skin
related ailments as it contains element of sulphur. In the evening we went to
see the house and colony where her parents-in-law stayed when her father-in-law
worked here. The name of this colony was Prem Nagar where at one house they met
a person who was known to then and who was nicknamed as Gaddi as he was born in
a railway train while his parents were migrating from Pakistan in 1947. This
boy, who was now grown up middle aged man was delighted to see them after such
a long period of almost 40 years. After having a cup of tea with him they
returned to the inn for rest at night. Next day they went toa nearby hill
station Mussorie. Though it was a journey of only 30 kms but it nearly took us
one hour to undertake this journey as it was a winding mountainous road. This
place is popularly known as Queen of Hills. Here we bcame victims of Taxi
Association as they did not allow any outside taxi to go beyond a point. So we
went on foot to see a place known as Lal Tiba from where we were shown Tibetan
Boarder and Kanchenjunga peak from the
binoculars by a soldier of Indian Army. While returning from this place we
stayed at a local gurudwara for some time where we were served a hot cup of
tea. We also passed before the residence of a famous Indo –Anglican writer
Ruskin Bond who lives at this place. By night we came back to Dehradun and next
day returned back but from Ambala our family took a taxi to Delhi
so as to get train for Rajasthan while the family of our tenants proceeded
towards Punjab.
Next year she along with her spouse and two kids went to see Chandigarh and Shimla,
princess of the hills. This year tenants were too busy to accompany them and
their parents were too old to get along with them . They started from Moga in
afternoon and by evening they reached Chandigarh
by bus. The took an accommodation in Kisan Bhawan near bus stand. Next day in
the morning they went to visit several places at Chandigarh
like Sukhna Lake, Rock Garden which was a unique
creation by Mr. Nek Chand out of the waste material and Rose Garden. Since she
had stayed at Chandigarh
for almost an year while doing her PGDCA so she knew the way to several tourist
spots of this place. Next day in the early morning they took bus from Chandigarh to Shimla and
after a journey of five hours they reached Shimla in the afternoon where they
lodged at a hotel for the night. In the evening they went to see Mall Road of
Shimla. On the way they also saw a cinema hall and the office of Muincipal
Council of Shimla and a theatre. They also passed before several shops on the Mall Road one such
interesting shop read Tuan-Tan Shoe Shop which was run by a chinky fellow. Here
she got ill and vomited and her blood pressure got low. She quickly purchased
some green alomonds froma road side vendor and took it herself and gave to her
children and spouse too. Next day in the morning they hired a cab to see the
nearby places like Potato Research Institute at Kufri where she and her kids
rode mules and took the round of this institute. Her husband could not ride it
as he was allergic to horse smell. From here they went to Chail which boasts of
one of the highest air fields. There is
an interesting story related to the coming up of Chail town. Before
independence Shimla was summer capital of British India, Punjab and Royal State
of Patiala.
Once Ruler of Patiala misbehaved with the daughter of Governor General or some
high official of Britishers. So Maharaja of Patiala’s entry to Shimla was
banned and he had to create the town of Chail as
the new summer capital of Patiala
State. After that taxi
driver left us at the Bus stand as we had already checked out of the hotel and
got the bus to Chandigarh.
But we got down at Pinjore in Haryana so as to see the famous garden belonging
to Patiala State
known as Pinjore Garden. In the journey her eldest son
got sick due to winding and circuitous road and he was feeling nausea and vomit
like feeling. He got respite when he got off from the bus and put his feet in
the cool running water of the fountain of Pinjore Garden.
From there we took a bus back to Moga and after visiting a few historical
gurudwaras like Taran Taran, Amritsar, Sultanpur Lodhi and the famous Indo-Pak
boarder at Husseinwala in Firozepur district where the memorial of Bhagat
Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru have been built as they had been cremated at this
place after they were executed in Lahore Jail by the Britishers, they came back
to Rajasthan.
Meanwhile her eldest son had matriculated from CBSE
affiliated St. Pauls School Chittorgarh and he had made his wish clear that he
has no intention of studying science as he wants to study humanities. Now the
problem was that there was no school affiliated to CBSE that was English medium
that offered humanities at Class XI and XII. So he took admission in an old and
famous school St. Anselms School Ajmer taking
the subjects of English, Sociology, Economics, Geography and Political Science.
He excelled in academics and got his name in merit list in XII class as he had
secured more than 90% marks in the exam. He lived for two years as a paying
guest with a sikh family of Ajmer
who treated him as their own child. After passing his senior secondary exams he
gave a series of entrance tests of different universities for integrated course
of B.A +LLB and ultimately he succeeded in getting admission in Rajiv Gandhi
National Law University Patiala.
Next year as
the schools and colleges closed for summer vacations she along with her kids
and spouse to meet her parents in Punjab who
had settled there after retirement from Irrigation Department of Govt. of
Rajasthan. Here she decided to go on a pilgrimage with her husband, two sons
and two sister-in-laws to Hemkunt Sahib. So we hired a SUV from Sujapur and
started early in the morning and by evening came to Paonta Sahib in Himachal
Pradesh and stayed here for the night as it was also a historical gurudwara
associated with Guru Gobind Singh ji. After seeing the gurudwara and
surrounding nearby temples they resumed their journey next day morning and
passing through Dehradun that brought sweet memories of that place that they
had visited a couple of years ago with the grandparents of her sons. As the
vehicle passed before IMA and FRI the memories came alive and by evening theyr
eached Rishikesh and stayed at the Gurudwara for the night where they went to
see thefamous Lakshaman Jhoola connecting two parts of the city separated by
holy River Ganga.. Next day early morning we left for Govind Ghat and moving on
a mountaineous road along the River Alakhnanda and passing through several
places like Rudra Prayag and Joshi Math by evening we reached Govind Ghat which
is just 13 kms before Badrinath. Here we took lodging in a gurudwara and next
day we started the holy journey to Hemkunt Sahib. Here she was realistic enough
about her capacities so she hired a mule right from the beginning while her
husband in over confidence decided to accompany her two sons. Though by evening
he succeeded in completing 19 kms of journey by foot and they reached a place
known as Jhanjharia or Govind Dham but her husband was so much tired that he
had nearly given up hope of completing the pilgrimage which was journey of
another 6 kms. He could baely stand so she got a room in the hotel for him and
her children while she slept in gurudwara with her aunt and sister –in-law at
Gurudwara He could not ride mules as he was allergic to
horse smell. But she was determined to make this pilgrimage a success so she
hired a coolie who took her spouse on his shoulders for the entire journey from
Govind Dham to Hemkunt Sahib and then back to Govind Dham where another coolie
replaced him who brought him to Govind Ghat. Such was the determination and
fastidiousness of this lady that made the pilgrimage of her spouse also
successful. Next day by eveining they reached Govind Ghat though their journey from
Govind Dhan to Hemkunt Sahib was not entirely free of troubles as she again
fell sick at Hemkunt Sahib as her blood pressure started dipping but she got
respite from the warm Prasad of Khichri that she go from Gurudwara and her
spouse also fell from the shoulders of coolie and hit his forehead on a rock
whose mark remained for a number of days as blessing of God. Certainly the
courage, determination and stamina of these Nepalese Gurkha Coolies is simply
unformidable.. Next day they started their journey back and stopping at Paonta
Sahib again for the night they returned to Sujapur next day.
Mean while
her elder son had graduated from RGNUL Patiala and he had bagged a scholarship
to study for his PG course in law from Torino Italy and he grabbed this opportunity
and went to join this one year course. Here he was helped by the fact that
after a couple of months he was joined by his class fellow who lived near his
hometown at the same place though in a different institute. So they had a nice
company together and it gave relief to her as now she had no worries about him.
An year later he got another scholarship and went to pursue another course in Kent Law
School Canterbury U.K. Duration of this degree was
also of one year.
At her
school the situation changed drastically after her father-in-law’s colleague
ceased to be Principal. She was already caught in the vicious circle of setting
question papers, typing them , taking exams and evaluating answer sheets that
had made her patient of spondilitis. Secondly new Principal tried to indict her
with malign motive in some fake case. The incident that made her take the
decision to leave her job though she was earning twenty thousand rupees a month
that was not a meagre amount at that time. This incident was that one day she
was at home and her father-in-law had nearly lost his sight due to Glucoma and
her mother-in-law, who was lean and thin, was also getting weaker day by day.
That day both of them were coming out of the room and her father-in-law stumbled
and fell on the floor and her mother-in-law who was following him tried to save
him but she also fell along with him. It was a good thing that that day she was
at home so she came quickly and helped them in getting up. She took the
decision to leave her job at once thinking that if she had not been at home
today who would have helped this ageing couple as her husband is normally at
college for four to six hours and there was no body to help her parents-in-law.
Lastly her husband was already getting Pay Band IV with Rs. 9000/- as annual
grade pay so there was not dearth of resources in the house and as her
relations with school authorities were getting bitter day by day so she took a
bold decision to leaver her job and devote her life in service of this old couple.
This is the second time that she had shown selfless service and total devotion
towards the welfare of me and my family.
Meanwhile her younger son had also matriculated from St.
Pauls School Chittorgah. And as he was good at science so he easily cleared the
entrance exam of Bansal Classes Kota and went to take coaching there for
entrance to IIT and other leading technical education instiutions of the
country. As he was brilliant so he easily cleared IIT Entrance Exam. But like
his elder brother he declared that he had no intention of becoming money
earning machine by becoming an engineering graduate from IIT .So he did not
attend the counseling for IIT’s that was held at Mumbai. However he expressed
his wish to study pure science and he applied for admission to Indian Institute
of Space and Technology. He even went for the interview to Thiruvanathapuram
along with his father who reached Ahmedabad by bus and from there took a train
that took them to Thiruvanathapuram after a journey of 48 hrs. Though he was
getting admission easily in every branch – pure science as well as aeronautics-
but he refused to take admission here. So they came back after seeing the Kovalam Beach and Viekanand rock near
Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu. Then he intentionally and deliberately did not lock
the options for admission to NIT’s and other leading institutes of the country.
Ultimately he agreed to take admission in IISER at Mohali in pure science and
that too due to his maternal grandfather who was insisted on him to study there.
This upset her very much as she grew concerned about his future, she remained
silent for a number of days after she grew reconciled with the destiny.
However, her elder son had now moved to Paris
as research scholar in Science Po institute. Then he started teaching also at
this university for an year at this place and at another place in France
known as La Harvey.
Meanwhile the marriage of her husband’s niece was fixed with
a family of Gahlan belonging to a village near Noida in Uttar Pradesh. The boy was
Assistant manager in s railway concern known as Concor that is associated with
logistics of freight transport. Her husband’s niece was an engineer with an MBA
degree from Christ University Bangalore. The boy’s father worked as
agricultural scientist at Palampur in Himachal Pradesh in some organization
associated with CSIR and ICAR. The boy whose name was Prashant Gahlan was an
engineering graduate and Business administration graduate from BITS Pilani that
was the prestigious institute founded in Rajasthan during World War II.
Britishers had prevailed on the leading industrialist of India Mr. G.D Birla to open an arms
and ammunition factory at Pilani to help British forces during Second World
War. He agreed to do so but he took promise from the British rulers that as
soon as the war is over the institute should be allowed to work as institute of
technical education producing engineers and technocrats for the country. By the
time factor was set up the war ended the and thus this premier instiotute came
into existence.
Her husband’s niece’s, who was going to be married, name was
Nidhi aka Surbhi Cheema who had her schooling from a prestigious institute of
the city St.Anselm’s Pink City School Jaipur. At this wedding her husband had
to go a week earlier as he had some in service training program for one week at
Jaipur. So he was the first to reach the site of wedding. She took her
parents-in-law in their personal car by getting a driver with the help of a
retired colleague Prof. C.M Koli. Wedding was held at Jaipur in a marriage Palace hired by them. Though her
father-in-law had got totally blind by then but he could share the joy of
attending wedding of her grand child through the eyes of his wife who was
reporting every event of the wedding to him in the minutest detail . This was
the last wedding function attended by her ageing and ailing parents-in-law.
After the wedding they came back in their car that was driven by her spouse who
brought them safely back to Chittorgarh. This wedding took place in January 2013.
In the same year that is 2013 Shivpal completed his dual
degree of BS and MS Physics from IISER Mohali, Chandigarh. As it was the summer vacations
time so she and her husband had gone to Punjab.
Her father had a mild stroke of paralysis so she came to look after her father
and stayed at Sujapur for nearly a month as a result of where there was a
strong rumour, due to courtesy of domestic maid servant that she had gone to Italy to look
after her elder son who was studying there at that time. Her husband joined her
after a month and then they hired a cab to attend graduation ceremony of
Shivpal at Chandigarh and then from there they proceeded
to Palampur taking shivpal with them. On the way they saw Anandpur Sahib and
famous Sikh museum at that place. From there passing through Nangal Una and then
before the Temple of Goddess Chintpurni and Kangra they reached Palampur by
evening where they were received by Nidhi’s parents-in-law and her
sister-in-law. Next day Nidhi’s father-in-law took them to a near by temple of Jakhmi Mata
in his own car. Then he sent his daughter with us who took us to Dharamshala
and Mcleodgang. Here they saw Tibetan Parliament from where the Tibetan
government in exile of Dalai Lama functioned. At Mcleodganj they saw the Church of the Whispering Woods
that had a grave of A Governor General of India and a number of other graves
and a large bell. Besides they also saw tow Buddhist temples where offerings
were of biscuits, cakes and candies. They also went up to see Bhakasur Temple
who was a demon. By evening they returned to Palampur and next day theywent to
visit Baijanath where Ravana, mighty ruler of Sri Lanka meditated to get powers
from Lord Shiva. After that returned back to Punjab
and then to Rajsthan.
Another pleasant development that took place was that
Prashant was transferred from Agra to Kota as a result of which
she could come easily to Chittorgarh as it was nearly 180 kms away from
Chittorgarh. Nidhi got pregnant in 2014 and in the month of August after a
brief visit to Chittorgarh she went to live with her parents at Jaipur. When
the news from Jaipur came in the month of October that she was being admitted
to hospital due to labour pain, Baljeet was sent at once from Chittor to help
them in the birth of child. Nidhi gave birth to a girl child who was named as
Anvi alias Oudvika Gahlan. Baljeet’s mother-in –law was very much overjoyed at
getting this news. Similalry her father-in-law also wanted to feel his great
grand child though he could not see. Child came into this world on October 31st
, 2014. Meanwhile Baljeet’s elder brother’s son, who was working in USA, was fixed to be held in the third week of
December with a girl belonging to Patiala.
So she had to go to attend this wedding along with her spouse and two sons. The
problem was to take care of her parents-in-law. Nidhi offered to come to
Chittorgarh along with new born infant so that her great grand parents could
also play with her. Nidhi wanted to show her gratitude to Baljeet who had
helped her by at her bed side during the birth of a child. Though her husband
had also arranged for a servant who would sleep at their during the night. The
same day she and her family left for Punjab to
attend the wedding of her elder brother’s son. Just a week before wedding her
father got a hear attack and he was admitted to a leading nursing home of Ludhiana. So they went to
see him at the hospital at Ludhiana
before coming to the village to attend wedding ceremony. Even her father did
not want to disturb the wedding of his grandson so he gave instruction that he
died before the wedding was over his body can be kept in a freezer of a
neighbouring village as his funeral can wait till the wedding is over. But
nothing of that sort happened and wedding ceremonies passed off peacefully in the
environment of glee, joy and cheerfulness.
After
attending the wedding they came back from Punjab
on 23th December, 2014. next day was the Annual Reunion of Sainik School Alumni
Meet. Her husband was busy in the function while he rmother-in-law was busy in
looking after the infant girl child. During the meet old students of her
father-in-law used to visit them. This year also they visited and her
mother-in-law had served them cup of coffee too. On 25th December
was the birthday of her elder son Ishupal who had by chance came from France that
year where he was pursuing his Ph.D in law. It was a coincidence that newly wed
couple had also joined them for the birthday celebration. Her mother-in-law had
a long chat with the new bride who also happened to belong to the same clan
that is Gill as her clan. .After playing with the young child her remark was ‘everything
seems to be proper with this world ‘. An hour after she started trembling and
went to take rest. Her daughter gave her some medicine as she was averse to
going to hospital though she remarked to her son that day “ Show me to anybody
you like, otherwise I may embark”. Due to medicine her fever came down but she
could get only a fitful sleep during the night. In the morning her spouse
contacted nearby nursing home who sent its technician to take blood sample.
Within a couple of hours report came and doctor diagnosed her with
Phalsoporium( A type of malaria that gobbles RBC) and her Haemoglobin count was
very low. Doctor advised her to shift to the hospital at once as there may be
need of blood transfusion. So she, her husband and her younger son took Hardyal
to the hospital in the car. Shivpal literally took up in his arms and
transferred her to the car. At hospital her spouse decided to take cottage ward
in the hospital. When they started from home to hospital she was mumbling
something about Nidhi, her granddaughter who had gone to Kota only in the morning. Her husband went to
take medicine prescribed by the doctor while her younger son took up again his
grandfather in his arms and took her to the cottage ward as it was lunch time
in the hospital and there was no stretcher in sight. When Shivpal placed her on the bed she took
three deep breath and then became still. Soon doctor also came but by that time
she was beyond him and he could not do anything except declaring her dead. Though
Shivpal took grabbed medicine from his father and rushed towards the cottage
but by that her soul had left this planet.
It was a difficult time for the family this family had not
experienced death since 1976 and most difficult part of it was to break this
news to her ailing blind husband who thought that she was being treated in the
hospital while her copse was lying in the other room of the house. He was
informed about her death, by his son-in-law only a couple of hours before she
was taken to cremation ground for the funeral. As she was departing from the
house his words were “ I was to go before you, how come that your are going
before me”. After the funeral all the children of the house Shivpal, Ishupal,
and Anshu tried hard to keep their grandfather amused and engaged. Seven days
later at he bhog ceremony friends and relatives came from Punjab also and this
bereaved old man got respite by meeting son of his only sister who had come
from Punjab and the lone son of his
brother-in-law from the village where he went to marry her nearly six decades
ago.
Hardly the
house had recovered from this shock when she got the news of tragic death of
her father who had a heart attack and was recovering well after the surgery. He
had not been told about the death of her mother-in-law. She could not leave her
ailing blind father-in-law and go to attend the funeral of her own father, who
was perhaps one of the most dear person to her in the world. She sent her
younger son Shivpal to attend the funeral. That ws the height of sacrifice and
devotion that she had exhibited for our family. It is indeed a grand salute to
Shivpal and his mother who through their selfless and devoted service served
these old ailing senior members of our family and made their lives comfortable
in their last phase of life .
After the
death of his wife her father-in-law was completely broken as due to his failing
eye sight he had grown totally dependent on his wife. His younger grandson
Shivpal used to look after him completely. He used to wash and clean him,
change his diapers and even gave him shave and hair dressing with his Phillips
trimmer. Once he had even designed French cut beard on his face. One day her father-in-law
went into delirium and was uttering meaningless and absurd things. Doctor came
in the house and diagnosed that his strange behaviour was due to decline of
sodium level and for that he will have to be admitted to some hospital and he
assured that he will be able look after well if he is admitted to the hospital
in which he was giving his services. So we admitted him at once to that
hospital which was a private hospital owned by a trust. Her he raised such a
hue and cry that it became a challenge for the hospital staff to control him
and in finding the nerve in his body when they had to give drip to him. Most of
the time they even put medicine into the drip. After one week’s treatment his
behaviour and sodium level became normal and he was discharged from the
hospital and he came back home. As the April ended he celebrated his birthday
on may 1st in the company of both of his grand sons as Ishupal had
also come from France
that year. Shivpal took him for a ride on his wheel chair and he even cut his
birthday cake that was the last birthday cake of his life and he was so pleased
that his words were “If you will give so much pleasure only god knows how will
I leave this world”. Next day Ishupal left for France
and as it was the time of summer vacations so she and her spouse decided to go
on their annual visit to Punjab. And they
called her sister-in-law and her younger daughter Anshu who had become a
dentist to look after him during their absence and Shiv pal was already there
to help them. So she left for Punjab the next day after a couple of days her
sister-in-law gave the news that he was suffering from diarrhoea and was unable
to digest anything though Shiv pal was not much worried as such situation had arisen in the past too. After a week they
boarded the train back from Punjab though the train was late by four hours and
by the time it reached Chanderiya it was seven to eight hours late. So by the
time they reached home it was already three o’clock in the afternoon. He was
very much delighted by our arrival and know about the well being of his near
and dear ones at Punjab. At the tea in the
evening looking towards his son he said “ You have come well in time”. When her
husband told him that we were late by seven to eight hours and reached in
afternoon instead of morning his words still were “ No still you have reached
in time”. We failed to comprehend his words. Next day her sister-in-law and her
younger daughter Anshu was to go back to Jaipur In the morning they went to see them off at
the railway station and came to know that due to some derailment train was late
by three hours. So they came back and returned back to station and saw them off
at the station.
In the
evening she prepared tea for everybody. While they were sipping tea phone came
that her sister-in-law and her younger daughter had reached safely at Jaipur
and this news was given to her father-in-law. He heaved a sigh of relief at
getting this news. Meanwhile she took the cups of the tea into the kitchen ,
her husband observed that he was moving his hands in the air as if some person
is struggling to save himself from drowning. He raised his head from the pillow
while moving his hands in the air a couple of times and then his head fell back
on the pillow and he became still. Her husband rushed at once to bring doctor
from a nearby clinic in his car who came at once and declared him dead.
Incidentally the doctor who had declared him dead was also one of his favourite
student.
