Part-II
Though
Surjeet Singh joined the job at Mavli in Udapur district but soon he was
transferred to Banswara, which was a tribal district where Mina bhils
inhabited. At this place he was to do the survey of an ambitious joint project
of Government of Rajasthan and Gujarat named
Mahi-Bajaj Sagar Multipurpose Project which was to be used for irrigating lands
as well as generating electricity. This place was such a God forsaken backward
place where people feared to go even in broad day light. The site of project
was a few kilometers away from the town so Surjeet Singh shifted his family in
the rented two room accommodation belonging to political activist S.Shamsher
Singh Tiwana who was also a contractor of Irrigation Department. As he was also
involved in the project of Irrigation Department so both Surjeet Singh and
Shamsher Singh used to go to site on their bicycles from the main town. As it
was a tribal district so Christian missionaries had opened school , hospital
and other institutions of social service with a view to win tribals to
Christianity. So even at that time in a sleepy town like Banswara there was an
English medium school run by Christian Missionaries from where the journey of
education of our protagonist began. Not only her but her two elder brothers
also started their education from this school- Mission School Banswara that was
situated in Nayi Abadi or New Colony where Surjeet Singh lived with her family.
That is school was not far off from their residence. She remembers clearly that
whenever any child cried in the school teacher gave him or her a glazed
colourful shining picture of Jesus or Mother Mary. So that child was absorbed
in watching the image and he stopped crying. She also remembers that while she
used to come back from the school along with her brothers they used to pass
before a building that was used as mental asylum and jail. So out of curiosity
they used to peer at the inmates through the bars of the windows. She along
with her brothers was being well looked after by her mother as her father was
too busy in his work. Even in those days her mother could bake bread, cakes and
cookies for them fresh at home and desserts like Porridge and Custard Pudding.
She even used to make ice cream in the manual machine besides making other
traditional desserts like Rice Pudding and Halwa. She studied in this school up
to fourth standard. In the year 1970 or 1971 her father was transferred to
Matri Kundia Dam in chittorgarh district but he shifted his family to a nearby
town of Bhilwara .
They took up their residence in a rented accommodation in Sindhu Nagar in the
town of Bhilwara .
Even at that tender age she showed
her spirit of independence and spirit of taste and finesse when she refused to
go to Government School Gul Mandi Bhilwara when she saw squalid and unhygienic
conditions in the classrooms. So respecting her sentiments she was withdrawn
from that school on the request of the parents and she only relented when she
was admitted to a private school even though it was only a Hindi medium school
managed by Mahaveer Society of Bhilwara. As this school was situated on
Rajendra Marg so it was comparatively nearer to her home than the Gul Mandi
School Mahaveer School
As her father also belonged to a
family of farmers so he had a sympathy for the villagers of this area and he
contributed immensely to the development of the area. He even saved a couple of
villages from coming in the catchment area of the dam as he gave this plea to
the government through the farmers that raising the height of the dam would
prove to be cheaper to the government than giving compensation to the farmers
for their land and then relocating them to some other place. After an year or
so her father gave attention to the fact that the education of his children, particularly
of his two sons is suffering due to his rural posting so he decided to shift
his family to Bhilwara again and he took two room accommodation in the
residence of Mr. Balram Dhiman, who was a contractor in Irrigation Department
and who belonged to Himachal Pradesh. Earlier both Surjeet Singh and Mr. Balram
had been tenants in the house that was situated at Sindhu Nagar. While Surjeet
Singh came back from Rashmi Mr. Balram had completed the construction of his
house in the Main Sector of Shastri nagar that was just behind the SMM Govt. Girls School
and Girls College
Meanwhile she completed her middle
education and came to Ninth Standard and was admitted to SMM Govt. Girls School
Bhilwara. She had opted for science stream medical side that is Biology though
she was more interested in studying Maths but at that time there was only one
school in the town that offered engineering stream or the subjects of Physics,
Chemistry and Maths and that school was in Pratap Nagar that was nearly four
kilometers from their residence and in those days it was considered as stupid to
send a girl to such a long distance daily just for a sake of a subject. So she
had to be contented by studying Biology in the name of Science stream at Higher
Secondary that she completed in year 1979. Though her performance appeared
average but seeing the lack of proper guidance and unacademic environment of
her house and seeing to the fact that she had to assist her mother also in
household chores even her average performance at this level was quite laudable.
During her higher education she represented her school in District Level
Science Exhibition at Gulabpura one year and at Shahpura at the district level.
She also represented her school at Vijaynagar in Ajmer
district.
After completing her Higher
Secondary from Board of Secondary Education Ajmer Rajasthan in the year with
the subjects Physics, Chemistry and Biology she took admission in MLV Govt.
College Bhilwara, which was a predominantly boys college but she took admission
in it as she wanted to pursue graduation studies in Science faculty. But due to
lack of regularity of classes in the college and lack of guidance and academic
environment in her house as she was mainly dependent on classroom teaching
whereas at the college level it is expected that a student gets mature enough
to continue preparations for the exam on his or her own and not be dependent on
classroom teaching only, as a result of this casual attitude she could not
clear theory exams though she got fairly good marks in practicals that even her
teacher could not believe that she had failed to clear the exams. After this
set back she took admission in SMM Govt. Girls College Bhilwara but in Arts
faculty with subjects Economics, Sociology and Political Science. At that time
Principal of this college was Mrs. Sarla Wadhera who was so much devoted to her
profession that she remembered the names of all students of the college as she
personally knew each student and tried to contact their parents also
personally. Meanwhile her elder brother Sukhpal Singh got married and brought
his wife who belonged to the village Sarabha the village of great revolutionary
and free fighter S. Kartar Singh Sarabha’s village. The newly wed couple also
started living with them in the rented accommodation that they took in the main
sector of Shastri nagar Bhilwara. After an year or so a daughter was also born
to them who was named as Manjeet and thus Baljeet became a Bhua. She completed her graduation from this
college in the year 1983 and in the same year she took decision to pursue post
graduation studies in Economics so she took admission again in MLV Govt.
College Bhilwara and she completed her M.A in Economics in the year 1985 with a
fairly good second division marks. About these days she remembers many of her
teachers fondly like Dr. P.R. Gaggar, Qazi sahib or Moiunuddin Sir and she also
rremembers her class fellow named Rama who lived near her residence and with
whom she used to exchange notes regularly. She also thought of filling form for
teaching job in colleges and she even procured a form for that. But meanwhile
she got interested in Computer Education and prevailed over her parents to
allow her to take admission in a reputed private institution of Chandigarh in the course
Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Applications. So she went to Chandigarh and rented a share accommodation
of a Professor of Punjab University named Mr. Bahl. Her room partner was a lady
from Odisha whose husband was professor in agriculture in Srinagar University Chandigarh she used to visit
her grandparents every weekend which was four hours run from Chandigarh . In those days due to terrorism Punjab was politically unstable so if she got late she
used to get down at the village of her maternal grandparents at Chauki Mann and
after spending the night here in the morning she used to go to her village
Sujapur which was hardly four kilometers from this place. On Monday morning she
used to return back to Chandigarh
to pursue her studies. She stayed at Chandigarh for over an year during which
sometimes her mother used to come to stay with her she also remembers that at
one time her sister-in-law that is Sukhpal’s wife also came to visit her along
with her daughter and she took them on a Bajaj Super Scooter on a ride on the
roads of Chandigarh and went to see Sukhna Lake.
During this period two developments
took place one was that they had bought a plot of land in B Sector of Shastrii Nagar Bhilwara and
started constructing house on it as their family was increasing and her younger
brother Satinder Pal, who had joined his hands with his elder brother in
transport business man had also to be married. Recollecting the wedding of her
younger brother Satinder pal she clearly remembers how she along with her
brother came all the way from Chandigarh
by bus to attend the reception of his marriage at Bhilwara. Naturally it was
quite dark when they reached Bhilwara and by the time reached the place the
reception ceremony had already begun and people, other guests and bride were
waiting eagerly for the groom.
After completing her computer course
she was so much fed up of studies that she decided to give a break and to do
nothing except taking rest She decided neither to study further nor to seek any
job. Perhaps this was her gravest mistake of her life as most of her class
fellows who had completed computer courses with her ended up with high salary
jobs abroad in companies like MicroSoft, Apple, IBM Computers and Indian firms
like Infosys, Wipro and Telco. But as she says that the condition of girls was
so much dependent on the male member of family that even if she had got
opportunity to work they would not have allowed her to pursue her studies
further or to go to work at some strange place even in India, let alone abroad.
Now as she was sitting idle in the house so topmost priority in the mind of her
parents was to marry her off and settle her in life. So they quickened their
efforts at finding some suitable match for her. One day her father’s old friend
came from Udaipur ,
whose name was S. Karam Singh Deol and who had worked as a contractor under her
father in Irrigation Department of Government of Rajasthan. He brought with him
a letter of a proposal for her from a family living in their neighboring
district and town of Chittorgarh .
It had never occurred to her parents even in their remote dreams that some
family belonging to their community would be living so near and that too they
were educated, enlightened and belonging to service sector. Boy’s father had
retired from Sainik School Chittorgarh as a Physics teacher and was managing his
own coaching centre at that time. Mother though
was a house lady but she was also equally educated and boy was working
as Assistant Professor in English at Government College Karauli at that time.
Without wasting any time her parents approached at the given address and though
they could not meet the boy as he was at his job but they met his parents and
were glad to find that in Punjab too they belonged to neighbouring districts of
Ludhiana and Moga in the same way as they were residing in Rajasthan in the
neighboring districts of Bhilwara and Chittorgarh.
After a month or so the colleges in
the state closed in Rajasthan so her father this time came along with his
brother-in-law who belonged to a village Natuwala Jadid which was neighbouring
village Parao Mehna that was the birth place of this boy. They were able to
meet the boy this time and approved him but before that boy’s parents wanted to
see the girl and get the approval of boy’s sister and brother-in-law who lived
in Jaipur. In the month of June as they would be coming to Chittorgarh to
celebrate their birthday that fell on 6th June so it was decided
that the family would visit Bhilwara and see the girl and also have their lunch
at their place even if the girl was not approved. Meanwhile she shifted to
their newly constructed house in the B-Sector of Shastri Nagar Bhilwara.
Another development that took place before the finalization of her wedding was
the news of the birth of a male child to her brother Satender Pal Singh at the
village Bermi in Punjab . Mother came with
infant child to the newly constructed house. On the occasion of shifting to
their new house they had celebrated its inauguration by inviting almost every
friend and relative from Punjab as this was
the first major function that they were celebrating here in Rajasthan.
So on appointed day that is 7th
June boy’s family along with him and his sister and brother-in-law came to
Bhilwara in a hired white Ambassador Cab. At the time they reached Bhilwara she
was busy in cleaning the floors of the house and while the guests wee having
the tea and snacks in the drawing room she went for a shower and after the tea
was over she had just emerged fresh from the bathroom after taking the bath and
the boy was ushered in the room to have a chat with her. The boy had not
imagined even in the remotest of his dreams that the girl would be so simply
clad for this occasion. He was taking her to be some their relative and looked
towards the door of the adjoining room in the hope that she would emerge from there
fully decked and decorated. He was taken aback when he came to know that this
simply clad girl was the person whom they had come to see. So he got nervous
and unable to speak for some time. But encouraged by her mother he talked about
studies in a casual manner and was comfortable when during the conversation he
came to know that they had common classfellows who had studied with him in
Government College Chittorgarh in undergraduate classes and then studied with
her by taking admission to PG classes in Economics at Govt. College Bhilwara.
So the girl was approved instantly and every body greeted each other with
another round of sweets followed by an equally delicious and sumptuous lunch
that had become more delightful at the happy conclusion of the meeting by
exchanging the ring. In this meeting it was decided that wedding would take
place on 18 th October 1987 and a day before that is on 17th October
the engagement ceremony would be performed at Chittorgarh. Though she was not
sure about the boy but she was contented that she was going to an educated
family in which both her father-in-law and mother-in-law were post graduates in
her favourite subject Mathematics and then her subject of PG Economics was also
allied at some point to mathematics.
On that particular day that is 17th
October 1987 her father came along with his friends and relatives to groom’s
house at Chittorgarh and performed the engagement ceremony by giving a gold
ring and a bangle( Kara) in the presence of Holy Guru Granth Sahib ji. Next day
barat went to Bhilwara in a chartered bus while the groom, his sister and his
mother were in a hired cab. Barat was received at Community Centre Shastri
Nagar and after the tea and snacks Barat went for Anand Karaj ceremony-
marriage ceremony according to Sikh tradition- at the bride’s home. At the gate
of her house there was a podium on which Groom and Bride were to exchange the
garlands. Here occurred a funny incident. Though the bride was almost of the
same height as Groom but that day she was wearing high heel shoes and Groom was
holding a Kirpan( Sword) in his hand. Bride put the garland in Groom’s neck
effortlessly but when the turn of groom came he looked around for help but
nobody seemed to be attentive to him so he put the sword under his arm and then
with both his hands he took the garland and took as much high as he could to
put it around the bride’s neck but he could not take his hand beyond particular
height as he did not want to drop the sword on the ground from this armpit. So
he released garland from there though it came around her neck but his garland
entangled with bride’s garland that caused a funny situation causing fun and
laughter among the audience. But girl came to know from that incident that boy
was somewhat clumsy in handling the things. Anand karaj ceremony was held on
the roof of her house in the presence of Guru Granth Sahib ji that was placed
in a pandal before which bride and groom sat followed by their friends,
relatives, family members and guests. After this ceremony Groom was brought to
be introduced to the lady members of her family. Her family was so large and
such a crowd of women of all age group that it was difficult to make out who
was her relative or who was the local her friend or a local guest. After this
ceremony lunch was read so marched towards the venue of lunch that was
Community Centre of Shasti Nagar. At the lunch another incident happened and
that was that they were to share their food. Both bride and groom were holding
the plate of lunch and groom thinking that he should put sweet thing first of
all in her mouth. He took a spoonful of Halwa and without seeing whether it was
hot or not put it into her mouth which made her uncomfortable for some time.
After the tea She was sent off in an emotional send off ceremony by her family
members including her grandfather and she embarked on another phase of journey
of her life to Chittorgarh in a hired white Ambassador car.
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