Part-IV
After the demise of her father-in-law she took part in every
ritual like Antim Ardas, Samapati of path of Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji and
immersion of ashes at Kiratpur in Punjab .
Though she also participatd in bhog ceremony and ashes immersion ceremony of
her father but she could not attend these ceremonies of her mother-in-law as
she had to look after her old and ailing father-in-law. It is not that after
her father’s death there had been no death in her family as she faced death of
her tow sister-in-laws, a cousin and her uncle after regular intervals. First
of all her sister-in-law whose husband had retired from Punjab Police passed
away suddenly, then wife of her own elder brother died unexpectedly and after a
few months her cousin, who was a driver died in an accident . He was son of S.
Baldev Singh who retired from Indian Air Force and he was driver of school and
college buses.
After the situation normalized she planned to attend the
annual convention of SPIC-MACAY along with her husband. The got their on line
reservations and before oarding a train to Guwahati from Kota they went to Kota
a day earlier and stayed for the night at the house of Nidhi who was at Kota
then. After a long journey of 48 hours after passing through the states of Rajasthan,
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal they reached Assam in the morning. It was for
the first time that they saw River Ganga at Benarares though everything like Kanpur , Lucknow
passed during the night. At Guwahati railway station volunteers of SPIC-MACAY
came to receive us and at the station and took us in the buses to lush green
campus of IIT Guwahati where former President of India and missileman Dr. APJ
Abdul Kalam spent the last moments of his life. After the registration male and
female participants were put in separate hostels. As it was an international
convention so delegations from nieghbouring countries like Bhutan , Sri Lanka ,
Pakistan and Iran had also
come. She was put up with female participants of Chittorgarh and other female
participants in another hostel while her spouse and other male participants
from Chittorgarh were put up in a different hostel. Perhaps this was her first
international exposure so she was very much delighted with delegation from Bhutan and Pakistan with whom she could easily
communicate in Urdu and Punjabi. She even got her self clicked with Bhutanese
delegation Routine at the convention
started at 4.30 a.m in the morning with morning activities like yoga. She opted
for dance yoga whie her spouse opted for Nad Yoga(Music). After the morning
exercise and after wash and breakfast there were hobby classes till lunch. Here
also she opted for Kathak Workshop while her spouse opted for workshop on
Creative Writing. After lunch there used to be concerts or film shows that lasted
till 11 o’clock in the night. In this convention besides seeing the famous
Japanese film Kaghamoshai. There were music concerts by stalwarts of Indian
dance and classical music like Pt. Hariprasad Chorasia, Smt. Girija Devi and
dances- both classical as well as folk projecting rich cultural heritage of the
far east. Even Sikh Granthis also gave a programme of Kirtan and a talk on the
significance of literature was given by a notable Marathi writer Mr.
Bhalchandra Nemade. So during this convention theyslept separately during the
night but they were together atleast during the concerts that started from 3
p.m in the auditorium of IIT.
On the last days of convention Chittorgarh delegation hired a
TATA Sumo SUV and went to visit area around Shillong the capita of neighbouring
state Meghalaya. Starting from Guwahati inearly morning they passed through Shillong
to see a waterfall and mesmerizing natural view point. Her she and her spouse
got themselves photographed in the tribal attire of Meghalya. Then they went to
see the village Mosemow which records the highest rainfall in the world. Here
they enjoyed a cave walk in the cave of sandstone. Though there was water in
the cave yet the sandstone rocks were not slippery. This was her perhaps life
time experience. In the afternoon clouds gathered in the sky so they could not
see across the border to Bangladesh
which was on the other side of the river. By evening they reached Shillong and
succeeded in getting accommodation in a hotel at Centre Point Shillong though
they did not realize it during the night as they slept after taking their
meals. In the morning they got up early and went for a morning walk on the
empty roads of the town. Here they realized that they were quite near a famous
church of the town and the building of Meghalaya’s Legislative Assembly. After
the breakfast they went to see the airbase situated on a raised ground from
where the whole town of Shillong
was visible. By evening they returned back to Guwahati after seeing a large
lake with several shapes of land mass. On the last day of the convention they
went to see the local sight seeing points around Guwahati like Hajo, Temple of Goddess Kamakahya Devi
After an overnight journey they reached Patna in the morning and succeeded in getting
accommodation near the main Gurudwara. This place was associated with first,
ninth and the tenth guru of the Sikhs. While Guru Nanak Dev and Guru Tegh
Bahadaur visited this place and stayed her during their visit to the North-East
part of the country, the tenth and the last Guru Gobind Singh was born here. We
spent evening in the main Gurudwara and the adjoining Gurudwaras like Kangan
Ghat that is situated on the banks of River Ganga. Next day they booked seats
in a bus run by Gurudwara Management and went around the town of Patna to see other
Gurudwaras like Gau Ghat and Bal Lila Gurudwara. Next day they boarded a train
goiong to Jammu Tawi and after another overnight journey they reached Ludhiana in the morning.
Now some things had become a regular feature of their lives
like annual visit to Punjab to her village
Sujapur and her husband’s ancestral village Dharamkot. During these visits they
used to congratulate their relatives and friends for happy occasion like
wedding and birth of a child and condole those relatives who had lost some
member of their family. Sometimes they also attended the wedding ceremonies of
children and grand children of their relatives. In this context one wedding of
her spouse’s granddaughter that they attended at Dharamkot in the last week of
December is worth mentioning. During this occasion also she had met a number of
people related to her spouse for the first time in her life. At Chittorgarh
morning and evening walks to college ground had become a regular feature of
their life till lockdown came due to Corona
infections.
Another major event that took place was wedding of her
spouse’s youngerniece who was a dentist and her wedding had been fixed with
another dentist Dr. Hartej Nerwal
belonging to Mohali,Chandigarh ,Punjab . Dr. Hartej’s father also belonged to medical
profession as he was a practicing homeopath who had retired from Medical and
health Department, Government of Punjab. Though girl belonged to Jaipur but unlike
her elder sister her wedding was to be held at Chandigarh keeping in mind the convenience of
groom’s family. She also went to attend the wedding along with her husband and
younger son Shivpal and reached Chandigarh
by a train from Jaipur. Earlier they had started from Chittorgarh for Jaipur
also by train. After an overnight journey they reached Chandigarh . Logisitics and staying
arrangements had been planned by bride’s elder sister. A cab picked them up
from the railwaystationof Chandigarh
and took them to the hotel. After resting for some time and breakfast they
assembled at the house of bride’s father’s aunt’s house who lived in Chandigarh
and shoes house was just a couple of kilometres away from the residence of the groom. From there we
went to groom’s house for engagement ceremony and then they came to bride’s
father’s aunt’s house for ring ceremony. In the evening there was program of
music and dance known as Ladies Sangeet from bride’s side at the hotel. As the
song and dance was in progress suddenly we saw that three or four boys and a
lady entered the hotel came into the room and headed straight for the dancing
floor and started dancing to the music. Actually groom came to know about this
program being held at the hotel and they decided to break into it to give a
pleasant surprise.
Next day was
the day of wedding and she was entrusted
with the responsibility of accompanying the bride as she went to deck at beauty
parlour. After the breakfast Groom came on horse carriage along with music
band. After welcome of Barat and tea and snacks people proceeded towards local
Gurudwara for the wedding ceremony or Anand Karaj. Though she could not enjoy
the day of wedding much as she had important role of accompanying bride
everwhere till the marriage ended. But she enjoyed complimentary breakfast of
the hotel where they were staying like Eggs, Juice and German Sausages. Next
day they attended reception at another wedding palace that had grand
decoration. Next day they came to Delhi by bus and then to Hazrat Nizamuddin Station
from where they got train to come back to Chittorgarh.
Next major development was that her husband bought a new
Maruti Suzuki car of Dzire Model in the month of Novemeber though they retained
the old Maruti Zen also. After her younger son Shivpal joined at FTTI for
another PG Course in Sound Designing an dSoound Recording most of the time they
were alone at Chittorgarh. Now she started herself adapting herself to the
interests of her spouse so as to remain in his company as long as she can. She
started accompanying him on the morning and
evening walks, she had joined and shown interest in SPIC-MACAY
activities and even literary activities as she also attended not only
International Convention of SPIC-MACAY at Guwahati but she also attended Annual
Seminar of Rajasthan Association of Studies in English at Central University of
Rajasthan Kishangarh Dist. Ajmer Besides visiting Punjab bi annually they
continued the tradition of celebrating birthday in the month of June and it was
a mere coincidence that her spouse’s and his sister’s birthday was on the same
day though there was a difference of five years between them. Her birthday and
her sister-in-law’s husband’s birthday also fell in the month of June.
In the year 2017 whenthe colleges closed for Summer vacation
they decided to vist Kullu, Manali and Manikaran when they went to visit Punjab this year. First of all they to Chandigarh and stayed for a night with Dr.
Divi and Dr. Hartej Nerwal. Next day with their help they hired a Toyota Innova
Cab and started for Manikaran from Chandigarh
in the early morning. They passed before Mansa
Devi Temple
and then through the town of Mandi
and Kullu and reached Manikaran, which is famous for hot water springs. They
got accommodation easily at the Gurudwara and after seeing the surroundings in
the evening and participating in the ceremonies of the Gurudwara they slept at
night. This place had natural hot water springs in which even pulses and rice
was cooked and served to the people in the free kitchen or langar. Next day
they saw a number of places in the town
of Manikarna
that was named after the ear ring of Goddess Parvati that fell into the river on whose banks this
town is situated.. We also came to know about the place where Lord Shiva’s
engagement ceremony was held. After lunch we moved towards Manali via Kullu and
on the way we did some shopping on the way by buying some shawls. Just a few
kilometers before Manali there is a village that is inhabited mostly by foreign
tourists. As Dr. Hartej had already made our booking at the hotel so we had no
difficulty in locating and checking in the hotel. First of all we went to see
the temple of Goddess Hidamba Rama Temple Mall Road market
that was crowded but after buying some souvenirs we returned back to hotel and
after dinner went to bed and in the morning we started back for Chandigarh after a
hurried breakfast. On the way back we saw the ground where the Annual Dusshera
Fair is held at Kullu. While coming back we saw the historical Gurudwara at
Mandi where the weapons of Guru Gobind Singh, including a musket was exhibited..
By the time the darkness of the evening covered the sky we reached Chandigarh safe an dsound.
In the year 2019 her elder son came back from France to join Zindal University Punjab
for a week and during this they only visited one place that is Gurudwara
Damdama Sahib at Talwandi Sabo where Guru Gobind Singh ji rested for a few
days. This place enjoys the status of a Takht in Sikh religion.
After the return from Punjab her elder son Ishupal and her
younger brother’s son Gurpreet, who works in a firm as Compute Engineer in
Jaipur decided to give her a treat by celebrating her birthday at a historical
tourist site Kumbhalgarh that is associated with Maharana Kumbha and Maharana
Pratap. Gurpreet already reached Chittorgarh and we picked up Ishupal from Udaipur airport as he came from Delhi by air
then we proceeded to this place. Though it was only middle of June but
pre monsoon showers had made the weather pleasant and a thrown a cover of
greenery on the surrounding mountains. They had already made the bookings at
Ramada- a group of hotels managed by a firm from America . There we stayed for two
nights in a grand luxury and during the day we went to see the famous fort and
its imposing wall around the fort that can be considered as next to China Wall.
After spending the day there we came back to hotel and in the evening we
celebrated her birthday in a grand and royal manner when the waiters of the
hotel brought in the cake and crackers marking the celebration of the birthday
.In the morning we came back to Chittorgarh.
Though life of everybody is uncertain and nobody knows when
one’s life is going to end but the air of uncertainty had become more intense
after the COVID infection by Coronavirus in the month of March 2020. Then she
had a small lump in her throat that war earlier of a size of a grain but it may
increase in size with time. Though one of the famous ENT specialist of Jaipur
had given the report that this lump contains cancerous cells but doctor had
assured her that it was still benign and 90% of these formations in throat
remain benign and do not get malignant. The only remedy in alleopathy is
surgery but that may aggravate the problem instead of resolving it. Then some
of the issues of her life are still unresolved and that is the marriage of her
sons and till date none of them is in mood of getting married. She becomes a
working woman atleast for three months in an year when she goes for
invigilation duties in the university exams in the college. She has mixed up
with the college staff so much that she nearly has become a part of the
college. Thus making use of work experience and qualification she has tried to
make her life active and useful by serving the humanity in one way or other.
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