Dear, ………
Namaskar. Today is Father’s Day. Therefore, I will write the blog today to honor the fathers. Father’s Day is generally a day of celebration in the Western World. It is so because it is linked to the culture in this part of the world. Here children leave their parents as soon as they attain adulthood. Then they live on their own by leaving their parent’s home. So that they do not forget the parents altogether, they celebrate the Father’s Day and Mother’s Day once every year. On this day, the children would meet the father and present him with a gift. If the children are far away, they arrange to have a card and a gift delivered to them. With us in India the children would be staying with parents all the time. Therefore, there would be no need for similar celebrations there. However, with the globalization and amalgamation of cultures, we have copied the western way of life. Thus, we also celebrate Father’s Day now.
Remembering fathers, my thoughts go to my father. He was a man of special qualities. He was a different type of father. Today’s generation can simply not visualize fathers of those times. Here I will describe him. He was known to the world as Prem Nath Khazanchi. Brothers and elders in the family called him – Dedh Lal. We children would call him Baigash. He lost his mother when he was a toddler. He did not appear to have normal childhood. He was pampered in the absence of his mother. A step mother did not suit him. His step brothers and step sister would look to him with respect and love. The step sister was the youngest of the lot. He loved his step sister till the last day of his life.
The pampering during the childhood, caused him to have a difficult life. He did not show much inclination to studies. He would tell us in later years, that his father engaged teachers for him but he would just not study. He seems to have read up to grade 5 and then almost nothing till his adulthood. During this time he seems to have been enrolled into an alternate stream of studies. He joined an art class but left it half way. In later years after retirement, he would do some sketching. He did a set of sketches for one of his granddaughters. Our brother Boba Jee has framed the drawings and displayed them in his house. I have got a picture taken of that one and here it is for all to see.
His father had a circle of good friends. One of them was a prominent civil servant of those times. My father stayed with him for some times. My father would say later in life to us, that they would take very good care of him. The Civil servant got him appointed as Station Officer, Fire Brigade in the municipality of Pahalgam Kashmir. He was the boss there. When my father was around 55 Years or so, the Pahalgam Fire station was taken over by the State Government Fire Services Department. In Pahalgam he was living as a king. After the take over, he was transferred to Bijbihara Fire Station. Here also he was the boss but it was not the same thing as in Pahalgam. I will narrate a couple of incidents here which I am sure that you will enjoy reading too. (Some time in future, I will write detailed blogs to describe various aspects of our father. He was a great personality.)
Baigash Jee would always look at the figure of Shanker Jee tattooed on his left arm, from wrist to elbow, first thing in the morning. He would then wash his face etc. and would regularly wash the figure of Shankar Jee on his arm whatever the weather/temperature of water flowing down the tap. Then he would do, what we call puja. It used to take him about an hour. For the first half-hour, he would sit down straight with legs crossed and hands on his knees in a yoga posture. He would be keeping his eyes closed. He would be silent. Probably he was reciting something inwardly. During the next half an hour, he would recite Panchastavi in Kashmiri (I may like to add here that Pandit Jia Lal Saraf who was an engineer by profession is the one who has done Kashmiri Translation of Panchastavi which is originally in Sanskrit) He would also recite some other leelas. He would do it loudly. I have heard his father and one of his bother's mention so many times that he was reciting it all wrong. After my retirement from Doordarshan, I along with some Kashmiri Pandits residing in Faridabad found that there was a great scholar of Kashmiri religious texts also living in a flat in our colony. His name was Shri R.N.Dullu. We formed a group and every week we would assemble for two hours. Here he would teach us how to recite Mahimnapaar, Panchastavi, Vishnu Sahastranaam, and Bhagwat Gita. He would provide us translation in Kashmiri too. While he was teaching us, Panchastavi, we came across a shalok. The shalok is “Mantir te tantir chus na kehn jaanan, Jannan chus na mata chon mahima, aavahan te dyan chus na kehn te jaanan, jannan chus na mata cheni tuta. (The meaning of this is – Mother, I do not know anything, I do not know how to recite, I do not really know how great you are, I do not know how to meditate, I do not know how to speak correctly about you. The devotee in me is asking for forgiveness from the Goddess for not being able to recite her greatness and power correctly.) When I remember Baigash jee’s recitation, I weigh it against this shalok. Since he was doing it with devotion, even if it were wrongly read and recited, the Goddess mother would have forgiven him. Most of us Kashmiri Pandits pronounce words wrongly. One example is the name: Shiv Jee but most would call him Shav Jee. Shiv refers to God whereas Shav refers to a dead body. Such examples can be multiplied.
One day he was as usual in Pahalgam and was wondering why one fireman had not reported to the office for a couple of days. He had not sent a leave application either and no other person in the workplace knew the reason for his absence. This was disrupting the duty schedule at the workplace. Just when he was in the process of arranging substitute staff person, the absent fireman, Gulam Mahmood came and reported to Baigash Jee. Baigash Jee when relating the incident to us later said that the fireman looked run down and with grown stubble on his face. He looked worried. So Baigash jee asked him, what the reason was and why he had been absent for the last couple of days. To this, Gulam Mahmood replied, "Meh maharah gaye zannan khalass. (Before I write the translation of this sentence, let me tell you what khalass means. The word has two meanings - one, it means died usually used by Hindus, and the other meaning, to deliver a child usually used by Muslims. So Mahmood meant that his wife had delivered a child, Baigash jee understood that his wife had died) So Baigash jee responded by saying loudly with emphasis "Hiye Afsoos, What was her age?" Now Mohmood understood that Baigash Jee had taken a different meaning of his statement. So immediately, he revised his statement and clarified that his wife had delivered a son. So Baigash immediately responded thus “Achha tele chuy Mubarak. Baccha cha theekey” (Meaning, Ok, then congrats to you. Is the child in good shape). Soon after he told everyone around what he had understood first. Everyone enjoyed a big laugh. Whenever we used to remind Baigash Jee about this in later years, he would give a hearty laugh too.
I am sure that our father must have attained a spot at the lotus feet of Bhagwan Krishna and he must be resting there. One great thing. He did not leave anything to us children. Therefore, there has been no dispute between us brothers and sister to fight with each other over distribution of property and assets. We have remained close together. He was honest all his life. This honesty has been a source of prosperity for we his children and our grandchildren.
Hope you have enjoyed reading
today’s blog. Bye for now.
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