Life Back Then

Lyallpur is in their hearts - Part 1

Author: 
Sangat SIngh and Jatinder Sethi

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Born in 1933 in Dijkot, a small hamlet in district Lyallpur (now Faisalabad, Pakistan), I (Sangat Singh) came after about eight attempts, including miscarriages. I  grew up in Lyallpur as a  pampered child. At the age of five, I was sent to nearby one roomed primary school where spartan old Jute Hessian bags (borian) were used  for  mats.  I refused to study there, and was enrolled in Sacred Heart Convent School  for the next 9 years.  After getting his college degree in India, he moved to Singapore in 1954, and then to Malaysia in 1957, where, now a retired plantation manager, he lives with his wife.  More about him at this link.

Jatinder Sethi was born in Lyallpur, now Faisalabad, in pre-Independence India. He finished his M.A. (English) from Delhi University in 1956, and went off to London to study Advertising in 1958. He passed his Membership Exam of The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (M.I.P.A) in1965, and joined Rallis India in Bombay. Later, for over 20 years, he worked for the advertising agency Ogilvy &amp\; Mather. Now retired, he helps his son in his ad agency in Delhi.

Hindu-Muslim Relations in Pre-Partition Lahore

Author: 
Pran Seth

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Pran Seth

Pran Seth started his career as a lecturer in Political Science in a Punjab College in Lahore in 1946. After India's Partition, he helped set up a new Hindi daily called Amar Bharat in Delhi. In late 1948, he joined the Punjab government as a Public Relations Officer. Later, he worked in Delhi in the Publications Division of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, and in the Department of Tourism, Government of India. He moved overseas to head the Department of Tourism promotional offices in San Francisco, New York, Frankfurt and Tokyo. He retired as a Deputy Director General, Department of Tourism, and then started teaching Tourism in Delhi University. He passed away in 2010 at the age of 87.

Editor's note: This is a slightly edited version Chapter 1 of Pran Seth's autobiography Lahore to Delhi ... Rising from the Ashes. The original chapter is available at Early Signs of Pakistan.

It must have been the late 1920s as I was a six or seven year old boy. I was on my way to the Urdu medium primary school where I studied in Lahore's Hindu dominated area of Shah Alami Gate. It was a wintry morning\; I was well covered by woollens and had a fur cap on my head. Fur caps were usually worn by Muslims, and I must have looked like a child from a Muslim family.

Mushairas in Delhi – 1950s

Author: 
Jatinder Sethi

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Jatinder Sethi was born in Lyallpur, now Faisalabad, in pre-Independence India. He finished his M.A. (English) from Delhi University in 1956, and went off to London to study Advertising in 1958. He passed his Membership Exam of The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (M.I.P.A) in1965, and joined Rallis India in Bombay. Later, for over 20 years, he worked for the advertising agency Ogilvy &amp\; Mather. Now retired, he helps his son in his ad agency in Delhi.

Ed. Note. Mr. Sethi’s article on Delhi in the 1950s is a complement to this article.
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Saba Phir Humain Puuchti Phir Rahi Hai
Chaman Ko Sajane Ke Din Aa Rahe Hain

This sher (couplet) from Faiz Ahmed Faiz's ghazal  Naseeb Aazmane Ke Din Aa Rahe Hain urged me to think of my old days. I wanted to renew the memories of those happy time when I was part of the crowd spending nights listening to Urdu poetry from the zaban (lips) of some of the great Urdu poets alive at that time.

Now at the age of 85, I am trying to re-kindle that flame for  myself. To paraphrase Faiz ,Apne Chaman Ko Phir Tero-Taza Rekhne kay liye.

A few visits to the Golden Temple at Amritsar

Author: 
Joginder Anand

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Dr. Anand - an unholy person born in 1932 in the holy town of Nankana Sahib, central Punjab. A lawyer father, a doctor mother. Peripatetic childhood - almost gypsy style. Many schools. Many friends, ranging from a cobbler's son (poorly shod as the proverb goes) to a judge's son. MB from Glancy (now Government) Medical College Amritsar, 1958. Comet 4 to Heathrow, 1960.
Widower. Two children and their families keep an eye on him. He lives alone in a small house with a small garden. Very fat pigeons, occasional sparrows, finches green and gold drop in to the garden, pick a seed or two and fly away.

I was born in to a family that  did not hold with priests of any sort,  to put it mildly. In my childhood, we did not go on teeraths or yatras (religious trips). Nor did I ever hear teerathees approved of or criticised. These were people - other people - who did what suited them.

One of my grandmothers was always on the move through the length and breadth of Hindustan - as it was known then. She contributed her mite to the care-takers, or whatever they were called in the local lingo, of the mandirs (temples).

My mother used to recite JapJi, Sukhmani Sahib every day. My father used to read Sukhmani  Sahib, printed in Farsi (Urdu script). I still have his copy, courtesy of my sister.

We did go to a local  Gurdwara on religious occasions, and sometimes without a conscious  reason.

The Rise and Fall of the Princely State of Alwar

Author: 
R C Mody

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R C Mody

R C Mody is a postgraduate in Economics and a Certificated Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers. He studied at Raj Rishi College (Alwar), Agra College (Agra), and Forman Christian College (Lahore). For over 35 years, he worked for the Reserve Bank of India, where he headed several all-India departments, and was also the Principal of the RBI Staff College. Now (2017) 90 years old, he is engaged in social work, reading, writing, and travelling. He lives in New Delhi with his wife. His email address is rameshcmody@gmail.com.

Introduction

I hail from a well-known family of the erstwhile AlwarState called “Modis.” The family was close to the Durbar for many years. The initial part of this narrative is based on stories I heard from my grand uncles. By 1933, however, I was grown up enough to see and assess events for myself. My description from that year onwards is an eye witness account.

Formation of Alwar

The Princely State of Alwar was one of the 22 Princely States (baais rajwade) of Rajputana on the eve of India's Independence, ranking 6th in Rajputana, and about 20th among all of the Princely States of India. Unlike many other Princely States, Alwar was not one of the ancient Indian kingdoms.

The Breast-Beater

Author: 
Vinod K. Puri

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Born in 1941, Vinod was brought up and educated in Amritsar. He attended Government Medical College, and subsequently trained as a surgeon at PGI, Chandigarh. He left for USA in 1969, and retired in 2003 as Director of Critical Care Services at a teaching hospital in Michigan. Married with two grown sons, he continues to visit India at least once a year.

Ed. Note: This is closely linked to the author's My brother: handsome, witty, generous, tragic

I woke up and looked at the once familiar playgrounds that lay before my ancestral home in Amritsar. These grounds separated the street for a long stretch from densely situated houses around the Durgiana Temple. Instead of following the circular road around the main grounds, most people cut diagonally across to reach our street. I was nostalgic about the long past childhood, and my dead parents.

A lot of the trees around cricket grounds had been cut down as also the trees just outside the house. I had climbed many of them in my childhood.  From the open roof of the second floor, I saw a group of women in the distance. The four of them appeared to be involved in an animated conversation. They seemed to be laughing at some shared intimacy. They were wearing the white cotton saris, which were right for the late summer season.

A Plantation Manager in Malaysia

Author: 
Sangat Singh

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Born in 1933 in Dijkot, a small hamlet in district Lyallpur (now Faisalabad, Pakistan), I (Sangat Singh) came after about eight attempts, including miscarriages. I  grew up in Lyallpur as a  pampered child. At the age of five, I was sent to nearby one roomed primary school where spartan old Jute Hessian bags (borian) were used  for  mats.  I refused to study there, and was enrolled in Sacred Heart Convent School  for the next 9 years.  After getting his college degree in India, he moved to Singapore in 1954, and then to Malaysia in 1957, where, now a retired plantation manager, he lives with his wife.  More about him at this link.

Editor’s note: This is an edited version of an article that first appeared here.

As a refugee in India after the partition of Punjab, I looked for any work when I got my Bachelor of Arts degree. Earlier, I had earned my F.Sc., a science degree, and then wanted to go to a medical college. But, there was no money. So, I ended up doing an Arts Degree, which was cheaper.

Festival of Classical Music – Delhi 1957

Author: 
Jatinder Sethi

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Jatinder Sethi was born in Lyallpur, now Faisalabad, in pre-Independence India. He finished his M.A. (English) from Delhi University in 1956, and went off to London to study Advertising in 1958. He passed his Membership Exam of The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (M.I.P.A) in1965, and joined Rallis India in Bombay. Later, for over 20 years, he worked for the advertising agency Ogilvy &amp\; Mather. Now retired, he helps his son in his ad agency in Delhi.

Ed. Note. Mr. Sethi’s article on Delhi in the 1950s is a complement to this article.
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Kaun Jaye Dilli Kee Galiana Chode Kar कौन जाये दिल्ली की गलियां छोड़कर ?
Who wants to leave Delhi?

The old Urdu poet was right then, and it applied to Delhi of my time also - the late 1950s.

Delhi was the hub of cultural and intellectual activities, fired by the late Chacha Nehru, and politically aware Punjabis of Partitioned India. At that time, they gathered at the India Coffee House, Janpath, New Delhi. This was the crowd that produced well-known writers, photographers, journalists and even Prime Minister (Inder Kumar Gujral) of the country.

Delhi of that period had three very well-known and popular annual cultural events.

Channo’s mother and her boys

Author: 
Vinod K. Puri

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Born in 1941, Vinod was brought up and educated in Amritsar. He attended Government Medical College, and subsequently trained as a surgeon at PGI, Chandigarh. He left for USA in 1969, and retired in 2003 as Director of Critical Care Services at a teaching hospital in Michigan. Married with two grown sons, he continues to visit India at least once a year.

There was something quite intriguing about the two widows who lived on our street in Amritsar. No one symbolized it better than Channo's maan (mother). She was the mother of a girl, Channo, and four boys. I have little remembrance of Channo. In my childhood the ‘boys' were actually grown up men. I have dim recollection of them in 1947 when my father patronized a retinue of toughs to guard our house from attacks by marauding Muslims.

History of Hope Circus, Alwar

Author: 
R C Mody

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R C Mody

R C Mody is a postgraduate in Economics and a Certificated Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers. He studied at Raj Rishi College (Alwar), Agra College (Agra), and Forman Christian College (Lahore). For over 35 years, he worked for the Reserve Bank of India, where he headed several all-India departments, and was also the Principal of the RBI Staff College. Now (2017) 91 years old, he is engaged in social work, reading, writing, and travelling. He lives in New Delhi with his wife. His email address is rameshcmody@gmail.com.

It was at some stage during his 30 years’ reign (1903-33) that Maharaja Jey Singh, a great builder, found that his capital city Alwar had great potential of extension, modernisation and beautification. The city was encircled by am old wall which was surrounded by a moat. The moat was expected to remain filled with water, thus giving the city protection against an invader. But the moat was for long without water and with the advent of 20th century, there remained no possibility of any military invasion. Thus, both the wall and moat became anachronistic, and, in fact, an obstruction in growth of the city. 

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