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Premchand Stories and a trip down memory of a chawl

This story has taken many forms and shapes in my mind and finally, after two months, I am starting to write it.

During Navaratri during Hindu calendar month of Chaitra, my parents were visiting our native village of Gumava near Haidargarh in Uttarpradesh, over fifteen hundred kilometers from Ahmedabad. They had gone to perform Kuldevi Pooja rituals at our ancestral temple for my new born son Rajveer. They stayed back ten more days to attend wedding of my cousin Ritika. It was around this time that I was required to attend many social functions in Ahmedabad.

Unless it was a close relative or family friend, Dad attends all the functions. But since he was not available, being the eldest of family, I attended on family's behalf. I attended a couple of weddings, Sunderkand and one Akhand Ramcharitmanas path. It was the path that inspired such emotions in me that I couldn't stop myself writing about them even after two months.

My great-grand father Late Shri Madhav Singh was an officer with British Indian army. My grand father was born in 1928 and had only one sister. Madhav Singh's father Shri Chandi Singh was a land lord and nearby villages were named after him and his brothers. Madhav Singh was a rich man with lots of inherited land and couple of timber mills in Indore. However, he passed away when Sant Singh, my grandfather, was in his late teens and studying in Indore. Unfortunately, there is no document telling us about why or how Madhav Singh met his maker but Sant Singh was required to come back to the village. Him and his sister were orphans now. No living soul remembers the name of my granddad's mother but she had passed away earlier. Sant Singh married his sister well as was custom and was himself married to my grandmother - Shrimati Maya Devi. 

This was the time of young Independent India and by all accounts it was a horrible time. Our country was abysmally poor and human life was far less valuable than money or land at that time of our history. Thanks to Britishers, Indians were reduced to looting and murdering their own. Sant Singh's cousin were too many and their inheritance was dwindled while Sant Singh had lots of land and money. Though Sant Singh never spoke about this with his children or grandchildren but everybody in and around village knew the story.

Sant Singh's cousin lusted after his property and they decided to remove him and distribute his lands. Either by sheer luck or by assistance of a well wisher, Sant Singh was warned off. He decided to leave Gumava, left his wife at her mother's place and went off in search of a peaceful place. He reached Ahmedabad in 1952. He knew a Bramhin family from his village that lived here. They knew him well and helped 





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