Pitaji’s Archives

Our revered father, Major Balwant Singh ji, whom we called Pitaji was born in Faruka (Dist Sargodha, now in Pakistan) on 30 June 1911. During the last few years of his life, he recorded the story of his life, in three diaries. The memoirs go back to 1919. Early in life, he acquired a camera, and the pictures which have survived the partition make it possible to get a vivid and graphic description of life as it was, a hundred years ago.

When he was born, our grandfather, Bhai Hira Singh ji was already a celebrity. Early in life, he had been chosen to perform kirtan in the Golden Temple, Amritsar, and was invited to travel to places as far as Myanmar (then called Burma). Even though he was austere and humble, he moved among the elite of the land.

Then disaster struck. When he was barely 46 years old, he was afflicted with cancer, and passed away, on 2^nd Sep 1926. He was survived by four sons and one daughter. Of them, the eldest was 21 years old and the youngest was merely four. What ensued was a period of intense struggle. I am rather impressed to note, that the family measured up to the challenge and braved all odds. Despite the economic crisis, the brothers completed their education, and rose to reasonably high levels in the social hierarchy.

In this account, I propose to talk about their vicissitudes. The pictures, as they say, are worth  thousands of words.

Some Pictures, to start the Narrative

We begin with our ancestors. The first picture shows our centenarian ‘Bapu ji’ from whom we learnt all about our ancestors.

 

Our Great Grand Father, Bhai Bhag Singh ji (1843-1947)

 

Next, we have the Saintly Bhai Hira Singh ji (1880-1926). This picture is dated 1903

 

 

Bhai Hira Singh ji, in 1918, at the peak of his life.

 

Our Grandmother, Bhabhi Prem Kaur ji (1880-1967)

 

 

The four sons,

 

The eldest: Jagjit Singh (1905-1983) The picture is dated 1923

 

Number 2, Balwant Singh (1911-2004) at the age of 17

 

The youngest two : Agyapal (1922-97) and Tarlochan (1919-2002) in 1929

 

The only sister, Gian Kaur (age 11) is standing at extreme right in 1928

The Tale of Jagjit Singh

The brother who was the most affected by the tragic demise was the eldest, Jagjit, (whom I shall refer to as Uncle JS) Born in 1905, he was lucky to arrive at a time when a High School had already been built in Faruka. Consequently, he passed his matriculation examination in 1921. As per the custom of that era, he married a young lady from Amritsar, in 1923,  while he was studying for his F Sc (equivalent to 10+2 these days).  Soon thereafter, he was blessed with a son in 1924. Simultaneously, he managed to obtain admission in the University of Edinburgh,UK for a degree in Electrical Engineering. Leaving his wife and son behind, he left for the three year course in April 1925. The journey to London used to take nearly three weeks, and the letters took about 15 days to reach India, and therefore the family got to know about his arrival more than a month after he had left home. Education abroad used to cost quite a package, but a devotee of our grandfather had promised to bear the entire cost.

Lightning struck, just a year after he had gone. The celebrity left us in Sep 1926, and uncle JS was stranded, in ‘vilayat’. To add to his woes, he had to repeat a year, and the gentleman who was funding his education threw his hands up. Uncle JS took up an apprenticeship to earn some money, but that resulted in his having to spend one additional year overseas.

At long last, he returned to India in 1930. The four month old son whom he had left behind was well over five, when he saw him after his prolonged stint abroad. When he returned  he was a changed man; anglicized to the boot, and filled with an intense desire to rise in life. Given below are two pictures, one taken in 1923 when the community was charged up for revolt against the British Empire, in the wake of the Jalianwala Bagh massacre, and the other one in the UK with an Anglo-German friend.

 

Uncle JS is seen with his  friends on the left. Notice the ‘kirpans’ carried by all the three young lads

 

Uncle JS with a friend in England. Do you see the change?

 

The family had been awaiting the return of Uncle JS with bated breath. The cash reserves with our grandmother had dropped by 1931, and everyone looked up to him for help. Unfortunately, that was a period of great depression, and jobs were hard to get. After much struggle, uncle JS got a job on a hydroelectric project in Jogindernagar (near Mandi, in HP), but the salary was much lower than what he had expected.

As if all this was not bad enough, a serious domestic feud erupted between our grandmother and the wife of Uncle JS, whom I will refer to as Aunt JS. The discord had been brewing right from the date of marriage, but it was smothered by our grandfather and Uncle JS. After the demise of the Saint and departure of uncle JS, there was no one to pacify the belligerent ladies. Apart from the generation gap, there was a cultural divide. Aunt JS was born and brought up in Amritsar, and so she considered herself to be superior, while the elder lady was a rustic rural creature. Pitaji has given a very candid and balanced account of the discord.

Another feature of the story is a narration of the culture of that time. Daughters-in-law were treated with disdain, and were expected to be subservient to the mothers-in-law. If  ever their relatives visited them, they were not supposed to accept even water from the host. I found this very odd. Given below is a copy of a page from Pitaji’s diary.

 

 Given below is a gist of what is written in Punjabi:

“There was continuous squabbling. To escape from the constant acrimony, Aunt JS used to go away to the house of a relative. This infuriated Bhabhiji furthermore, and she used to take it out on the hapless young lady at the earliest opportunity…Then, one day, the ‘bride’ delivered a baby. And soon after that, her mother, whose name was Durga Devi, dropped in. Called ‘Durgi Mausi’ by the family, she was an unusually congenial person. She never intervened in the unending quarrel. On her part, she had her food and brought in from a nearby vendor and went to the extent of not drinking water drawn out of our well. She brought water for herself from the village! When she went, she gave generous tips to all those who had served her”

Upon the return of Uncle JS, she was naturally keen to set up the house of her dreams at the earliest opportunity. And as soon as Uncle JS got a job in Lahore, she left the village; never to return. Uncle JS did well, and very soon he was able to acquire a good house on the Lawrence Road in Lahore and even buy a car (It was a British made Singer car) Way back, in 1936, owning a car was a big thing, and those who possessed an automobile were entitled to several privileges. It was clear to everyone that Uncle JS had ‘arrived’.

For his success, the family had to pay a heavy price. Very soon, Uncle JS was in a different league, and Aunt JS took every opportunity to snub her in-laws, especially the old lady. Slowly, but surely, the ‘England returned’ uncle drifted away from the family fold, and by 1947, when the Punjab was partitioned, we did not even know his whereabouts. The transition of Aunt JS is clearly visible in the following pictures. The first one is taken in 1927, when Uncle JS was away, and the second is dated 1952, soon after they got a grandchild.

 

 

Uncle JS with his wife and a granddaughter in 1952. Notice the change!

The Story of the other Brothers

Egged on by the prosperity of Uncle JS, the younger brothers pressed on. With sheer dint of hard work and commitment, all three acquired suitable qualifications. Pitaji, and the youngest uncle earned commissions in the Army and the middle uncle became an officer in Punjab government. Given below are two pictures of Pitaji, which show how he progressed in life.

 

Pitaji, in 1951, when he was an instructor in IMA, Dehradun

 

Our Mother, whom we called ‘Jhaiji’

I am tempted to insert pictures of Pitaji’s sons. I have been able to locate three.

 

This is Air Vice Marshal Manjit Singh, 83 years ago.

 

And this, if you like, is how I looked in 1942, when I was a year old.

 

And this is Brig Surinder Singh in the lap of our Uncle, Prem Singh

 

 

 

 

This story would be incomplete if I do not show our family car, a Ford Prefect, which Pitaji owned for 35 years, beginning from 1951!

A word about Pitaji

Pitaji was all set to go to the UK for higher education. But the untimely demise of our Saintly grandfather shattered his dreams. He was only 15 years old when the tragedy occurred. But despite the fatal blow, he managed to complete a Degree with Mathematics and Physics from Khalsa College Amritsar. He was also able to pursue his hobbies. He bought a camera and also acquired a double barreled gun for Shikar. And, indeed, he brought up his sons very well. All four went to IITs, in due course of time. Given below are two pictures

 

It was a ‘box’ camera, which could take pictures only in bright sunlight, but if he had not bought it, we would not have these pictures to tell the tale of our family.

 

This is Khalsa College, as seen from the Patiala Hostel, in which Pitaji was housed in 1927-31

 

 

The college had a swimming pool, and in this, Uncle Gian Singh is enjoying a dip

 

Epilogue: Vicissitudes of Life

The diaries date back to 1919, and that is exactly one hundred years ago. We have come a long way since then. After our independence, we have caught up with the rest of the world, and are no longer in awe of the brown ‘gora sahibs’ Our indigenous engineers are as good as any in the world, and the future seems sanguine. The story of how Pitaji earned a commission in the British Indian Army in 1942, his war days and the partition trauma are described in another post which may be accessed by clicking on the link given below. It was an intense and profound struggle, and therefore, the on the first page of the diary, Pitaji has given written, ‘Ik sangharsh bhare jiwan diyan abhul yadaam’ (Unforgettable memories of a life filled with struggle) A notable feature of the story is that Pitaji has not written a single unkind word about the British bosses or his Muslim friends and colleagues. The foes of the present day were friends, then!

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However, there is one thing that has not changed. Individual fortunes fluctuate as they did a hundred years ago. People acquire wealth, and then sometimes, they squander it. In our family, Uncle JS had a head start over the rest of the family. He moved up on the success ladder very swiftly and even the partition could not thwart his progress. He rose to be the country head of an English company. In due course, he acquired two houses in Bombay and two in New Delhi. He had three sons, and he gifted a house to each of them, while he settled down in his house in Jangpura. After his retirement in 1960, he bought a ticket of the Delhi Stock Exchange and was active in the stock market. Sometime in the early seventies, disaster struck. He suffered heavy losses, and had to sell off his car. Around 1975, when I was able to locate him, I was told that he commuted on an omnibus.

In the evening of his life, Uncle JS was the only one in the family, who could not afford the comfort of a car, when everyone else had one. Such is life!