Remembering Baba...

What I Learnt From My Dearest Baba

Today , My family back home in India is busy organizing the function of Late Babu Raghunath singh memorial scholarship in our native place, Sihauta Bangra. This is an annual merit cum means scholarship which gives cash awards to top five students passing out grade 10 from the High school of Bangra. This year it has been given to 3 girls and 2 boys for academic excellence. Sitting far away from the action, I pay my homage to My grandfather late Babu Raghunath Singh.
Raghunath is another name of Lord Rama. Lord Rama had set high standards all his life and Babu Raghunath singh, my baba, strived all his life to live up to similar lofted standards.
Baba never went to high school for his elder brother was sent for higher education to Patna and Calcutta and he was asked to take care of the family in the village and manage the small zamindari and agriculture. He focused more on building physical strength which were a basic requirement for a young man. He was trained in wrestling by personal tutors and he loved horse riding. He taught me the importance of being physically strong and fit in our early childhood.
Though he never went to high school , he realized that education leads to knowledge and going forward knowledge will be the wealth and not land. He made this clear to me in my formative years. How true !!
He grew up to be a fair , tall man of 6 ft and a thin waistline and very strong chest and shoulders . He remained like this till death took him away from us. He is known to have pulled out the entire moustache of a fellow wrestler in an argument-;) I learnt early form him that the body is a temple and one should worship it.
He idolized his elder brother who was a suave, well educated man with command over multiple languages . Badka baba was his friend , philosopher and guide. Baba closely tracked and followed his brothers participation in freedom struggle and then his transition to a successful entrepreneur to become owner, publisher and editor of an widely circulated magazine in hindi heartland of post independent India . They had an awesome relationship. There would be family squabbles but the love and mutual respect for each other was never lost. Badka baba never disagreed to babas proposal and let him run his fiefdom in total independence and provided all material and moral support to make baba one of the best agriculturist in the neighbouring villages. Just to up his younger brothers social antennae and prestige, He personally invited Mahatma Gandhi and Jay prakash narayan to our village on two separate occasions and laid out a red carpet welcome for them. In turn, baba never disobeyed his elder brother all his life . He remained his arm , never tried to turn independent and operated the rural set up as the extension of the empire of his city based elder brother who remains the most successful , patriot son of the soil of Sihauta Bangra till date. I learnt certain dictums of his life- loyalty is next to godliness and blood is thicker than water.
At the peak of his agriculture phase, he had a large base of workers working on his land. For him ,they worked WITH him and not FOR him. He would be the patron but also be the friend , confidante and counsellor of all his men and their families. I learnt the dynamics of a patron - client relationship though this. Man management is an art, he told me a long back before they taught the same thing to me at the business school.
I regard him as a pioneer at breaking orthodox social barriers.
Post a hard days work , he would spend hours with his men smoking and drinking tea. This was a time when castes ruled the life of rural india more than anything. A land owning Brahmin socializing with lesser children of god would have been ostracized but he cared for none . His men mattered the most for him. I learnt the spirit of equality and camaraderie. The basics of man management were drilled into me listening to these stories and they still hold me in good stead in a faraway land.
He lost my Dadi when he was about 30 years old or a bit younger . Amidst huge family pressures , he stood firm and didn’t remarry which was a normal social custom.. He would often remark that one should listen to all but do what ones heart says. I have believed in that all my life.
Baba was instrumental in getting his only daughter in law (my mother) pursue her higher education post marriage which again was not a social norm those days. He would gloat and take enormous pride in later years over her professional and academic success.
Camarderie and socializing with his men ,apart, he was a a stickler for discipline and quite firm on stray people in the system . He believed that all men were assigned a place in the system and one should respect and abide by the hierarchy. He would often remark that a hat is placed on head and shoes on the feet. I had my degree of arguments with him over this in my initial, intoxicated with youth and rebellious years . With time, I realized that a structure needs to be aligned totally if it has to function seamlessly and deliver results.
Baba would always be demanding on my dad-;) but behind his back his son was the best student and professor of physics in the world. He would not get tired of telling stories of his academic excellence . It goaded us towards academic excellence as he had set a benchmark for us pretty early in childhood.
He was a firm believer in the benefits of joint family set up . My arguments with him that it bred parasites which he countered with his numerous logics which appeared futile to me in my formative years. Today, Bringing up my kids along with my wife , I am reminded of his words !
Agriculture was his forte and and his passion while I tended to stay away from his discourses on this, all my growing years. With my elite schooling - agriculture was without culture-;). Paradoxically, I started my career selling fertilizers and pesticides and I needed to understand the basics of the kharif and rabi crop cycles and nuances of paddy, wheat , rice and sugarcane cultivation! I went to the encyclopaedia at home than search for books on agriculture. Thanks baba for this.
Baba had lived close to the nature all his life and observed it very well. He knew of a herb which was a magic medicine for various eye ailments. He told us that a visiting saint had given him the trick of identifying the herb and applying to the patient. The saint had told him not to ever charge for the herb . Baba followed this all his life and never did the herb fail to have its magic. Even in his last years , he would take an umbrella and be out in torrential rain to look for the herb to provide relief to the suffering soul. He also kept his promise to the saint that he would not reveal the secret herb to anyone else. In spite of my making serious efforts in his later years , he never divulged the secret and politely ignored every request. The secret medicine which cured hundreds during his life time was laid to rest with him.
He would love making rain forecasts watching cloud movements , wind speed, land temperatures and many other weird parameters . I have never seen it go wrong all my life though many a times; scientific doordarshan forecasts would take a beating during our childhood. My love for nature flows in my veins.
He was a firm believer in the dictum – Truth prevails – satyameva jayate! He would believe in a basic way of living which underlined his existence all through- What u give to the world – comes back to you! He would always be very sure that nobody could take anything away from him/ us coz he had never taken anyone’s. I love you baba for sensitizing me early to the power of Universe! Rhonda byrans – are u listening?
He was a believer but took life in his stride. He , who lost 2 sons and a wife in space of 21 days , and that too at the age of 28-30, never said life was unfair. He never cribbed but tried to look at the positive side of everything and moved ahead. Thanks for making me learn that Gods wish is the final wish! Thanks for telling me to smile and be positive and Thanks for making me believe in the song- Har fikra ko dhoonwein mein udata chala gaya – literally and figuratively-;)

Baba loved his nephews and nieces as much as he loved his only son, our dad. This emotion remained intact till his death , All of them were children of his family and hence got equal attention and love. As grandchildren , we were luckier than dad. Though papa had no siblings , he had many cousins to compete for babas attentions while we were only three. But, Out of the 3 grandchildren , with due apologies to my dear sis and bro , I was the apple of his eyes and I loved it always. This was probably coz I was the youngest, I loved sports like him, loved listening to pre independence and zamindari stories , showed traits of zamindar in my childhood-;) ,loved my big tumbler of milk like him and did not show any inclination for a daily morning ritualistic, vedic and orthodoxical tete e tete with god- very much like him ( Apologies papa n bhaiya!) . His fondness for me increased later as i would sneak bidis and imported Marlboros to him ( sourced from my hostelmates) even when the doctors had advised him not to smoke! And I got his special blessings as he breathed his last on my shoulders. Thanks baba for letting me believe in power of love . Wish I love the world, the family and people around me as much as you did!!
Today as hundreds pay homage to Babu Raghunath Singh in his birth place, This one is from faraway land.
I have loved u baba..always! I have never come across a simpler soul who has a place for many in his emotions and prayers. May your soul rest in peace and you continue to guide us as always.
Pray that each one of us is as healthy and as contented in their eighties as you were in yours! Can see u peeping from the clouds , dearest Baba…..

Lovingly yours …
Your Grandson