THE OLD HERCULES BICYCLE

"The old Hercules bicycle"

Sometime after the year nineteen twentynine   my father acquired an imported Hercules bike. He was then doing his BSc  at Allahabad University.

He was the first one in the family to go to Allahabad University for his BSc. Subsequently, much later, my uncle also went to Allahabad university for his BSc. and MSc. I was the last one in this line to be a student of  this (then) prestigious university.

The imported Hercules bike was purchased for a  princely sum of  rupees twenty seven and eight annas! (You will get just 250gms of the cheapest dal for this amount today !)

Rupee had great value then. Those were the days when pure desi ghee was sold in retail for about ten annas (about 65paise) per kilo. An imported new T- model ford car then cost just three thousand rupees !

The bike came complete with accessories - a tools kit, an oil lamp, a bell, a career,  a chain cover and an small air pump that was hooked to the main frame. It was a  sturdy bike.

One day, early in his cycling days,  he was cycling down the  campus road of the Science block (known as Muir Central College) with his hands firmly placed on the handle  when he saw one of his science professors walking towards him from the opposite direction. Just on impulse, out of reverence, he lifted both the hands off the handle to do a quick namaskar. The idea was to quickly regain the handle. He could not and he lost balance. The bike crashed, throwing him on the ground. It was an anticlimax which he never forgot.

It was then that he decided to learn the art of keeping the bike moving with his hands off the steering handle. When I was a child he used to show me lot of bicycle tricks and I yearned to acquire a balance in cycling as early as possible. The opportunity to have exclusive use of this bike came sooner than expected.

Soon after the end of war father purchased a second hand motor car. It was a light brown coloured dodge. The deal was bad as the car proved troublesome. He replaced it after sometime with a second hand green  land rover which was a perfect driving vehicle.

The bike now became a general purpose  bike for our house as father stopped using it. It was then that I, as a kid,  got hold of it and started practising  'run with the bike and jump on the paddle' to arrive at that divine moment when you keep moving without losing balance. It took considerable effort and lots of injuries. After I acquired the balance  I continued with what was known as the KAINCHI  style cycling - left foot on the left paddle and right foot, through the frame on to the right paddle. I was then too small to reach the saddle of the bike!

So many other relations who came to stay in that house in Gorakhour  learnt cycling on this bike. These included Sri Basant Ballabh Pant, Sri Devi Dutt Pant (khal khal ji), Brahma dutt Joshi, Mohan chandra  Pant, Nilamber Joshi and many others whose name I do no now readily  recall. The bicycle withstood all the hammering that results from multiple falls at the hands of those trying to learn cycling. It  was indeed a very sturdy bike.

The bike continued to serve me well during  my years in Lucknow university hostel. Unlike Allahabad university hostels,  lucknow university hostels  were located deep inside the campus and at considerable distance from the main road where public transport was available. The bike gave me great mobility.

For some time more  after my university days I continued to use the bike. It saved me considerable money in transportation.

Then came my brand new scooter and I abandoned cycling.
For a long period the old bike remained forgotten,  resting against a wall without use.

I  finally gifted it one day to one Gopal Singh who lived in our out house. . . . .

(Girija n. joshi)

Memories of the Gkp house

See the photo  below. It is my father's. It was sometime back posted in face book by Sri T K.Joshi, my uncle.

This photo resurrects memories. Let me try to recall. This photo was taken in 1953 with a brownie reflex camera.

The box camera was purchased that year for Rs.45/- at Nainital. 

In the background of the photo of my father is a beautiful bungalow. This bungalow  was earlier a small and non- descript one, with minimum construction, and it belonged to a British lady until it was purchased somewhere in middle of nineteen  thirties by Babu Lalji, a wealthy landlord of Gorakhpur. For a few years preceding the transfer of my father to Gorakhpur it was occupied by one Sri S.S.Gosain Treasury Officer. It was an ordinary house then. 

When my father was transferred to Gorakhpur , he arrived at this house in a tonga hired at the railway station. Those were the days of horse driven carriages.

The house  was a plain looking badly maintained property. There were four main rooms, with a distant and unconnected kitchen. It had a huge   compound with wild unchecked growth. There was no compound wall at all, only a rusty barbed wire low fence ran around the front of the huge compound with a small wicket gate in the middle. The backyard  was without fencing and from the wild open bush- infested field beyond it, jackals used to enter the backyard of the house at night. 

My father persuaded the landlord to make major additions to the bunglow and agreed to pay an increase in rent. So a strong brick boundary wall came up all around. On the long front boundary wall, father trained pink and violet flowering creepers which soon covered the entire boundary wall with riots of pink and violet flowers. A  big  iron gate was fixed at one end of this front wall. From this gate a semi-arc of a red gravel driveway was constructed which ended at a new constructed portico (there was none before). On the outer pillors of this wide portico red bogunvillia were trained which went right up to the roof.

(the author as a child with Katwaru the helper. A small portion of the big bungalow is in the background)

Those are the Chandani flowering evergreen plants that you see behind the smiling gentleman in the photo below.

They were planted on both sides of the driveway with a few RAAT KI RAANI fragrant flowering plants in between. These had to be trimmed after each monsoon season to keep then in shape and flowering. 

A major transformation was in the extension made to the bunglaow. The front and the inner verandah were widened and sloping red-tile roof was added to the extended verandahs giving a picture postcard look to the bungalow. New rooms were added on the right hand side going back right up to the then unconnected kitchen. 

   ( At the back is the kitchen and pantry block). 

The newly added construction consisted of  one  large guest room, then a big pooja- room, then a flight of stairs to the roof then an independent one room and a kitchen and bathroom set and a separate small courtyard set. All these opening into a long wide running verandah right up to the kitchen. A set of servants' quarters were also added, separated from the main inner courtyard. Bael, Mango and Jamun trees were planted in the backyard. In the middle of the front lawn and inner couryard a big circular raised CHABUTARA each was constructed . In the summer we used to sleep in the open on the inner courtyard CHABUTARA.

Many of our relatives came and lived in the guest room of this bungalow for short or long periods. In the separate independent set one Sri Jagannath Bhatt lived for a few year. Then one Sri Devi Dutt Pant  (Khalkhal ji) moved in. 

That was a long time back.  I hear that the bungalow has now been demolished and a College has come up in that vast compound.

TRAMS

ROMANCING WITH TRAMS

ऐ दिल है मुशकिल जीना यहाँ
ज़रा हट के, ज़रा बच के
ये है बॉम्बे मेरी जाँ
कहीं बिल्डिंग, कहीं ट्रामे, कहीं मोटर, कहीं मिल
मिलता है यहाँ सब कुछ, इक मिलता नहीं दिल . . . . . .

That was  a song in film CID (1956) .  . . . .[singers: Rafi and Geeta Dutt].

Yes , कहीं बिल्डिंग कहीं ट्रामे . . .

Trams have a history going back to ancient Rome. Rome was under control of Augustus Ceaser  when in  BC 27 the first tramcar appeared . It was  built by Franciscas, a Roman citizen. It was a car for six persons  made of wood and was pulled by horses on rails made of bronze. This tram system survived for approximately 500 years.

Then came the dark ages and progress of civilization was interrupted for hundreds of years until the renaissance.

Slowly the idea of trams came back. And with the introduction of electricity trams bacame more popular.

Once upon a time there were trams in many cities of  India - in (then) Bombay, Madras, cawnpore, Patna, Nasik, Delhi and, may be, some other places too. They gragually vanished in the fifties and the sixties. Only calcutta still continues with these old trams.

Else where, in Europe Trams are very such there  but in an altogether new Avatar -  thoroughly modernised and fast.

Mumbai is now considering introducing these super fast trams to the city.

THE CURIOUS CASE OF A CLAIRVOYANT SAINT

THE CURIOUS CASE OF A CLAIRVOYANT SAINT

Scientists contemptuously reject anything that cannot be proved by the existing yardsticks of science.. As an extreme case we see science rejecting the existence of God !! Science is as a matter of fact still in its elementary stage. It is still to find the truth regarding many things.

As a case in point let me remind that scientists scoffed at Yogi Ram charak when in 1904 he claimed (see his book "Fourteen lessons in yogi philosophy and oriental occultism" available free on net) that human body had an electromagnetic field. It was only in nineteen fifties that science discoveted that this was indeed true!!

There are so many persons, unknown to the world who have extraordinary supernatural powers that science cannot yet explain.
Let me narrate an interesting incident giving an idea of the evidence of such powers. It happened two decades back in the case of a senior police officer posted in kumaon hills.
This gentleman, an upright and very bright police officer was expecting a promotion that year. One of his friends in Delhi was to let him know as soon as the orders got issued.

That day, more than two decades back, I was having my early morning cup of tea when the call bell rang. On opening the front door I was surprised to find this gentleman standing outside, sleepy eyed and dishevelled. He had travelled through night by road from the kumaon hills to Lucknow.
After an exchange of greetings the first thing he said was, "I want to see your Pundit Paramhans Misra ji immediately. I have been superseded".

This Pt. Misra was not a senior bureaucrat of the Govt. He was working in UP Govt. department of Irrigation. He lived close to my house. we went there.

We arrived there at eight o'clock morning and were ushered in as there were no other early mornings visitors. After paying respects to him we sat down before pundit Paramhansa Misra.

I had been visiting Pt. Misra off and on for almost two decades prior to the visit and he knew me well. But this gentleman was a new face. So I introduced him.

The first thing Pt. Misra then said on being introduced was :

"congratulations on your well
deserved promotion."

The gentleman was completely taken aback.

"Pundit ji. it is just the other way round. I have been superceded", the gentleman said.

The gentleman then explained how his friend in Delhi was informing him of the developments and how the news of his being superseded made him rush to see panditji.

Panditji brushed this aside with a wave of hand.

He said , "That was ofcourse earlier , at 6 pm. But the file was recalled at the next higher level at 9 pm and the orders were reversed. You have now been promoted. There is no doubt. You can celebrate !".

He even told the name of the officer who reversed the earlier orders!

The first thing we did on return to my place was placing an urgent Trunk call to the Delhi based friend of his. There were no mobile phones then!

On contacting, this Delhi based man burst into excitement , "where have you been? I was trying to speak to you but was told that you had left for Lucknow. Something strange has happened here . Your file was recalled and the orders have been reversed at a higher level. You have been promoted. Congratulations"

"What time were the orders reversed?"

" At about 9 o'clock night"

My experiences with Pt. Paramhansa Misra prove that science is still in its elementary stage so far as explaining these phenomena are concerned.

That reminds me of what the great scientist of Sir Isaac Newton once observed : (QUOTE)

"I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
— Sir Isaac Newton.

Yes! The great ocean of truth still lies all undiscovered before Mankind!