The world is too small? or Is it?

Maheshbhai’s transfer to Amadavad happened sometime in March 1961. My level of understanding, or my maturity had not yet reached the stage where I could perceive the difference in living between Rajkot or Amadvad. For me the real excitement was that we were to travel by 1^st class from Rajkot to Ahmedabad – first time ever, in my life. However, the charm of that travel had faded just a day before the actual travel. It so happened that the purse that contained these tickets was also packed up in the luggage that was to be moved by truck. So, Maheshbhai had to rush to purchase a fresh set of tickets, at an additional personal, cost!

At the time of Maheshbhai’s transfer, I was in 7^th standard. Virani High School exempted appearance at the final examination if a student had scored more than a given percentage marks in each subject during all the examinations of the academic year. But I had failed to secure that level in Mathematics in the last test. Therefore, I had to appear for the final examination for mathematics. However, it was not feasible for Maheshbhai to delay joining his new office at Ahmedabad nor it was possible four the rest of us to stay back at Rajkot.

I do not actually know what the reasons may have been. But, when it was time to go to Rajkot, Maheshbhai decided that I should go alone, as well as appear for the examination, on my own. Maheshbhai arranged that he would come to see me off the bus station at Amdavad and Bachubhai (Bakulbhai Dolarray Vaidya, son of Muktafai – referred to earlier) would receive me at Rajkot bus station. I was to put up at JanardanbhaI Vaidya’s home. So, on paper, I undertook my first independent journey and appeared for the examination. However, looking back, this turned out to be the first case where Maheshbhai had invested his confidence in my ability to stand up on my feet, and where I did not fail him.

That decision was to play a pivotal role of enabling me to be independent in my life. Later on, when I had to commute to the school at Gomtipur to and fro H Colony or had to travel to and stay at hostel at Vidyanagar for my Pre. Sc. Year (1965-66), I as well Maheshbhai and Ben were fully confident about my ability to undertake those travels.

Our first residence in Amdavad was Rajpur – Hirpur (Lal Mills) government colony, near Gomtipur, in what is known as Eastern Ahmedabad. It was here that I really got into the companionship of my contemporaries, and participating in the rugged door games in a big way. Maheshbhai had secured my admission to Democratic High School, Gomtipur. It was couple of kilometres from Lal Mill colony. So, our mode of commuting the school was walking.

Once we had settled enough, Maheshbhai himself too enrolled for pursuance of post-graduation. At that time, I was too raw to comprehend the significance of that decision.. By the time I had grown up enough, I had learnt that this was his dream, which he could not pursue because he had to take a job immediately after graduation since his father had just retired from his service. If destiny had forced him at that time, it had given him the opportunity now in the form of his transfer to Ahmedabad. A few years later, I was also a passive spectator to Maheshbhai’s almost insistence-like urging to Gorakaka (his younger brother, Janardanbhai) too to take up post-graduation as soon as he had completed his graduation. Even then, I had not been able to comprehend significance of how dear scaling post-graduation level was to Maheshbhai. However, the real impact of the value the post-graduation had for Maheshbhai became crystal clear to me when I had reached that stage,[1]

Apart from the additional efforts Maheshbhai would have to put in to take up higher level studies after a break of thirteen years or so, it was also a great physical ordeal too. In order to reach the office, then located at the Mental Hospital premises, near Civil Hospital, Asarwa, he used to leave home by around 9.30 AM. As was the prevalent practice then, he would have his lunch, too, at home, He would attend the lectures after his office time, Also, he would use those visits to also utilise the reference materials from M J Library (Ellis Bridge, Ahmedabad 380 006). He would be able to get his dinner only when he returned home thereafter, by around 9 or 9.30 PM. The extent to which he went through the physical toil and tribulation he undertook for achieving his dream can be simply judged by the fact that our home, Maheshbhai’s office, and M J Library were three corners of a triangle, each side of which was anything from 6 to eight kilometres. And he would commute everywhere simply by the public transport buses!

Maheshbhai used to source the textbooks and reference books from the flea market being held every Sunday under the Ellis Bridge.  Maheshbhai would also bring several magazines like Economic & Political Weekly, Commerce etc. to read at home. When I joined BITS (1971 – 1973), I refreshed my awareness of these names as I got to read these magazines there[2].

During the very end of academic year of my 9^th standard, we shifted our residence to H colony, a government employee quarters complex near Polytechnic (Panjarapole, Ahmedabad), which housed the Secretariat of Government of Gujarat, before being located to its present site at Gandhinagar. For about a month or and a half, I used to commute to Democratic High School from H Colony by the public transport service. On way to school, I was required to pick up public bus service from Polytechnic and change over to another route from Lal Darwaja to Gomtipur. The return journey was by reversing that sequence. That experience too helped in inculcating a sense of independence in me.

It was around that time Maheshbhai’s office was relocated in its own premises at Paldi (near Sardar Bridge). That should have brought great relief to him in terms of the strain of commuting to and fro the office!

I recall two major memories of our stay at H Colony, in so far as Maheshbhai’s influence on my growth is concerned.

The first one relates Maheshbhai’s passion for reading.

At Lal Mills, Maheshbhai had started subscribing two daily newspapers – Indian Express and Jansatta (Gujarati). Since there was not much reading material available to my the then taste and understanding, I started reading these papers. My reading, of course, did remain limited to news and articles related to cricket only. My reading of Indian Express was not beyond simple physical reading. The English of Indian Express was simply Greek and Latin to me. When we shifted H colony, the Sunday flea market was a very convenient place for Maheshbhai and Ben to purchase household requirements. Maheshbhai used to utilise those visits to purchase second-hand Perry Mason pocketbooks – available for around four annas each those days. During one such visit, he purchased Oxford Press English-Gujarati dictionary. That led me to now pursue Indian Express more religiously.

Window (or in fact, floor) shopping and purchase of books also attracted me to visit Sunday flea market with Maheshbhai and Ben. Maheshbhai introduced me to Gujarati monthly, Kumar. Kumar remains one of the most respected reading for the adolescent age group. The old monthly issues were generally available for one or two annas, and the special issues for four to eight annas. Soon, we had had made a very decent collection of issues of Kumar. Reading of Kumar was major step in my rise to reading maturity level.

Maheshbhai’s penchant for reading had manifested in a novel experiment. It, perhaps, started from the practice of exchanging the daily Gujarati newspapers – invariably by 8 AM, give or take half an hour – with my maternal uncle, Dolarkaka (Dolarray M Anjaria, husband of Bhanumasi, my mother’s elder sister).  Maheshbhai piloted and successfully implemented the concept of revolving library. Seven or eight families had been roped in to the membership of the scheme. Each member would contribute, equivalent, to purchase one Gujarati Magazine every month, and then share that magazine, on a rotational basis, with other families. Thereby, each family had eight magazines to read every month. All major Gujarati monthlies of that time, like Navchetan, Akhand Anand, Savita, Chandani, Bij, Jee, Kumar and even some prominent non-Gujarati weeklies like Dharmayug, Illustrated Weekly, Sports and Pastime were made available for reading.

The second matter relates to my admissions to the Pre-Science standard and the 1^st year of Engineering.

The case of admission to Pre-Science: I was fifteen years old when I passed 11^th standard – then a state-level board examination. However, as I had not completed 15 years, I was not eligible for admission to Pre Sc. Standard in colleges affiliated to Gujarat University.  Badubhai Vora joined Maheshbhai to take up a relentless fight to get the waiver of that age bar. Badubhai would draft elaborate memoranda, get them typed and Maheshbhai would arrange to post via registered mail, to every possible authority at Gujarat University, state education department, state secretariat and even at centre education department and ministries. Badubhai drafted these memoranda in classic British Administration-style English, each one of four to five typed legal page size. As I recall now, English and the writing style that Badubhai so fluently used in those memoranda, was perhaps, beyond the level of understanding of most the addressees!  Most of the memoranda resulted in bureaucratically worded replies. Badubhai would then send off an equally aggressive rejoinder.  The ‘letter war’ ended in an unexpected manner. All these efforts had sprung up a piece of information that led a loophole to this impasse. Gujarat had two other universities in the state – M S university at Vadodara and SP University at Vallabh Vidyanagar (near Anand). The age bar of admission to these universities was applicable at the stage of admission to the first year of the degree course. In simple words, it meant that age bar would be activated at the stage admission to First Year B.Sc. etc. Maheshbhai paid personal visits to both places. As a result of which he was able to secure my admission to VP Science College, affiliated to SP University, Vallabh Vidyanagar.

The case of admission to Engineering: My Pre-Sc. Results had had made me eligible for admission to medical faculty of M S University, Vadodara. I was dead against joining medical faculty.[3] This was the first ever decision which I had taken on my own. During the discussions with Maheshbhai, I could sense that he would have preferred my taking up career in medicine. But he did not express it openly. Instead, he very gracefully understood my point of view and whole-heartedly supported me.

As it so happens, this was the first of the several points of views where my and Maheshbhai’s thinking differed. However, in each case, due to his nature of always understanding the opposing point of view, that in each of these cases while not necessarily agreeing we appreciated each other’s view, in spirit and in action, to agree to disagree. Ever since then, I started better appreciation and understanding of Maheshbhai’s, expressed or otherwise, thinking process. In turn, I also stared my points of view across to him.

It was during our stay at H colony that Maheshbhai lost his father (Pranlal Vaghji Vaishnav – Bapu, to all of us), in 1964.

[1] I have dealt that matter at length at Onwards To Pilani in Down The Memory Lane – 1971 – 1973- My Years@ BITS, Pilani.

[2] Using The Library in Down The Memory Lane – 1971 – 1973- My Years@ BITS, Pilani.

[3] Details of the incident @ The State of Frame of My Mind as I Ready To Plunge into the Five-Year Graduate-Level Engineering Course – Those Anecdotal Five Years @ LDCE : 1966- 1971

To follow: Phase III – L Colony and Navsari: 1966 to 1973

My father, Maheshbhai (Pranlal Vaishnav) – B: 1925 | D. 18-12-1983 – was the second of three sons of Pranlal and Revakunwar Vaishnav.

He had graduated in the Commerce faculty sometime in 1947 or so. It was in 1948 that he and Kirana (my mother, we used to address her as Ben) married.

After completing his graduation, he joined government service at Bhuj. To the best of my recollections, he served in the revenue department for some years. He joined the agriculture department in 1952. I have no idea his joining revenue department had any connection with his father having served in that department. Nor do I have any knowledge whether his leaving revenue department had any connection with very strong disapproval of the so-known ‘unfair’ (underhand dealings) practices, rampantly prevalent in the department.

I look back to my memories of Maheshbhai w. r. t. the impact of my relationship with Maheshbhai on my personality linearly first, on the timeline starting from somewhere when I was four tears old (1954) to his final retirement from the life (1983). As I unfreeze my memories, I do realise that his personality, nature and values, and his way of living those values had a good deal of parallel at the core and yet did vastly differ in terms of my way of life. In retrospect, I would attribute this divergence to the different set of circumstances lives of any father and son unfold.

As my memories start flowing out, it becomes clear to me that my memories and their linkage to my relationship with Maheshbhai would naturally and easily follow the timeline of different phases of Maheshbhai’s service and the resulting our stay at different cities and locations therein.

Phase I: Bhuj and Rajkot – 1954 to 1961

From year I started going to school (1954) till we shifted to Rajkot (1958), Maheshbhai would gift me a book on each of my birthdays. When I reached the stage of being able to read, he subscribed the then well-known children’s magazines like Gandiv, Ramakadu, Chandamama etc. This was the seeding of reading habit that went on to become of one my passionate hobbies, and a very important resource for my personal development. It also is Maheshbhai’s one legacy which has passed on Tadatmya (Maheshbhai’s grandson), and then from Tadatmya to Tanay (Maheshbhai’s great-grandson).

One milestone event that I recall well before Maheshbhai’s transfer to Rajkot is the occasion of my Yagnopavit (circa May 1958). After about two or three months, Maheshbhai’s services were transferred to Rajkot.

At Rajkot, we initially had put up in a house somewhere in Manhar Plot. I do not remember its exact location now. However, we soon shifted to a rented accommodation at Tanati Nivas, in Street No. 8 of Manhar Plat. One one side of Tanti Nivas was huge barren open space, which even had huge cavern-like pits. At he end of that space was railway line near Bhaktinagar railway station. Virani Vividhalaxi Vidyalay was situated at the other end. Almost in the centre of the plot was one oil mill. There was also an open ground. Then came the main road (now known as Yagnik Road), which had Rajkumar College on end and Race Couse on the other hand. As one would cross the open plot, one would reach Dharmendrasihji College and Ramkrishna Ashram and Jagannath Plot across the road.

has on his way to office was located the Ramkrishna Ashram. Maheshbhai, probably because of Mission’s library, came into contact with the then head of the Ashram – Swami Bhuteshnanadaji. Most of the time when Maheshbhai would be walking back across the vast open space between the Ashram and our rented home at Tanti’s at Manhar Plot, Swamiji also would on his evening walk. Those walks seemed to get both of them quite close to each other. These discussions with Swamiji and the rich Ramrishna Order literature available at Ashram’s library left a very deep impression on Maheshbhai’s outlook towards life. During our stay at Rajkot, Maheshbhai kept saving small sums every month from his salary and purchased the complete volumes of Ramakrishna Paramhans, Maa Shardamanidevi and Swami Vivekanand. I had preserved those volumes all these years. However, before four years, it was becoming very difficult to preserve the books, I had to give them way to a library in Bhuj.

After we had left Rajkot, whenever Maheshbhai has occasion to visit Rajkot, he would invariably find time to visit Ashram. After Maheshbhai’s passing away, I too, have strived to maintain that practice. I had written a letter to Swamiji informing him of Maheshbhai’s passing away (after a good 23 years of having left Rajkot), when Swamiji was the head of the Ramkrishna Math, Bellur (Kolkata). Swamji had replied in his own handwriting, recalling intimately his association with Maheshbhai. Unfortunately, I have not been able to preserve that letter.

Maheshbhai had introduced me to the library of the Ashram. I was a regular visitor to the library and would spend good time reading the Ashram’s publications, published exclusively for the children. Many a times on my return, I happened to join the walk of Maheshbhai and Swamiji – and sometimes that of Swamiji alone. Swamiji would invariably talk to me and enquire about what I read. Obviously, I was too young and too raw, to comprehend the importance of getting to talk to such an enlightened person. However, as I look back, I can now understand how those conversations would have implicitly seeded the opening up of my mind to the meaning of Dhrama, not as a faith, but as understanding of what is right and what is not.

After our stay of around a year or so at Manhar plot, Maheshbhai was allotted a government quarter. These quarters were meant for the staff of Rajkot Civil Hospital (near Sadar circle, now known as Dr. Ambedkar Circle). These quarters did not have an attached lavatory. One had to walk around 100 meters or so to access the separate lavatory block. Everyone had to await their turn in a queue.

This stay gave me my first opportunity to come into contact with ‘friends’ who were senior by at least a decade in age. In fact, there was nothing that would qualify me to identify as friends, except perhaps my participation as ‘equal’ in one group activity – the dandiya raas during the Navratri festival.  I should record here that my being treated as equal was not any merits of mine, The dandiya raas used to two – three hours, almost no-stop, high-pitched, performance. On the hindsight, I can say that my admission to the group was an implicit condition that no concession would be asked or offered for my age.

I narrate these two experiences here to highlight the silent role Maheshbhai had played in my build up.

When we reached Rajkot, I had completed the first term of my fifth standard at Middle School, Bhuj, Virani High school was the nearest school to our rented premises at Manhar Plot. My mid-academic year admission to Virani High School was subject to passing a written test. Maheshbhai has sought the help of Janardanbhai Vaidya[1], the brother-in-law of Maheshbhai’s cousin sister, Muktafai (daughter of Mota Amma’s – my grandmother – sister).  Janrdanbhai was teacher of English at Virani. He had hardly any time to coach me for the admission test. For the records, I did get the admission. I must not have done too poorly at the test. But there can be no denying the tact that my admission was more because of Janrdanbhai’s good offices!

My school, Virani High School, now was at almost the other end of the then Rajkot from the Government quarters. My daily commuting was either by the city bus service or by walking all the way (either via Moti Tanki or via Chowdhury High School). This was my first ever lesson of my life of how to, independently, find way on a totally unknown path!

I do not how or why, but I had passed through these tests. Here too, I was too raw and too novice, to have been able to develop any confidence to stand up to such future situations, except that these certainly remain a few of the important factors that laid the foundation for what I was to become in the future.

Maheshbhai was then transferred to Junagadh Agricultural college – which probably was to lead to his transfer to Navsari Agriculture college and then to Gujarat Agricultural University, Dantiwada, dist. Banaskantha, Gujarat – for about six or eight months.  We too have had the opportunity to visit what was once upon the royal gardens. However, I could appreciate its grandeur and biological richness only after visiting the farms of Navsari agriculture college during 1970 to 1973.

In the hindsight, I can very easily state that Maheshbhai’s transfer to Rajkot was the game changer in shaping my personality.

To follow: Phase Two: Ahmadabad: Lal Mill Colojy and H Colony – 1961 to 1966

[1] Janardanbhai Vaidya had immensely contributed to translation of Ramkrishna Missions’ English works into Gujarati. When he passed away, Ashram management had requested his last journey to be routed through the Ashram as a respect to his contribution to the cause of the Ashram.