It
is my pleasure to share with Sindhi Chokro audience yet another captivating memoir
from Dada Balwant (Bill) Bhaneja where
he remembers his father and their visits to India Gate to watch the Annual
Republic Day Parade.
For
those who follow my blog will know how important Dada has been in my journey to
explore my "Sindhi" heritage. I vividly remember our first
interaction in January,2017 when I wrote to him to express my appreciation for
his book " Troubled Pilgrimage - Passage to Pakistan" - a travel
memoir detailing the visit to his ancestral towns of Sukkur, Shikarpur and
Rohiri in Upper Sindh region ( in Pakistan) way back in mid 2000s. Since then,
our regular email exchanges have greatly added to my understanding of what it
means to be a Sindhi and our evolving identity in this globalized
world.
I
cannot thank Dada enough for all his guidance throughout these years and hope
to meet him in person one day. Jai Jhulelal.
"Daddy"
Sugumal Bhaneja and India's 26th January Republic Day
----- Balwant Bhaneja (Ottawa, Canada)
Hibernating in Ottawa's chilly weather, (minus) 11 centigrade, is making me nostalgic about today’s Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi. I was 10 when India declared itself a Republic. In the Refugee Colony of Lajpat Nagar where I grew up in my teen years one looked on with great anticipation about going to India Gate to watch the great Parade celebrating India's freedom from the British Rule with a President instead of an English Governor General.
Prior to Lajpat Nagar, because of my father's central government job, we lived in adjacent government colonies of South Delhi in Lodhi colony and INA colony. When refugee colonies around Delhi were building, my father was able to purchase a modest house in LN in 2nd K block. It was at the end of the new colony beside the Government High School for Boys. Though most of Sindhi refugees in their resettlement ended up in newly built homes in Rajinder Nagar and Patel Nagar, a smaller Sindhi community found housing in Lajpat Nagar, it became mainly a refuge for those from Punjab and Northwest Frontier.
On Republic Day, the big deal in our neighborhood was for families and friends and their kids to gather early in the morning in the common backyard for a free ride to India Gate and back home. Mid-195os were the days when the main means to connect with the parade was to travel uptown on crowded public buses. At home, you could turn on your radio for a running commentary on Akashvaani by stalwarts like Devki Nandan Pandey in Hindi and Anthony B Demello in English (television had not yet arrived, the portable transistor radio were still to reach common man)
In our neighborhood my father was a well-known personality because of his after-work social volunteer activities , he was fondly addressed by everyone as "Daddy". I don't know how that happened because none of the friends and families I knew in the colony their children calling their parents Daddy or Mummy. It must be his cheerful positive disposition for a hopeful future.
The general buzz for Republic day usually began a few days early of going to Daddy Sugumal's house for free truck ride. My father because of his job in CPWD was able to get from one of his building material suppliers loan of a truck with a driver for half a day for this volunteer work.
The early morning hours in South Delhi even in those days were foggy and chilly, all men, women and children were dressed in their best woolens’, as a child I remember wearing hand-knit blue and grey sweaters, ladies wrapped up in beige shawls, men wearing worsted winter jacket’s with “muffler” scarves tolled around necks to protect from chill wind.
The side latch of the truck would be brought down for passengers to hop in the truck, it must have accommodated up to fifty persons. A big duree would be spread for all to sit and we held on to our precious belongings - tifins, thermos, mats and cushions to sit for the ride and long day on the parade route. The truck will then slowly roll out of the neighborhood towards northern part of the city, all of us singing patriotic songs - Raghupati Raghava Raja Rama, the national anthem Jana Mana Gana Adhinayak Jaya Hai punctuated with Bharat Mata Ki Jai cheers...
By the time our truck arrived to park itself under leafy Jamun trees, close to the old Kingsway (to be soon renamed as Rajpath), the sun would be in its full glory with its brilliant golden rays piercing the mist, shining on the towering India Gate and in the far distance on the golden blue dome of the President House, the Rashtrapati Bhavan, centered between the North and South Secretariat buildings.
With its colour and pageantry, young and old we were dazzled by the parade: military personnel in striking uniforms marching in unison, weaponry in their hands on ground, jeeps, tanks, horses, and camels, taking the salute from the President of Independent India. An excitement was the fly past by Indian Air Force fighter planes. The site we all awaited was that of the tableaux floats of India's States, the Jhankis, on which each State depicted the highlights of its natural, cultural and economic strengths. I gather not much has changed over all these years in this order.
This morning while musing over all this as a 80 plus , I thought one of the most gratifying moments for my father must have been to see the Jhanki of Udero Lal for the Central State of Delhi in 1960 Republic Day parade- a Jhanki representing recently arrived Sindhi refugees from Pakistan due to Partition. Daddy Sugumal was one of the visionaries and a key organizer to mount the pathbreaking Jhanki project along with many well-wishers and participants. The colourful tableaux was in the form of a large Sindhi Pallo fish, the mount of Lal Saaen Udero Laal, on its top a temple with ladies and musicians in Sindhi attire singing and performing traditional Bhagat and Chej dances and playing Sindhi musical instruments of sarangi, flute and matzo pitcher. The initIative over six decades has already been an inspiration for future generations of Indian Sindhis to continue make their mark on the national culture and identity.
On this Republic Day ,from where I am sitting, let me give a big shout out like in my childhood, the proclamation: Bharat Mata Ki Jai!
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| Organising Team with Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru |
Balwant Bhaneja (b. 1941) grew up in Delhi before moving to Bonn, Germany for an internship and finally emigrating to Canada in 1965. He is a former diplomat who studied International Relations at Carleton University and holds a PhD from the University of Manchester. He is currently based in Ottawa, Canada and is an author of numerous books on arts, politics and science. He writes fiction and nonfiction. His latest works include Troubled Pilgrimage: A Passage to Pakistan and Peace Portraits: Pathways to Nonkilling- A Memoir.
