THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RAINBOW, Part-1

Allahabad's Singular Landmark:'All Saint's Cathedral,

in the moon light.

In the school library there was a huge globe with all the countries of the world running around it. I would place my finger on a dot which stood between two crooked lines. This dot was the sleepy town of Allahabad and the two crooked lines were the mighty Ganges and her comparatively placid sister the beautiful Jamuna.

Adorning their graceful, meandering curves were the kachars, sprawling agricultural fields, which according to the season, brought forth rice, wheat, vegetables and supported the famous Allahabadi guava trees. No Aunty in town, worth her name, could miss out on traditional family recipes of guavas cheese, guava jelly, guava jam and guava stew! I knew and visited all the Aunties who kept a stock of such goodies!

The kachars were always inviting, summer or winter. Summer evenings and nights meant watermelon feasts. The nights called for moonlight picnics, where iced watermelon sherbets were top on the menu, and much dancing to gramophone record music.

I shot my first crocodile on a Jamuna bank with a 30 Springfield rifle and nearly drowned in the Ganga about two kilometers from my house.

Around 1953, the schools I studied in had a bunch of wonderful kids. There was that kind of shy kid who never had an enemy. Yogi the boys called him, but I stuck to his full name, Yogendra Narain*. Baccha was thin and tall with wavy hair. He always wanted the best part in the school plays. His actual name was Amitabh Bachchan*. Hari Uniyal and his brother Lalit, Ravi Dhawan and his sister Rani, and others made up a long list.

The world was very clear to me, a twelve year old at that time. King George was dead — long live the Queen! The Queen was very young and pretty. She had got the news of her father’s death when on a safari in Africa. We school boys in boarding stuck close to the radios at teachers’ homes and sat through the funeral of the King and the coronation of his daughter.

Also clear to me was the fact that I was a Scout now. So were Amitabh Bachchan, Yogendra Narain and many other friends. Still clear to me was the mighty swish of the Head Master’s cane as it landed six – of – the – best on our bottoms. “Sorry Sir!”

What was not clear to me some years ago, in1947, was this Independence thing. I learnt some of the patriotic songs blaring on the loudspeakers then. My favourite was, ‘Door hatoo oh duniya walo, Hindustan hamara hai!’ I loved it and involuntary sang it at times too. What was the end of the Raj? Why were Indians Independent? What was Independence?

I was a lucky boy – a very lucky boy. I saw the last years of the Raj and remember it vividly. I saw the beginning of an Independent India. I was a part of it all. I was a boy full of wonder! I would never have missed a single moment of it!
(to be continued...)