I always wanted to write something, somewhere about my dadaji.... but was looking for the right moment and the right time... It was yesterday when v were in our home town pinjore and he asked me to take him to his old friend's place in pinjore. As is always d case, noone can ever deny him anything, thats d respect every1 has for him, so i took him to his frnds home. His friend was an ex-principle of d only govt. school in pinjore. Initially i thought "What will i do there??Main to bor ho jaunga"...
But as the two started their conversation, i was amazed to observe that it was the most interesting convo i ever came accross
" two old men discussing their history and their past".
The convo started from how the mentality of ppl is changing now-a-days i.e ppl are becoming more n more money minded n ignoring their relationships n love and continued further. My dadaji came from pakistan in 1947 during partition and visited many places to finally settle in Pinjore. He came here with his chachaji n both of them started selling clothes here. In 1951, they bought a small shop here n customers started pouring in. In the meanwhile my dadaji shifted to dehradun for sum reason unknown to me. He again opened a cloth shop der n did great business. He had 40-50 frnds der, all of them were businessmen n all had one hell of a time. They wore d best of clothes available at dat time with gr8 looking ties, tie bows n mufflers dig under their shirt cowllers.
After spending some 8-10 yrs in dehradun, his chachaji came to him n asked him to come back to pinjore as some "jyotshi" had told him that he will die soon. He was amazed to hear that. He said "i am having a gr8 time here, i am doing good business , i have so many frnds here". But aftr all said n done, he left everything in dehradun n came back to pinjore. Dey both again started cloth business der n he excelled again. Ppl used to come from as fas as 100 kms to buy clothes frm him. Both of dem used to hire donkeys for "12 aane" to carry cloth n sell them to a place called "Mallah" every 1st day of d month since ppl used to get theis salaries on 1st. He got wealthier day be day. His chachaji used to go to patiala to buy clothes in d wholesale Patiala market. One day when his chachaji went to patiala for usual business n he dint come back because of a heart attack. The "bhavishya vani" of dat jyotishi came true dis time.He was 45 yrs old den, was very healthy n a huge bodied man. News of his demise came to my dadaji via a phone call in pinjore frm patiala. Then their used to be only 1 phone n dat too in police station. D whole town mourned over his death n so did my dadaji.
But life goes on, my dadaji alone continued their business of selling clothes which kept on growing like anything. Slowly n slowly cloth business reached saturation in pinjore. So many new shopkeepers came up n compitition became stiff. Pinjore had 400 ppl in 1947 which grew to 10,000 n above in 20-30 yrs.
Now coming back to their conversation, both of dem started remembering their old frndship days, when dey used to run 10 kms everday, have a cup of tea n come back running. Both of them were gr8 urdu shayars. My dadaji has some 10-12 copies in which he has written so many urdu shers which are ofcourse his own creation. He reads n recalls them evryday while sitting in his sort of weard chair in our house. Everyday he wakes up, dresses like hell even today and spends hours reading his urdu newpaper.
He is above eighty but he s cool like a cucumber. Once a frnd of mine(girl) came to my place to meet me. I generally hesitate from letting gals inside my house because i donno hw dad ll react. Dat day she came in sat for arnd half n hour n den went away. I was afreaid ki dadaji ne papa ko bta dia to kya hoga.. But he asked me to treat her well, he himself had a nice chat wid her n asked her to come again. I was happy :D...
Anyhow i wish to god to give him a long long life. I hv grown up in his shadow n want dat shadow to remain forever. God bless u dadaji...... U rock.... :-)
