PAGE 6: MULTI FACETED SAROJ AND OUR SHIKOHABAD ASSOCIATION

                       MULTI FACETED SAROJ  AND OUR SHIKOHABAD ASSOCIATION

Location of Shikohabad near Agra and Firozabad the Bangle Town

The enigmatic multifarious Saroj soon became the Apple of everyone's eye in the school. The dusky, chiselled featured angelic beauty with long black wavy tresses and a curvaceous body was found by students and the colleagues to be approachable, attentive to the hilt, adaptable,accommodating, appreciative,adventurous,accepting,balanced,brave,benevolent,cheerful,caring,compassionate,content,committed,coolperative,couragoeus,confident,centered,calm and creative. While she kept busy minding the house and two little children plus a fast deteriorating husband, my emotional heart often wandered in the fond memories of Etawah, thinking about the juicy kampats (lollies in local dialect) from nearby shop, the lip smacking chuski (crushed ice with syrup in the form of a cone) from the roving vendor at the doorstep in scorching summers, cool water bath drawn from the well in granny's house, sitting on a patiya (a big stone slab in the middle of the house), trips to watch annual Ramlila (drama enacted in India annually based on the story of Lord Rama) followed by Ravana Dahan (burning the effigy of Rama) and much more. I would wait for my return to Granny's during holidays.

The brave mother Saroj bought a bicycle to commute to and fro from the school where she worked, as she could not afford to pay for the cycle rickshaw (a three wheeled man peddled carriage) and my ailing dad seeing his end approaching fast made a remarkable effort to build a beautiful, cosy bunglow for us to live in one of the posh suburbs of Agra. He would most of the time remain home minding we two while mum went to work. I distinctly remember one incident when I as a little girl almost bullied my dad to get me a yellow frock and would not eat till I got one. My dad who loved me immensely made sure that he bought one for me before my mum arrived and the scene is still etched in my memory (though I was only 8 yrs old) when three of us stood at the gate waiting for mum (this was our daily routine) and me in my ravishing yellow frock making mum so happy.

I am now going to mention about an immensely rich, prosperous, loving family which was that of her elder sister (eldest of siblings so like a mother) and her most handsome gracious, grand, dignified, encouraging husband, my mausaji (that means my mum's sister i.e. mausi's husband) from Shikohabad, a small town between Etawah and Agra in Mainpuri District of the mighty northern state Uttar Pradesh.

Shikohabad is a town and a municipal board in the Firozabad district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Bateshwar, a famous Hindu pilgrimage centre dedicated to Lord Shiva, and also a famous Jain Tirth on the banks of River Yamuna, is situated 22 kilometres south of Shikohabad.

• 
  
• 
  

• 
  
• 
  

What a personality and what an affection he showered on my mum and us. Saroj was 'ROZA' to him and I was 'TANIYA' (Tanu for everyone else). I must say that out of the two sisters, I was the lucky one to get more love from my Granny and my mausaji than my sister Purnima (Golu to the family,meaning round as she was chubby). How do I forget the summer holidays at Shikohabad (where they had their sprawling Bunglow and properties along with the mighty Glass Factory, known as Paliwal Glass Works). Geographically this town is between Agra and Etawah, thus was very conveniently located for our frequent trips. Mausaji was known as GREAT MAN by every one due to his generosity, also made it a point to see us regularly on his visits to Agra or on way to Delhi, where he had his India fame lawyer, Mr NKP Salve. Such was the caring influence of my Mausaji on us and such was his magical involvement in our lives that I would need to talk more about it to make the story of  Saroj complete! 

     

     

• 
  

  ---