My First Sister

My First Sister Bhagwant Kaur

Bhagwant Kaur My First Sister - growing wiser gracefully

Bhagwant was born in August 1945 about a year after me. Unfortunately the exact date of birth is not known. When pressed, my Dad will jokingly say "she was, perhaps, dropped from the heaven and not born". While my date and time was properly recorded by my Dad and also by maternal grandfather Lala Kanwar Bhan who kept all the details of his offshoots meticulously.

Although I am so proud of my sharp memory, I fail to remember her infant face though, I do have her memories of our times in Panipat where we settled down after the partition.

Both of us looked similar, roundish, wheatish towards darkish and healthy kids. But Bhagwant looked more sturdy and healthier. She appeared bigger in structure than me. And my Mom Savitri Devi had invariably introduced both of us 'clarifying that she was younger to me, while I was the first child'.

Peetu Guddi with their parents and granndmother in 1951

For convenience, our parents named us 'Peetu & Guddi'. Where ever we went or met relations, there was talk of Peetu Guddi as the names get synonymous for kids of similar ages. I carried on with this name till I went to High School, people also started calling me Preet Mohan. So slowly Bhagwant 's name also changed to 'Bhaggo'. She did not like this name of hers.

Pir Kalandar Shah Masjid, Bhagwant's First School

As was the trend, Bhagwant was admitted to only Girls school. The school was a make shift arrangement and operated in Big Masjid which enshrined famous tomb of Pir Kalandar Shah. This school was bigger and about 400-500 girl students attended. she went to the school very happily along with other girls of the neighborhood. Her best friend at that time was 'Krishna' a much older in age though, also a next door neighbor.

At this stage, she had a god sent toy in the shape of a lovely younger sister Ambu. She would merrily lift her and go to the bazaar and play. Ambu will sit on the extended board of the shops while she will play with her friends and keeping a constant watch on the little sister as well.

Bhagwant grew up fast. She was also on the heavier side. One day My mom virtually took her to a doctor and complained about her obeisance. The doctor rebuked my Mom sending her back that she should be fortunate to have a healthy baby rather having frail and week children as they were often seen due to under nutrition. Still my mom had put her on ration while I was pampered to all that nutritious food. The result was that I was ever a thin and week. It was I who used to be fed with extra milk and diet. During my exam days a regular dose of 5 pieces of Almonds a rare and costly commodity was fed to me and I enjoyed the same too. The sisters will have no access to almonds and other favorite eateries and were always happily eating usual home cooked food. Surprisingly no complaint what so ever. Who ever in my mom's friend circle met me, would complain to her that why she was not feeding their only son well. We all ate vegetarian food, not egg even.

In mean time my father started bringing besides grams and pulses, a big sack of unbaked groundnuts from our farms in village Badbar Distt Sangrur. Yes, all of us enjoyed them really well, after the dinner. At times I was mad with my sisters when they will leave behind the emplty shells of nuts all over. The house became garbage all over during those days. My mom will clean the house one time only in the morning.

Bhagwant Betrothed

Even before Bhagwant was born, my grandmother Smt Karam Devi was very friendly with the family of Sardar Nanak Singh who was reputed Post Master and was very well respected and well known. He was a man of high character and utmost honesty. I came to know later, he returned even after the partition of the country, a huge sum of Rs 10000/- to the person who had requested him to deposit the same in his Accounts in the Post Office, but could not do so. He settled in Rohtak after the partition. He had been blessed with a Son after five daughters. As my grandmother Smt Karam Devi went to congratulate the birth of a son. She impromptu proposed to marry the would be daughter of any of his two sons. After a period of about five years , a baby girl (Bhagwant) was born to my mom and a baby Boy(Tarlochan aka Roopa) was born to my uncle Sardar Inderjit Singh and aunt Smt Prem Kaur. At this stage the verbal confirmation was done between the two ladies with a vow to keep the promise.

Now the partition changed the entire scenario. No body was aware of the where abouts of their kith and kins. But some scant correspondence started between all the relatives staying in various cities on a Post Card valued at 4 paisas (one Aana). I remember my father and uncle will even forward the Post card to them and others by redirecting the post card by re-writing the address. This was mainly done to save money and pass on the info unambiguously.

Bhagwant came out brilliantly in her Middle and High school classes. She was even the monitor of the section of her class. She thoroughly enjoyed her studies and after school activities. On the day of results of Matriculation from the state Board, I went to collect the News Paper Tribune from the Railway station. A bundle of news paper containing the Supplement of the results only will be received at mid night by the train coming from the direction of Ambala where it used to get published. The entire young crowd of Panipat will gather to get the first opportunity to see the results. Only the boys from Arya High School, SD High School, Jain High School and Leiha High School will hang around outside the main gate of Panipat railway station to get the results of themselves and their sisters. No girls will ever assemble at the station. My mom will normally never allow me to go out at midnight, but on the result day it was special and I was allowed to go. So I went twice, once for myself and again for Bhagwant. That was a treat to hang around along with your friends, without spending a single penny.

As nervous I was, I could not find her Roll number in the paper and came back dejected that she had failed. But later on some body checked and congratulated our family that Bhagwant had not even passed but scored very high marks just missing the First Division by a few marks. That will be equivalent to present day straight A's with high percentile of 90.

After her brilliant performance, it was decided to enroll her for a professional Basic Teachers Training coarse in Panipat. She was very hard working and came out successful with a first class. After a couple of interviews in Panipat and Karnal, She was offered a govt job in a village called Kishan Pura about two miles from our house in Panipat.


To be concluded and edited...

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