Four daughters and two sons were born to Lala Kanwar Bhan and Kesar Bai who lived in Mohalla Aghapura, Multan. Lala Kanwar Bhan was a British India Army Veteren. He fought in both the world war I and II. I am told he earned many laurels and medals in the war. He would polish his medals and annex them on his uniform before going to Governmental officials for giving references and recommendations. This procedure was very successful and he helped his clan to get access into the governmental jobs which in those days were secure, respectable and well paid jobs. He had earned a great degree of respect with in his clan.
When he came back from the war, he also brought a box full of gold coins weighing 10 gms each. Fortunately I possess a couple of them even today. All his offshoots got the share as a token, while as per the traditions rest of the gold went to the sons L Dharam Chand and S Jai Singh (Jai Chand initially).
With partition, mostly the family moved to New Delhi. Four sisters, Shakuntla Bai, Hari Bai and Lachhmi Bai and Savitri Bai born between 1900 to 1926 and were very closely knitt with each other. While the older three lived in Delhi, the youngest Savitri Bai settled in nearby town Panipat 50 miles North.
The life started fresh with four sisters kids meeting together often on various family functions /get-togethers from time to time. Music was their main focal point around which the whole family revolved and enjoyed.
A few of the offshoots have come out of India and settled abroad and continue to remain in touch with each other through this modern Social Media. Fortunately me and Dari had a chance to attend a friend's wedding in Washington DC area and thought of a plan to reunite with our cousins. As is the case there is hardly any time in this crazy world to spare few minutes for meeting even your own.
Any way an effort was made and a quick notice was flashed through phone to Swaran aka Shanna. Anju Wadhwa grabbing the lead, it was possible get together over a cup of coffee for about two hours. It came out that Shimaliya Agnihotri -Gunu was staying a minute away from our hotel, she abruptly stopped cleaning the mess in her house and headed for the meeting point. Anju had already brought Swaran with her. And Gunu coordinated with Neha who also made it quickly.
So off-shoots from all the sisters were together here chatting with each other. With no spouse presence, our chatting was really ultra transparent. Of course me and Dari are related and were not a threat to any unwarranted talk or language. I took the opportunity to narrate some stories about our mothers. How all the four were destined to get married to landowners family in our family. Due to some unavoidable reasons, that did not happen. Hari Bai Massi was engaged to S. Hari Singh, being the most eligible bachelor, had shown crush on her as she was the most beautiful in the whole area. She was very fair, perfectly tall and with a pink complexion reserved only for whites. Massi Lachhmi Bai was also engaged to S Jagat Narain Singh while Savitri Bai was engaged to My Dad S Vas Dev Singh. And the remaining son of L Kanwar Bhan, Jai Singh was in the sequence engaged to a Girl from the opposite camp. But all that was not to be due to dirty politics in the family. A doubt was raised on the girl's character and this resulted in breakup of the engagement of his son Jai Singh by L Kanwar Bhan who decided not to accept this girl as his daughter-in-law, This in-turn triggered a cascade of termination of all the engagements of L Kanwar Bhan's kids except that of my mother Savitri Devi to my Dad. As my Dad's mother Karam Devi a widower was an outsider from Shikarpur, Sind and saw an opportunity to strengthen her foot hold by joining hands with isolated but a heavy weight L Kanwar Bhan.
As if the above reunion was not yet complete, Gunnu just got a call from Guddo the middle daughter of Massi Lachhmi Bai from London. It is rarest of occasion that I talked to her as well.
What a way to end the wedding here in Fairfax Marriott where we had converted this hotel into a 'Big Barat Ghar' enjoying both Punjabi and Christian wedding during the last four days!
Swaran daughter and Anju grand daughter of Hari Bai Massi, Neha and Shimalya grand daughter of Lachhmi Bai Massi
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