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Bade Mamaji

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I took an unduly long time to name this post. 


Blogging in English language can be quite a challenge for many versed in two languages. There sometimes is a stereophonic cacophony where one part of the brain is humming and suggesting thoughts in English while the other part is streaming thoughts dipped in Hindi. The first title, My Mom's Eldest Brother, cut no ice with me and sounded more like a title of a movie starring a Hugh Grant or a Julia Roberts. The literal Hindi translation, Bade Mamaji, evokes all the warmth and hence this title stays. Hindi side of the brain wins this round. Now English side of the brain writes......


Bade Mamaji must be 85 years old. His eldest was born in 1946, so I guess he must have been at least 20 when he was first father. Well, even if he was 18, he must be 83 years old now. Doesn't matter, I guess, to the story line I am pursuing. 


Bade Mamaji and I bond and how. We speak at least once a fortnight and if travel or work is too demanding for me, its definitely once every month. His side of the conversation is pretty standard but I yearn to hear it every time I call him. He starts by blessing me and the family and goes on to enquire about each one of us. Next question is, When are you visiting me in Nasik?. After a few recently failed appointments, it was settled that I would visit him over this weekend. So yesterday was Bade Mamaji bonding time and I drove down with my wife and family to Nasik to spend the day with him.
Bade Mamaji was born in Lahore and stayed there for the first twenty years of his life and later migrated to Kanpur, post the traumatic partition of India. He spent the next fifty odd years in Kanpur and now resides in Nasik, since the last ten years. Looking back, he has always lived by the banks of glorious rivers, the Ravi, the mighty Ganges and now the Godavari, the Southern Ganges.Of all the three, Lahore is closest to his heart. 
I was trying to recount the prime things on which Bade Mamaji and I bond and talk endlessly. I no particular order they would be ;
  • Food
  • Photography
  • Lahore
  • Internet & Mobile 
Yesterday, we discussed a bit of all. In his hey day, he dabbled a lot in photography. Apparently, he got so interested in it that he made a dark room at home and started developing his own camera rolls. He had a good look at my camera ( a Nikon D40X SLR) and asked me some questions and I was amazed with his knowledge and his inquisitiveness even at this age. We discussed shutter speeds and mentioned that the cameras he used had a shutter speed up to 1/500. He was amazed that my camera had a capability to have a shutter speed of 1/4000. Next we discussed subject composition and lenses with infinity setting. I must confess that I did not have all the answers to his queries and must look up the internet for my next round of discussion on photography with him.
Lahore was next on the agenda. Our family has been regaled with the tales of the glory and beauty of Lahore, its vibrant bazaar's, its cuisine and mind you the plurality and co existence of religion and cultures. I have grown up with these stories and yearn to visit Lahore where my maternal side of the family hails from. Bade Mamaji tells me that their family  and ancestors had been living in Lahore for over twenty five generations. The last time we had met at my home, I had shown him satellite imagery and maps of present day Lahore. He wanted to see the area where they conducted their ancestral jewelry business from - Bazaar Wazir Khan. 
Once again today, he asked me if I could zoom in on my smartphone's map application and show him the area and the locality around. There are many areas that he can still recognise, though faintly. For me it has been a long desire, to have taken him to his place of birth - Lahore. His fears and memories of a very traumatic partition, where he, his brethren, his parents had to slip past to India in the middle of the night with bare belongings, still haunts him in many ways. I on my end would keep on trying to convince Bade Mamaji to first apply for a passport and then forget the bygones and once again set foot in the land of his birth and upbringing - Lahore.
I will give it a renewed effort. Will send him a Passport Application form tomorrow.



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