I read your recollections in your A.V of 25th January with great interest about your first Republic Day celebrations. It has stimulated my recollections some what similar that I wish to share with you and your readers if I may.
My father retired from Kolkata ( Calcutta ) in 1947 from a Scottish shipping company and came back home (Punjab) to live in his village. He was a freedom fighter in his own ways and terms ( a very long story, I was told). At home his interests were nothing but gardening in our back garden and visiting his ancestral land during his daily walk. And before his afternoon nap, he would read two papers, one from Kolkata (weekly) and the other a Punjabi one. Many a time I would hear him singing loud patriotic songs, door closed, especially about Neta Ji Subhash Chander Bose.
I believe that both his passion for gardening and his love for India are ingrained and inherited in me naturally because of his company in my teens.
For example, when I went from a middle school to a high school in a different village, there were 11 boys from my village including me who went to that new Khalsa high school, more than 2 miles from our village. In those days after partition, there was a lot of tension between the Akali party and the Congress one. And you know what? I always argued on my own to support the congress party against all other young Akali supporters. It was all due to my dear father’s company.
And also it was a great pleasure of mine to help my father in hoisting our national flag on the top of our house, the only single hoisting in our big village, which was not liked by many villagers. But my dear Father never cared what people thought. A great sincere patriot was my dear father.
B S Grewal (Bobby)
By email
