Manipur- the Mani (Jewel) of India:Coincidences

Coincidences: Manipur- the Mani (Jewel) of India

 

I had no intention to talk to that Manipuri boy talking on mobile who was living on ground floor of that Jayanagar  (Bangalore) house where I had stayed six months in Dhirenda's house on second floor. I did not talk to them while I was there for long only once I had gone in their house and had an impression that they were Christian Nagas?

And though I had been to Nagaland talking  them once I had left that place long back!

I was thinking to go to my office on that Sunday and correct Srimad-BhagbadGita's correction in my translated Maithili Gita's manuscripts but I incidentally told that Manipuri boy that I wanted to talk to him.

 

He requested me that as his talk on phone might be longer I should rather go inside and talk to his friends as well as his elder brother.

There were three Manipuris there- Boris, Roshan and Sanjay whose brother Santosh had sent me in  from out side.

 

I initially though Boris was a Christian and Roshan, a Muslim and more so when Boris told me that out of 24 lakh Manipuris 50 per cent are (Maitei- original Manipuri tribal who follow  almost all Hindu rituals with minor differences) and 25 per cent Muslim and  25 per cent Christians.

 

I told them that t was a good balance   in the room from that point of view to which they said,"No, we all are Maeties."

 

I told them that though  born and brought up in a RSS milieu I have no prejudices even for non-Hindu religions but surely I am against of conversion by alluring  or threatening   or by providing medical services or schools to the innocent tribal.

 

I told them that though  many think seeing the facies that Manipuris  or Nagas were not historically was far from correct.

 

In 1947, India  had seventh partition  since British days however it was 24^th partition in past 2500 years. Upto Bali, Borneo, Indonesia and Cambodia,  it was India not to talk of Myanmar bordering Manipur which seceded in 1937.

(I-  24.5.1876- Afganistan as a Buffer state as per Gandamak Treaty with Russia.

II- 817- Nepal as Sugauli Treaty

III-1906- Sikkim and Bhutan were  seceded

IV-1914- Tibet was accepted as Buffer State which China gobbled in 1956

V-1935- Sri Lanka (Ceylone) was seceded

VI-1937- Burma(Myanmar) was seceded

VII-14.8.1947- Pakistan was carved pout of remaining  India.)

 

I talked with them for long my association with Manipur due to Kshetrimayum Birendra Singh, three years junior to me  in  Medical College who had been a swayamsevak of the RSS from Manipur itself but at Darbhanga came close to me rather like my real brother.

 

 

 I had accepted an editorial job to Dr. K.K.Sinha.Ranchi's  office as an assistant editor to the Progress in Clinical neurosciences and that too when my MD examination was only  two months away and simultaneously  I had asked Birendra  to come  from Delhi leaving housejob at  the Safdarjung Hospital  so  that he could resume  post graduate studies at Ranchi and at Ranchi we stayed together in the rooms of the local NMO workers and later together in a room.

Once,  I had been very rude to him for some reasons I did not like and I had changed room but saw that he could continue with his study without any trouble.

 

Then though we were meeting in the NMO meetings he was  not talkingto me . He got his MD and came to me on the day  of his departure to Manipur  and as a brother touched my feet and asked apology to which I  had said that I did not feel he was an  adult and I should rather not have imposed my views on him and I was wrong even though might be thinking his  welfare.

 

Birendra  usually attends AP conferences and recently he met  at Goa at the moment I was leaving out the  venue. Though I gave a pen as a gift to his lovely child I forgot to give something to his wife, Dr. Roma, as per my family customs since I was in  hurry to catch train. She too was a student at  Darbhanga.

 

I had been  to Imphal  and to his home, Myang Imphal circuiting  Loktak  Lake . His father was a teacher and while coming out of the house  I  had asked his  younger brother, Narendra, to lace shoes to which he said,

"How I can put shoes, I have to do pranam to parents."

 

I said that I too would do but I was not knowing that with  the shoes there in that interiors of Manipur pranam was neither taken nor given and the climax was that both parents  stood together and then he did pranam and took ashirvad.

Such  culture is preserved nowhere in India and after seeing that  I am hesitant in shoes taking pranam or doing to someone.

Sanjoy and his friends said that even in Manipur now it was vanishing.

Yes, our good culture preserved would vanish in modern fashion.

 

And at present  Manipur is the hot-bed of AIDS due to intra venous  drug route  on ' golden triangle' of drug trafficking.'

 

I recall at least three times I had been to Manipur;  twice when I had gone for camps in Nagaland during  1986-1988. I may be regarded as the first Hindu missionary doctor to lead a team of the NMO to Nagalnd though some Hindu doctors had gone there earlier but for service and or practice.

 

I had a class fellow Kuki, a Naga and a Manipuri  Achow Singh but than in 1970s they were not enemies of each other as today Nagas and Manipuris have become after Isac-Muhivah's demand for a Greater Nagaland, including some territories of  Manipur.

 

 

I questioned  the wisdom of having such small states- Nagaland has a  population of  around 20 lakh with 14  tribes named  Angami, Ao, Chakhesang, Chang, Khemungan, Konyak, Lotha, Phom, Pochury, Rengma, Sangtam, Sema, Yimchunger and Zeliang.(among which I worked in 1980s and had also an occasion to meet Rani Gaodilinue at Kolkata- she was not a Rani but was so called  by Jawaharlal Nehru  honouring her fight   for identity; she did  collect her people  from the conversion by Christian Missionaries and when we went it was a news," Our doctors have come." They walked 48 hours in the hilly terrain to get some medical consultation from us. Before us swayamsevaks from Kerala had gone there to open schools and particularly one from Gorakhpur, Jagdamba Mall ,was initially humiliated by them but later was accepted as own person.

 

Though we did not do any political thing- BJP could get over 20,000 votes that year and that was said to a great extent due to our work. Now BJP has five MLAs there and they have been in power too.

 

Nagaland to me looks most beautiful part of the nation and so are Naga women.

When I said those Manipuris that if I have to remarry I would like for a Naga women, one of the Manipuris retorted ,"NO, you have not seen Manipuri beauty when we will call you in our group function here you will know."(there are about  seven such grous at Bangalore and some persons are quite aged on senior poats).

 

Yes, I was neither a Bhima who married  Naga Hidimba( whose son was the great hero Ghatotkacha- on  Hidimba' brother's name Hidimb – whose palace's ruins I had seen- Hidimbapur was later called as Dimapur- the railhead for Manipur as well  nor I was an Arjuna who  marry\ied  Manipuri  beauty Chitrangada…

 

At Imphal, near Nagamphal, where at Sewa Bharati I stayed twice, I had seen a market, 'Ima Market,' which is an all- women  market who  sell hand-woven Manipuri clothes and other things. 'Ima'  is  word in Manipuri for mother.

 

Once my meeting at Sewa Bharati was attended by the ex-principal of the RMC(Regional Medical College, now renamed RIIMS), Dr. E. Kuladhwaja Singh who was also an alumnus of the Darbhanga Medical College.

 

I recalled   Dr Manichandra, a pediatrician and Kumarjeet from the DMC. I also recall Dr. Y. Bajo Singh, an anesthetist whom I met at the Jabalpur Medical  College and when  I had gone that room to contact a Manipuri student  for the NMO. He was Dr. Bajo singh's son. Dr. Bajo Singh too had studied at the medical college of Jabalpur and when I met him at Imphal he was  surprised.

 

Initially I used to meet specifically medicos from north-east and had even planned an all India  medicos conference of that area under the NMO.

 

 

 

Boris said that he would provide me the recent contacts of the medicos and his sister too was an Ayurvedic medico. Sanjoy working for the rehabilitation and prosthetics had many contacts with  the neurologists and orthopedic surgeons  at Karnataka. He was not much willing to return to Manipur as his specialty was little developed there. I asked him to have contacts for proper referral from there and also train people of his area.

 

Manipur's population 's around 60 per cent live in the valley and remaining in  hilly areas around .

Manipur has some major festivals like other eastern parts of India - Mithila and Bengal though names maybe different .  NINGUL CHAKEBA  is Bhatri Dwitiya where sister comes to brother's house –two days after Deepawali and gets gifts. They do come during Raksha Bandhan too.

But Holi is most important festival.

I recalled my senior at the DMC,  Dr. L. Tondon Singh who used to play dholak so marvelously. Incidentally he was  the neighbour of one of the  students present there in Bangalore house that day.

 

I could not attend Birendra's marriage but  I was with young persons and asked them about the rituals of marriage in Manipur.

 

In Manipuri traditional marriage a girl comes (elopes) with a boy and comes to boys house to stay for a night the next morning parents of boy goes  to girl house and they inform them for their daughter. They talk something and if marriage is acceptable they come and take the girl to her house. Rarely, if the girl's parents did not come  she remains in that house with boy.

The girl returns to her house and a marriage date is fixed as per lagna- some months are barred. Marriage is held in daytime at the house of girl.

One of the boys in the meantime seeing me interested in a Manipuri marriage put the video of the marriage of his brother on the computer.

Whole village comes as  Barat both males and females(on many cars , may be 30-40,in a middle class family – a car rent  for a day is  minimum Rs. 400 to as per distance). Bride has a  muretha (head gear) and including him all males are in white  dhotis and kurtas however females can put up any type of  colourful dresses and they are welcomed in a mandap with chandan  and  pan. There are coconuts and bananas  in the welcome thal   as is supposed to be auspicious in rest of India also.

 

Barat is offered merely some snacks  but no lunch nor father of boy offers  ornaments. There is no dowry system.

There remains a Brahmin more to assist in the marriage than  doing rituals as rituals are not many and though guests are welcomed with fire there is no custom of seven rounds of fire is observed  rather  the bride takes seven rounds of the groom and does pranam with folded hands and then  exchanging garlands first to boy and being removed by Brahmin from boy to girl the same garland of beli flowers.

 

 

 

Howere, like all over India, Kanyadan is done by some elder (in the video Bhabhi had done). Persons from both sides offer pranam to each other. It completes the rituals of marriage of the marriage day and girl returns to boys house. Girls relatives too go to see off her but again only snacks no dinner is offered.

On the fifth day the persons of boys side again go to girls' house where they are offered nice lunch- of 32 dishes.

I observed that on banana leaves first rice with half of the dishes were put and then the invitee was asked to come and take food. In our area the person sits first and then the food is served.

 

One average cost one to two lakh and this cost of lunch on 5^th day is shared between the groom's and bride's sides.

Hence, the marriage is a bit simpler but not much different from rest of the India.

 

When I asked them  about the genealogy of marriage system they said Maeitis have seven clans like Lyshram and others.

There are some clans among which one can marry and also somewhere one can't. However 10 per cent persons do marry in prohibited clans and very rarely one marries in his own clan (sagotriya).

 

This too seemed to me, a system of our Maithils where too  Vatsa and Sawarna cannot intermarry though of different gotras(clans).

However,we Maithils have proper persons(Panjikars or registrars who certifies that there is no  blood relation for the fifth place from maternal side and seventh  place from the  paternal side) but  there is no such record keeping  system among Manipuris and they go by the knowledge of elders but do not marry where from mother or such relations come from which should be barred.

 

I asked them whether in my proposition of India's States reorganization they would come under Barak State with Shillong as  the Capital covering Meghalaya, Mizoram,Manipur, Nagaland ,Tripura as well as Barak valley they asked  me to put this view on their website  www.e-pao.net

 

Manipur  is derived from mani- jewel  and in fat it is the jewel of Bharat and my several visits need booster for my familiarly with this land of great culture.

 

But now I am at so distant  that managing leaves would be equally difficult but surely I would write Birendra to convene a meeting of the NMO so that I can visit there once more;  once I had declared that my last part of life would be spent with Birendra but much  time has passed out  like water in the Brahmputr and though I asked those some of neo-Birendras of Jaynagar' Manipuri  house to invite me in their marriage, I know I could not even attend my  own marriage  properly( sandwiched between  two days of the NEC meeting of the NMO)  and probably a video of a Manipuri marriage should be supposed to be sufficient for the time which I could see incidentally!

 

Dr. Dhanakar Thakur

Spokesman,

Antarrashtriya Maithili Parishad

www.geocities.com/maithili_parishad

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Katihar : Coincidences

Coincidences: Katihar
People usually do not go to their old rented houses often more so to a relative's  old rented house even if you would have stayed  there for  some times.
But on the Sunday 27th May May, I was almost having no appointment when Dhirendra  left me at Jaynagar where he used to stay and where in  I too had stayed with him for a span of about  six months.
I was confused to find that house near IX Block Bus  stop but after sometimes could recall a drug shop and seeing the cross board sign realized that I was  almost at the spot.
That house has three stories- in the middle Shrinivaslu who was very close to Dhirendra and used to take the role of an elder in any problem. I  knocked his house and his daughter  Hema asked  to sit  and said that his was father was not in his. Incidentally Dhirendra's sister is also named Hema.
I asked for any of Dhirenda's posts  and then asked as to who came in upper floor where we used to live.
She said," they are students, north Indians, like you."
I went upside and knocked.
A young man, Nishantranjn came out and on probing he told me that he was from Katihar. His father used to work in the Electicity Department and he used to live nar Durgasathan from where one of my bhahi (widow of my  cousin Padmakar, who succumbed to  a railway accident at Gandhinagar Jaipur Railway station ,near his house; a well renowned Hindi poet, Ashok Chakradhar etc. belonged to his group) belonged to.
"I was also born 95 km north at Forbesganj," I said.
"I was also born there," he quipped.
"Near Power House," he said and I had a flash of memory of the nearby field where during 1960s I had gone to see a football match between Mohun Bagan and some other team. There was huge crowd and whole field was field of chorkanti…

Then we talked a lot of things about Forbesganj. He was also a alumnus of the Lee Academy from where I  did my Matriculation in 1970. He could recognize my home there in front of post office and  telephone exchange.
For Katihar we talked too much. I recalled the days of Katihar when I had gone there with a ambulance and full team (one other doctor, one pharmacist, one dresser and medicines  worth many thousand rupees from the CCL, Ranchi  where I was working in those days).( under the title of  'Ek Medico ki barh daiary" in Hindi it is available and can be sent to the interested person on e-mail also, if asked for).
I asked him as to what was needed for Katihar to improve . He replied an engineering college. I informed him that Prof. Raman Jha (Gangtok's Sikkim Manipal Technical University ) had once informed that the Aryabhatta Engineering College had already opened there to which  Nishikant  was  ignorant.

I asked him to make a plan to have some IT work (as he worked with the IBM)  at Katihar itself- for such work an organization NSWEO is in womb of time despite my efforts I could not get good workers for it,


Just now Prabhanjan from NOIDA has informed me that some villages may have computers –such type of works should be taken by AMP/NSWEO units and any philanthropic person/ organization can give  the organizations to purchase such computers which local AMP units can locate where to  provide in other word if every  Maithili in service provides an ordinary computer  of few thousand rupees to his/her village school-an IT revolution may come  in Mithila in no  time).
Nishikant said that he along with his friends would after few years start some such business venture at Katihar.
Incidentally his two other house partners were also from Katihar- one of his  partners,  Kunal was there with who did not take much interest in my talk.
Nishikant told me that there were many young persons at Bangalore from katihar and even from Forbesganj. I asked him whether  they can meet any day to have some development  work in their area. People do like to meet but only for socialization which may be ok for some but in that an element of social responsibility need addition.
My own experience is that Bangloreans  are not interested much in such type of activates if I compare it with Pune or Kolkata. Is it  that  matririn( social obligation)  is  inversely proportional to distance or affluence of the person while it hould have been  directly proportional.
In fact, our whole education system s that it can not enthuse anyone for society even for his own parents' care.
And ultimately that person is more sufferer(and hence, a  National Institute  of Psychiatry at Bengalore?)
For that matter psychiatric diseases are highest in USA and once in 1977, Dr. Davis, FRCS(Psych) had told me ,"In UK there were more  Indian psychiatrist than India had- then 250)." I had gone there to see Vashishtha Narayan Singh, a famed mathematician who was sick there and Dr. Davis agreed to me that  his familial  reasons were  a great contributor to  his insane state.While you are sane if  you would not do  the work of empowering others and it  may make you insane. A recent report says that religious preachers, doctors were in best mental health.
Dr. Davis had also not replied me a relationship between intelligence and insanity and certainly I feel the intelligent persons must work for the society- it is in their own interest.

I asked Nishikant to join AMP meetings which he agreed. IT workers are time pressed but for that matter every other employed person is. In IT sector at least week-ends mean all Saturdays and Sundays and because they have not developed any hobby or interest in other work they are further pressed to work and some even go to office on holidays to avoid tension of house.

Wipro chief Azim Premji's one statement  few years back I remember that those who sit after the office hour in fact do not work properly during office hours.
Now  if  compare this statement with Wipro's some workers it may be  opposite. Every IT worker usually work 10-12 hours a day but even if that if you would not spare some tome for wandering can you have such coincidences I described?
I asked Nishikant that I would be glad to live in that house with them again but they were overpopulated there itself and even otherwise I was a stranger!

Dr. Dhanakar Thakur

Spokesman,

Antarrashtriya Maithili Parishad

www.geocities.com/maithili_parishad

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Coincidences: Pan incidence

 
  Coincidences: Pan incidence


Mithila s famous for Pan. Makhan and Manchh but I am not only a vegetarian but also do not take  pan. Particularly, I do not like spitting by pan-eaters and also most of them take tobacco in the form of zarda of various varieties  which is the most important cause of cancer in south-east Asian countries yet if you are with a Maithil you will have to stop somewhere he would take a pan.

On 25.5.2007, Dhirendra stopped at a pan-shop and I too had to on his bike.
While the panwala was making  betal for for him, I  asked  in Maithil,
"Kanha Gam achhi?"
"Bihar."
"Kat?"
"Rajnangar lag."
"Sonbari."
"Nam?"
"Ramnarayan."
"Rasnarayanji ke janit chhiyainhi?"
"Hunke sang rahit chee."
  He was thus firth such panwala at Bengaluru whom  could incidentally know.
Many years back someone had told me that in Bengaluru most of the panwalas were Maithils and hence I could guess and my guess was right  on such places though it was wrong also at some of the betal-shops.

Regular kirtans are done there and they are planning building a community hall and temple there. They also celebrate Durga Puja every year in the Vasant Nagar area near the Cantonment station.


It also shows how community help can make many more employed in a distant land.
They have also purchased a community land at Bengaluru some times back in Tawrekere area  which  would be of the rice of around  one crore now.


There are many more Maithls of upper echelons in this city but they could not organize themselves so nicely, mot of them  remaining encrusted in their nuclear families  and aloof from even their relatives not to talk of villagers.
Though there are two or three families I know here who did take care of there family and they are many members of their families are established in job in this city.
This is the story of almost every city not only of this city. One can say it is pan-incidence unlike Pan incidence which you will find for Maithil panwalas at Bengaluru.

Way to Mithila-V&VI :Whether Mithila’s statehood was also n

  Way to Mithila-V

I took a ticket for Samastipur  in way to Delhi which is a way to Mithila  State also as it happened in the case of Maithili's inclusion in the Constitution too as  National capital  was the battle ground for such issues.
Even for the IIT at Darbhanga Dr. Sureshwar Jha advised for campaigning near MPs and Ministers from  Mithila area as he had done for the radio station at Darbhanga.
Incidentally my job is that in which leaves are restricted and  for that I had already instructd our Delh workers for  having such work at their own level and they were to meet  me there.
At Delhi the primary function was the NEC meeting of the NMO and  query about May 27th meeting for the AMP at Delhi for which some important workers were to meet me at the NMO's venue.

I  entered in the almost vacant  passenger train for Patna, even knowing that Shahid Express would go  one and hour  late. I resumed by 12 noon I would be at Delhi whch was already communicated. At previous night I was cautioned that Shaheed  usually runs late and hence I had made an enquiry at station.
There was Sampark Kranti standing on platform no.1 which was a faster  train but  for a meeting at Samastipur  I had  chosen  the Shaheed express to have some  more time and when it was  known to me that it was  late I  informed the house  of Hareramji  that it will give some extra time and I had  gone to passenger train and was almost sleepy that a boy told further announcement that Shaheed would be  five and half hour late. I became anxious and quickly I got down went to the reservation counter for canceling my  reservation in Shaheed but there was a long queue and I  rushed to platform 1 for Sampark  Kranti express- whether to board the train with an improper ticket( of a passenger train) to Samstipur (as the passenger was  then supposed to leave after Sampark  Kranti jeopardizing my  meeting there)? I went to towards the general compartment and near the engine there was a half  coach(meant for ladies but  almost males were there) where a person  recognizing me called me. He was  Prof.Ayodhyanath Jha, brother of Tara Babu and I entered that utmost I would have to give penalty.
In such circumstances where a passenger is not  at fault, technically he is wrong and has  agony what to do.
Anyway we talked on the Mithila movement and he informed me about a very successful meeting of the Mithila Rajya Abhiyan at Biraul and he was of the opinion that Biraul can play a vital role for the movement as Rahika had played for the Maithili movement.
I still said that we should concentrate on other districts of Mithila as well.
He also reminded me for an article on Tara Babu Abhinandan Granth(while its editor Dr. Sureshwar Jha had in  previous journey asked me for an article this time he had not reminded and infact it was  I had forgotten that). I told him that on my one decade association with him I would write at the earliest and send it on e-mail of my teacher Dr. Mohan Mishra whose number he provided.(from Delhi I took his id and after I came to Bangalore did  that work first to write and e-mail and also sent a hard copy to Sureshwar Babu with his desired materials on Ireland and Irish language).
The Sampark Kranti too behaved like a passenger train and halting everywhere(justifying my ticket) it could reach Samsatipur. In the way Prof. Jha contacted Hareramji and I talked to him . As he was fighting  for a local body election no meeting could be arranged. While I took a shy of relief that now I would take the first available train (Vaishali Express ) it also suggests how  even a good worker takes up the modality of meeting despite one comes  with such strain and well informed - be it Darbhanga or  Samastipur  or any or many such places. We need a cadre-based mass organization everywhere for proper utilization of our little resources.
At Samastipur there was  not a long queue and I could  cancel  my ticket  although with full refund whether my  problems were to be addressed ?
There was no question of  a berth in the Vashali- even 15 days back there was 200+ Waiting List! I  was apprehensive whether with an ordinary ticket I could enter into the compartment but there was no rush and I could get a seat at least.
At Muzaffarpur I went to the STD booth and informed Dharmandji's daughter that I was in the general compartment in the rear side of the train. He would have been instructed not to come by Ayodhyanathji  as in the train we could not  get him on mobile.

Hazipur, famous for Hariharkshetra, an avatar kshetra which I wish be named on Hariharnath rather a lootera Hazi Illias!
Sonepur I saw famous for animal fair and Bhojpur started.

Jeeradei I saw and thought whether Rajendra Babu was born there. Initially there  was one Natwarlal there and everywhere scores of Natwarlal are may not be so sharp and educated like original!

At Hazipur I purchased  bananas though  famous for it, t was not so tasty but purchasing  those or peda by  vendor had also a feeling in my mind that I  was  by purchasing those was  also helping the person.
I was reading book on Sooraj Narayan Singh presented by Dr. Sureshwar Jha and had almost finished with ters in eyes many times- how  such great revolutionaries  who made India independent  were neglected in free India and Sooraj Bau thogh escaped from  martyrdom  during British Rule got it in Independent India and shameless Govt. even tried to  put a curtain on his death by brutal lathi charge - that revolutionary died in a Gadhian way without any protest in the regime of a PM who had a title GANDHI!
As soon as the train reached Chhapra it was over packed and I was alone to have not allowed others on my single window seat- there were 27 passengers  packed  on and above seats and on the floor! The gate became  chocked and there I was an idol (a Murthy) on my seat! It is not that I had not traveled in past in  such  rush but  after having a reservation and canceling that and then having journey like that!
A young man's family was going and how pleased they were with little home-made food!
I decided that I would not eat  or drink anything as it was  very difficult to go to toilet.
I started eating one banana(small size of Hazipur) half hourly and  a sip of water in between till I slept in midnight on that seat.
I crossed through  Basti and whenever I cross that station I see the portrait of Achrya  Ramchandra Shulka who  worked for Hindi as if  for the freedom movement and me or any Maithil is not opposing that Hindi.
We oppose only intrusion on our mother tongue and that is applicable to Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Braj as well.
Gonda came and I remembered Nanaji Deshmukh who worked there  renunciated  politics at 60(his disciples are  gluing to the posts)!
Came Gorakhpur and Dharmanandji was there! He praised the work  of a BJP MLA who won again despite  Maya's maya.. that MLA was a doctor of course!
Somebody had said  in the NMO conference, doctors as a politician are better than others and one more proof of that(the most  enlightening was  of a place Multai of MP where about a decade back an independent doctor  had won as was said by a co-passenger!
I want such politicians from every walk of life and have no prejudices about party as nation is supreme than party.
We talked till train left. He was surprised how I was traveling in that coach and me too on myself and had memoirs of him – he had been my one of the best associate(a few junior to me  but very mature) for the NMO work while he was at Ranchi and I started NMO from Darbhanga!
He  was also of the opinion that we should embark for a medical college as now the day of doing small things have gone..
Way to Mithila-VI :Whether Mithila's statehood was  also not Wait Listed 2 (Concluding)
I saw Lucknow from my seat where many times I have halted but this time I could not even gt down on the platform. At Lucknow I had  so far not  a Maithil meeting  but always I had been there for the NMO meeting since 1988 however, Anant Kr. Singh, IAS was the only Maithil  whom I knew  from my medical college days but more  like a younger brother as he was a few years  senior to my youngest brother at Netarhat School and his eldest brother  Dr. Swatantra Kumar Singh, senior to me was introduced  by him who now practices at Saharsa. Swatantraji was very close to Ramnanadan Mishra, a great Socialist leader who was an assitant to Gandhiji also and  when Jay Prakash Narayan differed from his booklet'Socilists whither.' He took a spiritualistic path and there I was taken by Swatantraji. I use to read newspapers for that old freedom fighter. He invited me several times on spiritual path but I did not  follow. With hs letter I was introduced to Acharya Binoba Bhave who had given me an appreciation in his own when handwriting when I met him at Pawanar in 1981.
Anant  was posted at Lucknow most of the time and in few visits I could meet him. Once I was traveling on Agra-Kanpur route and somebody criticized him that he ordered firing  on Uttarakhandi agitationists while DM of Muzaffarnagar.
I decoded I would never  see him again-was he same Anant who used to go with me selling Babuji(Ramnandan Mishra)'s  booklets in the outskirt of Darbhanga?
Once I had gone to Saharsa and could not resist myself to meet Swatantraji in Koshi Colony there. Bhabhi saw me from a distance and recognized-'Dhanakarjee, bahut  varsh bad ayalanhu?" I had memory of  Swatantraji's room in the House Officers' Residence where  two days' before the publication of Ananat's result of Matriculation I had asked him two questions:
1.     Write any  four lines of any poem
2.      Draw a rough sketch of India.
When he did that I found the mistakes- he had not started every line from a Capital letter and had not shown Andman Nicobar and Lakshdweep in sketch, even on prompting he had added Sri Lanka which was not a part of India. Only today(24.5.2007) the TOI has published my letter, on renaming the islands' names on Britishers' on old tribal traditional names rather than  of Jhansi rani or Tatya Tope who had not been there.

I said with sorrow that he should not top in Bihar(including Jharkhand) and when  after two days  the results were published in the Aryavart(then popular Hindi daily, established by Darbhanga maharaja at Patna) he was laced third in  Bihar though he had been top in the internal examinations of Netarhat School.
Bhabhi  started  saying,"aanha Brahmin bhay shrap day deliyak, tain Anantbabu top nahee lelkay," despite my plea that the result would have been made much before I had said that.
After his housephysicinship Swatantraji changed his house near Babuji's house and there too I was a frequent visitor and used to relish mangoes from Bhabhi's naihar, Mathai, a village near Saharsa(where too once I had gone to meet her).
And so many memories –of her daughter, Preeti whose nick name was Sweetee but I used to call her Madhulika, after a long  pause I could translate  Sweetee like that.

At  that summer night at Saharsa when we  all were on the roof to  sleep I said to Bhabhi,"Some day Anant will fire on me too leading Mithila  movement procession."
Now she started weeping," No, Anantbabu was made a ploy of conspiracy of some fertilizer mill owner, he is innocent."

After few years, in the next visit  when I had gone to  Lucknow, I enquired from him the details. He had already won the case in the Press Council of India as his imaginary interview was published  in a  newspaper  where he was cited as saying if women would go to field in such processions there rape was not unnatural…
This thing  I had also read in a book by T.N. Sheshan. When Anant had phoned him  he had not talked him. A defamation suit could not be  done against him as he had not mentioned his name but merely written, "DM of Muzaffarnagar."
I later wrote against it to some of the editors.

And  few years later I saw a  full page news in India Today,"Akhir Anant Singh ko Nyay Mil Gaya,"- he had been absolved of charges by the High Court.

When that Anant  had come to me in my medical ward informing that he had competed in IAS, I had  given peon Rs.10 to bring sweets(then in 1982 Rs.10 has some value!) and after he had eaten, I had told," I am not happy with your result. You should have been a scientist." he was a record breaker of the IIT, Khargur in physics and had first joined Indian Railway Traffic Sevrice then also I had told him to work on the modernization of railway lines.

Later he used to write me from Masooree and Ranikhet and Deoria  always rebutting my points," Administrators behind the screen do this ..that..etc.." I used to read his good handwriting but later our connection were severed.
In one such visit,  at Lucknow, I was offered a glass of sharbat by his wife but there was an ant and hence I asked her to change. She changed that.  During that time Anant was talking on phone. After that his wife asked whether he too would take sharbat. "Bhaiya jo nahee piye ,vahee lakar de do.."
She had alredy thown that. He said,"kya hua, cheetee to aise hee,cheeni ke sath rahti hai."
At least I had an impression that he must not have been bribed by those fertilizer mafia with a bagful of notes as Bhabhi had said me that night at Saharsa.
While Secretary to Union Minister Rajnath Singh in the Vajayee cabinet, once I had been his office ,not only there but also at the airport he touched my feet as if a real brother in Maithil tradition.
The Saharsa corridor of the East-West road was due to his intervention.
In one of the visits I was coming from south and he pointed to my little bag to his son, a school going student," dekho, Chacha kaise  itna kan saman me 15 din kee yatra karenge."
It was good that this time I had not asked him for arranging a berth. Once I had phoned him my PNR number to his PS and then return phone at my residence had come "in which class,"
"A sleeper ticket,' might be surprising for that PS when my sister had told him but had he came to me to see me like Dharmanandji he might have cursed me.
IAS is "I Agree Sir," used to  Abhash Kumar Chatterjee, the only other IAS I knew closely (and MK Hassan after being introduced with him at Abhasjee's death bed at Ranchi when though he was under my care a call was not sent to me and I could see him after 12 hours and a late diagnosis of  cerebral malaria and he could not be saved despite being airlifted to the AIIMS).
Abhashji was topper of Matriculation in Bihar in 1957 and was also a topper of the IAS who took VRS and spent his time among tribal people of  Chotanagpur, provided livelihood to hundreds of traditional weavers and saw their product was marketed even up to Germany. He was distributing chloroquine tablets to prevent malaria among them but became a victim of that. Abhashji was also from Purnea and I had almost made agreed him to join Mithila movement but his condition was that he may join ,"Mithla Hindu Party," as per Christian Democratic Party of Germany. Hindus are in itself democratic, though we agreed on the historical analysis of our independence movement we differed on rigid Hindu approach.

Lucknow is a crucible of politics and though once named on Laxman(Laxmanpuri) has a tradition of moderation in  polity. Vajpayee represented the constituency and several RSS stalwarts karmbhumi was it but  without mentioning my  memoires with Bhaurao  Deoras who studied there and was a whole-timer, let me say few  names from medical field-
I was first introduced there with Anil Jain who was a student and later served also in the tribal area of Bihar for a year who arranged NEC meet(in fact any big meet outside Bihar) of the NMO  during September 25-26, 1988.
And then the hostels of the KGMC, many times I visited- Suryakant(yes he is Tripathy though named after the great poet is not 'Nirala'), Narsingh Verma and  Vinay Agrwal, Lal Chand,  from BHU to LHMC to Mayurvihar, whose house remained my  stopover till he had a house, and last but not the least I had been at the house of Manish Pandey who organized a national conference and  also once my press conference, so widely covered by the media and  also of Ashwini Tondon who was a  student of ANMMC, Gaya.

I also was once a  guest of Dr. N.S. Bhatnagar(on whose insistence luckily I could have darshan of  Ayodhya temple before  it was demolished by hard-liner Hindus. I say it temple because I had seen inscriptions of lotus and pitcher on the walls where Ramlala was kept and also as a circumstantial evidence  there were many small temples as one can see in any Hindu ancient  major temple and no  mosque  around).

I had also been at the house of Dr. Vinay Mishra and used to talk Dr. Narsingh Verma frequently for my programmes.
As said crucible of politics,' politics in servics' also began from here, in the realm of the NMO when at its XIV National Conference at Lucknow  (April 8-9,2000) one worker insisted for the post which was till then unthinkable in the NMO.

People change but place remains and so memory! Once  while in 1980s I had met Kalraj Mishra on that Lucknow platform , a youth leader who is a prominent one. Dr. Ashok Varshneya once came to receive me as Nagar Parchark became Prant rachark of Jharkhand has been in cordial relation always.

Why Maya prevailed- there may be many explanations to that but harnessing even 30 per cent of 46 per cent votes polled need a cadre. The Congress lost its one party rule because  it lost its cadres in UP and so BJP lost because of its 'Congressisation' and Mandalisation  from UP  as well as other states.
The Maya had put herself a viable alternative and all who wanted to get rid of Mulayam and went to vote made her 'Behanji of UP' who may dream to be 'Malika of India,' if the national parties do not change their way and modalities of functioning.
Lucknow is  having a building(Imambada probably) which  'Bhul-bhulaiya' where one  forgets the way without a guide and in  a bigger sense Lucknow itself is a 'bhul bhulaiya' of Indian polity.
Though constitutionally one state, U.P. despite shelving hilly Uttarakhand  is an amalgam of several states- Purvanchal,Awadh, Bundelkhand,Braj and Shaursen(which now Ajit Singh wants as Harit Pradesh). Taken together equivalent to Pakistan, only five countries of the world (China, rest of India, USA, Indonesia and  Brazil) are  having more population  than U.P.
Formerly it was called Province of  Ouadh State & Brar which was later changed to the United Province before it was called Uttar Pradesh though it is not in fact the northern (uttar) state(Pradesh) it has given  Uttar(answers) of the questions  whenever put before the nation as it is the heartland of the Ganga-Brahmputrea valley  but at the moment it has put more questions than provided answers, I thought seeing the platforms and population of the area and do not remember when I slept  on my seat.
I  was awakened by the voices of vendors at Kanpur where too I did not called in that mid-night Premkant Jha, a senior Maithili worker and Shrigesh Mishra of Madhubani who has been with me since the I International Maithili Conference at Ranchi June 19-20,1993 and  was a fellow who on cycle was my pilot like guide to arrange meetings  in my 132 km padyatra in Oct.1993 when I  had started  alone  on an unknown path of Mithila…
My first Maithili  meeting was held  there at the Saraswati Shishu Mandir, Railbazar and then at many places including one big meeting at the Chambers Hall I had addresses where Babu Saheb Chaudhary, Kolkata's son-in law had played the role of Ugna in Ugna natak (Lord Shiva  working as  a servant of Mahakavi Vidyapati brought  Gangajal when asked by Vidaypati to bring water in a summer and that Vidyapti recognized- "From where you could bring Gangajal? Who are you?' Lord said I am Shiva but will live with you  on the condition that you will not reveal that. Once Vidyapati's wife was angry on Ugna and  threw a burning  wood on Him..
"What you are doing –He is Lord Siva..
And Shiva  vanished.
Mahakavi became  mad and wrote- "Ugna re more kat Gealaih?"
(In this journey in that early morning to Madhubani I saw the  dome of the temple from Sakri- Pandaul road; from Ugna I had started my Cycle Yatra in 1994 in a  scorching summer and had been there also in a Maithili workers' training camp thereafter- a nationally important pilgrimage center it may be if developed properly).
There is also a Maithil  Ugna Mahadev Mandir at Shastri nagar where once I had my pradosh puja after which I had taken almost full stomach sweets brought by Dr. Malay Chaturvedi, an surgeon. and twice I was guest of Shriballabh Jha where  typical Maithili food was served.
I remember a  pan-vendon at the Jarail more in Madhubani district had once told me during my Cycle-Yatra that after Kolkata Maithils were most at Kanpur. In some respect they have achieved more respect there.
True, Kolkata has a Vidyapati Setu(and now Mumbai's Mulund has a Vidyapati Chowk) but Vidyapati was a great on whose name in every city of the country there should have been roads and chowks by this time if proper contribution  of him would have been dessiminated but Kanpur has a raod on the name of Dr. Ramesh Jha  in Kakadeb area- I was his son's guest twice and also once I had inaugurated a medical camp by the NMO at Kakadev organized by Dr. Bajpayee, an orthopedic surgeon at whose house I went so many times in the Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial Medical College(GSVMC) Campus- at least one person at Khagaria I found(whom I asked  was you entitled after  the great Ganesh Shankar,Rajkumar Vidyathi, a  senior worker to me in age replied affirmatively).

With Premkantji I had gone to see the place where in 1857 several Indians were tied on tree were shot dead!
We are celebrating 150th year of that First war of Indian Independence. Historian Irfan Habib said few days back around two lakh Indians were brutally killed by civilized(?) British, forgetting all we are trying our next generation be English speaking.
Once famous for textile mills Kanpur perished and once I had a meeting at a dilapidated  staff quarter of it.
Now Kanpur is famous as the city having highest number of TB patients!
I slept afterwards and train too became late and hence, in the morning too I found myself in U.P.
Aligarh was there where when I visited first had seen aboard mentioning the tickets for the stations to Pakistan!(Nowhere in India I had seen in those days when there was neither the  Samjhauta Express nor the  Thar Express!).
At Aligarh though my first acquaintance was  Pramod Arya, (ABVP worker in 1977 who had attended Varanasi's Conference  where I could gather 41 medicos from tent  to  tent to found medico), my relation could be physically possible when I new Dr. Jagadish Prasad Goyal  who had gradually made single-handedly highest number of life members of the NMO in a city and also from a  family of Dr. Singhal where almost all adults seemed to be doctors and  also the life members of the NMO.

Once with Jagadishji I had gone to see the AMU the buildings of which were looked to me as domes of the mosques! There was much hue and cry when court had declared that it was not a minority institute.
But the more interesting thing I would ever remember  for the city in a street  there was a  very fat person running his " Lala Moteramjee ke dahi  ki  dukan…" with a board with this name!


Aligarh is a part of Brajbhumi and Brajasth Maithils have been there who migrated there during Muslim  rule of 14th century from Mithila . They have there dharmshala and all things required for a community and mostly they work for making locks like any ironsmith but they clam to be Brahmins of Mithila which at present is difficult to say for want of Panji.
Once Jagdishji took me to a person  named Pathakji who  happened to be a friend of Kalyan Sinh and was 'guru' of Jagdishji in Sangh work but more interestingly I remember a other person of the same community Pt. Totaram Jha.

The train passed in that early morning one of the most fertile parts of the country – Khurja and then Gazhiabad but train stopping at many small places did not stop there.

I had to go to Viveknagar and one of the passengers  said that there was  a small station of that name in the way but I did not see that and even at Anand Vihar  it did not halt. Now it was Vaishali Superfast and  though I was not  feeling urge to go to toilet due to my regulated water and food(banana) intake there was a pressure of  rush I continuously facing- after all it was a train from Bihar's Mithila ( though the rush was of Bhojpuris in the compartment)  who export maximum number of labourers on which the green revolution was possible in  Punjab and I must  had a booster  of  that experience which in past I had once in Shramjeevi Expresss from Patna and once going to Allahabad in the Prayagraj Express.

The glory of Pryag and Varanasi though in the UP  has  not been described yet as those were not in the route but let me salute Jaykant Mishra's family of Prayagraj who  did  immense contribution to Maithili and Mithila cause.

There I had some  NMO meetings too especially when Indranill Basy  Ray of Kolkata joined  in MD there.
With a senior doctor RC Gupta,I had once gone to the inauguration of the IMA house and had also  addressed there.
With him I had gone to see the martyr place of Chadrashekhar Azad and when the thorny branches of that tree in side of which Azad was martyred, pierced my head and blood oozed out I said," It is  a good salute to Azad!"
I  had not been in Triveni though  crossed the bridge hundreds of time but at Varanasi where as the NMO, a chapter of my life rather new life  of my was written when I was 22 years old,  had visited Baba Vishwanath on few occasions.
BHU did impress me where I could not join despite forms sent by Laxman Shrkrishna Bhide who later became in charge of the Foreign department of the RSS who had  unending affection to me.
During the APICON in 2003  not only had presented my model of medical education which  attracted  media  but also in shivering cold I could do a Pradosh  puja to Lord  Vishwanath after Ganga-snan because my train  for  Dhanbad coming from Ferozpur was over 24 hours late!
Vaishali  Express too was late and I was in panic for the NMO meeting. I  could have get down at  Tilak Bridge was not sure for getting a bus for Vivek Vihar but as soon as I left my seat some other occupied and  I went to toilet which was in fact more comfortable than the  jam-packed compartment!
I got down at new Delhi and took buses to reach Vivek Vihar where  during the NMO meetings talked workers from  many places including Goa and Gujarat.

I found there I have somewhere  missed  my Excel sheets of addresses and phoned Madhubani and Darbhanga, seems I've lost them and later I found  at Bangalore also my small Maithli Panchang.

It was pleasant  to talk the doctors who were present and also who were on phone from outside as well as Delhi- they all were once were close to me and sitting without them was very uncomfortable when some two groups incidentally seating n a same city but ..the law of nature who can change..
"Yato Dharms tato jayah,"  so proclaimed Lord Krishana and also He had said, "You will have to work whether you like or not and work without being attached."
I do not intend to write for Delhi's association with me  in this travelogue but reaching Delhi was not the end.
After medical meeting assembled Maithils- Kripanand, Dr.Rabender  Jha and  Rajesh, son of Dr. Chadrakant Mishra, Darbhanga  and notably Comrade Bhimsingh Maithil from Faridabad with two young workers.

We fixed  up date(12 Aug. 2007) for the next meeting and while entering data of the NEC meeting of the NMO  was talking with Maithili group- the net was there and e-mailing the proceedings to newspapers and groups  and so a  forward of the NMO's resolution to Maithili group later evoked a good discussion on privatization of medical services).
We had condemned Delhi CM,  Shiela Dixit for her anti –Bihar-UP bias which we see here or there (now from Pune such incident of beating Biharis for an All India level Railway Examination).

Why it is so? Because we could not make understand the people of that nation that region and nation are like the parts and body.
Where is the soul of the nation- soul searching  is needed.
When Manish phoned me-I had asked him how you like Gujarat.
"Very bad for Ahmedabad."
"Then you are capable of any all India responsibility- ndia is not India- Ahmedabad."
I know he said so as his  family  resides at Delhi and  the utterance was  a  human reflection to it
Bhimsinghji's friends were advised by Kripanand to learn Maithili.
They wanted a Maithili Brahman Yuva Parishad's simultaneous meeting but I had already written a postcard but not posted which  I gave to Bhimsinghji where I had said such meeting was not possible under the ambit of the AMP which is working irrespective of caste.
Bhimsinghji appreciated  my point and  also Kripanand's point that till you speak Maithili how you can be a Maithil?
AMP would run 10-day course for such  Pravasi Maithils  at Delhi- It may be done at Raipur as well and so  at other places.
Regarding their lost Panjee they should meet Panjikars where the AMP would not be much helpful but  all should come under one umbrella. While taking off from them, I said what I had once written to Bhimsinghjee,
"Work as a Comrade for Mithila cause and as a Maithil for Comrade cause but if there was any confusion in the way, remember  Prathamtah aur antimtah aap maithil Hai,"

And repeating  that I said," We  do not know whether Marxian theory will remain 500 years hence, but even before that we  were Maithils and  would remain 500 years after. It the grace of Mother Seeta where  Vajpayee and Bhogendra Jha- dono ke sar jhuk jate hain."
They were anxious as to my transfer to south had hampered the work but I said them that though  I might have difficulty in familial problems  but it had given me an opportunity to work  Chennai, Tirupati, Hyderabad, Goa, keral etc. which would  not have been possible from Ranchi but finally I may come to live Delhi as I know Delhi is the way to Mithila and Dr.Rajput's house was having an open invitation since long  whose  wife  had already given  a pack for  night tiffin on that Ekadashi  and  as it was  late so my villager Kripanand  somehow could  leave me on his bike at New Delhi station  barely 5 minutes before the schedule time of departure.
Dr. Narendramohan Singh  or Dr. Manish had not come there-though we could have talked for 15 minutes there.
The end-leg of journey was confirmed but my mind  was hovering since the beginning whether Mithila's statehood was  also not Wait Listed 2 (after Telangana ?) and would it remain unconfirmed in my whole  life time or will  it be confirmed after my half life - in the second phase of life- like that of the half journey of beginning, I described?

Way to Mithila

Coincidences to organization: Chennai

The morning I wished to start via Chennai for Madhubani /Darbhanga/Samastpur/ Delhi, I found a mail:
" I am from Darbhanga and after my BE in Mech, I am here in chennai since February 2006.
It was heartening to see that AMP's efforts in doing something for our region.
The presentation to Mr Modi ji in Bang lore was to the point and specific.
I want to contribute something with you people in changing the phase of out region. I also want to know that, any activity being organised from Chennai or near by so that I can volunteer there in.
Reetesh K Jha, SIPS, Chennai ."
To which I replied:
"What a coincidence again!
Meet me today evening at Chennai reaching by Brindawan Exp. around 8 m and will take up Howrah exp.at 23.30 pm.
I will call you once I reach as both of my tickets are wait list-you may see my coach after 12 noon if confirmed in Brindavan exp. by PNR ….and in the evening in Howrah exp. …………once the chart is prepared.
I have sufficient time and practically no work in between- if you can call even 2-3 persons it may be an initiation of AMP at Chennai. One young neurosurgeon of Apollo ,Chennai , a resident of Samasitpur will come to receive me at Sation- Dr. Manish ……... Through him you may recognize me--usually we meet at the front ahead engine where main yard of platform joins.
I am in blue half shirt and bald with few gray hairs."
To which he again replied:
"You mean Brindavan Exp comming from Banglore....
I will be there Chennai central station by 8pm."
And that young man was there though Dr. Manish did not come and we could not contact him on mobile.
Now I find from the records that on 29.4.2006 also he had written on our e-group:
"I have shifted from Mumbai to Chennai.
I need a rental house for bachelor near Nungambakkam,Annanagar,Mumgambakkam,Mehtanagar...
please help me out..
More over any Mithila or Maithili realted activities going on here please let me know..
I want to participate in that.."
Some Keshav on July 12,2005 at Chennai was searching a Maithil pundit to which someone had written:
" Pundits are the same everywhere including Chennai.
Hindu Pundits are trained in Karmkand the same way.Why
Is it hard for you to find a Pundit? There is not any pooja/karmkand which can not be done
by non-Maithil pundits. Om Shanti!
A. Jha."
0n 20.10.2004 also some Rakesh had written:
"Some one week back I have shifted to Chennai. I am working
with "Irevna" at Dr R K Salai in Mylapore. Is there anyone in the
group from Chennai? I would really be nice to speak Maithili in Tamil
land. Hope to meet some Maithil people here.
Rakesh Mishra,Irevna"I
And Kunal Thakur(who was in close correspndence with me and was akked to have a meeting at his native place Brahmpura, Benipatti, Madhubani had written on 23.3.2006:
"First I m really sorry , I couldn't organise the meeting., as circumstances were like that. Intially i tried to contact Kamalkant ji but failed, then I became very busy in my family function, Did u go through the xerox? what do u think now?"
Few years back Sanjay Mishra from Chennai had written me some o personal problems and I forgot him who on 27.7.2006 had written to me :
"Hope you remember me.Sir i need a help from you..I
need Phiran Jha's telephone number(Hyderabad, Hisar).Now a days i am in
Hyderabad.."
And today AK Jha from Hyderabad asks;
"I would like to know the contact address and telephone no of "Bihar Bhawan" located at Chennai".

I had already written the brief Maithil saga of Chennai:
"Biharis gathered and formed associations at Chennai and Bangalore too but why they did not take up Mithila identity would remain an enigma till some one with authority writes on that. At both places Maithils were among top workers and at Chennai in fact Shobhakant Das could be called the founder who had though immense love with Maithili but the organization was not named on Maithili.
When I talked to him in person he was very cordial to my motives of a separate organization of Maithils though did not help any further. I had to visit door to door in distant corners of the city (like Velankini to meet a Maithil working in the Sulabh) with a hair-line fracture in my legs due to a rickshaw accident at Vijaywada in way to Chennai when I had gone there for the APICON(Association of Physicians of India's annual conference)in January 1995. Not only the Maithils were convinced they organized themselves as the Maithil Sangh, Chennai in the inaugural function of which when I reached very late(due to Alleppy bound train) at the venue near the Egmore Station(which was chosen so that even late I could catch my train to Madurai),all Maithils were taking lunch as last programme. Knowing me they put a very big rose garland9so far no where that big garland I have been offered). And then during Dec.26-27, 1998, there was VII International maithili Conference organized by GK Thakur and Prof. Madhu, Karunjee etc. where a large contingent of Maithil betel-shopowners from Bangalore had attended who have in fact made the first Maithil orgnisation in south- they now own a good piece of land worth about one crore rupees and organize Durga Puja annually at the Vasant Nagar, near Bangalore cantonment station.
Yes, those who are little educated respect their mother and mother tongue and motherland more than those of us who are highly educated and hence, they organized themselves as Maithils but our own persons from high echelons had a sense of shy organizing as Maithils?
Then in 1995 January, I had stayed at the IIT, Chennai hostel as a guest of Dr. Shirish Chaudhary and at night I used to take food in his house. His name too was given to me by Satishchandra Chandra Jha of Hyderabad who was GM, Praga Tools( and his name was given to me by a Maithil, Arbind Jha at Nagpur in my nephew's marriage sometimes before)…..

Highly educated Maithils of Hyderabad showed the courage to unite themselves as Maithils was certainly praiseworthy than those of their counterparts in South who could not.."
It is not that at Chennai or for that matter anywhere Maithils cannot be united. Maithil Sangh, Chennai(better as the AMP, Chennai, since it was seeded after my home contacts of January 1995 there) need reactivation and incidentally I am in south and till I am in this region AMP/ NMO work be strengthened by my efforts.
Individually Kunal, Keshav, Sanjay, Rakesh, Manish could not make organisation though they all liked from their hearts. Had an organisation there they would have got the information for room to groom for their family (in AMP organizationally we do not encourage bride or groom searching for some reasons but once you are known to each other it comes automatically through references which are better than any portal on modern techniques for many reasons!).
But Reetesh was alone and we need at least dedicated two to form an rganisation and he took me to Chennai's Merina beach once again where sometimes back I was with Manish and his medico friends to talk for the NMO.
We talked a lot as to how to make organization at Chennai.
But there was no second person that I could have a unit.
We also tried to contact Tara Babu at Patna for raising question at Bihar Vidhan parishad for the IIT at Darbhanga, I could not carry my diary with me ,I find there but Maithili organization's list had his landline but again a lady told from Patna that it was changed. She replied in a nice manner when I asked whether I was talking some one else's house.
"No, I am from her family but residence is changed."
The other landline she gave was in my list but of no reply was from there.
We contacted Samastipur and at Hareramji's house left message for a scheduled meeting I am already in the way.
Since I had already taken food in evening we talked only.
There were some glittering light on sides of the beach for MK Karunanidhi's 50-years of legislator ship, continued. We, in Mithila did not have any such leader of regional importance. MK was magnanimous to accept K Kamraj as the best CM of TN though life long he was his political adversary.
I said Reetesh to communicate with people there and have a unit of the AMP. If a big orgnaisation's small unit is anywhere,if defunct that organization tries to rejuvenate that but if a small or local orgnisation ceases to work due to some factor/s it is a matter of inertia for the people of that place. Since Maithil Sangh, Chennai was not a constituent part of the AMP though in the past I did try but not seriously which I hope in coming months again I would go there and see a unit of the AMP is formed and the Maithils query of pundits and room and others are solved by knowing each other who are living so close but are unknown still.
I told Reetesh that in the years of 1950s those who were doing Maithili organizations were (at Kolkata) relatively of low paid work and therefore they had close contacts with all common Maithils and they use to call some senior high and elite Maithils as guests in functions. Gradually the scenario has taken a circle- now many well educated Maithils are Maithili worker too but our problem is that we are not able to penetrate among common mass which was easier by the workers of one generation before and hence we should bow down to take lower strata of Maithils in our arms with a message of brotherhood and equality on which the edifices of Modern Mithila would be made.

Reetesh may go to Paris for company work soon but I hope he would contact many before he leaves Chennai and a continuity of meeting is maintained which is the essence of an organization with at least one annual gathering or function.
For us Maithili work in all important cities are important as also in different districts of Mithila.

Way to Mithila-I

When Reetesh met me and he had searched through his mobile my ticket was wait list 2 after chats were prepared and in the train for TTEs wait list 2 or 200 has no meaning what they mean money for confirming you have no RAC ticket. This was hovering around my mind whole time while I was sitting with him at Merina Beach that I had to go two nights and the previous night by 3 am I was awake for entering data for documents needed for next meetings.
And Wait List 2 was fitting to some printed idioms(at the moment I do not remember all but it was like:
"Ask the value of a year… who had failed in examination
Ask the value of a minute…who missed the train;
Ask the s value of a second who missed the catch,
Ask the value of a part of a second who missed the medal in Olympics, etc. etc." and like wise, I may add on my experience;
Ask the value of few minutes earlier booking who remained on Wait List 1 or 2 finally.."

Probably railway needs automatic partially reservation on such long tickets for many quota berths to join in between for partial rest of such travelers, particularly in night hours ( suppose any berth from Vijaywada to Vishakhapatam would have been booked before me, I should have been given a partial allotment from Chennai to Vijaywada and Vishakahapatnam to Howrah for that berth instead of treating me waitlisted for whole route and even for in between a few seats may be left for sitting only for such persons in every coach). These need simple computer programming to remove the scope of exploitation by the TTEs which to a large extent has gone after the computerization. At least half of the train should be unreserved general coach all over the country is my personal opinion on the basis of my three decades of mostly unreserved journey.

There was a great rush in the train on account of students (and parents) of the Karnataka Combined Engineering and Medical Test and more so due to young trainee of the CRPF around 200 returning from Chennai.
The psyche of a wait list ticket is quite embarrassing though he too had paid same ticket is a wanderer while others are occupying berth to sleep or sit. I recall in one of such journeys, two young boys who had spread bed sheet telling berth no.73,74 were confirmed for them but in the attempt of taking advantage of such quota berth for few hours had lost that passage to gate 'berths' too to some other who occupied that with bed sheet and had slept there.

I sat for some time on a side seat where a lady was sleeping and was about to spread newspaper in between berths with uncontrolled sleep but had a hesitation f sleeping that way though some 10-15 year back once I had slept under the berth from Tatanagar to Ranchi in a cool night while coming from Mumbai.
Sitting besides a sleeping lady at night too could raise problem and hence I thought to search somewhere else in other compartment. Luckily I found in the adjacent compartment a TTEs seat unoccupied- probably the person who had occupied that seats could not control him and was flat beneath the wash basin, near the door.
I hurriedly went to the earlier compartment, unlocked the chain of my bag and came to that TTE's seat and chaining my bag there I sat thinking it was like my unconfirmed RAC seat and would be better in the morning for my puja without disturbance from others.
Usually I change to Dhoti in journey to avoid discomfort of 'pant' , surely a full pant is fool's pant. And I was comfortable whole night seeing Gudur, Nellore stations and the nearby highway which I had crossed on my car previous year.

A CRPF jawan wandering on one such platform filled up my water bottle. He was a nephew of a Bhojpuri singer Dubeyji of a Colliery near RamgarhCantt. His native place was in Vaishali district and when I exclaimed as to how a Vaishali native might be Bhojpuri he explained from Ara they had migrated there.

When I slept in the sitting stage I could not recall when early morning wind awoke me somewhere before Vijaywada. It was the coastal Andhra where I had gone for the first time in 1977 to serve the cyclone victims. At Eluru I was awake and so at Rajamundry and Samalkot which refressshed my memory of nearby Kakinada where I had made several unsuccessful visits to have a good unit of the NMO.

In this route whenever I travel, in between Samalkot and Tuni, at Annavaram, I always see Satyanarayan Bhavan's temple on a hill( left side while going to Howrah from Chennai) and think someday I would go there. To my knowledge nowhere is such temple of Satynarayan Bhagwan.


I did puja after taking a bath with a soft drink's small sized empty plastic bottle in toilet after cleaning down by water and tape by soap, though at Visakhapatanam it was thoroughly washed and dried including the passage of door where I was sitting, by some private agency's workers which is hardly seen anywhere in country rather the cleaning of running train are as if has been outsourced to poor children who clean the coach , get some money and left over food and also collect the empty bottles of mineral water on reaching at destination of train. Mineral water selling is a good business which in fact is more a fashion these days while the fact is that only few parameters are checked by such companies in comparison to the water supplied by the public distribution system. So are the soft drinks containing pesticides and BVO, cancer-producing elements in it.

When I got down at Vishakhapatanam to fill my bottle with drinking water and came back somebody had occupied my that TTE seat on the pretext that it was not a proper seats for passenger and he had a wait list ticket.
I told maybe but not only I had been sitting there his waitlist must be after me as I was no.2 listening to which he left the seat.
It was worth seeing the landscape of coastal Andhra and at Vizianagarm I had the memory of Sunabeda of Orissa where in the HAL(Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) worked my cousin and my sister-in law was once at a post-Deepawali evening was astonished to see s e when I had knocked the door. Her gaze, as if in Sanskrit it is said, "jajau na tasthau.." And I had that night seen the crackers in a ground on the eve of Kali Puja and had asked her that I was feeling Telugu in the air." Yes," she replied," though in Orissa Telugu was dominant there."

There was still a stretch of Andhra after Srikakulam Road (near to which is famous sun temple) and Palasa.
A TTE entered at Srikakulam and I requested him for confirming my berth to which he replied in a soft voice," let me check."

After some time I was dozing in the cool evening and he came back and said that berth cold be managed if I gave him money to which I said that I would not give and as a central Govt. officer I neither took nor gave bribe and could show my I-card if he liked. On it he was a bit embarrassed. I said that I was requesting him only to which he said to check him at Palasa.
At Palasa, I went to him and he confirmed my berth.
In fact, it is common public who encourage bribery. Ma. Abajee Thatte had once said us in the NMO meeting to travel in general class if could not get reservation. I know it was easier to advice than to follow particularly for Ma. Abajee like VVIP who may not have such personal problem as being full-timer and with a saintly high stature life his all programmes would have been pre-fixed but still I had followed his advices to a large extent and maybe two or three times I might have given extra money for a berth, in recent pat once while coming from Kishanganj for confirming a RAC ticket and once in way to Tirupati Rs. 50 each but they had not demanded like one did this time.

Further, I feel the power to recommend action with immediate suspension should be given to any Govt. officer for catching anyone taking bribe which now a days is a tedious process through departmental channel. Utmost the officer needs summary evidence recorded and signed by any two persons. By this method every officer would be a member of bribe checking squad and within six months bribery from every field would be eliminated.

On new berth I saw new drama of a highly educated old lady whose son was a high official who was though directed by the same TTE to occupy TTE's berth no.7 at Vishakhapatnam thought that an instruction to move coach 7 and being old lady with some joint problem she did not go there and was probably reluctant to pay difference in fare or penalty for she had almost completed her journey to Bhubaneshwar requesting other passenger to seat on their space.

It was Orissa's Brahmpur and my memories of may be over a dozen visits there for the NMO. I took some puris from the hawkers, a north food after many day. Khurda Road came and recalled my y darshan of s Lord Jagannath. Bhubaneshwar and Cuttack and memories of Dr. Sanjit Kr. Panda and Dr. Radhesham Panda and many others for whom I was now an unknown after I chose an 'independent path' for the NMO though I was on right track, I stopped informing them while crossing on those East Coast Tracks, after all, I am an 'unknown medico,' not merely by naming my autobiography as such but was an 'unknown traveler.'

I do not recall where I slept on an upper berth but once I got up and saw it was Kharagpur and then in Kolkata suburb. I again took bath in the toilet and got down at the Howrah station and finding a suitable place did my puja.
There I saw an old man having three small luggage was moving slowly taking two luggage at a time for some distance and putting those there and coming back to collect the third kept within his vision. S The coolies were blackmailing him. I helped him for some distance then a Bihari cooley came agreed to go to the bus stand for Rs.40. The old man said that it was due to a Behari gentleman that he could come Howrah in an upper class from Baluga in Orissa.
I had ample of time in my train and I had not inform anyone at Kolkata to come to meet me and I as a humanitarian work caught the hand of that's old man to bus stand. He was alone and wished to go to an Ashram but bus conductor too blackmailed him for his small luggages-
"Kudi(20) taka lagbo. Tumin Cooley 40 taka dibo , platorm te bus stand khatir, aami to Belaghatia –etek door tomake lay jibo."

I told the conductor to take him and gave a coin of Rs. 5 to that old man as he had only Rs.14. And then took a cup of tea for Rs.2 and gave to that old man. Kolkata is cheap no doubt but the first metro is experiencing the onslaughts of modern life which all other parts of the country would experience, sooner or later and I too may become an old like that old man, alone..

I took some bananas for Rs. 10 and in the sub-way seeing many girls and ladies selling lemons two for Rs.1. Bachelors' disease o scurvy used to be about a century back I have seen them many times but could not understand as to why they were in so much numbers, maybe single lives like that old man has been the fate of many.
I went to waiting lounge. Still three hours to wait. A person asked me to wath his luggage so that he could some from outside taking tiffin. When it was a bit late I was apprehensive whether his big box has anything(bomb? ) but he came soon he was from the Silchar(Assam) and was going to his home. I recalled my Silchar visits for the NMO and Dr. Dileep kr. Sarkar.
There was a young boy sitting besides me who drived a Volvo machinediffeent from a Volvo bus) in a mines near Hospet, near Bellary and I recalled my several visits to Bellary for the NMO work. He belonged d to Shekhpura and gave me his addressees which probably I've lost. Since there were around 100 Maithils I thought visiting the place again may result in both AMP and NMO work
He had told me that Toofan Expressss runs with much sound but less speeds and it was always late, He went to have a seats in the general compartment and I took my berth. The coach was full of examinees of Karnataka Engineering Test. In fact crores of rupees every year drains to Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Maharashtra from Bihar, WB, Orisa etc. And Bihais have a peculiar look to the capitation fee based education. The guardians get it back with interest as dowry s and for the parents of a girl it is an early installment of dowry to get brighter grooms in interest.
I had been to jail for the take over of such capitation fee medical colleges and still despite all the slogan of liberalization- privatization and globalization, I am not in favour of selling seats and at the same time if any meritorious boy sells himself as 'dowry' I avoid to attend his marriage(I did not attend my younger brother and my sister's son marriage in this connection) though I know pretty well that dowry has some links with the inheritance of property to and girls should not be denied of that yet I cannot tolerate marriageas a s business and so education or health a a business.
In the December 18, 2006 issue of the Business world www.businessworld. in cover story was that in less than one decade Wockhardt, Fortis and Max had added close to 5,000 bed that too Apollo the prime mover in this field 20 years. Such private revenues are growing briskly to the tune of 30 per cent which resent a picture how health has turned to a business for 'Shining India' ignoring the Bharat.
Anyway, I asked some students to give signatures on a petition for the IIT at Darbhanga and even students from Patna district signed on that.
As said by the Shekhpura boy Toofan Express had more sound while crossing the green fields than speed.

I did not notice whether train crossed Naihati where I was guest of s Dr. Lalji Tiwary, once bckbone of the NMO, RG Kar MC Kolkata and at nearby Hukumchand Jute Mills I had been twice chief guest s in Vidyapati parva and was at Uttarpara to meet Dayanath Jha who earlier lived at Hind Motors quarter. It crossed suburbs like Risra where near Konangar I had gone to see s a Maithil Janaki Mandir and had a meeting. Seerampur where I had visited in past to meet Dr. Pankaj Kr. Sinha, Secretary, NMO, WB. Baidyabati was there where lived Mahesh Kumar who for long had been in contact through postcards - his and mine letters were published same day once in the jansatta in 1992 where I had pleaded for the identity of Maithili separate from Hindi.

At Uttarpara , I could also meet one of my villager Chandreshwar Mandal and once had been on Vijoyadashmi day when ladies wee exchanging colours on their faces as if Mata Durga was going to her in-laws. Being a holiday I could not enter the Sarvajink Laibrary thee where Aurobindo had given famous Uttarpara speech in which he had said that he was seeing India uprising from the bondage and he in fact had come to for its independence which too came on his birthday in 1947 but he had also aid that India will be reunited again-a divided Bharat was not acceptable to him.
I also saw Chandennagar once a French territory and hence a abhayaranya for Indian revolutionaries… the place is also famous for the famous Jagddhatri puja, on the seventh day of Deepawali when it is well illuminated with lights. Hope someday I give Chhath arghya there and also see the famous festival.

I also recall a lady of that place who had sometime met me in a train going or coming from Panagarh who ran a small shop there and was so convincing in her words though illiterate as if she was the Devi Chaudhurani of Bankimchandra, the s famous heroine of the noel who represented women empowerment in those days of Indian renaissance.

The train crossing Adra reached Burdhhaman I passed with the memory of the Kali mandir there where long before I had gone to meet a Maithil in Bara Kalitala and then had revisited the town on a NMO tour with Dr. Asit Roy of Chhotneelpur there to have conctas in the medical college ,situated amidst the paddy fields, where a clerk of the college office said that on raksha bandhan he tied rakhi to all.
I could see Kaveri Hostel of the NIT, Durgapur in the way which evoked my memory to the Rani Jhansi and Mother Terea Hostels of the Vellore Institute of Technlogy I had seen on Bangalore- Chennai route.

Durgapur I had visited in past few occasion which had a stell plant but could not organize AMP or NMO thee despite having good workers from both.
Dr. Manoj Singh , a student and worker of NMO from the Medical College, Kolkata had told me that at Durgapur he was so much busy in his practice that for cutting hairs too he has to plan in much advance. He lived at the Vidyapati Marg meaning thereby in Bengal Vidypati is still better respected than in Bihar where in fact non-Maithils frown on the name of Maithili.
Had been we in Bengal our position would have been better that we became in Bihar.
There are personal memories too with Durgapur when a Durgpur medico refused marrying me knowing a vegetarian and incidentally when I visited NRS MC' Lady Elliot Hostel at Kolkata with my sister-in law( sister of my newly- wed wife) she was there to inform me for other medico Sharma from Durgapur and later wished to meet me and frankly told that she wished a joyous life and hence had left me.

The joy is of various type and an assumption that only overtly physical things do give joy is difficult to digest.

Then came Asansol where I had not been ever for any Maithili meeting though there was a Maithili organization which even printed a calendar with the photograph of Mahakavi Vidyapati.
Some paramedical staffs entered with the pamphlet of the Thalassemia Socity for donation to which I said that they should not ask at train from unknown person. Anywhere donor and receiver/ his/her representative should know each other for faith.
The coach was full of unauthorized passengers,mostly on monthly ticket and TTE was unable to say anyone maybe out of fear.
The train also stopped at Sitarampur where once I was stranded in my I Sc days coming from Ranchi –in the way to it at Kulti and Burnpur the mothers in very dirty one cloth only reminded me always the poverty of Bharatmata.
Now the situation must have been improved.
There was alo Panagarh, an Army center in the way …and then came Chittarnjan, on the name of famous CR Das where is locomotive factory. Once I had tostay at that tatin for long with my old father when I could not catch Patliputa express by Gangasagar Express coming from Barauni.
It is border of WB and Jharkhand which is called Mihijam which came in lime light with Shibu Soren's case and conviction, while a Union Minister. "TV used to show the Tower Clock always ," remarked a fellow student passanger which was visible from the train.
Then there was Madhupur which I knew first being near to Giridih from where Sssuhil Kumar, NMO, DMC worker was and I had gone to his home several times as if his elder brother but he left me later on for unknown reaons.
In 2005 I was requested by my class friend Dr. P. N. Jha to come to the Vidyapati Parva and I had gone there and had addressed s the large gathering.
Vidyasagar or Karmatand is near to it whee great reformer Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar used to come fom Kolkata. I had been in some of the camps organized by the NMO there with the Vanvasi kalyan Kendra in 19882-85.
Then Jasidih was the railhead of Baidyanathdham, baba of Mithila,,,one of the 12 Jyotirlingas where umpteen times I had gone and would go.. the first big tirtha in my childhood memory when I had gone there with my parents and the railwa line was as if decorated by small flowers which were still there.
I could bade a panam only.
Then there was Simultala, the boundary of Bihar and train now started becoming late as of BiMARU name of Bihar…
At Jhajha it became more than one hour late- I use to say it was say that only at JHAJHA two Jhas were together- it is the southern boundary of Mithila(extending some south of Deoghar upto Mathurapur as pe GA Grirson's linguistic map)…I was already in the cultural Mithila though after Jamui,, Lakisarai and Barhia ,where any time many persons went on rails before running train to be killed for having a stoppage of Toofan express there which it had from the next day… Then the Toofan was Toofan , the best train which is the worst train f the rout among Express trains.

Muzaffarpur bound Passenger had left earlier at Jhajha which I thought to catch but that too was slate in the way and at Hathida I could catch that.
Why Hathida was named no one could tell me- whether elephants too washed away in Ganga's current. I took some food there and caught the barauni bound Muzaffarpur passenger from Hathida which has s my unlimited number of visits for changing the train from Mithila to Ranchi by Patliputra Express and I crossed the Ganga once more at Rajendra Pul, Simariya entering into the epical boundary of mother Mithila


Way to Mithila-II

Way to Mithila will come via Barahia, Baruni, Begusarai , Khagaria, Bachhwara, Dalsingsari, Samastipur, Muzaffarpur is my old belief. Had it to come through Darbhanga or Madhubani it would have come in past one century when the leadership of movement from that core area of Mithila failed to realize the importance of organisation for any cause and the magnanimity in matter of many things, including the dialects of Maithili and their due recognition be from southern, eastern or western which now are taking wrong nomenclatures of Angika and Vajjika which are nothing but southern and western Maithili as delineated by Sir G. A. Grierson.
Though I did not describe in detail about the area from Simultala to Hathida ,it was more due to my less working interaction with those area but those are crucial.
Many persons think of these area will remain with Bihar due to proximity with Patna but when the deciding question would be ask whether you would go with Jarasandh's Magadh or Janaki's Mithila, I've no doubt that due to cultural proximity they would prefer to be in Mithila.
Churalmal of Maokameh had a rivalry with Lorik(a yadav king) of Mithila and it was so distasteful that Maithils still even living at Patna wish to be cremated at Pahlezaghat, on the north bank of Ganga (probably in the region of Magadh only as Magadhinans were tyrants- the Ajaatshatru, son of a daughter of vaishali, a part of epical Mithila was first to annex Mithila) and since then this type of rivalry is continued and let us see that in this life we get our Mithila free from the shackles of Magadh.

Not only old district of Munger is vivisected by Ganga, if its southern parts of Ganga do not come in Mithila , there would remain an everlasting riparian problem for Ganga water- future Cauvery cauldron!
And I am further optimistic that with the completion of Ganga Mahasetu at Khagaria many more relations would be between both sides of the ganga as is happening now after ganga bridge at Bhagalpur or would be in two parts of Mithila after Nirmali Mahasetu on Koshi. Probably Vajpayee's these two Mahasetus are more important for preserving the boundary of Maithili as well as its economic regeneration than his gracious inclusion of Maithili in the VIII Schedule of the Indian Constitution.

In 1992, I had written an article , "Barauni Mithilak Kendrasthali" and I still feel that it is the centre of the Grierson's Maithili speaking area. As afar ease in work is concerned it was the place from where in in 1992 I( had started pamphleteering, "Jagu maithil Dheer." And had gone till Forbesganj and then via Lalitgram to Saharsa and Khagaria to darbhanga.

On the eve of the census in 2001 ,I got 20,000 pamphlets printed in a mix of all dialects of Maihtili and and had 3000 posters which took me a second Saturday and Sunday and the next Sunday again to distribute personally those and see that posters were pasted by a boy for some rupees. I lost my blanket in that February morning there but got all distributed and pasted on all trains passing to every corner of Mithila and then up to Samastipur and Darbhanga. I could not attend a picnic by Bharati, the local Maithili organisation of MECON-SAIL, Ranchi.
It is easier to assemble for picnic and social gatherings but we must remember that all Maithili organisations have some of the contributory loan to Mithila.
Ask any old Maithil he wiuld like himself/herself to be cremated at Simaria Ghat…I saw light from one dead body's cremation and bade pranam from the train.
Beig transferred from Ranchi, I could not manage to attend XIV International Maithili Conference sponsored by Swami Chidanandji during May 27-28, 2006 at Simaria where local MLAs took pledge in the support of Mithila State and a' Clean Ganga Movement.'
At Barauni station I was waiting for Darbhanga bound Kamla Intercity passenger which was very late on that day.
I asked on phone my sister's daughter who informed me that I could go to her house even at 2-3 am. (I was thinking of the law and order problem of Bihar!).
There at Barauni a person was anxious how he could go to Lahan(Nepal) with an old eye patient. The way to Laukha was difficult to go as due to gauge conversion there was 'megabolck' in between Darbhanga and Sakri.

That is a temporary problem but is not this a paradox that Nepal could have an advanced eye institute but not Mithila where my teacher Dr. Shreemaonan Mishra when had passed FRCS in eye was one among a few in the country!
There was one more person Madanmohan Jha of village Hiramba of District Begusarai who had a close connection with Rajbiraj(Nepal) and also with Jhajha where he asked me contact Shivnandan Jha and his disciple Narendra Singh, a minister of Bihar Govt.

When Kamla Intercity came, I slept on upper part meant for luggage, after all I was a luggage and anyone was so in Mithila. On the other side a ldy climbed and slept who got down at Samstipur. Their sonorous Maithili talks evoked a sleep to me like mother's lori would have been in childhood. On the other side were kujaranis who use to purchase vegetables from one part of Mithila and sell in other and to many such passenger trains I used to say 'Kujarini Express.' Because I chided them, they could not keep vegetables there and hence, that lady or I could sleep.
Though I crossed Dalsingsarai where at Ajnaul in the village of Satyanarayan Mahto of Bhilai I had been in the Maithili Workers' Camp and then at Dalsingsarai during November .22-23,2003, XI International Maithili Conference was held which was in fact the first ever conference which was a balanced representative of the delegates of all castes and sects of Mithila.
There when I had said that Nepal may not remain united may form some Nepali Maithils had said, "You may say so but we do not see its possibility," but in 2007 those speculation of mine are apparent.
My assumption was that India is united due to Muslim against whom all Hindus were united from Kashmir to Kanyakumari but Nepal was a Hindu kingdom with no binding force and hence it may be balkanised any time with the storms of time to which the present king put last nail in the coffins who was regarded as the murderer of his whole scion including the popular king of Nepal.
I reached Darbhanga and saw platform, a grand sleeping yard of thousands of people who would be migrating to west bound trains and or returning to home from there or going to Patna for official work…
The platform was much changed than when I was a student of the DMC and its iron exit I had on 8.8.1977 had asked Govindacharya that we medicos should have a different organisation than that of the ABVP.
I was also scolded by a police there for I was cycling on platform and knowing me a medico had left me…now there is so much rush anytime not only at night that who can think of cycling? This is the story of the down gradation of Mithila- the hub of labour and brain supplier too all over the world not only western India…
There are direct trains for all corners from there- Punjab, Delhi, Darbhanga, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, and also for Bangalore…
Many people would be happy but I am not…our resources kachha mal as well as mazdoors are being shunted to all places unlike those kujarinis who might be working on a mega- barter system this is the exploitation of a poor area- of Indian as well as Nepali Mithila for which soon all such trains after gauge conversion would run up to Jainagar on the Indo-Nepal border!

At Darbhanga I forgot this time that I was a medical student of that place and the NMO was seeded there- going to Chhapki village for weekly clinic while a UG student and a memory that how a cute child of few months who had a central corneal ulcer was relieved of that by terramycin eye ointment when I had not read ophthalmology( in our days it was a subject of final year)- that mother's grateful eyes, I can never forget!
Today I listened to in the Tv there is discrimination with SC students at the AIIMS…but that was a predominantly Harijan village of rikshaw pullers…might be that boy too would have been a rickshaw puller and who knows that 30 year boy would have been in one of the trains meant for internal migration.
Whether I should have instead service through founding the NMO should have turned to other ways of politics or so…I do not know…
Darbhanga has been a crucible for politics… but in this journey I got a book from Dr. Sureshwar Jha on Sooraj Narayan Singh, a great socialist who was called his Hanuman by JP (when he was killed by a police lathi charge by Kedar Pandey's hobnobbing with Usha Martin of Ranchi when I was 18 yr. old studying in the Ranchi College) who came out with JP from Hazaribagh jail and later broke Hanumannagar jail of Nepal to release 'the Lenin of India' JP who himself was killed as 'Trotsky of India,' in a free India..
When I was a child someone had said me quoting Soorajbabu if you have no money you can't do politics in India.
Yes, I do not had nor for that matter many Maithils who could have changed the shape and destiny of Mithila (and therby of the nation) and therefore I took the path of the least resistance 0f social service and organisation though still I could have had my caste not Brahmin might not have been Mandalised by the talented Lohia's myopic change of 'class struggle from 'varn struggle' as was said by Sooraj Narayan Singh to Lohiya in 1967..
What sooraj said 'Mangal Pandey's progeny would be debarred and the hangman's would be given reservation' in Lohiya's module of socialism is being seen today…
Only, Sooraj Babu did not envisioned that hangman was merely executing the orders which too would be given by the 'creamy one' among them or by vote asthmatics of combination of MY or other and those lieutenants of Lohiya have not merely Mandalised the socialism rather vandalised that and everything where ever they could making that part a complete BIMARU though previous regimes were also had malnourished the regions.

And if I say now that Mithila should have an IIT at darbhanga , IISc at Muzaffarpur, AIIMS at saharsa and IIM at Purnea many frown at…, but I have seen today after many days there are signatures in three digit for my petition to the PM out of which I am quoting two though one may click on it to get very heart touching comments:
Read the IIT should be opened at Darbhanga in Bihar Petition

Faizan Khan Petition me hai dum kyunke Darbhanga aajtak upekcha ka shikaar hi hota raha hai. Ab toh use India ke map pe laakar justice karo "IIT" kholkar.....
SHAIL THAKUR Please help plant a seed, Primeminister Sir, to allow a distinguished regin of Bihar to have this IIT. Darbhanga, the cultural capital of Mithila has had more than its share of neglect in the last 60 years. We are asking you democratically, peacefully and logically. This is our turn to have IIT in Mithila's center - Darbhanga which has a working wide airport if that is what qualifies Patna tro have one more crowding element there. Thank you Sir.

While Faizan's comments are explaining the plight of Mitjhila SHAIL(I presume her a girl by name)'s assertion of seedling the development by IIT is heart touching.
Had I been a PM and any such petition from any other part of the country must have investigated thoroughly and unbiased .
All such leaders visit Mithila for aerial visit of floods.

I visited Madhubani the next day where for the first time a small but productive group meeting was held and a committee was formed with Prof. Gaya Prasad Chaudhary as president and Advocate Pramod Jha as secretary( while coming from his residence I saw again Gileshan Bazar an apbhransh of Grierson the Irish, in the same evening Dr. Sureshwar Jha had told me at Darbhanga that he wanted reference material on Ireland and Irish language as the problem of Mithila seems like that of Ireland, when I had told him the saying of an Irish Jailer who used to tell my uncle Madhukar Thakur who had to break bricks for making gitti as of rigorous labour,
"Boys for Independence we, Irish, too suffered a lot."
Suraj Babu too was in the same jail and my uncle use to recite the Ramcharitmanas for him though both were of almost same age.

I too had spent 9 days in the same Ward No.13 of that Sooraj ward(where I was kept with several medicos while protesting capitation-fee based medical colleges in 1977) where during Emergency MISA prisoners' were also kept.

Way to Mithila-III

At Madhubani in that meeting were present Prabhunandan Shrivastav, Anil Kumar Jhaof Belhwad, Dhruv Narayan Tripathy,Advocate, Krishnamohan, Sarojanand Jha, Sohanji',Advocate, apart from Pramod Jha ,Advocate, Secretary , Gaya Prasad Chaudhary, President and Abhinandan Prasad, Advocate , adynamic organizer at whose house, in front of the Mahila College the AMP, MDB office will run(maybe till AMP has its own or I may construct one for me,if I wish to settle at my ancestral land there in the heart of town though it is difficult to say whether I would opt for Madhubani/Forbesganj or nowhere as I wish to spend my time s a 'nomad' and or 'unknown.'

Advocates were more as the meeting was called by an advocate- this is called horizontal transmission of an organization. It operates by different groups an organizer belong-his/her nativity, profession, caste, age, etc. Any organization should be amalgam of all possible modes if one is not to make 'gang'. We, in the AMP, wish to build a representative of the Maithil society which will contain different components for the society.

There are many persons who have been in Mithila from other parts for generations- they all should be treated innate Maithils as even a nation grants natural citizenship to one who is born in its geographical territories(and ambassador's area n foreign) however only caution is to be taken that they should know Maithili. Once a met a Sikh medico from Madhubani and later I now there was a village in the interior of Mithila where Sikhs and Benglis live ,not only in towns. There are likewise many Marwadis, sindhis etc. who all should join Mithila Movement. I recall Devidutt Poddar of Darbhanga, a great Socialist who had joined one of such meetings.

Abhinandanjee's parents had come there from Champaran9which too was a part of Mithila) and so Tripathy's parents from Bhojpur. Once I had stayed at the house of Hardeo Munshi at Khajauli during my padyatra of the district in 1993 whose forefathers had come from Magadh.
I presented a brief account of my work for Mithila and invited questions. Anil Jha had asked about the proposed capital of Mithila. I am very clear on the subject that it would depend upon the areas finally we would get as Mithila State and if we are granted George Grierson's demarcated (which more or less AMP follows) probably somewhere baruni will be ideal though I would not have hesitation even for Devghar or Purnea or Saharsa or Muzaffarpur which all will depend upon the struggle the area would do as well. If Champaran comes boldly for us, Muzaffarur's claim cannot be ignored and likewise if Munger comes who can ignore Begusarai?

To this Anilji was pessimistic then what we will do with Mithila- Patna is better.
I explained to them that we should have the magnanimity if we want that every area should come with us and further not necessarily every thing would be centralized in Mithila- We may have High Court, Public Service Commission, School Examination Board at different cities as Mithila is so compact one can travel to any place within few hours once the roads come up. Even from Hathida to Darbhanga a passenger ticket had cost me Rs.18 only.
The Capital need not be central I stressed. Chennai , Bangalore and Thiruvanathpuram are located on tips.
Nor the Capital needs to be in bog cites- Washington DC, Bonn are small places.
Further wherever the Capital of Mithila would be all brilliant Maithils would assemble there automatically (in which Madhubani, Darbhanga will have large share) as they are now at Patna, Delhi and all major cities of India as well as places like New York where Maithil is spoken today.


Only yesterday(21.5.2007) I read a report of Maithils assembled at New Jersy, a frail daughter of southern Mithila , married to a Maithil of Saharsa, a 26 year lady engineer, a mother of a little child had organized them. Mithila is awakening and let all should be part of that glory.
President Dr. Gaya Prasad, a professor of Labour & Social Welfare supported me.
It was decided that regular meeting would be held and visiting NRMs (Maithils in the foreign country) whenever would communicate there visit , meeting would be arranged for an exchange of views.

I also suggested them for an annual festival in November or December every year.
Pramodji and Abhinandanji walked with me to see off me at the Gangasagar Bus stand. I had a one hundred rupees note which I gave them suggesting to start collection for expenditure and as I too belong that district I owed a contribution which I gave. Though I had few rupees to reach Darbhanga I was going to be virtually penniless (which became at Darbhanga and could purchase a prasad from Rs. 2 only( Two Laddus-) at Manokamana Mandir and Shyama Mandir each walking on foot crossing the Raj campus to go to Dr. Sureshwar Jha's house at the Rajkumarganj- there was a con in my pocket but I could not find any beggar at Shyma Mandir so that I may once for realize the penniless state).

That meeting of Madhubani was well reported in local newspapers when I phoned Pramodji from Delhi to know whether my Excel sheets of the addresses were left with them?
This time I had an earnest desire to go to my village at 12 minutes walk from Bhitti Chowk but had no time, meeting was fixed at Darbhanga. Saw also Bhaura Kali mandir of Mata Guhyeshwari (Bhagawati in Gudamarg), a rare temple, I have not seen anywhere where I had been many times of my most difficult state which I may describe some years after and had promised to be there for full 10 days of Navaratri, if my problems were solved and may utilize daytime for organization…

It is not that I am immune to desires though a student of Gita…
I loved to got down from the bus near the boundary of the hostels in Raj campus and walked into. Even otherwise I had no money for giving to auto or rickshaw.. There were dilapidated hostels of the Kameshwar Singh Saskrit University, one was named after the Great Yajnyavalkya… The Sanskrit University I saw and I had a memory of its Semnate Hall where I had attended a meeting of the ABVP with Sadasiv Deodhar and had then discussed for long with Govindacharya as to why not NMO's experiment be done out of Bihar at Jamnagar, amritsar and Hyserabad when he asked me tocontinue work ar Darbhanga only.

I had said now that it was publicized nationally doing it a place will be against the prestige of me and even there at Darbhanga medicos may not like to share the NMO work and had said that being a science student he should try to seek result scientifically having some centers where I was not so that my interest did not unscientifically augment the work nor uncooperativeness of the workers of a place may deduce a negative result and though at once he did not reply probably was convinced on my arguments and then NMO could be floated at Bihar level on 26.1.1980 and could work nationally only when we were separated from the ABVP in 1986.

* I recalled the two parrots of Mandan Mishra's house in shshtrartha when panibharni had said this to Adi Shankara that who did not now Mandan's house(at Mahisi, Saharsa) where parrots were discussing the essence of life and religion… Those parrots are the monogram of that Sanskrit University and despite time-pressed I went near asked for B N Thakur, the examination controller of the KSSDU, father of a medico at Mysore Sunil but he was at the VC residence.


I went to small Hanuman Mandr- the Manokamna Mandir, uniquely made of white marbles, a tourist attraction but has been made famous if you write something on that it would be fulfilled- there were many devotees- someone was carrying a very sick child … I too went and this time I too wrote many things(including Mithila Rajya) as my Manokamna…
There were some small shops for prasad…When I was at Darbhanga(1973-1985), it was amid jungle but now there were no jungle which has changed that's natural beauty.

Then I went to Shyama Mandir..which too has been commercialized with the somehow improved economy which I guessed with many more shops. I again taking two laddus went inside and prayed. The priest(relative of Dr. Dharmanand Jha) was busy and could not give me DharmanandJi's number(I had no diary with me this time)..Dharmanandji's nephew, a fat person was doing some recitation(jap) whom I was knowing but did not disturb- long back in 1980s he was at Ranchi in a temple and had said me that I was an 'unsatisfied saint'.

Getting Dharmanandji's number was important for me so that he could see me at Gorakhpur station next day which I took from his house in front of the mandir from a child who said that he was Dharmanandji's nati(son of daughter- may be of any niece as his daughters are yet in their teens).

I knew this temple campus for long- Madhweshwar ,made around a pond where all idols are on the cremation place of Darbhanga Raj's kings(Rameshwari Shyam is main temple but so after Rudreshwari Kali,.., Kameshwar …etc.. and also a Gangamai Mandir, the priest of which once upon a time was my grandfather's elder brother. and there is a Shiv on my brother's final letter to leave friendship of a Christian Malyali friend of me I had addressed her as 'sister' and went straight there where is also a Bhaga(vaginal deity) on the back and had thought long for my aborted friendship or love when I was merely 20 years old in an infatuation of her.

When we met after a log gap of years in our college's Platinum Jubilee we some of the classmates were there and she said, her daughter says seeing to me(whenever for organizational work I visited Kerala, I tried to meet her and her family),"Mummy your boy friend has come!"
I had also asked Maithili workers to assemble on the conclusion of my cycle march in 1994-notably Udayshankar was there with many others.
At that Shyama Mandir once a clerk of my college(DMC) Shiveshwar Babu in one such yatra had remarked me as "Gandhi of Mithila."
I probably do not deserve that complement .

And so many memoirs but I had to go to Sureshwar Babu's house and had no alternative than walking- pressed of time and money. I walked and reached.
Not any arranged meeting again despite several reminders. I did not say anything and just exchanged talks with him – he expressed deep regret that though I go on appointed time from such a large distance of Bangalore he could not arrange meeting.
He is 75 years old and I d not expect that he would do ground work – this I stated him clearly. Prof. Chadrkantbabu, retd. HOD, Chemistry, Marwari college and Presdent AMP, Darbhanga came and we discussed some points, including signature campaign for the IIT at Darbhanga and involvement of youth in the organization.
Sureshwar babu gave me a book on Sooraj Narayan singh and said that Tarababu read that and quoted that to LK Advani and had phoned him. Tarababu is a voracious reader but I have also read and sent comments on the books Sureshwar babu had given to me.I thought to read that book in the journey time(and I read- that book needs separate writng which I may do sometimes).
Sureshwarbabu wanted a conference at Pune which I assured him that it would be done soon as there the unit of AMP had started already.
He talked on Ireland and Mithla as I had written and so many other points.
It was getting late and Chandrakant Babu asked me for dinner(Machh-bhat) but knowing that I was vegetarian they became said. We came to some distance together talking on Sumanji who had suggested me to fight election from Darbhanga parliamentary constituency as there were more BJP workers than Madhubani or Jhanjharpur. I also said them that it was his advice to contact press for Maithili work that I issue releases etc. otherwise I was against of press and publicity.

I went to my sister's house – though she was not my niece was waiting for me with food and also my brother-in law.
I decided that for the Samasatipur meeting I can take a train around 7 30 am instead of early morning Patna bound Kamla passenger and could sleep but lo! It was a great hailstorm in night and I had to go inside and could sleep.


Way to Mithila-IV

Though I had taken few coins from my niece adding to few in my bag for a Samastipur passenger ticket for Rs. 8, I had for the sake of having some change money had gone to a shop where I took a small soap and a packet of blade where a little girl in school dress was asking for half a kg of pulse in Hindi.
While I was happy to see the little kid near the MRM College in a not so good but a school dress I though why she did not asked in Maithili. Whether it is development or not would be a question for discussion as that girl must be from the very poor house otherwise that tiny kid of 7-8 year would not have come to take pulse for family in that early morning.
In that shop adjacent to MRM College was also at that time was handled by a girl. Women emancipation is coming up no doubt- about a decade back I had a long talk with Kamini, a young Maithili poetess in the same ground of the MRM College where she was studying in BA. She had given me a poetry too for the publication in the Maithili Sandesh which I lost and could not be publish.
Only previous day I was watching seriously all the sign boards from Madhubani station to Darbhanga and could not find a single in Maithili to which I had thought would raise an issue in the meeting which in fact was not arranged yet I had told this to Sureshwar Babu and Chandrakant Babu. Particularly at station, bus stand there should be , "Darbhanga/ Madhubani/ …. Station par anhak swagat achhi…" and so in shops …"…et bhetat achhi..".
What a shame that there was none such sign board on Madhubani-Darbhanga way barring probably one some portion of which must have been in Maithili describing Pan's taste near Muria and I recalled how a Maithili Muslim Seraz Akram had remarked when I had traced him from one of his mail from Arab that he was a Maithil and had casually asked whether he was from Tarsarai-Muria to which not only he had replied in affirmative he had asked, "Muria ka pan khaye hain daktar saheb.."

I do not take pan and have hardly any habit of a typical Maithil(like I narrated do not take fish also because my father who went to Rajasthan in his early childhood became vegetarian and so my family continued at Forbesganj in a milieu of Marwaris my father remained life long).
I had guessed for Tarsarai-Muria for Seraj Akram because I had crossed umpteen times that area and even at Ranchi there was a Muslim officer in MECON, Md. Hoda was also a member of our Maithili organization, Bharati there and he always used to talk with me in Maithli but Md. Rahmat, radiographer in my hospital there, a resident of Darbhanga always talked in Hindi despite my attempts for once or twice I too did not persuade.

Jykant Mishra used to say,"Whenever any Maithil meets a Muslim he starts talking in Hndi which is a bad habit."
Let me reaffirm that none of the Muslim in Mithla has Hndi/Urdu his/her mother tongue. They are innate Maithils and speak Maithili. My villager Sallu , Suleman and Hafiz all used to speak with us in Maithil and Sallu used to wear dhoti only.

Our relations were good though it was true that we did not eat food materials of their houses. Hafiz had even gone to Forbesganj and had stayed in our house where he was provided food and my father had also helped him in getting some job (my father used to provide food for few days to such incomers and usually they get some work in a few days and they use to come to sleep in our open one room/baithak of house which was common in those days and compare it with modern life where even relatives are not welcome in a house?).
Let me analyze the problem of Maithili and Muslims a bit more though not connected with the travelogue.
Besides my village, there was an all Muslim village Kharra where in my childhood I had gone several times when rice-pounding mill was opened there. There were many pucca buildings and the village could be said richer than our Samaul. Only few hundred meters of fields were in between the village and our village's western boundary a pond on the western bank of which a Shiv Mandir was made by Maharajadhiraj of Darbhanga, Laxmishwar Singh, as he was also married in my village(that temple was divested in 1934 earthquake- the big stone slabs I had seen in my childhood in 1960s also, and it was rejuvenated.
Muslms of Kharra village used to come to take bath in our that pond as that village had no pond. They had a separate ghat but adjacent to the main ghat of Shiv Mandir. One can say that even 'water of pond is supposed to be touched-' pani chhuabait achhi' where buffalos and all other too animals were taking bath simultaneously. After all the pond and water is same but there is divide in our minds.
I do not say that I am immune to it but a psychology grained in mind may take several generation to go.
Probably out of fear Sallu's family decided to leave our village but they did not go to other village rather on the back of the Shiv Mandir they resettled selling land in main village of ours.
My mother was highly respected by them and almost of their land was sold to my mother. Once I had gone to my village and knowing that they had also given Gharari to us I had in one evening went to Sallu's new house and had told him that I was not happy over that deal and he can take back the land and resettle to his ancestral place but he declined, "Nahi, et tarkari ke dekh-rekh karay me suvidha achhi."
I would be still happy if he returns back though it is doubtful whether I would return to my village, however, I want that some school/library be made in the memory of my mother on that land, if I would have money and energy to do that(and also my mother used to provide some stones for Janani ghat which my sister had hinted to be made on priority).
(Many readers have pointed out for developmental work by the Amp and I feel if such work on personal level could be taken up at their respective village that would be a great thing rather than the AMP is taking up this or that village which primarily will remain functioning to organize Maithils everywhere.)
Coming back to the linguistic problem of Maithil Muslims as I said we all should speak with them in Maithli and encourage them to break the inertia. Even George Grierson had specified their dilalect as 'Jolahi Maithili' and so I think there is 'jolhi Magahi', 'Jolhi Bhojpuri,'Jolhi Awadhi' etc. and in fact Urdu is an artificially imposed language on Muslims of India.
During my padyatra in 1993, Dr. Shakil Ahmad, present MOS,GOI had said," Urdu's future is sealed as it is joined with Muslims as that of Sanskrit was sealed joining with Brahmins.."
The fact of the matter is that Maithil Muslims speak Maithili only and country was already divided on the name of Urdu and would again face such a consequence if Urdu is made a vote-catching device by politicians(as was done by Dr. Jagannath Mishra declaring it initially second language of Mithila's some districts and then whole of Bihar including present Jharkhand which unfortunately BJP Govt. too continued despite my statement that Maithili is was Maithili's right as whole of Santhal Pargana was Mathili speaking).
Maithili's present has been gloomy as it was joined with Maithil Brahmins while the fact is even Maithil kukur (dog) understands only Maithili(Atuh an ah)! Whether a dog come to you an experiment may be done by migrant Maithils!).

Nobody says President Kalam speaks Urdu. He is a Tamil and speaks Tamil. Barring the Deccan settlers from north who would have brought dialects of Braj and Khari-boli (Hndi) from Agra and Delhi to Hyderabad and some similarities of Urdu was hence in the Telangana region of AP(and that is not in the Andhra region again where Muslims speak Telugu only). Kashmir's Muslims speak Kashmiri and so Punjab's Punjabi and what may be more appropriate example that Pakistan was divided as Bengalis chose their mother tongue.
My submission is that Maithil Muslims should be taken in the fold of the Maithili organizations. Some like Acharya Nazim Rizvi, Manjar suleman have already joined the movement and once I had requested Acharya Rizvi to call a Maithil Muslim Conference of the AMP which I would like to attend. He was the first to inform Dr. Kamalkant Jha, the day Maithili was adopted for the VIII Sceule by the Lok sabha!
After all I could get a line in sign board in Maithili in Muslim Muria locality!

Then that I had change money when I was out of that shop near the MRM College, in the morning around 7 AM, I looked for a rickshaw to save time to go to station. There was one rickshaw puller but he had to go to school at a fixed time for some children must be of the upper strata than the half-kg pulse buyer kid's. But the rickshaw puller suggested me to sit on the tanga going to station. I jumped in that and it was a hilarious experience after many years. Within a few minute of that journey I was amazed to know that there were 600(yes, six hundred) tangas still in Darbhanga though the condition of tongawalla is pathetic and Municipality provide them no shelter or other requisites bit they had to pay tax regularly. They are to run in a completion of rickshaw and autos.
Tonga are now more in cinema I thought- who does not know Tongewaeei of Shole, Hema Malini (with the cheek of whom Lalu was comparing roads of Bihar but she after visiting the roads had remarked those were compared to that of Om Puri) and on such road a journey on Tonga would have been preferred than over petrol or diesel run vehicle which are in fact causing spinal injuries as well cancer from the fumes).

Anyway if Tongewallees replace Tongawalls I am sure the rickshaw/ auto rickshaw passengers would also be replaced to them.
Whether they replace them or not I have been always saying why not he scientific advancement percolated to poor one- rickshaw pullers were replaced by another set of auto rickshaw pullers while only rickshaws should have have been replaced by auto rickshaws in a true human science.
Once I had asked Shymrudra Pathak , class fellow of my youngest brother at the Netahat and IIT, Delhi(who could bring Indian languages as a medium of entrance in the IITs like the UPSC after a protracted struggle) to invent a small machine which could obviate or lessen the burden of rickshaw puller to which he had agreed but had not advanced research in that direction and hence, rickshaw puller were forced to leave their seats for auto-rickshaw pullers.
Even Shym Rudra's own admission was about to be cancelled for want of some paper but my father knowing that he was a son of a Maithil pandit from Sitamarhi had requested Principal of Netarhat school( who himself was a Sanskrit teacher) to grant him more time as he was also son of a Sankrit Pandit(I had seen his letter, apostcard, later at IIT ,Delhi written to son Shyamrudra in Sanskrit) and it was granted and he could become a renowned scientist. So simple (as per Maithil traditions) he was that once his wife told me in the IIT Delhi hostel, "Bhaiya, Main sharm se dub jatee hun jab koi inhe, IIT ke student ko batata hai, bus no. 888 vahan jayegee…ath , ath, ath likha rahega.."
She was a daughter of a DYSP and her ego was genuine but Shyamrudra was a made of other metal- once at Darbhanga when I was a medical student he had come and had requested me to wear Khadi to which I had said that maintenance of Khadi was difficult. He said with sorrow, "Bhaiya, aap bhee Khadi nahee pahnege." I could understand his pain and surely I was not 'Gandhi of Mithila,' and I have my own limitation but always a sentence written n the Khadi stall of Samastiput junction in my childhood, I recll,"Khadi vastra nahee, Vichar hai.'
Today I would say not only it was correct in fact khadi was replaced by synthetics and millions of people became unemployed like that of those rickshaw pullers. Madhubani Khadi was nationally famous. It was source of livelihood to destitute, mothers of villages and it was fault of persons like me who could not listen to Shymrudra.. He is Shyamrudra and I am merely 'Shyam( the name with which my mother used to call me, given by one of her friend of my matrik Koilakh, Bhalo Sneha , 'Shyam Babu doctor was also famous name from that village of Dr. Bhav Nath Mishra whom later I saw as HOD of Medicine at the DMCH)..I became a doctor and a physician surely like him but could not serve my own people being in a big state of Bihar. Had my state would have been Mithila, I would not have joined at Ranchi or then as a consequence to far Karnataka.
I may be called a home sick but would not that little girl in un-pressed school dress who asked for pulse in Hindi will do better speaking in Maithili (after all in IAS etc. higher number of candidates are now opting mother tongue for examination and are competing…If she is to take examination in English ( or even in Hndi) would not that friend of her would fetch higher mark for carrying him to school that rickshaw puller could not take me to station!
Few days back Pamabhushan Dr. U. R. Ananthmurthy said me on phone that he was with us for preserving the mother tongue and would have gone to Kolkata for such a conference .It is not a matter of only preserving our tongue but also seeing that the light of development reaches to the last person's house which in case of Mithila would be better by Maithli than any other language.