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.