Two days ago. He was born somwhere between 1900 and 1910 in a small village of Punjab. Yet during the 40 odd years that he spent under the British rule he never saw a white man!
He was the only son of his father who died when grandpa was about 10 years old. When he died he had 5 sons, 15 grandson, 16 grand daughters, 25 great-grandchildren. After death of his father he was raised by his grandfather, who always told him to be careful of his only uncle whom he used to call Gandhi. Just tells me how the perceptions spread even among people who had little knowledge of politics. His grandfather also died when he was around 15 and his uncle proved to be as mischievious as predicted and usurped most of the land. Grandpa was married late past 30 years of age to grandma who was not even 15. Grandma had little knowledge of marriage and its responsibilities. She says the most important thing for her to bring to her new house was her dolls. (So i think that the notion that girls matured early those days is not true).
Grandpa married again after 10 years. His cousin and neighbour died young leaving behind a young widow. When village elders asked her to remarry one of the widowers she refused and instead insisted that she will marry grandpa. This marriage greatly saddened by grandma and discord grew between them, particularly because dadi ammaan had 4 kids at that time to take care of, while the new bride spent all her time with grandpa. Finally after 2 years grandpa divorced her.
I did not have much of a relationship with him because i spent most of my life abroad. On my last visit to Pakistan, he was quite illl and i spent a lot of time taking care of him, but, by then he had poor vision and forgetfullness. He often used to say to me, “Iconoclast buhut changa ae, lekin ae doctor tey merey kol benda ae nahin” And we will explain to him, iconoclast is the doctor, and he will say acha and then after a few hours he would say the same thing. However one thing that he would never forget even when unconcious was prayer. After his prostate surgery he developed chest infection and was delirious. He would get up and i would make him lie down, then again he would get up and i would put him back. After a few times i let him sit but supported him and he started praying. (Have a video of it on my mobile). He told me once that while young he used to keep long hair and wore a “kara”, one day he met a visitng religious person, who advised him to cut his hair, loose the kara and pray. Since then he says, he never missed a prayer. I don’t recall the name of that person, he authored a punjabi poetry book as well, which my dadi used to call “kitab”. Amazing thing is that Dadi and Dada did not know how to read anything except Quran and the “kitab”…
