Dr Gabu Bhardwaj
My father completed 106 last December in Jammu! His is a story of grit, discipline, and temperance. Here is his story. He was born in the village Merath in the Kandi area of Kathua Tehsil. He was two years old when his father passed away from the Spanish flu which went on to wipe out 6% of the Indian population (17-18 million people died). He does not remember any details except that his grandfather, who was a renowned local priest, became obsessed with preserving the life of a fatherless child living in a joint family by guarding him closely. At that time India was under British colonial rule and feudal Maharajas; in Jammu Maharaja Pratap was the ruler at the time. There were no medical facilities in the rural countryside; most people relied on indigenous remedies and fate. There are conflicting views about how the flu reached India. It is generally believed that it was brought to India through a ship of returning World War I soldiers that docked in Bombay (now Mumbai) in June 1918.
My father grew up in an era of no medications, immunizations, and antibiotics. Villagers had no access to running water and potable water was obtained from the local ponds. The Darwinian theory of survival of the fittest appears to be the only rational explanation of how people survived in India or for that matter much of the world. My father had little interest in education; schools were also sparse, and he detested going to middle school which was 12 miles away in Kathua and had to stay in a boy’s hostel for the week and walk back that distance over the weekend. He dropped out of school after the seventh grade much to the dismay of his doting grandfather. After a few years, grandfather sensing his own declining health sent my father to Karachi in 1931 to live with his uncle who was the only educated person in the family and in fact entire village having done BA from Prince of Wales College Jammu. In Karachi he started working in a factory, met new people from different parts of the country, developed a taste for music and cinema and describes his stay in Karachi as being transformational. In between he came back to village and got married to my mother who was from village Sallan, near Dayalachak. He tells stories of how for the wedding they had to cross river Ujh and Tarnah to reach the village Sallan.
India was yearning for freedom at the time and political struggle was on. World War II started soon after. He had the chance to hear stirring speeches of Subhash Chandra Bose, Gandhi, and other political leaders. He remained in Karachi until another major cataclysmic event of partition of India which killed more than a million people. He describes Karachi as mostly free from violence and there was orderly sale and transfer of businesses to incoming Muslim Gujaratis, Bohras and people coming from North India. He remained in Karachi for another 6 months after the partition to supervise transfer of equipment and such to the new location in Shikohabad, UP near Agra.
After the partition my father moved to Shikohabad and worked in the same factory until his retirement in 1979; raised five children, educated them whereupon he finally moved back after nearly fifty years to the same village and the house that his grandfather had lived in. Life had indeed come full circle. He lived by himself in the village until 95 years of age, and now, with increasing frailty resides with my loving brother and sister-in-law in Jammu.
Over a century has passed by and he has witnessed tremendous changes around him and the world. He retains his inquisitive nature; when he visited us in the USA, he was most fascinated by the infrastructure and the cleanliness and always wondered about underground water and sewage system.
He didn’t see an open drainage there and always asked how it was even possible! He has lived to see great grandchildren a source of joy to him, a cell phone, Face Time (most intriguing to him!) etc. He has been a devotee of Bhagwan Ram since childhood, and we remember us five kids around him reciting Tulsi Das Ramayana every evening before dinner and the tradition continues to this day in our homes. I have not asked him about Ram Mandir yet, but I am sure he will be very moved!
Lot of research is being done around the world to solve the mystery and secrets of aging. My father is a model of aging well, has full cognition, much diminished physically though but recites all the shlokas, mind remains sharp; takes no medications, no surgeries, has never been to a hospital. Google search shows there may be less than 1000 people of his age on our planet. A few traits which we have observed in him are likely contributing factors and may interest the readers: optimism, daily lifelong habit of walking many miles a day, fresh food, no alcohol, spirituality, and finally good genes!
May God bless him and your readers!
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