 |
| Picture credit: English Wikipedia - White House, North and South Side |
The presidential
speech after the swearing in ceremony of the 51st President of the
United States of America was being listened by billions of people on the Earth,
as also Earth’s colonies on the Moon; and Mars and its two moon, Phobos and
Deimos where just a small contingent of commando astronauts keeping a vigil on
inter-planetary movement of contraband was
camping on that day. Presidential inauguration speech was also being listened
by inhabitants of 1000s of sky cities roaming around the earth, and the
underwater settlements in all the oceans of the world including habitations
enveloped within artificial coverage on both the Antarctica. The population of
Homo sapiens, the most intelligent animals on the planet earth, has reached
almost 9 billion; it has stabilized though contracting in some countries and
expanding in a few others. The 51st President of the United States
of America was the first President of the USA of Indian descent, and just
turning 40, was the youngest one destined to sit in the Oval Office, where in
1960, John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy, the 35th President
had occupied the Office when in his early 40s.
Mr. President’s
grandfather who bore the same name, Uday Shankar, was born in a village
Pachamba in July 1947, just one month before, India had regained independence
from the British Raj that had lasted almost for 200 years. To avoid confusion, we shall call him Udaya
the elder. Pachamba was, then, a small village nestled near the coal mines of
Karharbari. English Wikipedia once described this village in these words:
“Pachamba is a very ancient location, near Giridih town, Jharkhand state,
India. Presently, Pachamba is a part of Giridih town.” Thus, with the march of
the omnipotent time, the secluded locality became part of a semi-urban mini conglomerate,
Giridih town. The literal meaning of Pachamba is "panch" (five in
Hindi) and "amba" (one of the name of the Mother Goddess of the
Hindu), conveying in a sense, the place where the Five Devis reside. There are small
temples of Goddesses on the boundary of the settlement. However, another
explanation is that "Pachamba" means five ("pach") mangoes
("amba"), implying a cluster of five mango groves where the village
grew after people may have moved here long back. Like most of villages across the
world, no one exactly knows the meaning behind the names of many places. In
this village, in the year 1898, Moti Ram, the patriarch of Bhadani family of
Pachamba had moved from Karharbari, and settled with his 5 sons, Gaya Ram,
Bulaki Ram, Bhairav Ram, Nathuni Ram and Chamaru Ram.
Bhadanis
of Pachamba have come to Karharbari from a village called Doranda nestled
within thick forests located few kilometers away from Kodarma – Jamua Road
(Jharkhand). They are believed to have migrated to this place from Magadh
regions before India’s First War of Independence (1857) when family branches due
to disturbances resulting from disintegrating Mughal Empire and exploits of the
East India Company which levied extortionist taxes on commodities moved to
different places in search of livelihood with peace and decency and carrying on
of trade and commerce. One line of Bhadanis which had stayed back in Gaya
(Magadh region) almost wrote economic history, and one of its patriarchs Lala
Gurusharan Lal Bhadani (1901-1955) who was a son of Rai Bahadur Ram Chand Ram
Bhadani rose to become, in the year 1946, President of the Federation of Indian
Chamber of commerce and Industry (FICCI). Another line of Bhadani family
created a business empire (in Jharkhand region) which continued to be called
Mica Kings for decades.
Although
Moti Ram was a business savvy person and a successful businessman, some of his
progenies were rather modest in performance. Nathuni Ram’s eldest son was
Jagadish Ram. For most of his working life, this gentleman had remained disinterested
in business and commerce and was rather an economic disaster. However, Jesus had
smiled at him in a different way. His wife, Horil Devi’s first born was Hari
Ram, who grew to be a brilliant child and left a mark on the family history. He
became a University topper from Science College, Patna in 1942. He repeated the
feat of being a topper again during his Master’s course in the year 1944. The years were
rolling by fast. 1947 was a tumultuous time for the world. World War II,
in which around 75 millions military personnel and civilians are reported to
have died, had concluded in August 1945 leaving behind a trail of destruction. Pachamba
village was more or less peaceful. As mentioned, in the month of July 1947,
just one month before India regained its freedom from the British Raj, in the
sprawling village style “mansion” which Moti Ram had bequeathed to his 2
youngest sons, Nathuni Ram and Chamru Ram, Udaya Shankar, the grandfather of
the 51st President of the United States of America was born to Panna
Tarway, daughter-in-law of Jagdish Ram and wife of Hari Ram.
© Haripanna Associates, Ranchi (Jharkhand, India)
No comments:
Post a Comment