the tales of a simple bihari  

Posted by bhavesh karjee in

The tales of a simple bihari

Hi ,I am bhavesh Kumar, this is my story.
I was born in a small village in the famous state of bihar in India, the name of my village is pusa,a small village but self sufficient, here the farmers are hard working and they know how to grow gold in the fields.
I was the fifth child of my parents, my mother mrs.shailja karjee was a housewife and a great mother, she taught us the lessons of life, my father mr.umesh kumar karjee was always busy with his political career ,friends, solving the problem of the villagers and his business,I never remember listening any stories from him or going to a fair with him.he was the head of the village “the mukhiya ji”.

My sisters who were all elder to me took good care of me ,and I was pampered a lot,my younger brother pinku always complains about this.
For education I was sent to patna ,the capital of bihar at the age of three.my father used to see after the family publishing and printing business,so much of my pre childhood days I spent with the staff at the press.my fathers elder sister whom we call kamla bua took care of me.

Schooling

My first school was st.pauls high school,when I joined it wasn’t a high school at all ,it had got classes up till std 6th only.the principal was mr.shah.this school was really boring,I didn’t have any friends ,and most of the guys were superior to me .grades were never good and I was absent most of the time,so most of the time I signed the report card myself instead of kamla bua,but the catche is I started for school everyday from my home,so where did I went ?i was mostly outside a cinema theatre or a circus or some fair running in the town.i didn’t go to this school for long,only up till class three.

The rescue

I was rescued by my uncle from the environment of boredom,my fathers elder brother whom we called bade papa used to live in ranchi where he was an employee of H.E.C.,
Its an engineering firm based in jharkhand state in eastern part of India,before it was part of Bihar,but later was divided and made a separate state.ranchi is the capital of jharkhand.
My uncle used to come after two three months to visit patna and pusa.he was not happy with our current state of development,he felt that I have got bright prospects,so one fine day he took me and pinku to ranchi where we joined the famous vivekanand vidya madir that was run by ramkrishna mission.wow what a respite.it was a real school .

Fond memories of ranchi

Apart from some incidences my ranchi safari was great experience.
Vivekanand vidya mandir is a great school,here I got my freedom and became what I am today till this date,an open hearted open minded individual.i made some very good friends here,all the teachers and staff were co operative and they all loved me.i participated in debates,fair,games,exhibitions and soon became a popular guy on the block.i was good in studies my only bad subjects were maths and drawing,I tried so hard to solve the problems in maths but always got just passed marks ,so was the case in drawing.i don’t know how to draw good figures today.
The school officials organized picnics and all sort of entertainment programmes like puppet shows,movies,exhibitions and I was always there,all the seniors adored me and juniors loved me.but life was not cool at home,my badi mummy (auntie),didn’t liked me at all .uncle was a nice person,he used to give us two slices of bread everyday with milk before auntie woke up,and helped us in studies.the only bad things about him was he was a miser and never bought us candies.
But kids need candies.although its bad for your teeth but its great in taste,me and pinku both liked candies but there was nobody who bought it for us,so first we took out some money from our piggy banks ,but it was only enough for day or two ,and we were getting greedy for candies day by day.so we planned to steal from uncles antique coins collection that he kept in a box in the almirah.so a plan was made.pinku would take guard and I would steal the money ,if anybody comes around at the time of robbery,pinku would whistle and we would back out.

So the next day when uncle and auntie were watching news in the television room ,I slipped from the drawing room and signaled pinku who was studying at the dining table to take guard,then I crept inside the corner room and opened the almirah,the key was hanging with the lock,and moved my hand inside the box where all the coins were kept,suddenly to my shock uncle came into the room and you guys can think what happened next………………………
I was beaten in black and blue and didn’t got the dinner for the night,after that I was slapped so many times by my cousins in the memory of the theft that I cant recall.

What happened to plan

The plan was going all right ,but there was a break between the news and uncle came out to see pinku and me that we are doing our studies or napping,pinku seeing uncle got nervous and ran inside the toilet and suddenly uncle went inside the corner room,I was betrayed by pinku,many guys would be thinking that I foragve pinku for betraying me.nope,no chance,the next day morning I didn’t talked to him and kept quiet and went for school quietly.in the afternoon when we were returning home from the school I got my chance and beat pinku with my water bottle, after coming home pinku did a lot of drama and I was again beaten by auntie and didn’t got my lunch for the day but I was happy that I have punished the traitor. in this way my life’s first theft was foiled.
Life was cool at school ,sometimes we would climb out of the boundary and went for fishing in the neighboring pond,but were never caught.
I had some great friends and we shared our thoughts and experiences with each other,we would go into the campus of any person and stole guavas and berries,were chased by the gardeners or house owners but never caught.
i have kept in touch with most of my school friends through net and mobile .i recall one of the incidence where a friend betrayed me .
I was in std 4th ,half yearly exams came I studied well and passed in all the subjects with flying colours except maths and drawing.i was placed 3rd in the class.bad thing was I have just passed in maths and drawing.
sangeeta came first,shanknath second ,me third and purnendu fourth.final exams came I worked hard on maths and drawing,but wasn’t able to do it all right.shankanath promised me he would help me,in the seating arrangement shankanth was placed behind me.
Drawing exam came ,shanknath finished it fast and was planning to leave the room,when I looked at him he stopped and passed his paper to me ,and whispered copy it buddy,but how can anybody copy a drawing ,I made the elephant and tried to make the trunk for a good fifteen minutes but wasn’t able to do it nicely,shanknath seeing this garbbed his paper back,I pleaded please help me buddy,he grabbed my paper and in ten seconds the elephant was ready,exams got over and as usual we discussed about the exams ,I told sangeeta about the help sanknath has provided me,I forgot she was the class monitor at that time.so the next day I am called into my class teacher moitra madams room,she asked me what has happened,I told her the truth,she warned me,and told me this is the last time.sangeeta being a girl wasn’t able to digest the secret and had told it to the class teacher,did I forgave sangeeta for the betrayal this time yes ,but she was punished somehow.
Final exams results came shanknath came first,sangeeta was second ,I third and purnendu 4th.sangeeta cried before the whole class and I felt happy for a moment .
Things kept on going cool in the school,until something happened.

Turning point

One day moitra madam who was the wife of a doctor called me and asked me to look into her eyes,don’t take it wrong ,I was only twelve yrs old.she asked me is there something wrong in your eyes ,I told her no madam,they are perfectly all right ,she told me there is some problem in my eyes,and I better go to a doctor for consulation.yeah this was the turning point,I applied for a medical leave and went to some doctors but my case was complicated and I was sent to patna and later on to new delhi for treatment.
I was going to New Delhi for the first time.my dear mom came with me.
Later I was admitted to All India Institute of Medical sciences,AIIMS for short.AIIMS is the number one medical institution in India.i remember it was the time when v p singh was the prime minister of India and lots of public was against his decision of reservation.
Young boys and girls were demonstrating in the streets.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 28, 2007 at 4:42 AM and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

2 comments

Bhavesh, very interesting to read your tale of a simple Bihari.

But you omitted a few critical things and some of the allegations regarding your "badi Mummy" are real nasty. Mr Umesh Karjee was a real politician- outside as well as within the family.It is another thing that his politics outside was a big failure but to a large extent suceeded in the family.

You will agree that he never took any care of his children- he never saw to it that any of children had good education and good guidance from him or his wife which was his primary duty. For some unknown reason he was more concerned about his younger brother's (Rajesh Karjee)family rather than his own family. He could have given you the best education availble- in St Michael's Patna or Don Bosco but chose to concentrate on his life of luxury- drinking and enjoying by all ways possible and you know what I am hinting at. Whatever money was earned by the family press (remember it was family press, not one built by him), he squandered away.

Even when your uncle took you to Ranchi for education- you father never came to see even once. He never even asked how your "Bade Papa" was taking care of your and your younger brother's education when your bade papa himself had 4 sons to take care in his limited income from his HEC job. You write that he was miserly but unfortunately you fail to mention that he was forced to be miser because in his income of Rs 7000 he was taking care of six children- four of his own and two of his brother. Your father never bothered to help him financially when he could have easily done, chosing to spend it on his friends and womanising.

I am really apalled the way you have written about your auntie.So this is the way you repay for all her genrosities, ignoring all her good deeds but chosing rather to remember some of her follies (which would come naturally). Come to think of it your father or mother never had anything good for your cousin brothers from this same uncle.

Had your father cooperated even a little bit, you would have probably continued in VVM and probably been today an engineer or a doctor, rather than writing these blogs.

July 2, 2009 at 12:48 PM

psst... Bhavesh bhai, you forgot to mention something- that your father was too busy with his kept from the labourer settlement in front of your village house, to take care of your education and your sister's marriages. You also forgot to mention that had it not been for your auntie whom you so shamelessly gave a bad name, your father would have left your mother in Parsama. You have after all proved that if you feed a snake, the snake will bite the hand feeding the snake. A snake will never change its nature-Right?!!!

August 15, 2009 at 12:05 AM

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