A force : My mother - Chaiji

After the death of his first wife, Bauji married our mother Smt Tara Devi Jain in 1939. Our mother, Smt Tara Devi Jain, was hardly 17 years old but had a lot of experience in managing a household. Chai ji knew how to read and write Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu. I learned basic Urdu from her.

My mother, Tara Devi, was a homemaker. She belonged to a very wealthy family in Sialkot, Pakistan. Unfortunately, my mother lost her own mother when she was just 7 years old. Our grandfather didn't opt for a second marriage even when it was customary in those times. As a result, she had to help her sister-in-laws at a young age to take care of household. She still managed to pass 5th grade before dropping out of school. Chaiji was not a delicate, demure young girl. She was physically sturdy, perhaps on the heavier side, and very energetic. She had five doting brothers who owned a joint family cloth business.

My father's newlywed young wife was dismayed to find that there were hardly any kitchen articles and no jewelry, as all the money was spent by Babu ji on treating his first wife. My father was earning a salary of Rs 30 per month when I was born. Chai ji was very sincere and wise in handling the household at that age. As her first decision Chaiji decided to bring back our two stepbrothers, whom their maternal uncle had taken to Narowala (a city now in Pakistan) after the death of their mother. She also learned that the single necklace that Bauji had gifted her actually belonged to one of her sister-in-law. Without any delay, Chai ji returned the necklace to its owner. Bauji used to spend lot of his spare times with his friends and Chaiji took it upon herself to keep the marital bliss and her husband home. She was married in 1939, and I was born in July 1940. A year after that Surinder was born. Another year passed, and my sister Chand was born. By 1943, there were five children to feed.

When Chai ji's brothers visited her house for the first time, they were surprised to see the reality, as in those days, marriages were arranged by relatives. But all of them, who were five in number, took a practical approach and whenever they visited Amritsar, they brought some household things rather than money or sweets. Our uncle, Sh Shadi Lal ji, also lived in the same house and was working as an employee in the factory of his brother-in-law, Sh Shadi Lal Jain of Bombay. The factory was near the Amritsar station in Verka. In 1941, my brother Surinder was born.

Babu ji had a very small rented house with one room, a kitchen, a big room and a barsati on the terrace where our uncle lived. There was no electricity in the house, and we depended on lantern light. It was a dark house with not much ventilation. In those days, cooking stoves were the pile of burning wooden sticks. When Chaiji started manifesting headaches, relatives believed that the soul of Bauji's first wife was causing trouble for her.

We, all four brothers, used to sleep on the floor in the small hall with the lantern being our light source. In 1942, World War II broke out. Our Bauji's firm used to import goods from China and Japan. To purchase goods from foreign countries, he had to make advance payments, and for that, he borrowed money on interest. As the 1942, World War II broke out, all goods were held at sea triggering a financial crisis. Every person who had lent money to Babuji wanted it back, as per the agreement. To overcome this difficulty, the prime owner of the shop mortgaged all the property and gold to pay back the loan. In the process, Chaiji had to part away with all the gold ornaments that she brought in her dowry.

After the war, all ships landed. Luckily, the prices of all products had nearly doubled. My grandfather and his partners sold all the imported material and paid off all their loans with interest. Bauji's share of profit was Rs16000/, which he kept in his Almira without investing it in any private business. 

During this time, two more siblings, a brother Raj and a sister Chand Jain, joined the family, making it a family of six brothers and sisters. Despite the limited income source, Bauji was content with his small earnings.  It was not quite enough for his entrepreneurial wife though! Chai ji tried her best to persuade Babuji to start his own business, but Babu ji discouraged her instead. Also he believed that beginning a new enterprise in the same field as his business associates would be disloyal to them.  Frustrated by Bauji's stubbornness, Chai ji fell into depression and had severe headaches. Bauji sought treatment, and someone suggested that an evil soul had possessed her. The person recommended that the family should leave the house for one day, and he would use mantars to expel the evil soul. Bauji took the help of one of his relatives, who allowed them to stay at their house for two days. Family moved all its belongings, including spoons, to the new house. After two days, everyone returned to the same house. Babu ji was very superstitious in this field due to his lack of education or the influence of his owner, who was also very superstitious.