Ratandeep

Bhowal Sanyasi
Two years ago I had read review of a book dealing with the Bhowal Sanyasi Case, published in the India Today and the Outlook Mag.

I d’t remember the title or name of the publisher or of the author. I missplaced both the periodicals. I am keen to read it , but disinclined to step into a book shop without knowing these details. If any of you know of this book, please let me know.

Some of you may not be familiar with the Bhowal Sanyasi case. I was in my early twenties when I saw a Hindi movie based on this story in Bellary. Released in 1954, it was a beautiful film in which Abhi Bhatcharya acts as the hero. My journalist colleague Mr Tekur Krishna Murthy, representing The Hindu in Bellary used to tell me that that details of the Bhowal Sanyasi case, related to an incident in the British Governed State of Calcutta, were being serialized in the Modern Review a reputed weekly published from Calcutta in English.

It was about an impostor. A young Asst. Station Master in a small station one morning had an unpleasant assignment of getting removed the body of an unidentified sanyasi from a Railway Compartment in this way side station. After panchayanama, the body will be disposed of. The Asst Station Master(Abhi Bhattacharya) finds a diary in the sanyasi's pocket, and comes to know that he was married, as was the custom then, to a tiny tot belonging to a rich Jamindar family in Calcutta. After marriage he goes to the Himalays and becomes an ascetic. In between the wedlock and the subsequent death there was a considerable time lag and Abhi impersonates as one who had gone on wandering and says he had come for a reunion. The Jamindar family takes him for his word , but the conscience in him pricks constantly and he could not stand its drilling, so much so he reveals the truth. The girl dies and Dewan wants to shoot him , but girl’s mother(Durga Khote) asks Dewan not to embark on a vengeful venture saying “Kyanahi karsakthata, leken kutch nayi kiya(What he could have done he did not to do anything, meaning that he could have lived as her husband without the world knowing, but he did not do so) .He does not even touch her.

In the end in the film Abhi lits the pyre on which the body of the girl he wanted to marry by fraud lies. But the Editor of the Film India, Baburao Patel, who was all praise for the deft handling of a sensitive subject by the director (whose name I cannot recall, is it Debiki Bose ?)objects to Abhi lighting the pyre saying he had no right to do so. I remember, the director recalled the prints and cut that sequence.

Surely this case (1925) would have been published in the Law Journal. My request is if any one of you know about the recent book please let me know by way of comment or e-mail : krishnavattam@yahoo.co.in , krishnavattam@gmail.com.

Derby: Don’t expect your kids to become race horses

Race goers must be familiar with Derby, a prestigious event for three-year-old horses run annually towards the end of the racing season.It attracts the attention of the racing world at large and a winning horse is a toast of this world.After the race, when the winner is brought in the paddock with a garland of green ribbon hung around its neck, covering its body with a cloth , letters “winner of the Derby--- year” done as a needle work design , the punters greet the winner with wide applause,with even those punters who had bet on a non-winner and lost, joining in the chorus. Months before the scheduled day for Derby the horses are groomed in which the owners, trainers and jockeys take lively interest, and these expensive horses, are normally flown from one racing centre to the other

As I was reading a front page story in Deccan Hedrald, relating to suicide of a IX standard student of Oxford English School, Church Road, New Thippasandra, Bangalore, my thoughts went back to the days I used to cover Mysore Races for Deccan Herald.What has Derby to do with this tragic teenager’s death,you may ask. For a good part, these two have similar traits. Since 1980s we have been witnessing a sea change in the educational scenario in the country.

Just as owners, trainers and jockeys groom their horses, with great expectations that their animal would win the Derby, the parents expect their children to score very high percentage, the teachers want their students to fare in the examinations in an exemplary manner so that their stock may go up with the parents standing in big queues for admitting their children in their school, unmindful of the donations they insist on. The third actor in this play,the employers who recruit students through campus interviews becoming the norm, are keen to have only the cream of the students. So much so, as in the Derby race, the parents, schools/ colleges and the employers expect all students to be Derby horses.

“Shi! 90 percent, see Ravi, Chandru, they have scored 96 percent.You end up being a glorified clerk, if at all you are lucky to get a Government job.Our dreams of seeing you as a doctor or engineer are shattered”,parents scorn.This discouragement , which starts from the house is carried on to school/colleges and to
campuses where interviews are conducted . It is natural that some young students tend to be disoriented, and with their natural instincts of play and creative abilities killed they become distraught and disillusioned and tend to take extreme steps.There are no grandparents to tell the children bed time stories and they are not exposed to classics, be it literature, or music. Sense of negativism sets in both parents and children, of course for different reasons.

This, I feel , was what happened to S Dinesh , who ended his life,leaving a suicide note, which explains the mental agony the young boy suffered. The Deccan Herald report says: “Darshan’s father Shekhar spoke reluctantly to Deccan Herald as he waited for the body at the Bowring Hospital mortuary.Darshan was obsessed with the school diary. Every day , the teacher used to pin-point only mistakes and never highlighted his plus points..Quite often , parents were called to meet the principal.On Wednesday too, when I asked about the diary , he said” don’t worry papa, I will put an end to this diary business.”.