Culturetenment in Betma.

 Kusum was the name I was forgetting the other day, the sixth girl in my class that went missing and I was feeling frustrated and wondering how can whole girl go missing from my memory. She had an elder sister Vijaya one class ahead of us. Their father Dr Prakash Jain was an RMP and had his clinic in Poora Bazaar in Jhalara Kothi that had one passage in the middle and otherside as you might have predicted was the pharmacy owned by Dwarka's father but I noticed that's where Dwarka was always found when he was not in the school, assisting in business. He was in class 10th with Damu and Vijaya. The clinic had a little platform, must be about 4 feet wide that served as waiting room on one side and on the other one huge glass bottle was kept on a wooden stool that had a red concoction that was the master medicine for general ailments like cough. Dr Prakash Jain had a younger brother who had finished his graduation and was idling so he was asked to train himself up to assist. Pavan was a happy go lucky guy but didn't mind attending patients. He was also my cricket commentary listening buddy and we and some more cricket enthusiast would listen commentary at the clinic whenever Dr Prakash Jain was not at the clinic but even when he was and no patients around he didn't mind if any important match was going on.. he indeed was a kind hearted person most suitable to be a doctor. Pavan called me Chandrasekhar, who was the star off-break spinner of team India in the sixties and early seventies, one reason for naming me such was that I claimed to be an off spinner and the other I will tell later, that's another story. 

Adjacent to the clinic was another residential building that had no shop. The other side of that was the house of another friend Murali Soni who was also one class ahead of me but was a sport and with his cousins Gopal and Trilok Jajoo, who were respectively in 11th and 9th we often enjoyed playing the board games. Murali had two elder brothers and a younger sister  Radha but I am forgetting what his father did. Perhaps, he was a pawn broker like their neighbors on the other side Seth Jeevanram. Seth Jeevanram was like Nagar Seth of Betma. Very rich and a strictly miser who lived like a poor peasant to hide his wealth. Seth Jeevanram was a widower and childless and once he unsuccessfully adopted an heir as was common amongst Marwari people but didn't like him as that guy appeared spendthrift, careless and irresponsible so he was "de-adopted" and in his place Harakchand was adopted. Harakchand was petit and fair looking young man must have been in his early twenties. Usually, such adaption would happen from some relative or other, so Harakchand must have been some blood relation. Seth Jeevanram and his ancestors were known for exploiting hapless farmers who would come to him under duress to borrow money by mortgaging their land and/or gold/silver jewelry for a failed crop or for children's wedding. Within a year or so Hukumchand proved that he was a worthy heir to continue the tradition. Long before his arrival in Betma, on one weekly haat/bazaar day some gangsters (who must have taken to this profession after such exploitation) came to Seth Jeevanram's shop pretending to be clients for borrowing money and when Seth went inside to get something, warning shots got fired and he and his servants were overpowered, they took away whatever was within their sight but that must have been a fraction of his wealth. Some of these armed decoits were guarding the place and the market had immediately emptied out completely when they had heard the first shot. In a matter of 10 minutes everything was over and before cops could decoits vanished. Police station was not very far and seeing people fleeing from the market cops must have known about this event but they surfaced only when the "show" was over for their own safety. More from the fear of losing a lot of money than any other shock, Seth Jeevanram fell unconscious. This incident that had happened a couple of years before we moved to Betma and was told me by my father long ago and by several other people after we moved.

Between Dr Prakash Jain's clinic and Murali's house was another building that was unoccupied for several years after we moved but got rented in 1969, when I moved to class 9, to one Dr Shukla, MBBS who got transferred to Betma as in-charge of the civil dispensary. Dr Shukla must be in his late forties and had three daughters oldest of them Shobha didi, must have graduated by then, middle one was college going and the youngest one in class 10th then. A new comer in Betma and in the school she had sensationalised the place with her intelligence beauty. So much so that before she left for school and till she reached home idlers would be queueing up is some corner in Poora Bazaar to have a glance. I don't recollect their names but like Kusum's name bounced in my mind this will also come sometime later. Years later in mid eighties when I worked with Tandon Corporation in SEEPZ, Bombay someone had informed me about Shobha Didi who lived in neighborhood and asked me to meet her. I was meeting her almost 13-14 years after I had left Betma and it is now another 35 years since I last saw her and have neve known their whereabouts. Around this time Dr Khadaite had established him own practice and perhaps had quit his government job. Mrs and Dr Khadaite were lovely couple and well to do and Mrs Khadaite (my maasi) loved me a lot, as maasis do. They had four children a boy Satish followed by three daughters Usha, Nisha and Sandhya. Satish was two year ahead of me in school and girls were much younger (3 to 6 years in that order). I wondered if doctors had a boon of having daughters than sons as besides Satish the three doctors in Betma had 8 daughters between them.

Dr Jain's house was the end of Poora Bazaar and there was an empty government plot that was used for recreational activities. There was a 30 feet wide opening to this a the row of residences on one side of the road ended short this ground and the last house was that of Ramu another classmate since my 4th standard who got dropped out after the 8th. He must have been 16 then and had started working initially as a tempo cleaner and later became a driver ferrying passengers from Betma to Indore. He had to do this as he lost his father and there had no option. The plot would turn into centre of the village whenever there was any festivity. Ramlila was the most prominent of those as three day before the navratri and two days after Dashhara the place would be buzzing with activities. Usually there was a visiting troupe of professional Ramlila performers who would stage this ticketed event. Booing and clapping was constant depending on the characters on the stage. In those days it was not common to find female artists so everyone on the stage was a male artist performing roles of all ramayana characters. The prettiest of the male artist would be playing the role of Sita and whenever she would step on the stage audience would bow for her. The show would start with a puja and aarti and end with the same the only difference is that in the end one of the characters would carry a donation box and ask everyone to contribute and collect as much as the ticket money would be as some generous and religious people would offer as much as a rupee or sometime Rs 2.

The funniest part of the Ramlila would be when a regular artist would not show up and a standby would require continuous prompt and often audience could hear him shout to the prompter ऊँचा बोल ( say loudly) and he still would not comprehend so the prompter himself will say the dialogue reading from the script and would go backstage annoyed.

On the same ground with audience facing the other side (if one was the Ambani end other would be Adani end of Narendra Modi stadium) once a year or sometimes more frequently there would be a dance drama troupe stationed there for a month. Usually this would be soon after Ramlila as that was the best time of the year weather wise. If the tickets for Ramlila were Paise 10 to Paise 50, here the tickets would be from Paise 25 to Re 1.00. They would some play and in the two or three intermissions there would be 15-20 minutes record action each. So the whole show would take some two and a half hour. These will be more entertainment than any literary activities. So the typical plays would be Harishchand-Taramati, or Sultana Daaku or Putli bai or some locally scripted plays like "andhe ki laathi" etc. rather than Kalidasa's Meghdoot  or Mohan Rakesh's Aadhe Adhoore. This was the place for people to relax and get entrained that I just thought of defining as CULTURTAINED than to have anything that would be thought provoking. Majority of people would go out for a smoke during the play but would be back during the intermission to watch the dances that I won't say provocative but definitely attractive.

The dancing girl Baby Indira must have been 6 or 8 year older than me and in her full bloom when I first saw her in 1966 or a year later when I was a 9 year old. I am not sure if this was her first trip to Betma but that was the first time I saw her. I was ushered in the theatre by a friend as I don't think I had money to see the play. That day when play started like others I also laughed at the jokes that were said by an entertainer when artists would go for change of dresses. Soon it was time for "Intermission" and record action and I heard " jhumka gira re Bareilly ke bazaar men" blaring over the sound system and baby Indira made her entry from the left side of the stage dressed in a flared pink coloured beautiful dress. Even at that young age I was spellbound and couldn't take my eyes of that beautiful dancer and with wide eyed said "wow". The dance must have gone on for 5 minutes but even after 50 years that scene is engrained. I wonder if I bothered to listened to the song, I was simply glued and looked her. During the two or three breaks that night there there would have been 5 or 6 numbers when Baby Indira may have danced. She made me forget even the name of the play and I returned home starry eyed that night. Those were the days when parents won't question or raise their voice even if you didn't come back, assuming I may have stayed with a friend for the night.

During rest of the troupe's stay I may have gone twice again and had the same " attack" as the first time. Couldn't go more often as that would have raised some suspicion here and there. Once during the day I went to the theatre, there was no gate or ticket and found Baby Indira flying a kite, I went near her with a curious look hoping she will burst into a song and dance for me...

Picture of Sadhna performing on "jhmka gira re" from film Mera Saaya. downloaded from Internet.