Moments I Shared With My Father Gouri Shankar Rajhans

Moments I Shared With My Father Gouri Shankar Rajhans

Known for his upright bringing my father Gouri Shankar Rajhans's innings in life were built around goals he chased and dreams he cherished in a young nation young at heart freed from the shackles of English Regime and where one could realise their lofty ambitions. String of novels he wrote at drop of a hat is something illustrated from '70s to '90s. Education apart he excelled in writing and this had reflections in score of stories he contributed for Hindi Weekly Saptahik Hindustan and other publications much in demand when they were at their prime. The then Bharatiya Jana Sangh leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani appreciated stories that my father penned in the '70s. In the same decade when Doordarshan was the lone Television Channel in India he participated in a large number of Group Discussions and on All India Radio his participation in debates went much beyond 2005. In the '70s and '80s the different visits to Agra the city in Uttar Pradesh much famed for Taj Mahal are still fresh in my memory.

During AICC (All India Congress Committee) Session in 1985 he wrote biography of Congress Leader  Motilal Nehru who had served as Congress President on two different occasions and this book was released by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. 

While boarding Rajdhani for Bombay my father came across a British Journalist and at length he explained the trials and tribulations of running a regime with Congress Party running a Govt at the Centre. A short story he had written for Saptahik Hindustan and while returning from Bombay in April 1986 a woman was able to place him and the short story. My father was thrilled to note that people's  at reading skills were very much there and Hindi stories were read by a large gathering. There are dozen other anecdotes similar to this. In the latter half of '70s we all went to watch Kissa Kursi Ka a movie which drew much of its tale from Emergency that was imposed in India and the then then ruling regime that was at fault. Before his stint in Parliament he had served as Director U.N.I. News Agency, Searchlight Patna, Bihar Textbook Corporation, Govt of Bihar, Patna and Member Executive Committee Indian and Eastern Newspaper Society (IENS) New Delhi. I can still recall in November 1992 Ugam Mathur Uncle came with a bouquet just before my father was supposed to leave for Airport to take flight for Bangkok and later Vientiane for taking up diplomatic assignment in Laos. A month before that his brother in law Vinay Mishra came to our place and spoke in detail about Laos which was a landlocked country and my visit to Laos Embassy in Friends Colony in Delhi to gather inputs about that country were appreciated by my father.

Rewind to January 2001 I am in Tirumala having stayed in the Seven Hills for more than a week and I rejoiced telephonic conversations with my father based in Delhi with the phone booths in Tirumala coming handy. During AICC Session in Tirupati in 1992 when Narasimha Rao was the Congress President and Prime Minister he attended the said session and was able to visit Tirumala and the prayer that he put was answered. 

Rewind to January 2007 I am in Ahmednagar in Maharashtra my father asked me to put in a prayer for my sisters Dolly and Leena as well and the stay in Ahmednagar was for a week or so. During 1982-83 we visited our relations in Krishna Menon Marg in New Delhi and the Video Cassette Recorder (VCR) we sighted there and no sooner he arranged VCR for our household as well and we watched Hindi movies on day to day basis. This was the time when Cable Television had not invaded the households across India. 

The bonding that he shared with his brothers Shiv Shankar Rajhans, Karuna Shankar Rajhans and Gyan Shankar Rajhans are still fresh and the narrative was spun around the childhood days to period when they went abroad to pursue studies.  In his last surviving days he would often recall the years spent in his birthplace Sultanganj and the inspirational index that he and his brothers inherited from their parents.