Kadugarh Ke Maharaja

So perhaps you have read the other blog entitled "My First Trip to Kadugarh".. which describes our ancestral home on my paternal side and the way it was when my grandparents ran it. This one is about Kadugarh aka the land of pumpkins aka the land of bupkus - the same property when it was run by my uncles .

The photo above shows the 1952 Renault tractor that my uncle and dad purchased from the Agriculture College of Pantanagar in the late 50s or early 60s. The one on the extreme left above is my cousin Munnu who was the primary care taker and restorer of the tractor since the late 60s. Next to him is my Calcutta-walli bua's daughter - Bharti bhen, her younger brother Pappu(Vijay Dani), Mumbai-bua's son Babli (Mukesh Parikh now a famous wedding photographer), Calcutta-walli bua's youngest child Parul - a renowned Kathak dancer, Munnu's younger brother Raju - who still lives in Kadugarh in the ancestral home, his sister Mamta and another chacha's daughter - Babli (Rupa Das) . This photo was taken about 18 years after the one in my earlier blog where you see munnu as the 2nd cutest baby sitting on my grandmother's lap.

My grandfather passed away in 1962. By then, my older uncle was running his own farm a few miles away, and living in his own home, separately from the joint family. My father had completed his engineering studies and had taken up a job in Bombay. In fact by 1960 he and my mom had scrimped and saved to buy their own 2 bedroom apartment in Anand Vihar in Bandra where they lived for some 40 years before moving to Kandivali.

So after my grandfather passed away in 1962 - the operation and control of the farm fell to my uncles who must have been in their late 20s or early 30s. My grandfather had run a very tight and well managed ship. Water and irrigation that had been the one variable had been tamed with the big nehar that flowed right outside the farm. Smaller canals - guls - had been cut out to ensure a steady supply of water to all the farms in the area. Between the milk from the cows and the feed for the cattle and the sugarcane crop - the farm was doing reasonably well. Some seasoned share croppers tilled the land and all that had to be done was to manage the milking of the cows.

Food on the table was no longer an issue - living costs were manageable - and my uncles found themselves in a state of relative wealth and well-being with lots of free time on their hands. Both of them were incredibly clever and innovative (hindi word for that is Juggadu) and the one uncle took to managing the mechanisation of the farm. The other built a timber logging factory. This still did not keep them occupied enough and they acquired the lifestyles of the Zamindars. Zamindars of old commanded hundreds of acres of land, and lots of lots of laborers whom they ruled with absolute autocracy. My uncles had maybe 25 acres between them and no more than a dozen laborers - so they just went with the lifestyle - one that involved calling out orders from the porch . This I think resulted in the coinage of the title - "Kadugarh ke Maharajah" - King of the Land of Bupkus.

This photo is from Kadugarh's heyday - when every summer all of us cousins gathered in Haldwani and had a simply fabulous time.

Things went from great to bad to worse. And the Kadugarh empire fell on the shoulders of young Munnu - who realized that he needed to stop the family from selling off bigha after bigha of land for consumption. He stemmed the sale. He also realized that he needed to start a non-agricultural source of income. He set up an auto parts store in downtown Haldwani and built it up into a highly successful business.

In 2002 - Renault discovered the tractor and Munnu - and asked if they could buy it back as an artifact of their remarkable history. Munnu demurred saying that he still used it to plough the fields. Renault gifted him a brand new tractor a cheque for a handsome sum and invited him to a 50th anniversary celebration with the Minister of Agriculture.

The ancestral home still stands . Munnu and Raju have both built mansions next to it in which they live with their families. Most of the land - save a few bighas that the 2 brothers have saved for themselves have been sold. What used to be open green fields, now resembles an unplanned township with over 200 homes on it.

Kadugarh now lives in only in our hearts and memories.