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Autobiography of another Unknown Indian

Before proceeding with detailing the story of my life, I have to acknowledge my debt to my ancestry. By ancestry is meant both family and group or the society and race to which I belong. My intellectual development has been to a considerable extent, indebted to processes, which began thousands of years ago, as well as family secrets, which were revealed to me by unlocking a code through study of Samskrit. My development has also been influenced by the agricultural, urban and legal structure bequeathed from my ancestry, both from paternal and especially maternal sides. My guiding philosophy can be summed up in the following sentence: Why I do not like to model my life on anybody is because I feel that each one of us is an individual and though we must absorb information and ideas, we must at the same time attempt to style and structure them in our own way-for that is the beginning of a creative life. The course of my life has been both ecstatic and excruciatingly painful. It has been painful due to being misunderstood due to being different, to meandering to the remote past and catapulting to the future. Due to discovering secrets which challenged conventional wisdom, this most especially so as it affected traditional beliefs-an example: if you tell an Indian that there is no cure for cancer, he will believe you; and if you tell a European that there is a cure for cancer, he will not believe you. In believing the European, the Indian has invested in expensive systems-he cannot accept that he may be mistaken. To preserve the status, the European has invested in system of psychology that questions the sanity of individuals who challenge traditional belief. In starting my autobiography, I have to discharge my debts to my race, society, and educational institutions and especially to my family. I will start with paternal ancestry. My family surname is Puri. This in Samskrit. My means leader. The Puris originated from Sialkot, Punjab that is now in Pakistan. The earliest ancestor I know is my grand father-Brij LalPuri. BrijLalPuri Studied law and practiced criminal law. At the height of his career, he earned about three hundred thousand rupees a year. His clients were people who were involved in family feuds. None of his clients got more than five years imprisonment. BrijLalPuri bought agricultural land in Sargoda from income from his law practice. BrijLalPuri had three sons-Madan LalPuri (my paternal grand father), MukandLalPuri and ShambuLalPuri. He had two daughters both of whom married Maharaj Krishan Kapur. Madan LalPuri (my grand father) studied medicine in Britain and joined the Indian Medical Service, as was mandatory. He was part of Colonel Bogey’s regiment which was captured by the Turks. He was at that time a captain. He got the allocade-Captain Puri tendered to the wounded fearlessly under heavy fire, he was at the end of the day covered with blood from head to foot. He was a prisoner of war for three years in Turkey in sub human conditions. There was acute water shortage and food was strictly rationed. Stealing rations meant near certain death to the deprived person. Two soldiers in particular repeated stole someone else’s share. My grand father was assigned the task of scarring their wrist under anasthesia. They stopped stealing immediately. The soldiers complained after the war and my grand father was severely reprimanded. He maintained that the two stopped stealing rations, which prevented possible deaths. Due to shortage of water while a prisoner of war, my grand father’s kidneys suffered permanent damage and he eventually died of kidney failure. My grand father’s brothers were both lawyers. MukandLalPuri’s was a flourishing practice. He was offered a seat at the bench, which he turned down, as the remuneration was no match for the income from his practice. Madan LalPuri (a crown subject) had three daughters and four sons, one of whom (Yugal Raj Puri) my father was born in London, in 1924, where my grand father took courses in more than a dozen medical fields including mid-wifry. My father, failing which his children and grand children are entitled to British citizenship. So far, no one has availed of the option. Let me return to my grand father and his seven children-sons were 1) Yog Raj Puri, 2) Yadav Raj Puri3Yogishwar Raj Puri, 4) Yugal Raj Puri. Daughters were1) Sheela2) Leela, and Primla. The order of birth was-Yog Raj Puri, Sheila, Leela, Yadav Raj Puri, Yogishwar Raj Puri, Yugal Raj Puri and Primla. Yog Raj Puri completed his education in Britain where he graduated as a sanitation engineer. He did not proceed in the profession of his educational qualification and instead invested in electrical generation in Rawalpindi (now in Pakistan). He married Laxmi Bai who was from Indian royalty. They had five sons. The sons were given the middle name: Kumar. So from the middle name: Lal, the family’s name changed to Raj and then in the subsequent generation to Kumar. This trend was not followed in the family of Maharaj Krishan Kapur whose sons kept their fathers middle name. The sons of Maharaj Krishan Kapur did considerably better than the sons of my grand father. Shiela married into a Sikh family (Bedi). She had a daughter Padma. Shiela developed a weight problem, and she and Padma spent the rest of her life, an invalid, with my father, Yugal Raj Puri. Padma sebsequently joined a travel agency. And is happily married to a Muslim, Waheed. They do not have children. Leela married Nand Goal Dewan, a civil engineer who worked for the Delhi municipality. They had two sons and two daughters. Yadav Raj Puri studied at the Rashtriya (Royal) Indian Military College and then joined the Indian Military Acadamy. He was an electrical engineer. Served in the Second World War. He married Sarojini and had daughters Greta and Vinita. He died in the mountains near Darjeeling of pneumonia and edema of the lungs. A colonel at thirty-six. My uncle, Yogishwar Raj Puri built and gifted her a house in Defence Colony, Delhi. Geeta and Vinita are happily married, and Vinita has an IT business, which she runs with her husband. My grand father’s third son, Yogishwar Raj Puri, studied at the DoonSchool in Dehra Dun, India. He was an outstanding sportsman and was in the school’s tennis (as captain), cricket, and hockey and football teams. He was the house (Hyderabad) cricket and hockey captain. So busy was he with sports that he could not matriculate. He nonetheless was given a birth in the Corp. Of Signals. He cleared his officer’s examination with merit. This was in 1941, during the Second World War. He married Suarshana, in 1949, who is incidentally my mother’s sister. They had two children: Rajan (daughter, 1954, 1’st March) and Shiv Nandan (son, 1956, 30’th May) Sudarshana succumbed to cancer on 5thfebruary 1961. Yogishwar Raj Puri was left to bring up his children on his own. They finished their school lives in residential schools-Loreto Convent, Tara Hall, Simla and the Doon School; Dehra Dun. He has the rare distinction of never having beaten his children. Yogish rose to become a lt. colonel and ended his career on deputation to the Border Security Force as Director, a posting which is now equivalent to Director General. He took premature retirement from service in august 1971. His tenure in the border security force was satisfactory. Apart from his career in the army, Yogish or Uncle Gishi as we called him, invested in stocks and real estate. At the time of his death. Uncle Gishi left an office each to Rajan and Shivi and a residential house in New Okhla industrial development Association. Rajan who is a postgraduate from JawaharLalNehru University, married KanuSahni, a Sikh who is five years younger to her. They emigrated, along with their son, Aru to the United States in 1987. A second son Kabir was born in America. I now turn to the birth of my father, Yugal Raj Puri. He was born on 2nd July 1924 in London. He had a Scottish nanny who nick named him, Douglas and had his birth registered as Douglas Raj Puri. The Puris left London a few months after my father’s birth. Uncle Gishi and Dad attended schools wherever thier father was posted until 1935 when they both joined the residential Doon School, Dehra Dun at its inception. Both excelled in sports. Dad was also proficient in chess, mathematics and physics. Uncle Gishi was proficient in team games and tennis, while Dad was a good athlete, swimmer, hockey, and cricket and tennis player. If he had not joined the army, Uncle Gishi may have done well in Wimbledon. Dad’s English was poor in school and he dropped a year before passing. On the strength of his proficiency in mathematics, cleared the mechanical engineering entrance examination of the Indian Railways. He became an officer in the mechanical engineering cadre of the Indian Railways in 1947. On 19 November 1952 my mother, ShubhChandrika and my dad we married. She is a medical graduate I now turn to my maternal ancestry. My maternal ancestors were kings in Kangra in what is now part of Himachal Pradesh, India. They had the surname: Chand and Mahajan. Some time in the nineteenth century my great great grandfather abdicated and abolished the monarchy. I do not know the reason but Muslim king, knighted my ancestors with the hereditary title: Bakhshi. Bakhshi means commander in chief, paymaster and philanthropist. The Muslim king in turn was over run by the Sikh king Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Maharaja Ranjit Singh gifted ninty percent of Lahore to my maternal great grand fatherBakhshi Jai Shi Ram Mahajan. Bakhshi Jai Chand Mahajan had one son, Bakhshi Jai Shi Ram Mahajan. Bakhshi Jai Chand Mahajan died in early middle age. Bakhshi Jai Shi Ram inherited His father’s estate at a time of Marxist intellectual ascendancy. He decided to gift his property in Lahore to The Dayanand Anglo Vedic College. He kept his house in Lahore, a shop and a thirty-acre orchard cum farm in Nurpur, Kangra. Bakhshi Jai Shi Ram also did away with his surname: Mahajan. He was a lawyer by proession and practiced in Lahore and Shimla, where he stayed with friends. He had a son: BakhshiTek Chand and daughter who I remember as: Biji. In the middle eighteen eighties, while in Shimla, a lady developed complications at child birth and had to be rushed to the hospital. Bakhshi Jai Shi Ram took her through the Mall, which was the shortest route, even though the Mall was off limits to Indians. A sergeant challenged them. He agreed to let the lady through, but arrested my great grandfather. He spent two weeks in detention before being granted bail. In jail, his beard was shaved off. It may be mentioned that Jews in those days always wore beards. My great grand father lost the case in the lower court and appeal to the high court. The case reached the Privy Council where he fought his own defense. Not only was he acquitted but also the bench ruled that Indians could use the Mall. Bakhshi Jai Shi Ram’s two weeks stint in jail, along with the indignity of losing his beard took their toll. He died in 1899 aged thirty-nine, after an eccentric last decade of life. At the time of his death, my grand fatherBakshiTek Chand was seventeen and his sister fifteen. It’s almost certain that he was poisoned after attending an Indian National Congress Rally in Delhi but Granddad never reported it to the police. He was sixteen going on seventeen and can be excused. He had plans of joining the Indian Civil Service, but had to change plan and turned to the study and practice of law. After clearing his inter science with distinction, he graduated with a first class first, majoring in English. He completed his post graduation with a first class first in history from DAV College, Lahore. Finally, he cleared his law examination with a first division, standing second. Because of their back ground-1) dropping surname, giving away self acquired wealth/ property, imprisonment, they had much more than a fair share of problems. Illness, Enmity, opposition. My grand father and his sister were both married to people with tuberculosis. Both died, leaving his sister widowed with two children. BakhshiTek Chand did not have any children from his first wife. BakhshiTek Chand’s law practice was fetching him well over a lakh of rupees annually in 1910. He eloped for the second time in 1913 to LeelaVati, who was then fifteen. Their first daughter, Savitri, was born in1917. Shanta was born in 1920. Sarla in 1922. Satya in 1924. Sudarshana in 1926. ShubhChandrika in 1928. Sumohini in 1931. My grandmother’s longed for son never materialised. In 1926 BakshiTek Chand stood for elections in Punjab. He won with an overwhelming majority. He was offered a post at the bench, which he refused. The Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court then asked the Governor of Punjab to ask my grand father. My grand father set three conditions: 1) that he be directly be inducted into the high court, 2) he should be permitted to practice after retirement and3) he should never be asked to leave Lahore. The governor immediately agreed and thus began his sixteen year stint on the bench at an annual salary of sixteen thousand rupees. The British failed him at independence when Lahore went to Pakistan and he had to leave. During his tenure at the bench, BakhshiTek Chand’s decision differed six times with that of the British chief justice. On all six occasions his judgment was upheld at the Privy Council. He was knighted in 1943 and shortly afterwards was superseded. He took leave preparatory to retirement and in his farewell speech made the statement: law is a vast field, there is always something new to learn, just the other day, when I presided over my last case, I learned something new. In his most famous judgement at the bench he ruled against the king of Kashmir whose name I cannot recall. This judgement as alreaded stated was upheld in the Privy Council. There is deep enmity between my family and Hindu Kasmiris. Independence and the partitioning of India brought chaos and tragedy to both paternal as well as maternal sides of my family. The wealth and investments of the paternal family were overwhelmingly in Lahore; apart from my great grand father’s property in Sargodha, also now in Pakistan. Retired Colonel Madam All Puri was devastated. It was not in his wildest imagination that an emperor he had served so faithfully could act the way he did. He stubbornly stayed in Lahore with his grand daughter Parma, until his brother took him under gunpoint in Lahore by helicopter to Delhi. At the time of partitioning of India, there was looting of Hindu and Sikh property in Lahore, but BakhshiTek Chand’s untouched. His first son in law Yogendra Krishan Puri brought seven truck loads of his property to New Delhi from Lahore but was under instructions to leave his books and writings (he wrote in Urdu) behind and only to bring his father’s books which were on constitutional and Legal History as he had been asked by the Indian leadership to draft India’s constitution). Before partition and after retiring from the bench BakhshiTek Chand decided to sell his palatial house on six Fen Road. He was to sell it for five hundred thousand rupees and the purchaser had given earnest money. His daughter’s protested and the deal was called off. On immigrating to Delhi at partition, BakhshiTek Chand wanted to make a house for his family in Friends Colony but his daughters objected that it was in the middle of nowhere. He bought the annex to the house of Taj Din on Albuquerque Lane. This is in New Delhi eleven, where polititions and senior defense officials have their residences. Shortly before partition BakhshiTek Chand’s second daughter Shanta was married to Prakash Chandra Gupta. They never had any children. His third daughter had decided to look after her parents and did not marry. His fifth daughter Sudarshana married Yogishwar Raj Puri, as already stated in 1949. Satya married Jai Goal Singh, a divorcee against her father’s advice. They had two children, Preeti and Shamsher Gopal. Next my mother ShubhChandrika married my father Yugal Raj Puri. My sister was born on eighteenth October 1953 and I was born on sixteenth October 1955. Both the births were on moonless nights Madan LalPuri died of kidney failure in April 1949. The only properties he left his children were in Solan, which had been gifted to him by a greatful patient, undeveloped land in Dalhousie and property in Amritsar. He also left stocks, which became the object of bitter dispute after my grand motherChannan Devi Puri’s death from cancer and diebetes in 1961After independence, until her death my grand mother stayed with my father BakhshiTek Chand was offered many postings after India’s Independance. He was asked to become India’s ambassador to the United States, Governor of Madras and Prime Minister of Kashmir. The jobs were very poorly paid and there was no chance of making money except through corruption. He turned them all down and concentrated on turning his family finances for his wife and unmarried daughter. He drafted the Constitution of India but there were vehement demans for alterations which he did not permit ascined to another person of the constional committee who is now the official architect of the constitution of India. He never signed the Constitution of India in its final form even though he was in the constitutional committee. He wrote Indias intellectual property act, Indian patent act and Indian copyright act. . He left his family fairly well off even though getting a paralytic stroke which left him paralysed for the last six years of his life. He had a healthy practice inspite of winning few cases. Many layyers and judges have written about their abilities to beat Bakhshi Sir Tek Chand. After independence. Justice in independant India is more about settling scores than justice, when the judges fall, they will fall really hard on their noses. He was an independent member of parliament from his native Kangra. He was president of the bar council of India. He never used his British title, though his wife used hers. His republic day card was addressed as: BakhshiTek Chand and Lady LilavatiTek Chand. BakhshiTek Chand had difficulty adjusting to his new house and had constant high blood pressure and frequent nose bleeding. I feel the it was caused by vimdictive servants who probably put dangerous insects in his bed and poisoned food; I have suffered the same problem. BakhshiTek Chand was the Chairman of The DAV education Society, founded Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Hans Rak DAV College in Delhi and a Nursing Collge in Chandigarh. Before India’s independence hed founded Balak Ram Medical College Lahore, Now Fatima Jinnah Women’s Medical College). He had also founded Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore. His father, BakhshiJaishi Ram founded PunjanBational Bank but granddad distanced himself from it and I only got to know about it from the web. I was born in my grand father’s car, which was being driven to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi by my aunt Somohini and accompanied by my aunt Sarla at five thirty two AM on 16th October 1955. The umbilical cord was not cut in the car and I was taken to the veranda and discharged with the comment: never seen a healthier baby. After my birth I went immediately to Nagpur, where my father was poste. . BaoJi (Maternal grandfather) names me Ashwinikumar, its one word but my parents wrote it as two). It means father of the first physician). Shortly after my cousin was born which is seven months after my birth and he was named Shiv Nanded which is Dravidian the name of the road of his house was changed to Tees January Lane. That was the end of him he did not want to live and sffred a poaralytic stroke. . At the time of my birth my father was posted in Nagpur. I have no memories of the place. Shortly after my birth, my parents shifted to Jhansi where my father was manager of the railway workshop. One of my earliest memories is about my toy pistol. It stopped working and my father gave it for repair. There was labour trouble at the workshop. Someone spread the word that Mr. Puri was getting his gun repaired. This frightened the workers and they stopped threatening my father. My father sorted their problem by linking their pay to productivity. Their pay increased by about twenty five percent. I also remember my sister protesting while going to school. I told my mother that I would never cry when it would be my turn start school. We had at that time, a non-electric gramophone player and my sister and I used to fight over which record to play. Most of the seventy eights broke. My sister and I used to fight every day. I do not remember the reason. She would start chasing me. We would run all over. On one such occasion while she was chasing me, I stepped on a needle, which was put vertically on the carpet. The needle broke with the impact of my toe bone and then came out. There was no blood. A day or two later it started paining and mum took me to the railway hospital. The doctor examined it under X-ray and found that a piece the needle was in my foot. I had to undergo surgery. My mother, who is a medical graduate explained the entire procedure to me. I was not particularly frightened and reached the hospital without a fuss. My mother did not tell me about a precautionary injection I would get to stop me from vomiting while under anesthesia. After that, all hell broke loose. I refused to sit on the wheel chair, which would take me to the operation theater. After about twenty minutes, my father picked me up with me scratching his face. He placed me on the table and the anesthetist put me to sleep in twenty seconds. I woke up and saw my mother by the side of my bed. My mother hugged me and said the operation was a success. I saw my bandaged foot and was happy to be alive. I was told that DrCorea had taken less than a minute to remove the needle. My foot had to be dressed every day. The nurses in those days were dedicated, gentle and affectionate. I remember the fuss I made when the stitches had to be removed. The nurse was so patient. I next remember my first day at school. My father was taking me on the Scooter and I jumped off. He next took me in the car with Georgy, who used to work in our house. I removed the keys and threw them out. They finally reached me to the school where I kicked the teacher. In a few days, I settled down to school life. Summer in Jhansi was very uncomfortable. In those days, we just had fans and what in Hindi, we called khus. Water used to be sprinkled on the khus, which was put on the door leading out doors. This would cool the house as breeze came. Inspite of these precautions, I developed heat stroke. I remember ice being put in a vessel, which was put on my fore head. Due to my stroke, my father decided to purchase an air conditioner. I remember my paternal grand mother, Maji and my cousin Padma who used to stay with us. Maji could build a house of six stories with a deck of cards. I however could not build more than a double story. Parma used to tell me stories about Bilzee Bub and ghosts. I was so frightened that I could never sleep without my mother. We spent our vacations mostly with my maternal grand parents in Delhi. On one such occasion, we were five cousins together-Arti, Rajan, Shivi, Indi and I Arti had a basket and we wanted to know what was in it. She did not want us to know and put it on top of the cupboard. I climbed on to a sofa and was reaching for the basket when Arti caught me from below the knees and lifted. My knees buckled and I fell head first on to the corner of the fireplace. I walked to my mother in the drawing room. My mother put a handkerchief to my head and I saw blood. I burst into tears. The wound was not treated properly. I was not given a course of antibiotics. The accident damaged blood vessels, which still affects circulation to and from my head. About the time I joined school at the age of four, mum used to relate to us the latest episode of the Little Woman, which was a cartoon in the weekend edition of The Times of India. I also remember her telling us about the space age about Sputnik, The space dog Laika and Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tarishkova. We left Jhansi in December 1961 after which my father went to Britain for a few months training. My sister, I and my mother stayed at Tees January Lane (Albuquerque Lane) with my maternal grand parents and SarlaMasi. My grand father had suffered a paralytic stroke and it was pathetic to see him being fed, bathed and clothed like a baby. They did not know the elements of care. A paralysed person has to be cleaned with a sponge in bed he has to be given an enema to facilitate ejection of feaces. My sister and I joined a preparatory school near by. We used to go for our evening outing to two parks, which we called Chhotaa, and Barraa Park. There we had our piece of cake and coca cola. Our school closed for summer and we were taken by Baby (Sumohini) Maasi to Jaipur where Uncle Mohan and my cousin Giti were. The cars fan belt broke and the car heated luckily we were near a service station. I remember a playground we used to frequent. We had fifty pauses each. To spend. This was either one fifty pause or two twenty five paise coins. . Geeti always wanted two twenty five pause . My father returned from Britain in September and shortly after that my grand fatherBakhshiTek Chand passed away. His obituary was in most of the papers of Northern India. After completing his training in Britain, my father was posted to Central Railway, Bombay where he was in charge of managing fuel supply. Uncle Gishi was also posted to and we stayed with him at his residence in Back Bay, Colaba, which was the Bombay cantonment area. My parents wanted me to join Cathedral and JohnConnan High School, which was considered Bombay’s best school. I was coached for two months by a Miss Muleen after which the head mistress of the junior school subjected me to a test in English reading and arithmetic. She remarked to my mother: he reads very well. Was admitted to the second standard at my father’s insistence though the head mistress recommended third standard. I had grown dependant on Miss Muleen, but unfortunately for me, she immigrated to Britain where she joined the teaching profession. My father took to teaching me after that and though it was a success with mathematics and science, it was disastrous with English. He tried teaching English scientifically but unfortunately, it was not scientific. He told me an s or es has to be added to make a word plural. This was disastrous when I wrote the plural of child as Childs, mouse as mouses and fish as fishes. My teacher Mrs. Lamongin asked a girl to help me. She asked should I help you. I nodded. A boy said: I will tell mam. She said: Mam has told me to help him. She corrected my grammer, saying; this is not Childs but children, this is not mouses but mice, this is not fishes but fish. Thus began my correction in learning a difficult language, which I have come to love. We spent our winter recess as usual in Albuquerque Lane now with Mati our maternal grand mother, now that my maternal grandfather was no more. SavitriMasi’s daughter Aruna was getting married and we missed four days of school. Aruna’s marriage was spread over three days with delicious food; I still remember Basmilla Khan’s playing the shainai. Aruna married Ravi Bajaj. Ravi Bajaj was an industrialist-very rich and generous. We returned to Bombay and mum took me to school, where I was now in the third standard. She explained to Miss Smith my class teacher why I was joining late. There was a history test the next day on Mahinjadaro. Miss Smith wrote a paragraph on Mahinjodaro, which I had no problem in memorizing and understanding. Shee next she wrote on the black board: Write five good sentences on Mahinjodaro. I thought she meant sentences that praised Mahinjodaro so I wrote: Mahinjodaro was a beautiful city; Mahinjodaro was a nice city; Mahinjodaro was a fantastic city; Mahinjodaro was a fabulous city; and Mahinjodaro was a pretty city. In my defense I should say that the teacher should have written: Write five good sentences describing Mahinjodaro. The correct sentences were: Mahinjodaro had streets which were paved; Mahinjodaro had a drainage system better than present day Bombay; Mahinjodaro had a granary; the people of Mahinjodaro were literate, and Mahinjodaro was abandoned without violence for unknown reasons. It must be borne in mind that the Indus valley script is undeciphered, and, and Mahinjodaro was a name given by the British. We stayed in Bombay until May 1966 when dad was transferred to Delhi. On reaching Bombay, I was healthy and over weight. Though there was little change in my diet, I kept losing weight. I also developed asthma. Doctors did not know the cause of asthma and I feel I may have done better without them. I did test positive for worms. This was not surprising as Bombay had one of the worst water supplies in India, if not the world. I feel having worms was the cause of my weight loss. My school life at Cathedral passed relatively uneventfully-from Miss Smith who also introduced me to scripture to Miss Rahimtulla in the forth class. I did well in mathematics, science and English language, while doing poorly in history, and English literature. To improve our spelling, Miss Rahimtulla used to dictate history lessons to us, after which she individually corrected what she dictated. I did not realize it at the time, but the spelling and pronunciation of English words had to be memorized. It was almost impossible to correctly spell and pronounce unfamiliar words and names. At the end of the forth standard we had to give our photographs to Miss Rahimtulla along with two or three lines of prose. I don’t remember what I wrote. Miss Rahimtulla was a very likeable teacher and I was sad that she would not be with us in the fifth standard. I do not remember the class teacher in the fifth standard, but Mr. Hunter was our mathematics teacher, a very good, but at the same time a very scary teacher. He introduced us to long multiplication. We were given an exercise in which questions of both short and long multiplication were given. Among them was one which involved multiplication with twelve. As I new the twelve multiplication table, I should have done it with the short method, but instead did it by long multiplication. He asked me: don’t you know how to multiply by twelve? Our science teacher was a Mr. Mackinsey. I remember him giving us a demonstration on distillation. He had a sample of sea water, which he distilled and asked us to taste. I did not have the guts. He told us how distiiling sea water would be necessary if a thirsty sailor reached the shore and went on to describe a primitive way of distillation. This however would be for sailors at sea. For people on the shore there were coconuts. In Cathedral School, training in gymnastics was compulsory and we had to learn catherine wheel, roman rings and parallel bars. In the fifth standard we were introdiced to hockey, which in those days was as popular as cricket is today. One subject in which I had absolutely no talent was drawing and painting. The situation was compounded as my sister Indira was very good at it. I made her handle all my assignments. Even at this age my drawing ability is juvnile. We shifted from Bombay to Delhi in mid 1966. I was to join the residential Doon School in January 1967, a school in Dehra Dun. My father could not get me into public schools as these required a donation and Catholic schools would not take me as I was from a Church of England school. In any case I only had one term to cover before joining Doon. I was admitted to a school of army personnel children near my grand parent’s home on Albuquerque Lane. My mother used to drop and fetch me till I decided I wanted to bicycle instead. I used to be taken by a person working there. My sister Indira got admission to Carmel Convent. For some reason she did not do well and was declared failed. This was unexpected as she had stood 19th in Cathedral just the previous term. I do not know how she came to fail but feel they may have been too many questions from the first term, which she did not attend. Indi was shifted to Marter De Convent in Delhi while I joined Doon. Indi did well at Marter De but in 1968 dad was transferred back to Bombay. They tried getting her admission to the Welham Girls High School, a residential school and the principal, Miss Linnel took her immediately. Even though there was a long wauting list. Had she not got admission, she could have stayed on at Marter De and her grand mother. My sister became in Welhams what in a boy would be termed: rascal. Miss Linnel died of cancer while Indira studied there. Indi’s hair was platted but had to be cut oponlinels’s insistence. My stay at Doon was not just a nightmare, it was a horror. No one bothred about whethered we brushed our teeth, washed our hands before eating or whether we ate enough. The prefects and monitors used to be concerned about polished shoes, well made beds, gartered stockings and making sure we were punctual for exercise and games. I caught eye infection I still suffer from and have a bad set of teeth. I loath the place and though I have to acknowledge some intellectual debts, I remember the place with dreadMy bad teetht are due to hyperacidity and the teeth were perfect in the school. . In yoga therapy drinking water from the nose is to be done with ground water. I was introduced to drinking water from the tap by my Begali house captain Amitav Ghosh whi I still feel is the worst scoundrel the Doon School has produced. He and two other sidekick friends were harassing a boy reading a non fiction book. The boy abused Amitav Ghosh. The side kick snatched the book from the boys hand and banged it on his head. The boy twisted his arm and it broke. He was not only intelligent but a VERY NICE PERSON HIS NAME WAS Harish Suri. His batch was deprived of its captain. There was nobody else. I do not feel like describing what I feel was an extremely unpleasant phase, but remember two members of the staff who influenced my intellectual development. 1) Mr. K C Roy who in a chemistry class put a slice of sodium in a trough of water and covered it. The sodium extracted oxygen from the water and released hydrogen. I do not still fully understand the significance of this demonstration but will deal with it at a later stage in more detail. 2) Mr. RoshanLalChandna who in a Hindi class stressed the need to write the nagari alphabet without the need for a connecter line. Years later I made the break through which now does not seem as significant as it did then but is none the less considerable. I will dwell about both these facets in greater detail at a later stage. I feel I must record the worst incident of my life at Doon. An acquantance gave me a book which suggested anal stimulation enhances sexual pleasure. Taking a cue from this I took a super size empty toothpaste tube, rounded it from the crimp and inserted it into my anus in the changing room. Just then I heard someone coming. I immediately put up my tight trousers and walked hundred yards to the toilet. I took it out and though there was little blood, there was a piece of flesh at the edge of the tube. This was on the 5th of November 1972 while I was in the midst of my final examination. I broke bounds and bought one hundred tablets of penecilin V which i consumed at about eight a day. I did my exams and did minimum exercise. After finishing the minimum five required to pass, I went and told the school doctor. He immediately had me sent to a specialist who examined me without questioning me. Though there was pain at a particular place as he probed with his finger he said there was nothing seriously wrong. He told me to stop the penicilin take vitamin B compex. He said I could exercise. After the exams, I played a game of badminton. The next day I had excruciating pain in my liver and right hip. The accident had damaged liver and chipped my hip bone and rent my rectum. . I gratefully remember my former house master and mathematics teacher Mr. S L Sharma, who for me was a natural Psycho therapist. He told the class: Puri is someone special. This spurred me onto to solving a problem in statistics from the 1970 examination which no one, not even the teachers were able to solve. The problem was that of a loaded dice which was numbered from 0 to five. We had to determine the probability of the sum of two consequetive throws to be one. I deduced the probability to be one and zero and zero and one or the probability of zero into the probability of one doubled. I told a boy in the best quality class and his teacher immediately said it was correct. On many occasions when I was dissatisfied with my intellectual performance his remark made me continue with my life of the mind. May God bless SL Sharma. A teacher I regret having been taught by was one of our georgraphy teachers. He was a friend of Aruna’s husband Ravi Bajaj and Aruna was always singing his praises. I decided to opt for science with geography option. The fellow hardly dwelt with georgraphy in the class. His favorite subjects were pseudo economics and pseudo history. He discouraged us from science and engineering saying scientists were poorly paid, had high suicide rates and India had the highest number of unemployed engineers in the world. He thought that by making such statements we would be spurred on to study georgraphy. He confidently stated that all of us would get high credits or distinctions. He thought he could teach us Hindi by stating that the assent of Hindi was inevitable in India. I spent all my spare time reading in the library, what interested me and not necessarily what was in our courses. So for me classes were vital to catch up with our curriculam. I ended up with 44% in Hindi and 42% in georgraphy. I got a distinction in additional mathematics (73%) and high credits in English Language (67%), EnglishLiterature (68%), physics (67%) andchemistry (67%). The top five papers were counted and i got 68. 4 % over all, a first division but not anything spectacular. In December 1971 my cousin Anupam was visiting India with his wife Rajika. They paid the customary visit to our grand motherMati and when it was time to go, shesaid:”Next time from two come as three. ”Rajika was livid, what with the overpopulation. She returned from New York in February and insisted Mati watch her dance performance at the Ashoka hotel convention hall which was not connected by a lift. Mati got a heart attack midway through the performance and was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. Anupam who is a B. Phil. , in economics from Baliol has not much grasp of economics. He did not realize that the most precious economic resource is quality humans, and for that reason quality human beings have to reproduce at a rate far above the average. Mati left a will leaving her Albuquerque Lane residence to her eleven grand children, after her unmarried daughter Sarla’s demise, who was also care taker of her estate. She had verbally stated that the ancestral orchard-farm must not be sold. She was silent over three houses that they owned in Dalhouzie. Had she not left, her sons in law, who were all victims of partition, they would have had it sold for fifteen twenty lakhs. In todays value it is worth over one hundred crores. The orchard was sold for six lakhs and the money divided between the daughters. Mum loaned dad her share and he bought a flat in Malabar Hill, Bombay. The orchard-farm today is valued at about 550 Crores. We called it an orchard, but it was actually a farm with inter cropped fruit trees. As fruit trees flower on exactly the same day each year, in a particular place, it becomes possible to determine the time of sowing crops, withoutcosulting a calendar I did visit the orchard-farm while we were returning from holiday in Dalhouzie. There were trees of almost every fruit inter cropped with wheat. The trees were about twenty five feet apart and in between wheat was grown. There was a patch for Basmati rice which was not inter cropped. I now feel coconut could have been grown. In the varanda of the farm house were apiaries where bees produced the most delicious honey I have eaten. Every year we got a basketful of grape fruits and Maltas, along with honey. The grapefruit is slightly bitter and has to be eaten with sugar. I will now dwell on our houses in Dalhousie. One original one belonged to the king of Kashmir. . When granddad bought it he renamed it Kailash as it over looked the mountain and had an om printed at the top. Two more houses were built-Kailash 1and 2. Kailash 2 was built for a Muslim friend and became vacant at partition as they opted for Pakistan. Kailash was gifted to Arti’s daughter Abha by my mother and aunts. Kailash 1 was sold and the smallest Kailash 2 is still jointly owned. Every one who sees it says-what a wonderful house. The king of Kashmir’s house is scary. There is a particular bed room and then stairs which lead to a smaller room with no windows and finally a room where just one person can fit there were doors on those rooms but while renovation they were removed on granddad’s instructions. As it was when with the Hindu Kashmiri King the rooms could be locked from out side. At the time I finished school dad was posted as Principal of the Indian Railways Institute of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering. This was located in Jamalpur, Bihar. I had been told by the georgraphy teacher that DamodarDharmanandKosambi, a mathematician turned historian was the most brilliant Indian in its five thousand year history. His books were not available in Jamalpur so I requested a teacher who was going to Calcutta to get me one. He got it for the institute and I went through it. The author interpreted history through Maxiandialecticals. His description of history was:”The presentation in chronological order of the successive changes in the means and relations of productions. He stated for economic development to take place there had to be food surplus. He made many statements, some of which do not seem convincing or are erronious. He said that the Indus Valley civilisation could have died out due to a malaria epidemic. The civilisation spread a thousand mile both north to south and east to west-malaria can not be the single cause of such a vast area. Habib has possibly correctly stated that the cause was due to drying up of the river and change in climate. I feel it was due to an earthquake which changed the course of the Indus river. Rivers play an important role in civilations. They provide food (fish), navigation and transportation, irrigation. The civilation was further handicapped as the pump was not known to the civilization. Habib suggests that the civilisation migrated to south India about three to five hundred before the Aryas came to the region. Kosambi suggests that the origin of the surname,”Puri”, may be, Puru”, the tribe of which Poras was the king at the time of Alexander’s invasion of India. Pronunciation among the Aryas do not change. Puri as stated in Monier Williams Samskrit English Dictionary means ‘to lead’ and is as old as Puru. Kosambi goes on to state that the BhagwadGeeta is the justification of any crime and is a worthless document. I used to voice these words like a parrot. Years later I discovered how humiliating it is to be the object of a woman who is engaged to some one else. Kosambi is not a trained historian and his writings will have a declining influence as time passes. In 1973 the Benaras Hindu University had an under graduate business management programme for which an entrance exam was being held. I went along with the father of another boy to sit for the entrance test. There were tests of verbal and numerical ability. The questions were easy to difficult. An interesting group of questions in the numerical were like the following: 178(55)288/444( ) 222. In the given set 55 is half the difference between the numbers outside the brackets. So the answer to the question is 111. Similarly there were where the difference was 2, 34or half, one third and one quarter. A particularly clever question was: there are three identical cigarette packets. What is the standard deviation? The answer is that there is no standard deviation as they are all the same size. The verbal ability paper was a test of vocabulary and the correct use of prepositions. The only dictionary I know which explains the meaning and use of prepositions is Monier Williams English Samskrit. My dictionary. The translation is accurately rendered and a person skilled in Hindi can become an expert in English if he reads the dictionary from cover to cover. Each English word is explained with several samskritsynonomins and different meanings of the same word are also covered. The key to correct English is understanding the use of prepositions. I was called twice for an interview after clearing the written test by the Banaras Hindu University Board. Mum and dad felt that as we did not have relations or friends in Banaras there was not much point in going there. I had heard of the tough ragging and was scared off. I applied for admission to three colleges in Delhi. I had more or less decided to study economics, but kept options. I was not called by St. Stephens College for Economics (Hons), but made the cut in History (Hons). I was asked if I had read a book on history. I told them about D DKosambi’s, The Culture &Civilisation of Ancient India and that was enough, I was thanked for coming and the next day i proudly looked at the board, which stated i had been selected for the History (Hons) course. I applied for Economics (Hons) to both Hindu and Sri Ram colleges, being selected in both. Next came the difficult decision to choose the course and college. Dad and I decided to draw lots and that’s how i came to join Hindu college. Hindu College for me was a disaster from the beginning. Having got into the hostel i was subjecting to ragging which in my case completely failed in achieving any useful purpose. I did not like having a bath in the hostel bath room and kept returning to Albuquerque Lane where now only SarlaMasi lived. In addition I had problems in waking up in the morning so i only attended the last lecture. There were no evening colleges in those days. We had three subjects to study in the first year: Micro Economics; Statistics; Indian Economic History. I enjoyed micro economics. I did not do well, but was proud that I was the only student in the college who had more marks in micro economics than the other two subjects. I got twenty four out of fifty and a student who eventually got a first division and is a M. Phil from Cambridge got twenty five. The micro economics paper in my year was difficult. Every one was dissatisfied with my results and my already difficult life became a nightmare. In 1974 before my exams I went with my father to Ajmer. There was a man there who read hands and prescribed wearing of rings as a therapy. He told me I was facing many problems and recommended one of his rings. I had had the injury and thought that was what he was meaning. I wore the ring he sent me. People became very strange, but I did not link their behavior to the ugly and cheap ring Iwas wearing. After doing poorly I should have concluded enough was enough and abandoned the fellow. I kept wearing the fellow’s rings till an attempted suicide attempt narrowly failed. My father removed the ring in my unconscious state and never again suggested another of the fellow’s rings. I suffered a nervous break down in October 1974 and pulled out of college. For those who study in college I have the followig advice. Have above 90% attendance in the first year. Do 100% of the tutorials. Always discuss with the teacher how to turn an A, BC or D into an A+. Discuss about what has been missed, or whether some thing has been entered which should not have been there. Give examples when making statements. In social sciences there are differing interpretations. No one interpretation is universally accepted. Give views of both sides and then take a stand to one side or the other or the middle ground. there are plus points to both sides so the middle ground is often the best. Make a team of four and discuss. You will not only learn a lot but be able to write fluently and may make your dream of becoming a university professor a reality. in 1974 our family physician recommended psychiatric treatment for me. I was put on a course of depressants and anti depressants. My life was regulated by medicines and I would get up in the morning sleep after taking medicines immediately afterwards. I would wake up about three in the afternoon and have a bath. There after I would have a bath and tea, after which I would read the papers or Newsweek magazine to which I was a subscriber. I would sleep between eleven thirty and twelve. I would also go for my evening walk-On one such occasion I was spotted by a school friend and we got to meeting regularly. He was a chain smoker and I restarted smoking. From feeling chronocally sleepy, getting enough sleep became my problem. My level of alertness considerably increased and I realized i had got back my intellegence. We were aware that I should try and make some thing of my life and my parents and I decided that I try my hand at chartered accountancy. I would have to sit for an entrance examination and there was a study course offered by the board in Bombay to which i enrolled Gagan(my school friend) and me used to discuss various topics till late at night while chain smoking. I came to know a particularly valuable aspect of economics which students of Delhi are not familiar with. This is the statement that when the price of inferior goods increases its consumption also increases. It took a lot of thinking on my part to figure it out. Most people have a budget for food expenses. Assume it is one hundred rupees a week. They buy eighty five rupees of wheat and fifteen rupees of chicken. You are aware that per weight wheat buys much more than chicken. Now assume the amount that eighty five rupees of wheat used to fetch now fetches one kilogram less. The price of chickrn being rupees fifty per kilogram, which means that about three hundred grams was being consumed we will have lower quantity to consume and if we do notincrease our consumption of wheat we will go hungry. This theses assumes that total expenditure on food does not change. Gagan used to keep asking how I came to be mentally ill. I told him that I took an over dose of fifteen year old Tabasco chilly sauce, which resulted in psycho sexual changes, nerve disease and insomnia. It took about three weeks of coaxing on his part for me to reveal my secret. Having told him, I got emboldened to tell others with disastrous consequences. My father was going to Calcutta and an airline stewardess who was a daughter of a colleague brought some things which she wanted delivered. She said she was looking for a place to stay, as her present arrangements were unsatisfactory. We offered her place, which she accepted. One day I told her of my secret. She discussed it with her fiancé and on returning made life hell for me. Luckily for me i had done most of the study course about which I have mentioned. I particularly enjoyed than maths, logic and economics classes. The board had nominated very good teachers. I did not sleep for three days on on the night before my first paper I took a sleeping pill and slept. After the examination. I went with my mother to Delhi for an appointment with my Psychiatrist. HE adjusted my dose and we returned to Bombay. My father was transferred to Calcutta and I escaped from the clutches of a monstrous woman. She has three children now from her husband; why did she want me to accompany her to Kuwait? Calcutta was very different to Bombay. Instead of multi story buildings they were spacious bungalows. We were in a colony called Belvedere Park which came with a well equipped club. Every evening the residents of Belvedere Park would assemble at the club. There were many magazines to read and we had a choice of tennis, badminton, ping pong, bridge and swimming. Much to my relief there were no airline stewardesses in Belvedere Park. Dad approached the principal of St. Xavier College, Calcutta to admit me to the Economics (Hons) course as a special case. The principal agreed and I ventured onto a course which should have ensured my graduation. Unlike in Delhi. I was attending classes regularly. The staff and teachers were good. I used to enjoy a ridiculously cheap cream roll between classes. Unfortunately for me, I cleared my chartered accountancy entrance examination and decided to try my hand at the subject and became an articled clerk. I had decided to try and become a chartered accountant because I felt there were chances of higher income at an earlier stage of my life. However as events unfolded, it was to be a most tragic mistake. True in those days just graduation was not enough to get a well paid job, but dad had a flat in Malabar Hill, the rent from which was enough for the time till I started work. We could even start a business. I found chartered accountancy extremely boring and did not prepare properly for the examination, even though my grasp of the subject was sound, I did not have writing practice and had very untidy handwriting. After I failed in the exam twice, I decided to try my hand at writing instead. I used to spend my evenings in the Belvedere Park club, where I met many interesting people, about my age and used to prize myself in my knowledge of the subjects they were studying. I told a physics student that light could be bent by gravity. He told me about the rectilinear propagation of light and said light was not affected by gravity. I told him to ask his professor. Some time later he said that I was correct as he had confirmed it with his teacher. There was an officer from Chartered Bank who I occasionally met at the club. She had been told that I was a good palmist and she asked me to read her hand. She was an intellectual with an expert knowledge of economics, history and politics. WE used to discuss these topics at length, while chain smoking. After having failed to become a chartered accountant, Lita had suggested I try my hand at writing. As I had atrocious hand writing, I used to dictate essays and articles to my mother, after which I would get them typed. I had also starting subscriptions to many publications including Encounter, Asian Wall Street Journal, Far Eastern Economic Review, Economist, Foreign Report and International Herald Tribune. In the summer of 1980 i had a problem as our air conditioner got spoilt and I started longing to go to mum’s house in Dalhouzie, which is a hill station in Himachal Pradesh. There were forteen hour power cuts in Calcutta. We had already been to Darjeeling April where I had met an Indian of British extraction. He was a Balliol scholar who had fallen on hard times. We got on very well. After a PhD. in psychology from Oxford, he had done a post doctoral theses from Canada. We endlessly discussed various intellectual topics and he used to say things like-“a sure sign of genious. ”After leaving Darjeeling, we kept corresponding, he wrote:” Be of good cheer master Puri, you shall one day light such a candle in this land of Bharat that shall never be extinguished. ” He also wrote:” Darjeeling is full of seasonal birds of passage-mostly Gujaratis and Marwaris to my eye. The Chaurasta and side lanes reverberate with their raucous vulgar voices. ” There was an element of hypnosis in what he did to me-I was convinced that I was amongst the top three most intelligent men in the history of the world. I continued my reading at a hectic pace, while dictating one essay after another to my mother. My parents were against my going to Dalhouzie. Where Uncle Yog and SavitriMasi were staying, but I managed to convince my psychiatrist and he told my parents there was no harm in going. Everything was fine for my first two weeks in Dalhouzie. Had until I unfortunately related an incident from Koestler’s:”The Call Girls. ” Uncle Yog had problems in sleeping that night and I was talking loudly to my cousin Giti. They atmosphere got from bad to worse and i decided to leave, they immediately changed their behavior, dropped all their restrictions and urged me to stay, but I had made up my mind and I left, along with my ten day old beard, which had been grown at the insistence of Geeti who said it looked nice. I told her I will shave it off before leaving, she said keep it. I did not know at the time how vicious and monstrous she is as Muslims in India grow beards. . I had bought Gore Vidal’s book:”Kalki”, and read about twenty to twenty five pages. In a hypnotic trance, I felt that I was Kalki and had come to rid the world of the age of Kali. I developed an aptitude for verse and became fluent in Hindustani, which is a mixture of Hindi and Urdu. I coined phrases such as:” We need a leader who leads less and teaches more, so that all of us can learn to lead our own lives. I also wrote:” I have observed a normal healthy child turn psychotic, neurotic, depressed and some times schizophrenic, after hearing a carefully selected collection of music played in a sequence, with a commentary by the assassinator, many times. Message: we are assassins but we are old and can do nothing about it, it is important that we instill in our children the strength and courage to resist assassination, and the greater sense of courage, not to assassinate. ”Among my Hindustani verses were:”GadhaaLarLarkar mar jaataahai, pargadhaa he raihataahai; and, Duniyaa me bahut log hai, in me se bahutkamapnebaallamberakhtehai, auraurbhekampagreebaandattehai. Jab ekmoorkhsardaarbevkoofeekartahai, duniyasochteehaiki sab sardarbeizzateehaiaur guru Nanakki bate kibevafaayeehoteehai. There was also on my part, anall out war on Kaalee, iStated:”Kaaleeekcheezbolteehai, doosreecheezkarteehai, bachchekopeechhe se maarteehai. I was rapidly drifting into insanity. I reached Calcutta and we were being subjected to ten-hour power cuts every day. I decided that i should make another trip to Darjeeling as the heat was killing; also my friend from Baliol was there. My father had been transferred to North East Frontier Railway and was staying in Gauhati in the railway rest house. When he rung up I requested him to arrange for a pass to Darjeeling and a reservation of the railway rest house there. He instead insisted that I come to Gauhati by air as he was in an air-conditioned room, which I could share with him. Reluctantly I agreed and flew to Gauhati from Calcutta on the forth of august, 1980. Dad came to receive me at the airport. He left me at the rest house room and left for office. I, as usual was chain smoking. With me was a copy of Encounter magazine, which had on the cover:” The Case of General Grigarenko, a Soviet dissident who had been declared insane by the Soviet regime and put in psychiatric custody. The independant psychologists who examined him had cleared him-so the article stated. I had been used to my own room at night and my first night at Gauhati was a disaster. My father was drinking alcohol, which I did not touch. Before I knew it there was a full-blown fight and I demanded my own room and a passage to Darjeeling the next day. I got my own room, but unfortunately Dad’s room air conditioner stopped working and he knocked on my door. I let him in. By the sixth I realized that he had no plans to let me leave Gauhati and as the chief medical officer was approaching the rest house. I walked away and reached the bus terminus and boarded a bus for Dhubri, which was at the Assam Bengal border. A fellow passenger asked:” What is your destination? I replied Darjeeling. He told me to get off at North Sampara and take a bus to BongaiGaon and from there, the train to Siliguri. I reached BongaiGaon and tried to get a room at a hotel. As I had no luggage I was refused entry. I bought a ticket for Siliguri and boarded the train. I desperately needed sleep, but was afraid of being picking pocketed. The train reached Kukrajhar and I got down for tea. When I returned, my seat had been taken. I got off and decided to try my luck with the morning train by first class, but the attendant said:” Go to the back. ” People asked me:” Where are you going?” I replied:”Home. ”They asked:” Where is your home? I replied:” I don’t know. Some said:” When you reach home, we hope you’ll call us and I agreed and they gave me their address. I repeated said:” The people of Assam are my friends but they did not know and where ever i am going people’s eyes are turning red. I boarded a bus to Buxiar, which was again at the Assam Bengal border. At Buxiar, I asked a police official for a rest house, he said there was no rest house on the Assam side of the border. From Buxiari boarded the AlipurDuar bus and was told there was no rest house there so i would have to get off at TufanGanj and proceed to Cooch Behar. I got off at TufanGanj and the town square was full of people with yellow eyes which i mistakenly thought was due to jaundice, but later realized was due to putting mustard oil in the nostrils. I approached a policeman and asked him to direct me to a rest house preferably air conditioned. He said that an air conditioned rest house would be expensive. I replied that i had three hundred rupees and a watch worth eight hundred. He got suspicious and asked me my name. I had a wallet inscribed with P for my surname Puri, but I did not want to reveal my real name so i gave an assumed name starting with P. It was a foreigner’s name and as TufanGanj was a border and restricted area, he asked me to accompany him to the police station. They questioned me as to my name, father’s name, address and passport and luggage. I said i had lost my passport and luggage. They directed me to the intelligence officer. I at once told my real name and address, which he deliberately noted down incorrectly. I gave my mother’s address as 5 Belvedere Park, Calcutta 700027. He wrote:”5 Belghoria Road, Calcutta. He did not ask me about any telephone number. I gave my father’s address as i had been told by my father:”V I P Rest House, Addl. General Manager, (Operations), North East Frontier Railway, Malegaon, Gauhati, Assam. He had taken my mother’s address incorrectly and the cable sent to my father via Calcuuta, Delhi and Gauahati never reached. My father later on inquiry confirmed it had left Calcutta for Delhi. I was given a cup of tea and a loaf of bread and spent the night in the police cell. I had handed over my money, which was three hundred and nine and my watch. While in the cell I asked to be taken to the bathroom. I was told that there was a hole in the cell, which I could use. I asked for my medicine, which had been left, in my wallet. I was given a tablet; I said I have to have four. As I was trying to sleep there was a light disturbing me. I asked for it to be put off. They refused. As I was trying to sleep, a tape recorder went on at high volume, I said:” put it off. They refused. I said in Hindi:”Mujhegoli do. ” They said:” Bullet mile gi”. I was finally given two more tablets and slept from three to six. When I woke up, a policeman asked me what place are you in. I replied:”Yehgharhai (This is a house) He gave me one of the most venomous glares I have ever seen. I was offered food, which I refused. I kept lying in the cell. I feel they wanted me to ask for food before interrogation, but I never asked. I was finally produced before the prosecuter at three in the afternoon. A lawyer came and sat next to me, I said:” He’s wearing black clothes, he’s Kaali’s man. He went away. Another lawyer came, I repeated the same, another twenty came and went. I told the prosecuter that I feel very hot and need to be in Darjeeling. I requested him to arrange for an escort for me to the railway rest house in Darjeeling. I said:”Himmat le lo, aurtaqat they do. ” (Take my courage and give me your strength) He wrote:” Recommended for intermediate confinement. ” They kept offering me cigarettes and I said:” Cigarette smoking is injurious to health. ” I was offered biris and I said:”Laldhaganikalo. ” (Remove the red thread) they refused. Was produced before the magistrate at six in the evening along with two others and the magistrate signed a document. The prosecuter told me that i would spend the night in TufanGanj sub jail and be transferred to Cooch Behar jail in the morning where I would be given better treatment. While at the prosecutor’s table I was granted my wish for a biri with the red thread removed. I was given a loaf of bread and some sugar. They kept saying:” Please eat some of the bread. ” I finally satisfied them and I was immediately taken to the jail. Much more than regretting my stay at the jail, I regret the anguish my disappearance caused my mother. I reached the jail at about six thirty. The inmates had had dinner and were waiting to go into the lock up. I was sitting in the veranda eating my loaf of bread. I said that it was cool outside so let me sleep outside. They said:”Chaloandar”I went in and an inmate approached me with biris which he offered me. I took a biri, lit up and asked him if he wanted sugar, as I was not in the habit of having. He took it at once. He addressed me as:”Bhai. ”I told him that I failed in chartered accountancy. He said you sons of rich father’s get admission, if he had got admitted he would have made something of his life. I kept asking for biris till he ran out. The inmates were singing film songs prior to sleeping. I said:” Sing songs of the village as they reflect the real India. They paid no heed to my ranting and carried on singing. Finally I shut up and it was time to sleep. Every one except me went to sleep. Spent half the time pacing the floor and the other half lying and half sitting. We were each given two blankets-one for lying on and the other as a pillow or cover, if we felt cold. At six in the morning we paraded out and were given our share of hot khichri. It was hot and incredibly tasty. We then went about rubbing mustard oil in our hair, fore head and nostrils and then bathing at the hand pump. We used our utensil as a mug, while pumping with one hand. We were then brought back into the lock up and the person assigned the dholak (a kind of drum) would play a tune. The beating of the drum used to make me sleepy or drift into semi consciousness. I did not like the feeling. We were given rice and dal for lunch and dal and roti for dinner. I noticed that the inmates dipped the rotis in water drained the water out and then went to get their dal. I did like wise. Again the second night I did not sleep. I was offered coarse grain roti on the third night and waves of sleep hit me. I felt that if I slept, I would not wake up and fought off sleep with all my will-I did not sleep that night too. On the forth night I decided to taste the roti without wetting-it was tasty, so I decided not to dip it in water. That night my blood pressure shot up and I suffered intense anxiety. Again I did not sleep the inmates took turns to question me while bringing biris. I said I had written a letter to the Assam Tribune, they thought they were onto something big and told one of the jailors. He said that that was nothing. One day due to exhaustion I started raving incoherently. They immediately told one of the jailors:” brain phar” (his brain is destroyed). I was led outside, put under the hand pump and my head was sprayed with water. It immediately revived me. I was led to the jail warden who asked me how i was. I replied:”There is too much noise. ” He found me all right and i was led back inside. The drums and cacophony stopped. We passed through Independence Day and rakhi. I tried my hand at cards-twenty nine-which i did not play well, and kot pees, which I learnt there which I played incredibly well. It was a kind of game where the partners were to capture the tens. It is a sort of introduction to bridge-always cover an honor use to play a kind of patience on sleepless nights, which normally I scarcely succeeded in winning. I had only made it once in my life and that too in three chances. In the jail however I managed too make it every time but once in two tries. I also managed to arrange the cards so that I got one-the first card, and then two after shuffling two cards and then three after shuffling three and so on till the king. Try as they might, no one else could arrange the cards in the correct order. The time for my hearing on the twenty third was coming and my beard was shaved off. Was taken to the TufanGanj hospital doctor while he was doing some work. He kept observing me for ten minutes and then he said that I was now normal and would recommend that I be permitted to return home. On the way back to jail the jailor treated me to a cup of tea and two roshagullas. I was taken to the court on the twenty third of August for the hearing of my case. The prosecutor asked me:” Do you want the court to provide you legal counsel? I replied:”No. ”He wrote:”Treatment to continue. ” I was presented to the sub judicial district magistrate who asked me an endless series of questions. On being asked my father’s name and address I replied:”Yugal Raj Puri, 5 Belvedere Park, Alipore, and Calcutta 700027. On being asked my mother’s name and address, I replied:’Mrs. Yugal Raj Puri, 5 Belvedere Park, Alipore, Calcutta 700027. They asked what her name is. I said:”My parents are not divorced. They asked about relatives. I told them about my uncle, Lt Col Yogishwar Raj Puri, F3/7 VasantVihar, New Delhi 1100057. They said:” enough, no more names. ” They asked my telephone number, I replied 453120. Under normal circumstances the prosecutor would have been duty bound to telephone my mother as I had given the court the number, but unfortunately a journalist asked me to request the magistrate for newspapers. This I did and was advised to request for it in an affidivit. The magistrate acceded to my request provided someone would agree to pay for it. This the journalist did. He also told me to request the hospital to dispense medicines. The doctor agreed to 1mg Eskazine and 2mg Pacitane twice a day. My main worry was my shaking hand and I had been told that Pacitane stops the hand from shaking. So I had pacitane without Eskazine. My hand started shaking even more. I took both the drugs together but the damage had been done, I felt very unwell. The journalist brought me the Amrita Bazaar Patrika of 22nd and 23rd August. Along with a packet of cigarettes. I gave one newspaper to others to read and was reading the other when some shouted that my photograph was in the paper. I took it to the jail warden and he said this is the same person. The warden wrote a cable to be sent to inform my father. Had the journalist not interfered the prosecutor would have telephoned my mother and i would have been out on the twenty forth of August. The period between the twenty fourth and twenty seventh was the most harrowing of my life, I could not understand why my dad had not come. I was produced before the warden every day and given cups of tea while the warden carefully listened to what i was saying, there may have been a tape recorder recording. I told him about a letter I wrote to the ministry of education which had been forwarded to to the national Council of Educational Research And Training, forfavour of information and necessary action. Of how my father had saved the railways crores of rupees when the price of coal was decontrolled and he blocked purchases for three weeks, with out a single train being cancelled. One of the jail guards asked me to present him my watch on being released. i told him i had bought it with my own money and he said we’re all thieves. I said my father is not a thief. Another jail guard sang:”_-sunke Kumar kibaate, pita bole uttam, maataa bole uttam, daadaa bole uttam, dadi bole uttamkumar. The jail inmates were also getting vicious. I was not used to having dal at home. excessive consumption of dal was creating lot of flatulence, they threatened to tear apart my anus if i passed wind. Most of the inmates had certain degree of literacy. itold them they could join a library free and learn how to prepare legal documents. where as a lawyer would charge fifty rupees, they could do it for ten rupees. The cable which should have reached my father in forty five minutes took over three days and reached on the twenty sixth. My father reached the court at about twelve and I was released immediately. I refused to sign the document for return of my watch and money because my hand had become unsteady and finally my father wrote:”Received on behalf of my son. ” We left TufanGanj and boarded the train for Calcutta from the Cooch Behar railway station. As we passed each station, there were play backs from tape recorders on the public address systems there. It was difficult to sleep. My father’s peon had bought me trinicalm plus which had made me feel much better. My father left me with my mother and sister. I was having five trinicalm pluses a day and was completely all right. I suddenly decided to reduce the dose to two tablets a day. I went to sleep and awoke with a night mare, after which I rapidly descended into schizophrenia. I increased the dose, but it did not help. My father on returning used to drink his whisky, after which he would get on my nerves and then say:”Is whisky me bahut dam hai. ” (This whisky is really potent.)They went one night to see a movie and I had the job of dispensing my own medicines. I had about one hundred and fifty tablets which I took with cups of tea, after which I lost consciousness. I woke up in the Eastern Railway Hospital. A policeman asked me my name, I replied:”Ashwini Kumar Puri. ”He said:”Kumar. ”and walked away. DrMondal, the Eastern Railway psychiatrist took charge of me. He had the distinction of having tried the medicines he prescribed. I was put on a dose of haloperidol, pacitane and thioridazine hydrochloride. Haloperidol made my mood much better and thioridazine made my muscles tight and provided sleep. My uncle Mohan offered me a position of being his representative in Calcutta and I did liason work and dictated a weekly politico-business analysis which I sent to him in Delhi. He had been running in losses since the inception of his business six tears previously. I advised him to get financial packages along with foreign projects. He immediately became advisor to General Elactric of USA and many other foreign corporations. As I was earning and had a sum as grant for purchasing research material, I collected many books and started subsciptions to many journals including International Currency Review and Arab Asian Affairs, both published by Cristopher Story from London. Most of my subscriptions were by air mail, but my subscription to encounter magazine was by surface mail. My father was retiring and surface meant the loss of a number of copies as we were not sure of our permanent address, as my father had not built a house after losing every thing at partition. I changed my subscription to encounter to air mail which was three times the cost of surface mail. As I did not receive the first issue early I wrote one letter and the, stating that I should have received two issues but had instead received none. They had deliberately sent the first two issues of my subscription by surface mail and anticipated my letters. I was sent a Dickenson Robinson letter which if not opened correctly tears in two, and this what happened in my case. The magazines name was spelled in capitals as ENCOUNTER. THIS LETTER TRIGGERED A SRANGE REACTION OF ELATION IN ME. I remembered my Hindi teacher in school saying the need to remove the connecter line to join letters to form words. I realized that this could be done by putting a line on one of two identical letters to differentiate them, having sorted this out, I used dots to seperate words. I signed my name with a line on top of one letter and with two dots to separate my three word name. I signed away with cheers and addressed the letter to:”ENCOUNTER UNLIMITED. ” The restyling of the way the Nagari alphabet led me to write a paper on phonetics and linguistics which provided the break through that led to the digital revolution in accoustics. A copy of the paper, completed in 1985 is incuded in this book, titled:”Towards a New Concept of Literacy. ”The paper also provides a break through in developing written codes, whose speciality is that they take hardly any time to develop and if a code falls into enemy hands, another can promptly be prepared. It is copyrighted vide Indian Copyright Registeration number L11322 dated 1987. And L11653 dated 27thJuly 1988. I now go back in time to when I was completing my term of three years as an articled clerk. I was given a stipend, which in three years amounted to four thousand rupees. With this I bought two hundred shares of ITC Ltd. Indi was getting married in 1981 and Dad said to gift them to her, which I promptly did. They are now valued at fifteen million Rupees. Dad retired in August 1982 and at that time I had a job with my uncle Mohan. I resigned my membership from the National Library and was offered a job which I should have accepted. I returned my membership card of the British council and was again offered a job. I was also offered positions in the American consulate and Grand Hotel. I instead proceeded with my parents to Delhi where my job became unbearable and I decided to quit working and take up a career in writing. The renumeration of Rupees seven hundred and fifty a month was rediculuos from a person I had elevated fron an obscure two room office to an entire wing of Claridges Hotel on Aurangzeb Road, New Delhi 110011. In 1983 I completed an essay:”Towards a New Concept of Development. ”This is also enclosed. ”I became a keen watcher of development programs on television and also heard programmes on radio and read the newspapers carefully. Between 1983 and 1989 I dictated more than a thousand letters to Mum and widely circulated my two papers:”Towards a new concept of development. ”Which suggested that the present form of development was too slow and had massively improved the lot of people working in the secondary and tertiary sectors, without changing the proportion of people in the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. It stressed the need to generate surpluses and the develpment of employee owned cooperatives which would form a third front along with the public and private sectors. The cooperatives would be based on those in Mondragon in the Basque region of Spain. My letters and the essay had a gradual but steady effect which turned into a torrent when I sent the paper simultaneously in 1988 to the presidents of USSR, USA and China. The Soviet athorities decided to disband the Soviet Union. Radio Moscow was full of the concept of empoyee owned cooperatives. The Chinese administration understood the dynamics of development and went on a partial capitalist road. My progress in my main area (India) had been slow, but events in the USSR and China, along with the foreign exchange crises led my theses to rout the opposition. Authorities had been reading what I was writing and gradually used my ideas as their own. Having completed my work in political economy and accoustics, phonetics and linguistics, I took to study of the Samskrit meanings of Indian names. I had read in Lyons:”Intoduction to Theoretical Linguistics”, that nothing superior to Samskrit as a language had been developed. I bought copies of Monier William’s, Samskrit English and English Samskrit Dictionaries. The dictionaries, and, A Practical Grammer of theSamskrit. . I looked up the Sanskrit meaning of my name:”Ashwini Kumar Puri. Ashwini Kumar means:”Father of the first physician” and Puri means: to lead. My maternal grand father had named me, Ashwini Kumar. At about this time, I started suffering from various ailments, which apparently did not have known remedies. I started questioning:”Was granddad trying to tell secrets by naming me?”There was portrait of my great great maternal grand father sitting on a mat, smoking a hukkah. There were the grapefruits and Maltas which used to come, but were not easily available? One of his daughters was married to a Gupta, which in Samskrit. My means secret. My face broke into streptococcous infection and then warts. I settled both by applying grape fruit juice and heat (once) and then washing thoroughly with hot water, five to six times a day. Streptococcous infections can also be cured by a Hamdardpreperationcalled:”SanoonKhas”. This also settles aching teeth and gum infections, dysentry and related problems (taken for ten minutes after dinner and then again for five minutes before tea the next morning. )It is also effective against viral fevers and colds. I discovered that grapefruit peels churned in a mixi with honey and then added to atta and made into roti settle gastritis, and also reduce appetite and help in reducing weight. It also tightens stomach muscles. Malta peels made the same way settle ailments not responding tp grapefruit peels. Another natural antibiotic i discovered was neem leaves. It is also effective in restoring appetite and settles AnarexiaNorvosaThe problem I am referring to is due to motor oil poisoning. Indian vegetable Aamlaa seeds grinded and Aloe Vera Juice has to be taken. Aloe Vera Gel is very bad do not touch it. . Neem accumulates in the body and less and less subsequent doses have to be had. If however alcohol is consumed neem is completely neutralised and has to be retaken. For drug addiction of minor type, I have found citrus peels and tabacco water effective in controlling the urge. For severe addiction I have found Tibetan medicine effective-twelve pills of Nyiga, along with four of Denuk should be taken simultaneously and then Kali Tulsi leaves. Immipramineamytrypotiline help if there are sleep complications. Amytryptaline and immipramine are mind expanding but cann only be taken with Tibetan medicine otherewise there is serious high blood pressure and temper and lack of sleep. Another useful allopathic drug is alprazolam. For settling side effects of Tibetan medicine I have found imipramine and flaky hukkah tobacco smoked in a pipe two or three puffs and then chewing of one piece of flake. There is no other cure in any system of medicine. Anto oxidants minerals and vitamins are very useful therapies. The only remedy for drug resistant tubercoloses is small quantities of gold and silver. The treatment is given in ayurvedic scriptures. They can be studied and prepared. . I acknowledge the efficacy of vaccines and the contribution of allopathy in childbirth. The only remedy I know for infection which results in red skin is the application of powdered charcoal which sticks to the skin like a scab and comes off when the skin is healed. For burns I have found cleaning the burn with a mild antiseptic and then applying powdered charcoal the most effective. In conventional treatments keloids can form and the only treatment is cutting them and applying mild clove cream or gel. Chemicals wreck havoc. In my experience most ailments do not require allopathy, but if infection is not abating then a combination of expensive anti biotics and anti histamines along with vitamins may prove effective. The best allopathic manuals are from the former SOVIET UNION. Certain skin rashes respond to a combination of tincture iodine, eue de cologne and after shave lotion. Some times a black mark is left due to minor burn. Calamine lotion settles the condition. Citrus juice, especially that of grapefruit, Malta and mosami, along with tabacco water are good for treating eye and ear conditions. The treatment I now use for skin conditions I a combination of liquid soap, mulayanchrna, podinachurna , HamdardSanoonKhas and Toothpaste DABUR RED which has clove oil and other natural ingredients. My life in Delhi 1983 till 1989 was interacting with the media to bring about awareness. I was responsible for shaking India out of its socialist morass. I was at the same time under hypnosis and belived that the BBC was interested in my welfare. It was only in 1986 when the BBC announced:”Scene from an execution, starring Glenda Jackson. ” and my face was riddled with streptococcous and my stomach muscles had turned to jelly that I realised they had effected a design to bring about my death. My personal life was a mess. I was eating, smoking and taking medicines. Life seemed to be a series trips into and out of institutions. There was one incidence of tooth ache after another-I wondered as to how to give up smoking. From the late eighties, Dad, who had opted for provident fund on retirement wanted pension instead. In 1992 he was successful in getting it on returning the govt. contribution. Life on the measely pension was difficult and Mum suggested that our flat in Malaba Hill should be sold. It was sold in April 1994 and Dad made various investments, some that have turned sour. I decided to keep up with my social service inspite of Dad complaining that I did not earn any money. In 1993 I advised the Director ofWaste Land development, Dr. Das to try and grow coconut and fruit trees on waste land. This was done with considerable success. I advised the Dept. of Energy(Plannig Commission) to conduct an experiment inter cropping coconut trees with rice and citrus trees with wheat. These would provide much needed nutrition to children and the surplus could be used for ethanol conversion. I read a Food and Agricultural Organisation book which stated that if alcohol was the only fuel, only 95% purity of alcohol was required which could be got through simple distillation, as opposed to 99. 9% required for gasahol. As tree based systems take ten yeas to mature, I suggest the planning period should be ten years. I remembered an experiment in school which resulted in the production of hydrogen when sodium was added to water. On studying a Mir Publishers text book on chemistry I learnt the process by which sodium was produced from sea water. Sodium chloride was derived through evaporation of sea water and then mixed with calcium chloride which reduced the melting point of the mixture to 504 degrees centigrade as opposed to 804 degrees for sodium chloride. The liquid was then subjected to electrolysis following which it was preserved in a hydro carbon like kerosene, diesel or petrol. Sodium Vapour, trapped in ice is frozen space cryogenic rocket fuel. I conceived of a vehicle which would have two tanks, one of water and the other of petrol or diesel. The sodium would be stored in the fuel tank with the hydrocarbon as preservative. There would be two engines-one for the hydrocarbon and the other for hydrogen. When hydrogen fuel was required, sodium would be squeezed into the water tank resulting in the production of hydrogen and sodium hydroxide or caustic soda. This process would yield, chlorine, caustic soda as by product apart from hydrogen as fuel. Periodically caustic soda would have to be removed from the tank and water added, along with hydrocarbon and sodium in the other tank. I have read that automobiles in Britain would have to be with both petrol and hydrogen engines by 2007. Whether they use this technology, only time will tell. Another application of this technology could be in ships and submarines. there could be desalination plants, fishing and conversion of sea water to sodium. The optional fuel could be aviation fuel. The submarine could have a top which could open out like a flower blooming and air craft could take off. Electrolysis is now being used in submarines. the submarines can be permanently at sea if they have fishing facilities. electrolysis provides oxygen and fuel. The combustion of pure Hydrogen with pure oxygen gives more energy than the electrolysis required for separation. The wate can be recycled so there is no refueling. it goes on and on and on and can travel the universe and backj. While studying electrical circuits we learn’t that a circuit can be completed by connecting one wire to the live and the other to the earth. Going from this I conjectured that if the neutral wire be made the earth the neutral wire can be made to carry live current and transmission capacity can be doubled by changing the circuits at the points of consumption. While reflecting on irrigation systems I felt that with the present system there is too much reliance on weather. Often there is too much water and flooding or there is not enough. I felt that if irrigation water is directed to a tank, from where it is pumped up we will be able to get the amount of water that is required at the time it is required. There is too much aviation activated the rain water is contaminated and unfit. deep ground water using submersible pumps is the solution. Solar energy can be used till water powered electrical systems are developed. The best fertilizer and and pest controller is manure and urine. Insects flee urine its very essential fertilizer. Sewaghe systems can process fertilizer from urban sewage. Its very impoeratant to save earth as at present petroleum based fertilizer are usede whose by byproducts are petrol, diesel aviation fuel naphtha etc. A problem with video phones which can be mobile was that the TV tube took too much electricity. I had suggested the solution in 1997 which was to use liquid crystal display technology and make more powerful batteries. This became a reality by 2001-2. In 1995 I conceived a telephonic banking project that was perfected gradually in the Delhi branch of Bank of America. I used to send faxes , sometimes late at night. and also spoke with various executives. This technology is universal today. Here’s how it works. A telephone exchange is connected to a computer and answering device. By entering coded numbers you can get access to your balance as well as the answering device from which you can direct the bank about transfers and drafts. This system has made life for Hispanics in the US much easier as they do not necessarily have access to computers and quite often do not know how to operate them. What used to take an entire day could now be done from a telephone. Relatives in Latin America were given cards which meant only a trip to the nearest ATM. I have designed a general purpose dress for women. It is a modified jump suit which is loose at the waist and has a zip from the top front downwards and then goes from between the legs upwards to about where the tail bone is. With this modification the dress does not have to be removed while using the toilet. Furthermore there can be two zip locks to open from either end. The dress can be made of two materials, one for the upper part and the other for the lower part. For instance the upper part can be synthetic and the lower part denim. The dress can be used to cover any length of the arms and legs. While having many achievements, I do have a problem which has not been satisfactorially resolved. while being given a shave by a barber, I suggested that he shave it only once instead of the normal two times. He put something on my upper lip which got into my mouth and I developed a kind of anerexianorvosa. It was motor oil as already explained and I have told the remedies. I could only consume a combination of milk and sugar. For about ten days I only had Nestle Kulfi and Guru Jibadamsharbat with milk. My body got septic and I have general septicemia. The condition which results in lack of appetite can be settled with a combination of Neem and Kali Tulsi leaves, but once septicemia sets in the condition becomes difficult to cure-if a reader has a remedy, it is very welcome. I control the condition by avoiding milk and sugar products, have a diet strong in chilli and spices, consuming citrus peels and a Hamdard preparation, SANOON KHAS. The condition was cured with two doses of Tibetan medicine. A way to stabilise the supply of food would be to encourage city dwellers to use the roofs of houses to grow grains, vegetables along with poultry farms . Poultry farms require shade for chickens and turkeys and cool water, along with the service of veterinary doctors and vaccines and medicine. Bajra can be grown and the poultry can be fed. Extra food may be required. Fruit trees can be grown from seeds. The advantage of city agriculture and horticulture is that water supply to cities is usually more reliable than in rural areas. An inexpensive way to maintain the nutrition of children could be to give them two vitamin b complex with vitamin c tablets. The Rogets International Thesauras has numbers assigned to each conceptual word. These could be translated into other languages hence enabling people who do not know each others language to communicate with each. The sender enters the words which are encoded into a computer which transfers it to a floppy, which can be posted to the recipient who gets the decoded version on his computer. A note on my experience with astrology. While going to school Indi’s and my birth dates were inter changed. So she got the date of birth 16thOctober 1953 and I got 18thOctober 1955. When we got our birth certificates we discovered that my date of birth was 16thOctober 1955 and Indi’s was 18thOctober 1953. This led us to cast incorrect charts. I was wearing all the wrong metals and stones. Astrology ia quite an exact science and if the horoscope is incorrect it does lot of harm. In ending this autobiography I would like to critically comment on certain aspects of the policy of the current government of India. The present government has dismantled the public distribution system which ensured a fair price to farmers and a subsidised cost to the consumer hence increasing the purchasing power of both farmers and consumers which ensures that the demand side of the economy is healthy. In the present system margins are squeezed from both farmer and urban consumer which may lead to piling up of inventeries, particularly if there is decline in demand in the world economy. A situation like the crash of 1929 can come about. It was only when the American government introduced dole and free soup kitchens that the economy stabilised. In India we talk of food for work. Why this does not work all the time is because though there is enough surplus to pay the worker, there is at the same shortage of raw material like cement, coal tar and road rollers to construct roads and the same situation prevails in other develpment segments. Farmers whose crops have failed have to be given free food, as also the urban consumer has the right to demand food at a reasonable price. Capitalism without welfare is doomed. We however must ackowledge the positive side of capitalism which ensures healthy supply. In our haste to correct demand imballance we should not spoil this positive aspect of the current government. 24th May 2003 ASHWINI KUMAR PURI B 126 ANAND VIHAR DELHI 110092 INDIA Corrected and updated on 7th Day of March 2013. 

I have got my facts wrong an army officer came to Grand Dad’s house in 1956, , he had heroes simplex everyone in the family died, I have two sisters born on Diwali day 1953 one was kidnapped at birth and went to America for adoption. I was born with one year both my parents died fosters cane with the same name as my parents my other sister went to America too. I was left with fosters the tennis player Chris. Everyone was of my sister. thats it. The lfoster were spinning yarns about my family.

I have been donating my semen since 1972. I have a very large IVF family thats all i have. I got married a few years ago and my wife adopted a hundred of my daughters.

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