A Path To Follow

My grandfather Dr. J. C. Batra was the son of a rich landlord or zamindar in Pakistan. Due to the partition , he had to move to India and all his treasury was gone. He got a small land in a village in Haryana.

From his childhood, he had a sense of power in him. A power to move people. He studied in a village school till class fifth and then moved to a district school in Karnal. Later, he moved to Delhi for his graduation and post-graduation. While doing graduation he got the opportunity to meet various freedom fighters like Jawahar Lal Nehru, Dr Radhakrishnan amongst others. He got inspired from them and realized that Gandhi, Nehru and Jinnah had one distinct thing in them - all of them were lawyers and had done their law from England.

He decided to do law from England, but did not have enough money. He borrowed a minimal amount that would pay for the fee. As he did not have money to go by air, he decided to go by ship; which took him approximately 20 days.

The ship had a one night halt in Egypt. When everyone got off the ship to see the great pyramids and my grandpa stayed in the ship - a man came over to ask him why didn't he go. My grandfather said that he did not have enough money to see the country. The noble man said to my grandfather that people specially come to see this country and that he was missing an opportunity. Then, the middle aged man offered my grandpa some money. My grandpa refused to take the money thinking how, when or where could he repay the man.

The man curtly said that if my grandpa really wanted to repay him, he would pass on the same gift as the man did. The man said that if my grandpa will encourage young men and help them be big or educated ; the debt would be repayed.

Later, my grandfather did his law from England and now is a senior advocate in the Supreme Court.

He still passes his blessings over to others. There was a peon in his office who had passed class tenth ; my grandpa made him pass twelfth - paid for his graduation and law. Now, the peon is a judge in a subordinate court.

I always find a deep meaning in my grandpa's stories ; and this one taught me to pass on little deeds of kindness, be blessed and let the blessing spread.