Editor: I. Mallikarjuna Sharma Volume 11: 15-31 March 2015 No. 5-6

26 Autobiography of Martyr Ramprasad Bismil (2015) 1 LAW
reached Shahjahanpur with his wife and two sons.
And my father Sri Muralidhar was the elder of
these two sons. At that time he was just eight
years old and the younger son i.e. my paternal
uncle, Sri Kalyanmal, was just 6 years old. And
that region was then affected by a terrific famine.
Bad Days:
After several attempts here and there, finally
Sri Narayanalal ji had got a job in an Attar
[Scents] seller’s shop at Rs 3/- per month. But in
the days of that famine how could one manage a
family of four with a mere Rs. 3/- p.m.? Grandma
[Dadiji] made much effort to bring up the
children with even himself going with halfhunger
but even so the family could not be
managed. They tried to bide time by eating
millets, kukni, saama, sorghum, etc. but even so
maintenance was not possible; then she would
take equal quantities of a cheapest variety of
bathua (pot-herb), chana (gram or chickpeas) or
any other vegetables and of the cheapest variety
of grain available in the market and mix those,
add some salt and eat the mixure herself but make
gram-dal or maize cakes (rotis) for the children
and grandpa was also pulling on with a similar
food. On half-filled stomach the day time could with
difficulty be spent but it was so hard to suppress the fire
in the stomach and get any sleep in the night times. If
the situation was so intolerable as regards food to eat
itself what could be said of the clothes to wear and rent
to pay for residence? Grandpa [and grandma too] was
desiring that it would be better to do labor
[domestic chores] even if it were to be in some
high families, but who in high families could rely so
suddenly on a stranger from outside the place, whose
language even does not match with the language of the
place? Nobody would offer labour of griding grain [into
flour] even; as they were apprehensive that the grinding
person, in those terrible famine times, out of acute
hunger, might gulp the flour even.
After a lot of trials, at last when two households
agreed to employ her [grandma] for grinding the
grain, again the question arose as to what to tell to
the old laborers doing that job? However, amidst all
such obstacles, finally the job of grinding the grain
to the extent of 5-7 seers a day was found but the
wages for grinding 5 seers [panseri] was but one paisa in
those days! With great difficulty, with a half-filled
stomach that too once in a day only, if grinding was
done for about 3-4 hours at a stretch she could earn
one or one and a half paise; and then she had to
come back home and prepare food for the children.
For about three years such a terribly hard situation
continued. Our grandfather used to express many
times his intention to go back to the native place
[Tomargarh] but grandma used to always rebuff
saying it is better to give up one’s life even than to
again kneel before and place the head on the feet of
the same person due to whose misdeeds they lost all
their house and properties, were compelled to leave
the native place and had to and suffer these difficult
days and also she used to instil hope that all days
would not be dry [or ‘rainy’] like this even. Our
grandma had undergone all sorts of troubles and
sufferings but had never agreed to go, and did never
return, to the native place [Tomargarh].
In 4-5 years some gentlemen became well
acquainted and realized that the woman [our
grandma] was of a good family but fell into
misery because of ill times; then several [high
family] women began to trust her and the famine
was also over by that time. As a result,
occasionally any gentleman would give some
gifts and yet other would feed her Brahmin’s
meals. And time began to pass in that way.
Further, several gentlemen, who had ample
wealth and means but no children, used to tempt
our grandpa/grandma with many incentives
asking him/her to give away one of the sons to
them and in return they would pay as much
money as demanded. However, our grandma was
an ideal mother and she used to never fall into such
temptations and used to somehow manage the family
and bring up her children.
Through exertion of hard labor and by hard
earned wages, as also by rendering Brahmin
professional services, some money could be
saved and collected. On the advice of some
gentlemen arrangement was also made to educate
my father in a school. Our grandpa also exerted
his efforts and as a result his wages got increased
and he began to earn 7 rupees per month.
Thereafter he even left his job and started a
money-changing shop in which he used to supply
Law Animated World, 15-31 March 2015 26