Usnay Kaha tha
Vivekanand Jha, Ranchi. How someone’s comment or statement instantly stirs a deeper chord within us which words can seldom describe nor gestures can sufficiently insinuate.
While i was in a deeper state of contemplation—it is an usual habit of mine( even if in the dead of night some thought comes, it is my tendency to put it down on paper)—a sudden thought almost revolutionised me from all sides: How Chandradhar Sharma Guleri’s pioneer novel in Hindi: ‘Usnay Kaha tha’ had revolutionised the story telling in India, especially for the Hindi novelists’ and also set the trigger for scripting movies in the Bollywood. The famous Lehna Singh’s repeaed assertion ‘Teri Kurmai ho gai’ to an adolescent girl, who softly laughs him off in an outright dismissal of his indirect overture, as and when he would repeat the same to her, had left a deeper imprints in my mind for its allegorical significance in the given story. How Lehna Singh, while he was in his death bed, recollected these incidents, in the prime of his youth, and exhibits an alacrity that the central protagonist, Lehna Singh had shown in terms of fulfilling the promise that he had made to the girl. Interestingly, when I had seen Mahandra Singh Dhoni’s biopic: MS Dhoni: The untold story, what really struck me, and sent me reeling into deeper reflection was the fact that how his first girl friend( I came to know from a source that she was a Maithil) repeatedly asks him whether the Providence had decreed a long time togetherness. Dhoni, feeling baffled on each occasion the question was asked, was dismissive of her bizarre observaion which he found weird, even at times, vexatious. But then, she finally met with an accident resulting in her death. Why did she ask Dhoni as manya as three times wheher they had long time together, as each time she would ask,’ Hamare pas samay hain na Mahendrajee’? Did she feel an intuition or she had a premonition, that she would not survive for a long time? This question has often set me thinking into certain unexplained mysteries in human life. I intend to corroborate the same with my next meeting with Mahendra Singh Dhoni . ‘Kya usnay kaha tha’? Did she ruefully say, as it was depicted in the movie, or was it a concoction to lend an emotion to that movie? And if it was true, it deepens the mystery of human intuition which is nothing but a mystical phenomenon needed to be clinically demystified. With my little practice of meditation, I have also felt the power of human intuition which science can seldom explain, let alone demystify it. The moot question is: How ‘Usnay kaha tha’ had so resolutely resonated with India’s greatest cricketer, especially when she met with an accident, and she was gone. Unequivocally, when she was alive, each time she expressed her dismay, ‘Kya Hamare pass Samay hai na Mahendrajee, even the latter felt awkward as to the observation made appearing bizarre, yet, in the wake of her bidding goodbye to the world, ‘Usnay kaha tha’ must have troubled Dhoni for quite sometime, if not for ever.
The very one liner ‘Usnay kaha tha’ has tremendous relevance in our life, especially its sanctity gets magnified in intangible terms when the person is no more. We go extra mile to fulfill that instruction which becomes so much sacrosanct once the person who says is no more. Ironically, while the person is alive ‘usnay kaha tha’ is treated as insignificant and is treated as pedestrian. How in Bollywood potboilers, ‘Usnay kaha tha’ triggers an elephantine efforts of the protagonists especially if ‘Usnay kaha tha’ is either mother or father or one’s spause. How Usnay kaha tha’ has triggered the great achievements of many stalwarts in various fields. How Indira Gandhi was motivated by her father’s wordings that she was not meant for doing something ordinary and, therefore, she almost transformed herself from a ‘Goongi Gudia’ into that of a potential ‘Durga’, as no less a personage than Atal Bihari Vajpayee was purportedly have designated her with the same honorific after India’s victory against Pakistan, in the wake of creation of Bangladesh in 1971. Although Lal Krishna Advani had trashed such propaganda of Congress Party in his autobiography, My Country My Life, that Ataljee had never uttered those words. Yet, Congress continued to encash Indira Gandhi”s image of Druga, based on ‘Usnay kaha tha’, attributing the same to Ataljee.. Also, would Kamraj ever have anointed her as prime minister if he had known that his ‘Gungi Gudia’ was all set to turn a table on him , and throw him out of party and even write the political obituary of his as well as the other members of the Syndicate?
More recently, our incumbent prime minister Narendra Modi, who never tired of singing paeans for Advani, especially after he was given a reprieve in the wake of Vajpayee’s lesson of ‘Rajdharma’ and his impending sacking of him, because of Advani’s intervention, conveniently remained perched in chair, forgot once and for all how ‘ Usnay kaha tha’ had saved his chair then. decent burial to ‘Usnay Kaha tha’. For, there is hardly any exchange of favour in politics. The man who was the backbone of BJP’s rise, has unceremoniously been sent packing as ‘Margdarshaks’ without his protege ever feeling the necessity of seeking his darshan.While Advani must be wondering that, whether his protege had at all read ‘Usnay kaha tha’ of Chanadradhar Sharma Guleri’s first path breaking pioneer novel and, if he had, did he not undo Lehna Singh or plainly distorted it out of context to suit his political expediency? Modi alone has the answer for the same. However in the meantime, Yashwant Sinha’s clarion call to his mentor Advani to force Modi to recall ‘ Usany kaha tha’ days, unfortunately fails to stir the hornets nest, for Advani is not sure whether reminding Modi of ‘Usnay Kaha tha’ days will at all have any impact when Modi is intoxicated with his own ‘Mainay kaha hain’ and ‘ Main kahta hun’. ‘Usnay Kaha tha’ has also imacted the Bollywood in real sense of the term. While Rajesh Khanna was eclipsed by Amitabh Bachchan, the former had almost gone berserk in vilifying the latter. Not to be content with vilification, Rajesh Khanna had even pore scorn and went extra length unleashing a virulent campaign against his successor. Yet, Amitabh Bachchan had fondly recalled what Rajesh khanna had said before passing away:’ the time has come for packing’.
Was it the fact or a concocted cock and bull story, only Bachchan Sahab knows, but ‘Usnay Kaha tha’ had inspired the successor to accompany the cortgege of Rajesh Khanna to the crematorium. We hope the same will be done by Prime minsiter Modi when he too will pour his emotions if Advanijee calls it quits from this worldly life. Who knows Modijee will say ‘Usnay kaha tha tum mujhay ab aram karnay do aur desh ka taj sambhalo’. Not to be left behind, Sonia Gandhi, hell bent upon making her son India’s Prime Minister, despite Rahul Gandhi’s humongous failures, will have a solid excuse, ‘Usnay kaha tha’, implying all her dynasty icons-from Nehru to Rajiv Gandhi–that even though Congress goes to dogs, ‘Usnay kaha tha’ should be honoured, for ‘Usnay kaha tha’, at no cost, the leadership should pass into someone else’ hands. No wonder all 23 dissidents, who sent the letter to Sonia, should be reminded about the sacrosanct observation of ‘Usnay kaha tha’ as the basis for an automatic elevation of Rahul as the Congress President, even though the Congress disintegrates. Alas, Chandradhar Sharma Guleri would have known that how much turmoil his famous title ‘Usnay kaha tha’ shall continue to impact even after more than a century of his writing the first Nobel of Hindi literature.
Vivekanand Jha is an author and a Public intellectual.
