Accepted - After 12 Years continues....


Our house at Dharamsala shook and fell burying my father in the debris. Happily, he was soon pulled out by two of his faithful servants who had been outside the house at the time. He was not
dead, but his limbs were broken. He was carried to Shahpur on a charpoy. From there a tonga took him to his roadside cottage at village Bhadwar, five miles from Nurpur.

Jotshi Kirpa Ram, the
astrologer who used to live in our house at Dharamsala, died when the house fell. His astrological knowledge did not help him to
see that his end was so near! A cousin of mine also died in the
house. All my father’s possessions were buried in the debris
though some ornaments, along with his library, were salvaged
later.

All my roommates in the school hostel at Palampur died or were severely injured. Had I remained at Palampur I would have shared their fate. But the move to Lahore had saved me. I was
safely in Lahore where the shock of the earthquake was only mildly felt.

Dharamsala, the headquarters of the District and once a fine and popular hill station is still suffering from the after-effects of the earthquake. It is endowed by nature with beautiful scenery,
springs and waterfalls. Its forests are full of game and it is close to a perpetual glacier. With a ropeway to the glacier and rest houses affording all amenities, it could be developed into a tourist
paradise.

I got the news of the disaster that had overtaken my father the next day at Lahore. Bakshi Tek Chand, Lala Rattan Chand Koharu,
sub-editor of the Panjabi, a well known weekly of Lahore and Lala
Gauri Shankar (who later on became an Assistant Currency Officer in the Reserve Bank of India, Lahore), were leaving for Dharamsala for carrying out relief work in the district. I accompanied them by rail to Pathankot and then walked from Pathankot to Bhadwar, a distance of 21 miles. I was happy to find my father alive, though injured.

To be continued....