Studying Law continues...

Then we left for Nurpur. From Nurpur to Bal and back I was busy looking after the guests. Bakshiji trusted me implicitly. I was put in charge of all expenditure. I kept no accounts and none were asked for. One incident is still fresh in my memory. Mahajans are great devotees of the hukka. A guest will think that he has not been well looked after unless the hukka is offered to him in proper style. Two leading men of our community, members of the marriage party, quarreled bitterly about their shares of the tobacco obtained from Lucknow, eventually both gave up smoking the hukka. This was a nice ending of the quarrel!





Chapter 6
MY FIRST BRIEF


IN 1910 when my marriage took place father purchased both a tonga and an ekka. These were the only means of travelling in the countryside then. The ekka was purchased from a Rajput ekka driver, nicknamed Gorkha (Lachhman Singh). He was bought practically with his ekka and remained with us till I956; first as my father’s ekka driver, then my tonga driver at Gurdaspur and Lahore, and then my chauffeur at Lahore and lastly my son Maharaj Krishan’s chauffeur at Pathankot.

I took my LL.B. in 1912 and soon thereafter my father handed me a brief in a 366 I. P. C. case (abduction of a married woman) with 14 accused and a fee of Rs. 300. Like a farseeing father interested in the career of his son, he had engaged a year or two before a third clerk in order to train him for me. He now passed him over to me with my first brief. Daryodhan has earned the distinction of serving as a lawyer’s clerk for three generations of lawyers; my father, myself and my son Daya Krishan. He is now a petition writer at Dharamsala and looks after my orchards and houses there. His first employer Shri Har Dayal used to call him “Pir, Bawarchi, Bhishti and Khar” i.e. preceptor, cook, water carrier and donkey rolled into one.


to be continued...