Rajasthan

Growing Up in Small-town Rajasthan

Author: 
Kailash Mathur

Category:

Kailash, called Chanda by his parents, is an electrical engineer, who was born in Tijara, which is even now a very small city in Rajasthan. He lived in East Germany from 1965 to 1971, where he married Annemarie, a German, in 1969. Since 1971, he has lived in Vienna, Austria. He became a widower when Annemarie died of cancer in 2004.

It’s transfer time! 1946-57

My father was a civil servant in Rajasthan, who was transferred frequently in the early part of his career. So, as children (six brothers and two sisters) we never stayed in one city for more than four years and in some not even for two years. Between 1946, from where my memory starts, until 1958, when I started to go college, we lived, in succession, in Alwar, Bharatpur, Alwar, Udaipur, Jhalawar, Bikaner, and Ajmer, all in Rajasthan. It is often said that children suffer from transfers because each time they move to a new city they face a new school, a different way of teaching, new classmates, new books, etc.

Fortunately, I do not remember suffering in my school performance from these transfers\; instead, I can clearly remember having enjoyed the transfer upheavals.

The transfer news was always a big shock/event and it changed the family life like an earthquake. Mummy always had to do the biggest share of the work for transfers. We children were of no help to her and did not take part in any serious activity. A lot of food and snacks were cooked in preparation of the journey and packed in various boxes, so that we hardly ever bought anything at the train stops.

Glimpses into the life of an administrator

Author: 
Meenakshi Hooja
Meenakshi Hooja

Meenakshi Hooja (nee Mathur) was born at Jhalawar on 26th June, 1952 and after spending early years of her childhood at Jhalawar, Bikaner and Ajmer moved to Jaipur with her parents and family.
Meenakshi taught Political Science at the University of Rajasthan before joining the Rajasthan Cadre of Indian Administrative Service in 1975.  She served on many important positions in Government of Rajasthan and Government of India.
She is widely travelled in India and abroad and was a visiting fellow at Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford in 1999-2000.  Post retirement, she was a Member of the Central Administrative Tribunal.
She has written on a number  of development and administration  related subjects  She has also so published books of poetry in Hindi and English.

My father, Shri Khemchand, was born on 10th April 1911 in a leading family of Alwar to his parents Smt Lakshmi and Shri Ramchandra.

Our babaji
Shri Ramchandra. My grandfather. Alwar. About 1920s.

Grandmother
Smt. Lakshmi. My grandmother. With her great-grandson, Gaurav. Front of our home B-87 Ganesh Marg, Bapunagar, Jaipur. September 1979.

My father and Alwar

Author: 
Meenakshi Hooja
Meenakshi Hooja

Meenakshi Hooja (nee Mathur) was born at Jhalawar on 26th June, 1952 and after spending early years of her childhood at Jhalawar, Bikaner and Ajmer moved to Jaipur with her parents and family.
Meenakshi taught Political Science at the University of Rajasthan before joining the Rajasthan Cadre of Indian Administrative Service in 1975.  She served on many important positions in Government of Rajasthan and Government of India.
She is widely travelled in India and abroad and was a visiting fellow at Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford in 1999-2000.  Post retirement, she was a Member of the Central Administrative Tribunal.
She has written on a number  of development and administration  related subjects  She has also so published books of poetry in Hindi and English.

Khemchand, our father or Daddy as us siblings addressed him, was born in Alwar on 10th April 1911. Our grandparents, Shri Ramchand (Babaji) and Srimati Lakshmi (Dadi) had strong roots in Alwar, though the family was originally from Delhi.  Our Babaji served the Alwar State as In-charge of Gardens and Horticulture, after having done his studies from St Stephens College, Delhi and Forestry from Dehradoon. He is credited with building the special Shimla area in the Company Bagh gardens of Alwar.

Ramchand, my grandfather. Alwar. Early 1900s.

 

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