Life Back Then

Subhash Mathur is a resident of Jaipur after superannuation from Indian Revenue Service in 2007. Presently, Subhash is engaged in social and charitable work in rural areas. Subhash is also Editor of http://www.inourdays.org/, an online portal for preserving work related memories.

Tilak Mathur is a PhD in English Literature with specialisation in the British poet and playwright T. S. Eliot. Tilak is very actively engaged with social and charitable work in and around Jaipur. Basically a homemaker, she came into her own as a natural leader when she got an opportunity to lead. She lives in Jaipur with her husband Subhash. She often travels to Ahmedabad and USA where her two sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren live.

Late Khem Chandji was born in Alwar in 1911, and educated in St. Stephen's College, Delhi. In 1935, he got his first job as ‘Extra Naib Nazim' (a revenue officer below the district level) in the Princely State of Alwar. In 1937, he married Dayawanti from Agra in a civil law wedding. They had eight children. He rose to become a leading, respected, commanding IAS officer in Rajasthan. After he retired, he continued his hobbies of gardening and Urdu shayari. And, he indulged his grand-children. He passed away in 2004, 93  years old, in his garden in Jaipur, after he done a bit of gardening.

Sadhona Debi Chatterji was born in October 1931 in Calcutta to Hari Prasad and Subarna Bannerjee. She did her matriculation, and got married to Birendra Kumar Chatterji in June 1948. She has a son and a daughter. Her husband, like her father, was in the Imperial Bank of India, which later became the State Bank of India. Her husband retired as Chairman UCO Bank in 1984, and passed away in 1989.

She has had a tremendous interest in national and world affairs, with her own opinions on many issues. She is an avid reader. She has been a popular and well-loved person among the family and a very large circle of friends. Even at the age of 85 and ailing, she got phone calls from all over the world. She passed away in 2015.

Editor's note: Sadhona Chatterji wrote this note in her diary in the 2002. It has been typed and provided by her son in 2018.

I was married on the 28^th of June, 1948. My husband late Shree Birendra Kumar Chatterji, belonged to Allahabad. He and most of his siblings were born and brought up there.

Birendra and Sadhona Chatterji. Wedding. 28 June, 1948, Calcutta (Kolkata).

Birendra and Sadhona Chatterji. Wedding. 28 June, 1948, Calcutta (Kolkata)

His father, late Shree K.P. Chatterji, was a professor in Allahabad University. His subject was Chemistry.

Sadhona Debi Chatterji was born in October 1931 in Calcutta to Hari Prasad and Subarna Bannerjee. She did her matriculation, and got married to Birendra Kumar Chatterji in June 1948. She has a son and a daughter. Her husband, like her father, was in the Imperial Bank of India, which later became the State Bank of India. Her husband retired as Chairman UCO Bank in 1984, and passed away in 1989.

She has had a tremendous interest in national and world affairs, with her own opinions on many issues. She is an avid reader. She has been a popular and well-loved person among the family and a very large circle of friends. Even at the age of 85 and ailing, she got phone calls from all over the world. She passed away in 2015.

Editor's note: Sadhona Chatterji wrote this note in her diary in the 2002. It has been typed and provided by her son in 2018.

My father, Late Shree H.P. Banerjee, was a banker. He was a senior staff officer in Imperial Bank of India. It used to be a prestigious service in those British days for an Indian to be in, like the Indian Civil Service or Indian Police.

Most of his fellow officers in the bank were either form England or Scotland. For an Indian to get into an officers' grade was not easy.

Sadhona Debi Chatterji was born in October 1931 in Calcutta to Hari Prasad and Subarna Bannerjee. She did her matriculation, and got married to Birendra Kumar Chatterji in June 1948. She has a son and a daughter. Her husband, like her father, was in the Imperial Bank of India, which later became the State Bank of India. Her husband retired as Chairman UCO Bank in 1984, and passed away in 1989.

She has had a tremendous interest in national and world affairs, with her own opinions on many issues. She is an avid reader. She has been a popular and well-loved person among the family and a very large circle of friends. Even at the age of 85 and ailing, she got phone calls from all over the world. She passed away in 2015.

TCA Srinivasa Raghavan grew up in Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. He has a Master's degree in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics and a BA degree from Hindu College, Delhi. He worked for Macmillan as the Economics Editor before switching over to journalism in 1980. He has been the Opinion Editor of various newspapers, worked on the RBI's history project, and written two books on the government and the economy in India. His novel centred around publishing is due out soon.

I came to the United States with my mother and three year old sister in 1964. I was in the fifth grade. My father had come six months earlier to work at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Washington, D.C. as an internal medicine resident. I grew up in Washington and Maryland, and attended Wellesley College where I met my wonderful Indian friends at MIT.  I was a young woman straddling two cultures, and my friends were so kind and welcoming that I felt I had returned to India.

Renu Jalota, born in 1942 in Lahore, grew up in Tatanagar and Benares with two brothers and three sisters. Father was a Professor of Psychology.
At age 16, I trained in 80-meter hurdles. Came second in national semi-finals by split second, and narrowly missed representing India in the Asian Olympics. I got my MBBS in 1964 from Government Medical College Amritsar, and then my M.D in Pathology in 1968 from the Post Graduate Institute, Chandigarh. In 1969, I joined the University of Utah as a resident in Pathology. After some job changes, in 1982, I moved to Denver as a family physician. I retired in 2007 to pursue my hobbies, but ran into medical problems.
I am an avid mountain climber and have climbed up to 22,500 ft. without oxygen. I have trekked in both Indian and Nepalese Himalaya. Have also done glacier travel in New Zealand and Tasmania. Never married, I have remained independent and active in social and political circles. I visit India often.

Reginald was born in Lahore before Partition. He writes books on various subjects pertaining to South Asia. A former London journalist, he now lives in Mid Wales with his actor wife Jamila. His latest book is Shaheed Bhagat Singh and the Forgotten Indian Martyrs, Abhinav Publications, New Delhi. A member of the Society of Authors, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.