The Story of Bahadurgarh

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 15; the fifteenth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

Brijender was an upcoming writer who was slowly making a name for himself through his poems about nature. His success was quick for a 22 year old. He was currently living in Delhi and was headed to Shamli, the undisputed king of hill stations in India. He was thinking of shifting permanently to Shamli as living in nature would give him more ideas on how to portray nature.

Brijender was sleeping in the train when the train sounded its hooter and disturbed his sleep. He looked out of the window and was astonished to see the beauty being created by the fog getting immersed into the mustard crops in the fields. Thoughts started flowing into his mind and he started to write...

Its all white out there

But I know there is yellow

Heavens must have sent me here

For my poetry to be mellow

Or is it heaven only

For it can't be better

Sitting silently so lonely

As if nothing else matters

As the train came to a halt at the station, he felt a voice attracting him to this city. He thought for a while, what If I get down here only? But, he thought, I have no place to stay here! As he was battling his own mind, the poet in him won the battle against the sane mind in him. He picked up all his stuff and got down at the station. He had no idea what was the name of the place he had got down at. He had no idea what this place had to offer. All he knew was that this place was just like the place he imagined and dreamt of whenever he sat down to write a poem. He had no idea what was he going to do now. He was going around the station when he saw "Bahadurgarh" written on a signboard at the station. He went to the station tea shop and asked for a glass of cutting chai. After having his chai, he asked the tea wala if there is a hotel or a guest house in the village. The chai wala laughed and said, " Sahib, yahan hafte mein ek rail gadi aati hai. Yahan koi hotel kyun hi kholega." So he enquired if he could stay somewhere. The chai wala first confirmed what exactly was he doing there. Though he wasn’t entirely convinced by Brijender's reply, he decided to help. He told him of the village Dak Ghar where he could get a place to stay for a couple of nights. Brijender finally reached the Dak Ghar and after much convincing, he was given a room by the caretaker.

 After staying there for a couple of days, he began to get to know people. He also came in touch with Pritam Bahadur who was the youngest in the line of Bahadurs, who ruled the area with an iron fist. The Bahadur family had faced a couple of tragedies in the last couple of years and now there were just 3 members remaining in the family- Rai Bahadur(50), Rai's wife Sarita Bahadur(44) and their nephew Pritam(22). Rai Bahadur was the name that was given to the head of the family and whenever someone became the patriach, he was rechristened as Rai. Pritam had read a couple of poems written by Brijender which made things easy. Brijender was soon living with the Bahadurs as a guest. His poetry was moving along and he was suddenly writing twice as much as he used to. Only a month had gone by and He had already written 30 poems and 17 short stories which were somehow related to Bahadurgarh. He decided to dedicate a complete book to Bahadurgarh. As he kept on writing, he had a huge collection of writings specifically dedicated to the village of Bahadurgarh which he sent for publication. As he was already a known name in the poetry circles, he easily got a publisher. Soon, the book was released and the sooner it became a huge success. People were getting enamoured by the beauty of this place just by reading about it. The book was released on June 27, 1927 and by the end of the year it had become the largest selling book by an Indian author ever. Bahadurgarh soon became a highly popular destination for High Ranking British officials. The frequency of trains to Bahadurgarh was now up to 3 trains a week. 

Residents of Bahadurgarh also considered Brijender to be their guardian angel. The village was supposed to have been haunted by a spirit. People believed that the spirit had somehow disappeared after Brijender came to the village.

Meanwhile, Sarita Bahadur, the only female left in the Bahadur family had developed a superstition that the bad luck of the family has something to do with the family's name being used in the village's name. She was pestering her husband to change the name of the village.

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It was a rainy night in July, 1904 when 3 men held a woman by her arms and dragged her to the railway station of Bahadurgarh. The woman was crying and constantly claiming innocence but the three men were in no mood to let go. They held her tight and pushed her into the train. Al this while she was accompanied by her father who walked and didn’t react even once.

Inder Kumari was the only daughter of the Railway Inspector at Bahadurgarh, Ram Mohan. She had committed the eternal sin of falling in love with a Bahadur, who by tradition couldn't marry outside their clan. Their relationship had reached a point of no return and  she was soon to give birth to their child. The Bahadurs got a sniff of this and summoned Inder's father and asked both father and daughter to leave the village or face dire consequences.

Ram Mohan and Inder moved to the nearest city, Shamli where Ram Mohan got a new job but he never forgave her for what she had done. They rarely talked but he took care of his daughter as a doting father. Inder had made up her mind that she will take care of the child as a single mother. She had studied till 10th standard so she could have got a decent job as well. But, life had other tricks to play with Inder. Just when she thought she could resettle in life, Ram Mohan passed away. The same night, she gave birth to a baby boy. Though she was a strong woman, the death of her father had a huge impact on her. She took the boy and kept him outside a temple with a note-His name is Brijender!

She took the next train to Bahadurgarh. She lived at the station, hiding, for a week. The next week, when the train was arriving at the station, it ran over Inder. This incident was to haunt Bahadurgarh and the Bahadur's for the next 22 years

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As Brijesh Bahadur took a flight to London on June 27, 1904 he had no idea he would return never to see his beloved Inder.

Inder was afraid yet happy, she was planning to tell Rai about their yet to be born child after his return. She had already thought a name for the boy(if its a boy)-Brijender.

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As the formalities to change the name of the city village had been worked out, a huge function was organised to officially rename the village. The function was to take place at the railway station. Bahadurgarh was now a known name in the entire area so the function had guests like the Lord Anthony Bates, who was the head of the British Empire in North India and Devinder Singh, who belonged to the Royal family of Patti wala.

Lord Bates got on to the stage and announced the new name and pulled the cover from the station's signboard which now read the new name-Inderpur!

Rai Bahadur had a tear in his eye.  He thought of that dreaded day, when he was still Brijesh, and he took that flight to London. He thought of the irony in the boy's name and smiled. This was his tribute to the only lady he had ever loved.

Brijender was proud. He had no idea. 


P.S. - Just thought using coblogger's name is a lucky omen :P

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Credits
Image - Alston Station by Wandering Soul
Courtesy - www.deviantart.com via www.blogaton.in