- PERSONAL
- PROFESSIONAL
I was born in a poor family, with rich traditions and high human values. My father migrated from ARAFWALA (Now in Pakistan) in the year 1947. My father were five brother and five sisters. They reached Jalandhar in 11 days via Fazilka border during partition.Jalandhar was chosen because we were having few properties of ours and of my father’s Nanaji in Jalandhar. All the people stayed in a small portion of the old house situated at mohalla no. 9, house no. 16, Jalandhar cantt. The financial postition was below poverty line.There were one dozen people to be fed and there was no money and no job also. My father Shri.Jagdish Rai Gupta was eldest among all the brothers. There was a time when chapattis were given to the family people by counting and the total vegetable for all were made out of one potato and little bit salt. Everyone ate the chappatis by dipping it in water like vegetables but there was fantastic cooperation, love and affection among each other. My grandfather got a job of munim (accountant). He died at an early age after marrige of his eldest daughter. The days passed away and my father got a job in the canteen of the military hospital, Jalandhar Cantt. The canteen was going in losses and the owner of the canteen thought of closing it. When my father saw his job at stake, he offered to run the canteen in partnership. Here he had to give a fixed amount every month irrespective of profit or loss. He made this venture successful and made two more canteens out of it. One was given to Mr.Om Parkash Gupta( my uncle) and the other one to Mr. Gopal kishan(my other uncle). My third uncle Mr. J.P.Gupta was with my father only and the fourth one left the house when i was very young and he never turned up till date. My father worked hard beyond imagination and he married all his brothers and sisters, and even himself because my grandfather died in early age. My father was either standing in the canteen counter from early morning till late night or going to market for shopping during lunch breaks. He got varicose veins(Skin disease) and heart problems due to long and troublesome working hours.
He got three heart attacks and he could not survive the forth one and expired on 13th of May 1985. My younger brother’s engagement was done before him but marriage was done after his death. He had will power beyond imagination. Once when he was on operation table at Amritsar, the doctor asked “would you like general anesthesia or local anesthesia and his reply was “none of them” and the doctor was shocked.
Our family got divided in December 1975 and four kitchens were made in the same home after the marriage of last uncle. Slowly but steady the family started growing and so did the thoughts and ultimately the youngest uncle Sh.G.K.Singhal made his own separate house and shifted and then my other uncle Sh.J.P. Gupta also shifted. The house was not sufficient to accommodate our generation and hence my younger brother Barjesh also shifted to Jalandhar City and after few years I was also shifted to Jalandhar city and ultimately made my own house in 1998. The eldest uncle remained in the same home in one portion and the other portion was sold off.
FAMILY TREE IN BRIEF
My son ROBIN GUPTA
Myself RAJESH GUPTA
My Father – SH.JAGDISH RAI GUPTA
My Grandfather – SH.GANGA RAM JI
My Grand Grand Father – SH.GHADSI RAM JI
My greatgrandfather – SH.DHULI CHAND JI
Father of above – SH. DEEP CHAND JI.
I was a lost child especially till the age of 10 years. I was not active and not having any personal decisions as the children have these days. We had a big joint family and we were taught only one thing to obey our elders and I was following the same instruction irrespective of my preferences. My father’s younger brothers were getting married one by one and the family was expanding. There were number of children in the same house.
We lived a poor life but in harmony, but the situation never remained the same, slowly and steadily I started understanding the reality of life. My father and mother had sacrificed everything to raise the whole joint family and hardly care about their own family. My father was not only an elder brother for his siblings but also played the role of their parents.
I was creative from the beginning and did everything in a different style whether it was home decoration, studies or my hobbies. I was being criticized by all the family members initially for whatever I did. Like when I made 4 ration cards to book four gas cylinders. When the problem of using less or more electricity came, I took my separate electric connection, again got scolded. When I bought first Pressure cooker at home, again family people said, it is very dangerous. I bought scooter, computer, pager, mobile etc. and faced all sort of music’s. I started celebrating birthdays of brother and sisters by cutting milk cake with gems on that. The story is very long on different subjects………
SCHOOLING
I along with my brother Barjesh studied together. We went to a school that had no name. The teacher names KUBA MASTER .He was running a school over a sewerage/WATER tunnel since the age of 5 years. We studied there for few months and later went to TULSI SANANTHAN DHARAM SCHOOL and the names of our teachers were BhavaBehnji,Ramrakhi and Harsh Behnji (lady teachers were called as Behnji that time). My mother also studied in the same school from the same teachers. It was another 'TAAT wala' school and we were called FATTI, BASTA and Slate. We studied there till third standard and after that we went to National School. We studied there only for one year and shifted to Cantt Board Primary School and from there to Cantt Board Higher Secondary School. We again shifted to N.D.Victor Higher Secondary school in 9TH Standard and studied till 10th. We had a break in 10th class,after that the journey to college started and we got admission in most prestigious college of Jalandhar i.e. DAV COLLEGE, Jalandhar in Prep Arts (we were not having +1 and +2 concepts at that time).I completed graduation in commerce background.
HIGHER STUDIES
ON PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT FRONT
I was first person of my generation to get married. I got married to a beautiful girl VEENA (named changed to Reetu) of Firozpur with simple ceremony. There were only 21 Barati’s from our side and the next day there was a grand reception party in Cantt Club., Jalandhar Cantt from our side.
My father was against demanding dowry. He used to say, the person who is giving his daughter has given everything, hence asking dowry after that is crime against humanity.
Marriage is a partnership of two different souls from different backgrounds. We must accept each other’s drawbacks and appreciate the positive attitude. Marriage is not all about making love, household jobs and caring for each other but also to bring our level of thoughts close to each other. The typical Indian women is more of ‘yes’ to her husband in all his decisions rather than saying right to right and wrong to wrong.
I am blessed with three children. RUCHIKA and RITIKA, my daughters (HAPPILY MARRIED), and ROBIN, my son. We have one strange coincidence that my wife and all the three children’s names start with the alphabet “R” and the second alphabet of all the five are 5 vowels. My eldest daughter did BCA, MBA, and is IRDA License holder and qualified mutual fund adviser. She topped in Amity, Noida.Besides that she is a good painter and creative person.
My second daughter Ritika has done BFA AND MFA (topped in the university). She is highly creative especially in the field of fine arts.
My third and youngest child is Robin. He has completed MJMC (Master of Journalism and Mass Communication). He has won number of competitions and topped most of them, evenup to state level. He has topped in a competition conducted by Doordarshan, Radio mirchi,etc.and been awarded as the all rounder student of the year award. He is having his own business of Youtube channel and Social Media Marketing.
I have great understanding, love and affection with my children even we love each other, and we care for each other. I am proud of my children. All of us being independent in thoughts but are emotionally dependent on each other. We hold a bond of more of friends than of parents and children.
Relatives are limited and not selected by us where as we choose the friends and they can be of any number. Relatives are compulsions whereas the friends are chosen by us, seeing their quality. Now a days we have different category of friends as per our profession, our relations and our expectations from them. In case of relatives, they are classified like uncles, aunts, etc. We respect them and obey them by their quality and not because of their portfolio. Relatives are very strange species. They love us, hate us, cheat us and hit us also. It is very common to hear that my relative feel jealous of my achievements where as my friends celebrate the same. I think it is not always true but however by and large the society is such and I am also not the exception. I am honestly very lucky that I have wonderful friends and few very good relatives. They always stand beside me in case of any eventuality especially my own grand family.