Thousands thronged Daraganj to have Netaji?s glimpse

WHEN PANDIT Tara Shankar Mishra, a renowned medical practitioner in Ayurveda, and his friends were discussing the Second World War in 1939, his five-year-old son abruptly posed a question: What will the newspapers publish after the end of the war? Though his interruption annoyed his father and he chided him, one of his friends appreciated the question and talent of the boy and predicted that he would blossom into a good scholar.

WHEN PANDIT Tara Shankar Mishra, a renowned medical practitioner in Ayurveda, and his friends were discussing the Second World War in 1939, his five-year-old son abruptly posed a question: What will the newspapers publish after the end of the war? Though his interruption annoyed his father and he chided him, one of his friends appreciated the question and talent of the boy and predicted that he would blossom into a good scholar.

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Well-known columnist and playwright Naresh Mishra had a fascination for newspapers from a very early age and started reading them when he was only five. His monthly serial 'Munshi Itwari Lal,' which the All India Radio broadcast for about 22 years regularly, and 'Jag Baurana' a satirical column, which a local Hindi daily published for about two decades, became vastly popular and the people are still nostalgic about them.

A recipient of several awards, Naresh Mishra has over four dozen books to his credit. He is a wonderful playwright and novelist and this can be gauged with the fact that even at the age of 72 he is still involved in script-writing for All India Radio, where he worked for about 25 years and retired as a producer. He also participates in Doordarshan programmes. Earlier, he started his career in journalism with 'Kadambini,' a popular Hindi magazine when it was published from Allahabad.

The excerpts from the interview:
After Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose quit the Congress Party in 1939 and formed the Forward Bloc, he visited Allahabad after a few months to inaugurate his party's office at Bindau Sonar's house in Daraganj locality. As Congress workers and police did not favour a Forward Bloc office in Daraganj, Padma Kant Malviya, a close associate of Netaji, had managed to get the office accommodation with the help of my father.

I was a small child and requested my father to take me to the function. When my father reached closer to Netaji, he lifted me to offer a garland to him. As soon as I offered the garland, Netaji put his hand on my head and blessed me. It became the most valuable moment of my life.

I remember that thousands of people had thronged Daraganj to have a glimpse of Netaji. Of course, a similar crowd was witnessed when Mahatma Gandhi had come to the city to lay the foundation stone of the Kamla Nehru Memorial Hospital.

An interesting development got me the job of trainee sub-editor in 'Kadambini. I had written a satire 'Ye ronewaliyan' for the magazine and after waiting for a few months, I approached its editor Ramanand Doshi and enquired about the fate of my satire. He appreciated the write-up but expressed his inability to publish it. Instead he offered me a job. I joined the magazine and worked for about 10 months.

Every year, special Deepawali issue of the magazine was brought out in the month of November. The editor had sent a story without writer's name with title of 'Idiot' for selection. I read it carefully but could not find it suitable for the special issue. When Doshiji asked about the story during meeting, I told him that the story did not deserve a place in the special issue.

Doshiji's younger brother Anand Sharma, also a sub-editor, too was present at the meeting. He told me later that I had committed a blunder by rejecting the story, which was, in fact, written by Doshiji himself.

This dampened my spirit and as per Anand's suggestion, I went to the editor to repent my decision. But before I could speak, he quipped: "So far you were right but now you are going to be wrong, if you have come to me on Anand's advice. Now the story will be published in an ordinary issue."

After about two-three months, it was published in the magazine and evoked a tremendous response from the readers. Then only I could realise that my earlier decision was not mature enough. However, I was compelled to observe the greatness of the editor.

I wrote script of 'Munshi Itwari Lal' for AIR for about four years before joining it. Vinod Rastogi, who was an expert of theatre, used to play the lead role. The monthly serial became very popular like 'Bahire Baba' which was broadcast from AIR Lucknow. The script of this serial helped me get the job in AIR where I worked for over 25 years.