E-Paper
When labourer hesitated to accept Nirala?s gift
HE ENJOYS a simple life, avoids functions and keeps himself busy in literary pursuits. He has flowing silvery hair and beard but this is not the only reason that his neighbours call him 'Doosre Nirala'. He too is a carefree person but a litterateur par excellence. He resides in Daraganj, the same locality where Late Surya Kant Tripathi 'Nirala' passed many years of his life and made invaluable contributions to Hindi poetry.
HE ENJOYS a simple life, avoids functions and keeps himself busy in literary pursuits. He has flowing silvery hair and beard but this is not the only reason that his neighbours call him 'Doosre Nirala'. He too is a carefree person but a litterateur par excellence. He resides in Daraganj, the same locality where Late Surya Kant Tripathi 'Nirala' passed many years of his life and made invaluable contributions to Hindi poetry.
Dr Shiv Shankar Tripathi is well-known to scholars of Pali, Sanskrit and Hindi literature and his work has been widely acknowledged by several prestigious literary organisations. Not only this, he has also written several articles in English for some esteemed journals. At present, he is busy preparing a Pali-Hindi-Sanskrit dictionary. This is the first work of its kind and this will immensely help the scholars of Hindi and Sanskrit to study Pali literature.
A recipient of several prestigious awards, including those of the Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sansthan and Uttar Pradesh Sanskrit Sansthan, Dr Tripathi has over four-dozen books in Hindi and Sanskrit to his credit. Though the 70-year-old scholar does not like to be associated with any group of litterateurs, his sentiments are hurt when the writers with Left leaning criticise others in an "indecent" manner.
Highly influenced by Nirala, Dr Tripathi is engaged in highlighting Indian history, culture and literature. Currently, he is writing 'Prayag ki atmakatha' in novel form. He is liberal in extending monetary help to those who want to study but cannot afford it.
The excerpts from the interview:
Once, Niralaji was standing in front of his residence in Daraganj. I touched his feet and left the place after he blessed me. Hardly had I gone a few steps past him when he called me back. By that time Niralaji also called a bare-footed labourer, who was carrying a bundle of wood on his head. He supported the labourer to put the stack down. Immediately, he brought a new pair of shoes and asked the labourer to try it. When the labourer hesitated in trying the shoe, Niralaji admonished him and asked him again to wear it. The labourer somehow mustered the courage and wore the shoes. Niralaji made him walk for a few yards and sought my opinion. When I agreed that the shoes were fit, Niralaji told the labourer to go. The labourer left the place happily. Perhaps, he was not left with any other pair of shoes for himself. One can easily observe how kind and generous was Niralaji to the have-nots.
Once a friend of my elder brother and a resident of Gorakhpur visited us and expressed desire to meet Niralaji. My brother Late Jai Shankar Tripathi asked me to take him to Niralaji. When we reached Niralaji's residence, he was taking rest.
We touched his feet and sat down. After some time Niralaji enquired about the purpose of our visit. I said that we had come to him only for 'darshan.' He kept quite for some time and asked us to leave if we had had the darshan. We were left speechless and had to leave.
I did graduation from the Aligarh Muslim University with Sanskrit, History and English. I was late by 30 minutes when I went to take the examination of the third paper of Sanskrit. The invigilator was in no mood to allow me to appear in the examination. However, when I said I was going to tell the Vice-Chancellor, he allowed me. However, despite being late I submitted the copy about 30 minutes before. The invigilator thought perhaps I had written casually and went through my answer-sheet. When he found that I had written well, he advised me to do MA in Sanskrit from AMU and try to become a teacher. But, I told the teacher that it was not in my scheme of things.
I did MA in Pali from the Banaras Hindu University. When the Head of the Department came to know that I was a daily passenger from Allahabad to Varanasi, he asked me as to how I spared my time for studies and lest I failed in the examinations, I assured him that I was making full use of my journey time in studies and if I would fail nobody else would pass the examination. Though he did not believe my words then, he was quite happy when I stood the second in my batch.
