One cool breezy evening in Pune, my grandfather,Pt. Janki Prasad Parimoo, was once again walking down memory lanes(something he loves to do) with my parents listening intently. Suddenly it occured to them that most of the family history was memorized and the rest was on paper, which these days is not considered the best medium for storage. Hence came into being a tape recording, which i will translate to u to the best of my abilities.

The following is the english translation of the Parimoo history, as dictated by my grandfather on 4th May,1993 at I.K.Parimoo's residence in Pune.

Pt. Janki Prasad Parimoo :" The reason why i wanted a recording was because i felt you should know what the history of our family is.Before we moved to Narsing Ghar, we lived in Sekidafer, Safakadal. My father's name was swargwasi Pt.Bhagwan Das Parimoo. His father was Pt.Prasad Kak. The father of Prasad Kak was Pt.Sav Kak and his father was Neel Kak. Neel Kak was actually a Kashkari. Neel Kak and his children were called Kashkari and so we too are basically Kashkari. Now the question arises, how did we turn Parimoos? Neel Kak had a son Sav Kak who was childless. He had a sister named Maal ded. Mal ded was married to the Parimoos of Habbakadal, and my mother once told me that Maal ded was the mother of eleven children. One of these children was Prasad Kak. So Sav Kak decided to adopt Prasad and took over his responsilbilty from Maal ded. Hence we became Parimoos as Prasad Kak himself was actually a Parimoo. Prasad Kak too adopted his younger brother, another of the eleven, as he was blessed only with girls, one of them being Bhagwan Gopi Nath's mother.[for detailed info on Bhagwan Gopinath, click here] This brother was called Madhavjoo. Later Prasad was blessed with sons, one of them being my father and the other my uncle, who we used to call Damlal. And hence we became Parimoos. We are Parimoos by blood, but following the 'gotra', we are Kashkaris. The Parimoo household was just one, in Habbakadal. Of the eleven brothers, two were taken up as i told you, and the rest scattered. I dont remember the names. When i was young Shridhar Kak Parimoo, Balkak Parimoo, Narain Parimoo are some names which come to my mind who used to visit our home.[For greater understanding, visit the tree.CLick here

The atmosphere at our home was saintly. Employment opportunities those days were rare. Kanthjoo Shali was a petition writer. My grandfather was hardly doing anything initially. From our records at home we believe he was a small money lender. My father Shri Bhagwan Das used to trade in Pashmina but his heart was more spiritual then business oriented. He had a close relationship with Gurtoos of Kharyar. They used to visit us often. They got him involved in the contract business. It was with their partnership that he became a contractor and as a consequence had many constructions to his credit including the old Safakadal. Some thirty years back, when old Safakadal was dismantled, the old shopkeepers in the vicinity would mention about the strength of the old bridge and glorified the honesty with which Bhagwanjoo had constructed the bridge. When baya( Shri Naranjan Nath Parimoo) overheard this conversation, he offered them the information that Bhagwanjoo was his father. On learning that, they refused the payment for the 'tava' which he had purchased. As per my mother, he would never accumulate profits to himself. They would generally go to Prasad Gurtoo. The annual requirement for the rice would come from our land.He would buy the full years' provisions in one go. Bhagwanjoo's interest in home affairs and societal interactions was negligible. He would generally go to places of spiritual interest and stay there for days without even informing his family. One instance narrated by my mother goes like this. One day my father went out to get some 'agnivatra' as it was his father's 'shrad' that day. He met the guruji outside and assured him that he would return with the 'agnivatra' in half an hour. He then dissapeared for weeks. The guruji returned three days later to find him still away from home. When i was young i was also registered as a contrator with the goverment on the basis of my father being a contractor. Once my mother asked him to amass some wealth for the next generation. He responded by saying that they would take care of themselves and construct their own houses. There words turned out to be prophetic. He was never interested in the materialistic world. He died at the age of forty nine, but as per hearsay looked eighty, with a long white beard, wearing a 'pheran' and white turban. People used to come for his blessings, especailly sick people. They had great faith in the power of his blessings.

Our relationship with our immidiate neighbours Shalis was never cordial. Once when they dismantled forcibly the cowshed that had been constructed in our compound Bhagwan Das's only response to their this act was to say, "Take care how you bring down that shed. The cows should not get hurt." Soon after, two of the Shalis got suspended from their services and their mother Daya Maal implored to Bhagwanjoo to give them some prasad so that their services are restored. It is said that he relented after three days of persuation and blessed them. They got their jobs immidiately after that. Our aunt, Bhawanjoo's sister who was widowed very early in life and used to stay with us, had also attained a high degree of spiritual salvation. She used to get up at three in the morning for her puja everyday. Once when she was on her deathbed, and her in-laws(Kapasis from Banmuhallah) had even arranged for her last rites, she was beackoned by her other sister(Shree Shamlal's mother) that she should attend Shamlal's yagnopavit ceremony. It is said she got well for a month and died only after attending the yagnopavit. This is attributed to her power to even postpone death.

Bhagwan Gopi Nath and his sister Devki Ded had spent their early childhood at our place, under the tutelage of their 'mama', Pt. Bhagwan Das Parimoo. Thus spiritualism has been the tradition of Parimoos. Love and affection have been the hallmarks of our history and it is my ardent wish that this tradition be continued. The onus of the maintance of this tradition in the next generation lies now on Krishan Kumar(Sparsh). It is his responsibility to make sure that this generation of Parimoos live in the same environment of love and cordiality that has existed in our family for years.

Our 'guthur', which means genetic lineage, is Kaushik. Which means we are descendents of Rishi Kashyap. My elder brother, Shri Prem Nath went to Lahore to work. He had a salary of Rs.30 per month, out of which he spent Rs.7 on himself and Rs.23 he would send us to run the household. From that twenty seven also we saved some money for the repairs of the house. It cost us Rs.150 at that time. There was a lot of harmony between muslims and hindus those days. At auspicious occasions like marriages, our muslim neighbours would volunteer to help in raising the infrastructure, like shamshianas, furnishing etc. needed for the occasion. In 1931, when communal riots were witnessed in Srinagar, our muslim neighbour, Mala Mohammad, assured us of our safety and took care of our domestic needs during this tough time. There was a lot of trust between muslims and hindus. Muslim both men and women used to be helpful in many areas including escorting our women. This would also benefit them a little bit financially.

We had an elder brother named Kena who died at the age of 13 due to Cholera. Also a sister by the name of Mogul,at the age of 16, married Mr.Bamzai died at the age of 23 at Buniyar leaving behind a daughter, Bhul(bhenji) who was married to Mr.Brijnath Raina. Mr.Bamzai was an overseer in the Govt. Mogul was his second wife. One morning, we recieved the news that Mogul had given birth to a baby boy. We were all very happy till that evening when we got another telegram saying that she had died. Mogul's untimely death was a great shock to the family. That night was the longest night of our lives. The atmosphere at Bamzais was not very conducive for the upbringing of Bhenji. She spent most of the time at our place till she was finally married. We had two other sisters Jigri(Sher) and Shobri who was married to Mr. Vedlal Tikoo. Mr.Tikoo owned a medical shop. He has two children, Shree Jawaharlal Tikoo(boba) and Roopa(tethi), who was married to Shree M.L.Hastu. Shobri died after delivering her third child, who also subsequently died.Vedlal was very intelligent and affectionate. He was like our elder brother. He was our friend, philosopher, guide and doctor for those few years till he lived.

J.L. Tikoo alias Kanyalal and Roopa have also been brought up at our place at Sekdapfar. The credit goes to our mother(ded) who was a very courageous lady. She encouraged and motivated us to study under those conditions of absolute poverty. Jigri's children, the Shers, also spent their childhood at our place. I used to conduct lot of tutions to sustain our livelihood. After completion of our education, we started a school by the name of Standard Public School. Shambunath Dhar was the President of the School. After B.N.Parimoo left the school as he got a govt job, i had a tough time running the school. I shifted office to my residence as there were vested interests who wanted to seize control of the school.When i was selected for training for B.T. course at Jammu, i approached Mr. Prithvinath Bamzai to help me to run the school. We made him the secretary of the school. In my absence, Prithvinath and Dhars conspired and installed a headmaster there. Once i returned to the school, i was asked to function as second master, which i declined. This conflict with them made me approach the dept. and their grant and aid was stopped. Thereafter i joined Imamia School. In the meantime, Standard school deteriorated over the next five years. At this juncture they approached me to take over the school again. I suggested to them to salvage the school and donate it to some hindu institution and close the school. Thereafter i joined the Govt. service.

Later history would be known to you. We worked hard for your generation. Tried to give the best possible education to you and married all of you to good families. I remember at the time of Ravi's marriage, i had five thousand rupees in my pocket which i had saved earlier on for his engineering training. One of the mistakes i made in my life was not to send Ravi for engineering training believing and assuming that he would become an engineer on his own departmentally in the Telecommunication Dept. Salaries those days were meager. When i was promoted as a headmaster in the Govt. i was placed in the grade of Rs.200-Rs.350. Even in this salary we would save about half of it, that is how i could construct a house immidiately after retirement. This house cost us Rs.70,000. It was constructed in 1970."

Shree Janki Prasad Parimoo concludes by advising the present generation of Parimoos to live in peace and harmony. He asks them to maintain a healthy relationship and uphold the traditions and values of the family.