Articles
Reminiscences
Dt: 5/7/21
Reminiscences
-Dr T H Chowdary*
I was District Manager of Pune Telephones during 1974-76. I was living in the official quarters in Pune Cantonment. My neighbour was a doctor ( a Muslim referred to as M) who was in -charge of one of the P&T dispensaries in the city. He was in his early 30s . His wife is a very beautiful lady coming from a rich and socially well placed Muslim family in Karnataka. They had an young charming girl about 8 years of age. Mrs Chowdary and Mrs. M were good friends. Living with the doctor’s family was the doctor’s widow mother.
2. Mrs. M used to visit our home when I was not there and would tell her story of misery to Mrs. Chowdary. The misery was, the doctor husband was flirting with a lady Nurse. It went to the extent of the doctor deciding to marry her as the second wife. His mother was encouraging him to do so, to the utter distress of his wife. M’s mother was telling the daughter -in-law that Islam permitted four wives at anytime ( Prophet Mohammed had eight wives, six of them former widows, the seventh a divorcee and the eighth, a girl of nine years when he was past fifty. Khadija, his first wife was eight years older than he. The eight marriages were contracted after Khadija’s death). Mrs. M prevailed upon my wife to persuade me to intervene and see that this love affair is ended. Mrs. M did not want a rival to her as the wife of the doctor.
3. I was in a dilemma. The people concerned are Muslims. In the city I am known to be a good and professing Hindu. If I do anything unpleasant to the Muslim doctor, there could be a charge that I was discriminating against Muslim employees. The pressure from the doctor’s wife and my wife was much. Then I sent word to the parents of the doctor’s wife in Karnataka. I told them the story . They said I should intervene decisively in whatever manner I can do to save their daughter from having a rival as a wife of the doctor.
4. I transferred the lady Nurse to another dispensary. The doctor pleaded with me to cancel the transfer order. I did not oblige. He tried to whip up some Muslim organizations against me saying that I acted on communal bias. This did not cut ice because there was another Muslim activist and writer Hamid Dalwai who went public giving out the story in detail and the action that was taken by me as justified. I heaved a sigh of relief. Mrs. M was grateful to me even as her mother- in-law was cursing me. The father and mother of the lady came from Karnataka to thank me when this agitation was going on . I felt very uneasy because of the charges of communalism. I came with honour for doing the right thing in this affair. ( 495 words)
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