Mithila Jagran yatra_119- Raniganj-Forbesganj

Mithila Jagran yatra_119- Raniganj-Forbesganj
A week is passing since I started for Raniganj for the XXVI Maithili Workers’ training Camp which as per my Maihtili dairy(I write three dairies almost daily one for Maihtili others for medical and personal) was fixed on March 16th 2012 after a long wait from Delhi Maithils to have a camp there ( and incidentally son of Abhayshankar Jha working at Delhi was also trained there).
The banner of the AMP was in demand and though its proof was ok by 1030 am on email it was delivered by the press at my residence(some 10 km) by 145 pm- they must be under the impression that I had to catch Vananchal Express of 230 pm in which once they missed to deliver me the bundles of leaflets for Mithila.
I was busy as before and had asked a Maithil worker from Godda to bring Xerox of the study materials which too was delivered by 630 pm ,I reached my residence after hospital duty.
MaihtilaGeeta’s 100 copy for Bhaglapur made my luggage heavy to walk and a matter for bargain by a rickshaw puller. I reached station and took a ticket but the Jaynagar Express was announced 2 hours late rescheduling and I was worried as to which train I would get from Kiul for Bhagalpur. Howrah Express passed and then Patliputra Express for the same line which carried away most of the passengers and comfortably I slept in the train which had lesser stops and it crossed over Patliputra Expressed before Dhanabad.
It was morning near Jasidih and I took bath in the toilet itself which was almost clean and offered my daily puja as well as Durgasptsahati as it was the first day of Chaitra Navratra.
No sooner I reached Kiul I saw a train coming to platform on Bhagalpur line which was Sahebganj intercity for which the copassanger had said that surely I would get that. In haste I did not wait for 2-3 minutes to drop Aayurvigyan pragati in the RMS ( and had to carry that till I reached Forbesgnaj, my home post office 25th night).
The train had a rush and yet I got seat after Jamalpur. I distributed some Mithila pamphlet to judge the view of Munger people whether they would like to go in Mithila or would like to remain in Bihar.
I talked jay Praksash Jha for delivery of Maithiligeeta and he asked me to unload myself near the junction at the Krishna Book Depot. After which I went to the bus stand but was advised to go to Zero mile for Purnea bus. At zero mile in the depot could get a bus after some minutes and reached Purnea by 240 pm and took 3 pm bus for Raniganj.
Ajayshankarjee asked me to drop at Thana and when I said this to conductor he returned Rs. 30 under the impression I was a police staff.
To another conductor also I gave Rs. 50 note but he too returned listening word THANA and soon he changed my seat himself from the back 6-seater to mid one in respect or horror of the Thana I could only experience after a lie like from Yudhhisthir..
I had only defense for this lie that I was not on any personal tour but for a social work concerning to that area.
I saw Girija Chowk of Purnea and then the way crossing the villages among which at Champanagar I was amazed to see a MITHILA TALKIES and Bhagwati Sthan of Mihtila cult.
The scene was all green and I was pleased to see some plantation of Surajmukhee.
I got down at Thana of Raniganj and saw a banner on the gate to the Babulal deewan High School for the XXVI Maihtili Workers Training Camp.
Prof. N. L. Das , vice president,AMP had already reached there and were waiting for me though I had told them to start without waiting for me.
Prof. lighted candle(deep would have been better) and we recited ‘jai jai Bhairawi Asur Bhayauni..’ and then Abhayshankar Jha welcomed us and Dr. NL Das introduced the motto of such camps highlighting the importance of Maithili language and its script as well as Mithiula rajya.
He also spoke on the virtues of an ideal worker for which such camps are meant.
It was getting dark and hence I did speak only few lines for the role of the AMP.
Prof. Das returned to Forbesganj assuring us for his presence on the last day which he did .
I was taken to Ahayshankarjee’s house. I had an in growing nail and walking was a bit difficult and hence, on bike.
There I knew that Abhayjee’s father Amoghnarayanji was a great Hindi writer.
There came a Hindi litterateure, Sadanand ‘Suman’ and we had a range of discussion on Renu and others.
I expressed some reservations on Renu’s Maila Anchal which has author’s socialistic anti-RSS flair in the narration and that was the cause of his promotion by the leftist circle though ironically his son is a MLA from the BJP on the traditional seat of the BJP where the RSS had its first shakha in Bihar.
I had other objection to renu that though a Maithil he had written in Hindi and tagging the book as Regional(Aanchalik), it was a tool for anti-Maithili, Hindi imperialists to colour Mithila’s Aanchal as aanchal of Hindi and that was quite unfair from the linguistic point of view. I recalled what Dr. Jaykant Mishra had told me when I was with him on the Koshi terrain on 14.12.1994 ,”Renu had done prostitution of language.”
Both are no more to react or counteract but Sadanad ‘Suman’ and Abhayshankarji both Renu fan admitted by next evening that had Renu written that novel in Maithili that would have been much better though still that is an excellent piece of writing.
It is not that Renu had not written anything in Maithili, in fact he had some of the good pieces.
Next morning I did get up late and still I was late in reading about Amoghji and his anthology and in Bharti Mandan many informative articles including one by Amoghji on Sama Chakeba and by Abhayshankar Jha on nearby Basithi’s Shiv Mandir built by famous queen Indravati.
I did pooja in hot sun and after heavy lunch (like previous night’s dinner) went to the BLD School for the training camp and spoke on variety of subjects’
On the geography of Mithila I hypothesized it a distinct geological zone based on earthquake(and on 29th March again an earthquake had occurred in Mithila’s eastern zone only). When there is an quake in Mithila it is not in Assam or north east or in north west or Uttarkashi.
We need specific quake resistant houses or as built in ancient days of ghas-foos.
I also spoke on the history of ancient Mithila(rather Independent Mithila till 1326- after that it was subjugated by foreign invaders).
Kalpkavi Umesh Karn did not come and I had to distribute Mithilakshar sheets.
Mangan Mishra from Forbesganj had joined and he addressed the group. It was ecided to have a meeting at Forbesganj on 25th evening for the preparation of the XXIV Antarrashtriy Maithili sammelan before I take Seemanchal Express in the night to address a Mithila meeting at the Gandhi Maidan in the Patna Pustak Mela on 26th evening.
I asked trainees to delineate Mithila’s problems – they spoke for illiteracy, poverty etc.
I also said some tips on health as not to take less salt and avoid tobacco in any form.
In the evening I walked and preferred to walk with Sadanand ‘Suman’ son of late Nandev Sada who is a writer in Hindi and an avid reader. I preferred to go to his house for intimate talks.
It is my view that every effort should be made to meet maximum number of people when one is on organizational tour.
After snacks(buiscuist, rosugullas) again we returned to Abhayjee’s house discussing the political ethnography of India which to my opinion was divided in cosmopolitan Congress, radical communists (and their variant socialists to start within the Congress and later separate), Muslim League and it s counter Hindu wings (Mahasabha and later RSS-sprang in BJS/BJP).
We discussed on literature, Maithili, Hindi etc. A point came up that while Amoghji portrayed Raniganj true to the glory of the queen who had made it, Renu portrayed as Meryganj, the name of post office to differentiate that from Raniganj of WB, on the name of a foreign lady who probably lived there in the Nilaha days. It was the via post office of Aaurahi Hingna the village of Renu and he used to wait his magazines from there where now stood a Western Union Money Transfer sign board and an ATM showing the teeth of the ‘money order economy’ on which Mithila was thriving.
Again a heavy dinner.
On 25th morning I got up early and became ready after swift Durgapaath etc. to go to Basithi temple on bike with Bhaskar. An engineering student hailing from Bhawanipur-Baisi(Purnea), brother of Abhayji’s daughter in law.
It was ome 20 kiolmeter and I photographed the temple including a plaque in Mihtilakshar, symbolizing that area was apart of(an Anchal of) Mithila only. It may turn to a tourist spot if developed properly.
Sudhirnath Mishra despite his ill health came from Araria and after lunch we had training sessions. He spoke on the role of International Maithili conferences(he was the convener of XXI such conference at Araia, 24-25/4/2010 where Md. Israil Rain MLC, LN Mehta MLA were chief guests).
He invited all for ensuing XXIV Conference one each to bring one other i.e. 36 trainees x2 there on May 12-13, 2012.
He also spoke on Social Harmony.
Anand Kumar Jha did not turn up and I had to take his subject- Role of Youth in the development of Mithila apart from Maithili’s development on which Abhay Sahankar Jha spoke well and also invited students to take up Maithili as a subject and he would provide free books.
Organistion was stressed and he was made president of the local unit with Shibchandra malakar s/o late Jageshwar yadav as general secretary.
I also spoke on Mithila’s modern history and necessity of the Mithila state as well as the methodology of the AMP and stressed for full time workers; evolution through such camps.
I had already prepared certificates to 37 participants in the morning and my duty was over.
Later Sudhirjee and I visited local Saraswati Shishu Mandir and gave few health tips to kids there.
With Bhaskar I came to Abhayji’s house to take my bag and at bus stand Sudhirnathji came. A seat could be provided to him but I came standing. The distance was not far bust had several big halts. Many villages like Sahbajpur, parwaha crossed I had been listening to them in my childhood but could not see being standing in a mini-bus.
At Forbesganj near Indian Oil depot Prof. NL Das and Mangan Mishra were waiting for us and we took a rickshaw to manganji’s house.
Soon we had a small meeting and dinner.
I took a rickshaw to see my birth place(home); Sudhirjee got down at station.
Every street and shop of the Main Road was knowing me. I dropped journals in the letter box in front of my home.
Spent few minutes with caretaker Brahmani, took photograph of the collapsed roof of my house; for a minute went to take aashirvad from my friend Ajit Singh’s old mother and was back to station where too I took photographs of the statue of Ramdeni ‘Dwijdeni,’ a great freedom fighter.
The train was about to come and seeing rush on the platform I was thinking to not to board or get down at Katihar as my meeting at Patna was in the evening but the fellow young man could procure a space on luggage space where apart from luggage I was the third person as luggage and in sitting posture I had journey till Patna. The train was full of labourers going to Delhi and around. Mithila is a great reservoir of labourers which can be gauzed from any Delhi bound train. Flood ravaged Mithila need proper planning.
I was surprised to see a young man who made an armchair like twist of bed sheet hanging from the top of the iron sheet meeting the roof and the small luggage space and slept there cosily. Other boy too followed!

Till Katihar I was awoke but later I did not remember more after passing Kursela bridge on the Koshi river.
I found a poor lady very actively caring her betel nut bags, surely bringing that from Nepal where it might be cheaper. Strange as Nepal is farther from shores but may be taxes an dothers.
At Begusarai, the fellow young account got down but I did not notice if the train had crossed Barauni or had bye passed nor the remembrance of the Simariaghat Rajendra bridge on the Ganga. Surely I was sleeping in a sitting posture!