Shri J N Kaul
Hard Times: A
Helping Hand and a Beacon of Light
By Vijay Kumar
Kaul
 When
'Papa Ji’ - PadmaShri Shri J N Kaul passed away on
December 16, 2008, after a relatively brief
illness, social and community activists from all
over the world joined his family and friends in
mourning his loss and remembering his
contributions. How does one add to the chorus of
people and organizations who have already so
passionately and eloquently expressed the
profound loss of this great social activist and
the tallest of tall sons of the Kashmiri
community? When asked to write this tribute by
Panun Kashmir, I felt honoured to document my
memories of this great Icon who was perhaps the
tallest if we look back two centuries in History
and who will be remembered for centuries for the
indelible marks that he has left in the History
of time.
The creation of
SOS Children’s Villages of India as the largest
Children’s NGO in India is widely known. In the
early 80’s, the SOS office was situated in Nehru
Place. This is where I had my life’s first
glimpse of Shri J N Kaul, most smartly dressed,
carrying a brief case, and catching the lift to
his office sharp at 9 A.M, every morning. Nehru
place in New Delhi had so many corporate offices
those days, but the likes and looks of Kaul
Sahib made him look different as the best
dressed and the most ‘impressive’ business
executive one could find in this bustling
business hub. I knew nothing more of Kaul Sahib
those days except for the fact that he was
heading a Children’s organisation. However, at
the very first sight he looked a distinct
personality that easily commanded great respect.
Then came the
early 90’s that brought to the Community winters
of discontent and a period of ‘great
depression’. The displacement and Diaspora
brought to the fore many well meaning community
members who felt deeply disturbed and shaken up
with the sufferings of their own community and
life of destitution and misery that settlement
in tenements of Jammu had brought along. One of
these ‘sensitive’ minds was Shri J N Kaul. When
approached by Kashmiri Sewak Samaj, Faridabad in
1992 to head as its President, he felt honoured
to accept it. Kaul Sahib, as one of his first
major acts of memorable contributions, joined
hands with All India Kashmiri Samaj and placed
at their disposal the resources of SOS
Children’s villages of India for setting up a
Centre of Computer learning for the children of
Jammu camps. While giving relief to the needy
was the norm in those troubled times, Kaul Sahib
showed his vision and leadership by practicing
in the belief “Do not give them fish but teach
them how to catch fish”! This program ran for
many years successfully and succeeded in making
bread winners for many hundreds of families.
When Kaul Sahib donned the mantle of leading
AIKS also, the program got a great fillip. The
cynics always used to sow doubts about the
usefulness of this program and suggested doing
this at Jammu, closer to the camps. However,
Kaul Sahib persisted and continued getting a few
dozen boys and girls recruited every summer, and
lodged them in Hostels with modern amenities at
Faridabad.
The induced hygiene factor of attending the
School in the beautiful environs of SOS campus
always had a metamorphosis effect on the camp
children’s personality. During the early years
of 90’s, many young men and women also were
given employment in various SOS schools and thus
many a families were saved from economic
hardships in those years of despair. Kaul Sahib
also set up Hostels for working girls in Noida,
who were helped to get jobs in industries in
this area. Perhaps, this combined activity of
rehabilitation launched by the great visionary
was the most commendable non-governmental effort
at that point of time. Every Sunday, Kaul Sahib
used to visit these Hostels in Noida and verify
the safety, security and well being of the
Community daughters living there.
With the initial
pain of displacement subsiding a bit, Kaul Sahib
started formulating a blue print for Institution
building in the mid 90’s. This is where he left
an indelible mark in the history of Kashmiri
Pandits. “Mochi Fouli Saet Athrot” concept of
saving a bit with the aim of giving was very
dear to Kaul Sahib’s heart. For the tenure of
his 15 years of service to his community, he
always talked and reminded of saving for our
less fortunate brothers and sisters. In this he
used to lead by example. Every month, ‘Mimmi’
Smt. Indira Kaul, wife of Kaul Sahib would
deposit her family contribution with the
treasurer in KSS. As General Secretary of KSS,
I am witness to scores of men and women who used
to call on him from all over to seek succour and
help. Some of them used to be terminally sick.
Kaul Sahib used to treat them with courtesy and
humility. Help was not given with the normally
practiced trait of “good riddance”. He would
delve deep and enquire how the family of the
needy person could be helped to augment
resources for long term survival. Alas, Kaul
Sahib’s continued exhortation to the community
to develop a permanent global corpus for help
to the needy has remained yet an unfulfilled
dream. Seeing the lack of needed focus within
the Community on this pressing humanitarian
need, Kaul Sahib towards his last days even was
toying with the idea of starting a family trust
called ‘Athrot”. The idea didn’t travel far as
Kaul Sahib fell sick soon after.
In the mid-90’s,
Kaul Sahib unveiled his grand vision of
Institution building and gave birth to the idea
of building Sharika Bhavan and Hari Parbat in
the district of Faridabad. Sceptics were full of
doubt and pooh poohed both the projects. Sharika
Bhawan was allotted a plot of land by Govt. of
Haryana for a sum of Rs. 3 Lakhs close to the
famed Rose Garden of Sector 17. The Organisation
had no money to buy the plot of land. Kaul Sahib
made the entire KSS executive to give personal
bonds for raising this sum. The same was
submitted to Haryana Urban Development
Authority, who were quick to allot the land in a
prestigious place in a central location. When
Kaul Sahib unveiled his plans and submitted the
Architects plans of building a multi-purpose
Community centre at a cost of Rs. 1 core, it was
met with doubts and cynicism. The advice from
all quarters was to build something ‘affordable,
cheap and low cost- Shrogh Shrogh ta Panahdhar’’!
Unmindful, Kaul Sahib continued with his
thoughts. I recall, as the General Secretary of
Kashmiri Sewak Samaj, he asked me to send out
the first appeal to the Community, far and wide.
He took great pains to guide me in a making a
brochure to help sell the idea of necessity of
having Sharika Bhawan. The initial responses
that we received, though meagre in
contributions, gave us some hope. In close
confidence, Kaul Sahib once told me that he
believed Rs. 1 Crore was not too big a sum for
the community. However, if the community could
not afford it, he could get it done single
handed. Despite all odds, he announced the
foundation laying ceremony of Sharika Bhawan. It
was attended by 70 people from NCR. Kaul Sahib
gave a contribution of Rs. 5 Lakhs that he had
been given by SOS to fulfil his cherished desire
of building a Hostel for girls within Sharika
Bhawan. This very handsome donation by Kaul
Sahib helped start the work and there after,
some philanthropic minds contributed many times
this amount and helped build Sharika Bhawan in a
record time. The Executive members of KSS were
so excited with this project that they all
individually contributed significantly to set
personal example to the masses. Sharika Bhavan
today is mark of Kashmiri Pandit identity in
entire Haryana.
Simultaneous to
building Sharika Bhawan, Kaul Sahib embarked
upon building Hari Parbat in the Aravali hills
at village Anangpur in Faridabad. The idea to
build Hari Parbat was spurred by ‘Mimmi’,
Shrimati Indira Kaul. She has been an
Ardhangani in truest sense of the word for Kaul
Sahib. She was always by his side for
celebrating or observing any event happy or not
so happy. The story is like this. Kaul Sahib and
Indira Ji were sitting in the company of
Anangpur village elders in the SOS Medical
Centre in Anangpur. Indira Ji pointed towards
the hillock in front of her and told the
gathering that a similar hill in Kashmir was the
abode of Ma Sharika, the presiding deity of
Kashmiris. So moved were the village elders with
the story and the fact that this temple was out
of easy reach for the faithful due to
displacement that they passed a resolution in
the village Panchayat placing the hill at Kaul
Sahib’s disposal. They wanted him to replicate
the Hari Parbat in Anangpur and bring the sleepy
village to life. The villagers felt that such a
temple in their midst would help build character
in their young ones and wean away them from any
vices of gambling and drinking.
Kaul Sahib, in
order to unveil his plans of building Hari
Parbat in Anangpur , announced celebration of
Navreh in Anangpur Village and on this day a
large procession of village folks and Kashmiris
went up the hill wading thorough through thorny
hedges. They respectfully listened to Kaul
Sahib’s grand plans of building Hari Parbat in
the rocky and inhospitable terrains of Aravali
Hills. However, some minds were full of doubt
and disbelief. During this time, some Articles
appeared in community magazines charging Kaul
Sahib with being a heretic and felt he was
indulging in blasphemy. They did not like Hari
Parbat of Kashmir to be replicated. Kaul Sahib
was clear in his mind. Kashmir was not so easy
to reach for the vast majority given the frenzy
of intolerance there and he saw Hari Parbat in
Anangpur as solace to the vast majority of
Kashmiris who had taken refuge in the NCR region
of Delhi. He saw this Temple a link to the
Original Hari Parbat that Ma Sharika had built
when she took the form of a Myna –‘Hari’ and
created a hillock to destroy a demon called
“Tchand” who had taken shelter in a remanent of
Satisar lake in the vicinity of present Hari
Parbat. The demon “Tchand” was so powerful
physically that he started shaking the hillock
to free himself out of the clutches of Ma
Sharika. To destroy the demon, Ma Sharika
Herself sat over the hilltop and thus made this
place as Her permanent abode. While the Hari
Parbat in Kashmir was built by Ma Sharika
Herself to alleviate the sufferings of the
masses at the hands of demon ‘Tchand’, it was
Shri Kaul who replicated this effort at a time
of great suffering and depression that visited
us in the twentieth century. Do we say he was a
reincarnation of a kind in modern times?
While Sharika
Bhawan in sector 17, Faridabad was being built
by resources raised from the community, the pace
of construction was little slower here than that
of Hari Parbat. Sharika Bhawan needed wider
consensus at each step of construction while at
Hari Parbat Kaul Sahib acted like a one man
army, moving the ‘mountains in a hurry’. Once
the temple was complete, he created a cultural
gallery dedicated to Memory of Ma Lalleshwari
with her popular sayings carved on black marble
plaques.
He even had
identified land for building the “Pokhairy Bal”
in the vicinity of the Hill. Indraji was the
force behind building Swami Vidhyadhar Satsang
Bhawan at the footsteps of the Temple. Once when
I enquired with Kaul Sahib, how he envisaged
that Hari Parbat could run and be managed in
future, he said that it was time that the
Community started actively taking interest in
its upkeep, organising functions periodically to
help in keeping it as place of cultural
happening and vibrance. Kaul Sahib had many more
plans for developing the place further. He had
planned to develop an existing kutcha road that
would connect the place from the Suraj Kund-
Badhkhal Road side. This road would help bypass
the village and provide easy access to South
Delhi.
Prior to one of the Navreh celebrations, he
travelled on this Kutcha Road in a
Sumo and was full of plans to develop the track
into a motorable Road. Perhaps, his health did
not permit him to embark on this mission. Every
year for the last one decade, Anangpur village
sees great festivity when thousands of Kashmiris
celebrate Navreh and renew their social bonds.
Kaul Sahib wished that KSS and all other NCR
organizations would continue to organize this
event for all times to come, the way he had led
it year after year.
Simultaneous to
building the above two centres, Kaul Sahib
announced launch of 3 schemes for building
housing societies that were named Sabzar,
Gayatri and Lalleshwari Vatika. I vividly
recall when Haryana Govt. cancelled the Scheme
initially; all the members were unanimous in
demanding their earnest money back. After seeing
this short sighted approach, Kaul Sahib got up
to address the gathering and said the opposite
of what the majority wanted. He said “consensus
is that no one will withdraw money and we will
let the housing societies continue”. These very
Societies helped the members get 4 acres of land
allotted a couple of years later. Such was Kaul
Sahib’s vision and impact on the ordinary minds.
They would never disobey him or dare to disagree
with him in public. These housing projects took
nearly a decade to complete but with all the
troubles that Kaul Sahib and his dedicated team
of co-workers whom he entrusted with this task
had to face, the completion of these Housing
Societies is testimony to his vision of grandeur
in Architecture, concept of space utilization,
amenities and provisions towards ensuring a
better quality of life for the Society
residents. Kaul Sahib started living in one of
the Societies for a few months. He always longed
that the residents showed greater depth of
understanding, brotherhood and helped create a
‘Happy place’ for their own sake. This was the
purpose of his mission in investing so much of
his time and effort in initiating this project.
He would often say that his community
collectively had become richer by a few hundred
crores with this possession, celebrate!
Kaul Sahib also
was called on to take the responsiblity of
leading Kashmir Education, Cultural and Science
Society in Pamposh Enclave. In spite of his not
so good a health he accepted it and it is during
his time that construction of a cultural centre
was started on land that had been allotted to
Pamposh Colony residents many decades ago. He
brought the Centre to life by organizing events
and seminars, periodically.
Kaul Sahib was
appreciative for the struggle of Panun Kashmir
and was proud of its unmatched activism. He had
always hoped for greater thrust to the cause of
the movement within the Community.
The achievements
of respected Kaul Sahib are numerous to be
recounted here in full. In days to come, all of
us who have worked with this legendry figure
need to document experiences individually lest
we lose out on his sagacity and utmost wisdom.
It is hard to
write an ending to this tribute to Kaul Sahib.
Many years after his death, we will still mourn
him, we still will wish we could hear his voice,
read his words, and wonder where he will take us
next, and we will miss his welcome smile. No
doubt, we will discover more visions and more
struggles. Like Kaul Sahib, may we see each
vision and each struggle as a way to pursue
towards excellence for our young ones and unite
us to help each other.
Kaul Sahib was a
living embodiment of excellence in all walks of
life. In every talk and speech he reiterated
that the only way for survival was building
virtues of excellence in our young ones. He was
a stickler for punctuality. In the Sunday prayer
that is held at Sharika Bhawan, he was always
5 minutes early. He liked to call social
meetings as ‘Business meetings’ and would
conduct them with grace and professionalism that
is of rare kind in many Social bodies. Serious
business was always interspersed with light
humour by him. He was intolerant to side talk
and gossip among participants, and would mildly
admonish saying “if you have anything
interesting, tell this to your President!” Even
when he was not in good health in last few
months, meetings with his co-workers would bring
him cheer and restore him to a jolly mood. He
emerged stronger, vibrant and cheerful whenever
he got to discuss community issues and
projects. There are many ways to honour Pandit
J N Kaul Sahib’s work and to continue the
commitment that he demonstrated while serving
the community. May Ma Sharika show us the way!
*(The author is Ex-Gen Secy Kashmiri Sewak Samaj,
Faridabad)
Source: Kashmir
Sentinel
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