Madhuri




Madhuri

  Years before Umrao Singh Shergill married Marie Antoinette and had Amrita and Indira, he was married to Narinder Kumari, daughter of Captain Gulab Singh of Atari. She died in 1907. They had four children together - Balram, Satyavan, Vivek and Prakash. The tales of these siblings would fill a book, and their history has to be unraveled carefully, as it is too complicated and colourful to go into without a great deal of research. Umrao Singh's eldest son Balram had two sons and a daughter, Samarjeet, Ranjeet and Sumaire. This is the story of Ranjeet or Jeeti, as he was known, who on a trip to Banares to sort out some land issues, came face to face with the fabulous and exotic Madhuri.

Sitara Devi

Madhuri was born in Banares into a middle class family. She lost her parents very early in life and was raised by her uncle and aunt. From an early age she was fascinated by music and dance, and having Sitara Devi the eminent Kathak dancer as her neighbour, meant that she could slyly peep through windows to see the famous danseuse practice her art. One morning Sitara Devi caught the young Madhuri skulking around her front door, and after making inquiries as to who the child was, decided to take her under her wing and give her free instruction.

 Madhuri was a perceptive child and blossomed under tutelage, so when a film unit from Bombay approached Sitara Devi for someone who could act and dance, to play the role of baby Shakuntala in a movie, Madhuri's name was suggested. A few years later when Pancholi Studios was looking for a fresh faced heroine for their home production they too chose Madhuri. She was whisked off to Lahore where she starred in two movies 'Punji' and 'Zamindar'. Even though acting was not a  respectable profession in those days, Madhuri did well and was determined to make a name for herself in the world of cinema. She returned to Banares when there was a short break in filming, and there was introduced to Jeeti, who happened to be spending an evening drinking with her uncle.

It was love at first sight for Jeeti and he became completely obsessed with the beautiful Madhuri. He begged her to marry him and when she told him she wanted to keep acting, he promised her he would build a studio and produce movies just for her. After initially rebuffing his advances and voicing her misgivings, she found herself persuaded by his alluring charm and agreed to marry him. They moved to Saraya where Jeeti lived in a house called 'Lal Kothi' surrounded by fields, trees and lush greenery. In spite of never fulfilling his promises to her, they lived happily for a few years and had three sons - Pratap, Tej and Bhuvan. Unfortunately Jeeti who had always been a heavy drinker began to slowly degenerate into an out of control alcoholic.

It was on a train journey to Nepal to take part in one of the extravagant family hunting trips, that Jeeti happened to meet up with a strange and fascinating man who claimed to be a powerful Tantric. This person invited him to break journey at his village, where he vowed he would reveal carefully guarded secrets about the dark arts. Jeeti accepted out of sheer curiosity and found himself taking part in  bizarre rituals where he was made to eat raw meat and drink strange potions, all whilst in a drug induced haze.  After a particularly wild night, which he claimed  to have no memory of, he was informed by the Tantric that he had slept with the youngest of his seven daughters, and was now  obliged to marry her. Jeeti managed to sneak out of the village in a panic and returned to Saraya, where he told Madhuri what had transpired, always maintaining he had no recollection of the events of that night.

Nine months later Madhuri found a young girl with a baby in her arms on her doorstep. She did not have the heart to turn her away in the freezing winter weather, so asked her in, and that was the where her life took an unexpected and unfortunate twist. The young mother was Anju Devi, the Tantric's daughter, who had somehow managed to track down her oblivious bed mate. 

Jeeti claimed Anju Devi  used black magic on him to ensure he was  completely enslaved by her. The nights saw them either drinking themselves into senseless stupors or indulging in forbidden Tantric rituals behind closed doors. He began to either abuse and mistreat Madhuri or apologise for his cruelty, begging her to never leave him.  She decided to send her sons to Samarjeet, Jeeti's older brother, who lived in Punjab, since the situation in the house was getting very frightening and morbid.

A few years after turning Madhuri's life upside down Anju Devi died. Jeeti's alcoholism was now accompanied by full blown episodes of delirium tremens. He launched himself off a hill in Dehra Dun after hearing voices in his head tell him that there was a sea beneath into which he should dive, and ended up breaking his back. He barely recovered from this when he decided he wanted to feed some wild monkeys who were talking with him and was badly mauled  by one of them. He would be at the hospital every second day with some problem or the other which Victor would have to sort out. He often said Jeeti was a most affable and intelligent man when not under the influence but such occurrences became rarer and rarer.
Years of drunken abuse and melodrama followed until Madhuri finally decided to return to Banares. Her uncle and aunt refused to have anything to do with her, since she had walked out on her husband, so she had to fend for herself. Much to her horror she discovered she was pregnant and tried every trick in the book to get rid of the unwanted foetus. She was convinced she had managed to do so, but at five months felt movement, and on going to the doctor was informed she was still very much with child. She was completely devastated when she gave birth to a wizened baby girl who also had a double thumb on one hand - who would marry her with this defect, was the first thing that crossed her mind. Sadly Jeeti did not live to see his daughter and passed away a few months after Madhuri left him.

The unwelcome little girl was named Santosh and ended up as the only one of Madhuri's children to look after her till the day she died. The three sons all ended badly with drugs and drink bringing them down. Santosh was the one who put her life on hold to look after her mother, who now was suffering from an opium habit as well.

They lived a hand to mouth existence, shuttling between Saraya and Banares and eventually shifted to Delhi where concerned relatives gave them a roof over their heads. Madhuri's addiction made things more difficult and Santosh was forced to work to make ends meet - it was again family who came to her aid.

Madhuri passed away in 2000, leaving her daughter nothing but a diary of 'shers' which she had composed along her tragic way. Unfortunately Santosh was recently diagnosed with cancer and had to go through the usual course of chemotherapy, but luckily is now doing well. In spite of living a life of extreme hardship, such a strong, positive and good human being is rare to find in today's day and age. I am proud to have her as my oldest friend with whom I  share countless memories of happier times in Saraya.



Santosh



A sample of Madhuri's poetry:-

Bahut bechain hu, thoda sa muskurane do

Humsafar door hai, tasauvar to saath rehne do.

Hulk bhi sook chuka, saaki bhi saath de na saki

Hamare ashk se khali hai jaam bharne do.

Dubne wale ko tinke ka sahara bhi nahin

Toofa e kashti - langar to haath rehne do.

Jala hai pankh, shama se bhi kuch malaal nahin

Sahar kareeb hai, kuch der aur tadapne do.

Katib dekh kar haalaat khud bhi rone lage

Hame ab ashk se kuch apna haal likne do.

Na kehe sakunga ki apno ne kya diya hai sila

Vazu mein mai ko lekar namaaz padne do.

Jaam khanke na kahin, kuch log kabr mein soye hai

Akela hu, hame apna toh kabr bharne do.

Chirag mazaar pe "madhu" ke naam kabhi roshan ho

Bahut thaka hu, mujhe ab chain se so lene do.