,
10 tweets,
2 min read
Read on Twitter
There are no links as this was in 1985. I was working for UNI and reporting offbeat stories on the Congress centenary. I found Chengapoa Varappa Cared at the St George hospital. All his possessions were in a steel trunk under his bed.
That trunk also contained a tamrapatra that was presented to him by Indira Gandhi and a picture with Jawaharlal Nehru. After independence Varad eschewed any govt post and became a crusader for the Flag code.He wud also pull up bus conductors for over charging, not issuing tickets
One day one such bus conductor pulled the bell just as Varad was stepping into it out of vengeance. He was dragged several yards and fell off, injuring his hip. He was admitted to St George hospital in Bombay but afterwards he had no where to go.
The govt allowed him to stay in that hospital to the end of his days on some pretext or the other because he would not accept free housing from them and would otherwise have come on to the streets. I found him in that hospital looking for offbeat stories during the Cong centenary
That is when he showed me a photograph of himself holding a baby in his arms - the baby was Rajiv Gandhi. Feroz Gandhi was in jail and Nehru was also arrested. Indira who was heavily pregnant had been left in the care of her aunt Krishna Hattisingh in Bombay.
Before going to jail Nehru appointed Varad, a Seva Dal worker, as her bodyguard and instructed him never to let his daughter out of his sight. When her time came, Krishna was away and there was no one with Indira but Varad
Varad rushed Indira to the famous Dr Parulekar maternity nursing home on Marine Drive which years later even Hema Malini had chosen for herself. When Indira's first child was born, there was no one around from her family but Varad. So the nurse placed the baby in his arms
More than 40 years later during the Congress centenary Varad told me emotionally how he was the first one to have cuddled and cooed the child, even chucked him under the chin. The child first opened its eyes to him.
I think Indira remembered that and never forgot her bodyguard for after becoming prime minister she launched a search for him and awarded him the tamrapatra. Varad was a seva dal worker on par with SK patil but would have nothing to do with govt or politics after freedom
So he lived and died in penury.But that Indira&Rajiv made his life&dignity easier by keeping him clothed&fed and sheltered with a roof over his head in St George hospital speaks volumes of the Nehru-Gandhis. Sadly, I went abroad and lost track of him. When I returned, he was gone
