Voice behind Batasha Bua looks for home,dignity

Batasha Bua was a hugely popular comic character performed by Chandrakanta in a long running and very famous radio play Munshi Aitwari Lal Vald Budhwari Lal that ran through the 1970s and early 1980s from the All India Radio station in Allahabad.

But today,Chandrakanta despairs at what fate had in store for her.

Not able to take humiliation at the hands of her grand-nephew,Chandrakanta on Saturday left her home in Bai Ka Bagh here and took a rickshaw to the house of Syed Iqbal Ahmed on Nirala Marg in Daraganj. Ahmed knows her since his childhood and has been associated with radio for long.

“She reached my house with just the clothes she was wearing,” says Ahmed.

Ironically,the person who is making Chandrakanta feel humiliated is the son of her nephew,raised by Chandrakanta as her own son. Chandrakanta’s sister had given away one of her children to an issueless Chandrakanta,who raised him as her own son.

Daraganj was the place where Chandrakanta grew up under the shadow of literary giant Suryankant Tripathi “Nirala”. By the time she reached adolescence,Chandrakanta was married to D S Tiwari,who later joined the railways. She participated in the freedom movement,but remained in the background,as overt participation would have jeopardised her husband’s service.

“Harivansh Rai Bachchan got me to write in blood that I want freedom. But when Pt. Nehru wanted me to give my name for the freedom fighters’ pension,I refused. He even asked Indu (Indira Gandhi) to drive some sense in me,but then taking pension would have rendered the entire service to the country meaningless,” she says.

Today,Chandrakanta gets a monetary benefit of Rs 1,500 — the pension of her husband —who died in 1971.

“Ab koi nahin hai jo kahe ki main unki hoon (today,there is nobody who can say that I am theirs),” she says. She adds that Indira Gandhi had asked Rajendra Kumari Vajpayee,a veteran Congress leader,to take care of her.

In her young days,Chandrakanta wore many hats. Apart from being associated with the freedom movement and radio,she was also attached to “Abhyuday” brought out by C Y Chintamani. On a lighter note,she recalls,she was nicknamed “mard maar (men beater)”. “I had beaten up at least three people with either shoes,brooms or even with bare hands,when they tried to misbehave with me,” says Chandrakanta.

But now it is the memories that keep her going and leave her with a sour taste.

She was living alone in her house in Maheva,on the border of Allahabad and Kaushambi,which she left last year following a theft. She began living in the Bai Ka Bagh house,with her nephew,who has now allegedly taken over her Maheva house since January this year.

She says it is not abusive language or the physical torture,‘but their language is humiliating’. “I have lived life on my own terms and they make me feel as if I am a burden on them,” she adds.

Ahmed says Chandrakanta was even willing to change her religion to Islam. “I don’t know why. But,I told her there was no need for such things,” he says.

Now Chandrakanta hopes to find a house and dignity at Rewa in Madhya Pradesh. “My maternal aunt and nephews are there,” she says. But,on second thoughts,she is not so sure.

“Jaati hoon,dekhtee hoon kya kehte hain. Agar theek laga to reh jaaoongi. Warna pata nahin kis gali mein jaa kar gir jaaoongi (I will go there; see how they react. If I feel ok,I will stay,otherwise who knows where I will die),” she adds.