519) Leisure Time Short Stories (6): Remembering Uncle Paul Haegar: A German Army Officer in World War II
who became an exemplary Horticulturist and transformed/landscaped the
gardens of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) into examples of beauty
& excellence :
(This short story first appeared in our blog fabhobbies.blogspot.com. It is being placed here for wider coverage)
(The following account is from my memory of
Uncle Haegar from when I was studying in Class V in Aligarh):
My father, Dr. J.N. Prasad
was one of the founder members/pioneer Professors of Jawaharlal Nehru Medical
College (JNMC) at Aligarh, which was affiliated to the Aligarh Muslim
University (AMU).
Uncle Paul Haegar was a
regular visitor to our house and was almost like a family member.
His
past life in Germany:
Uncle Haegar belonged to a
very prosperous and reputed German Industrial family which owned several
industries.
He was serving as a young
Officer in the German infantry at the time that Hitler’s Nazi Party was gaining
control of the country. Some members of the Nazi Party, who were jealous of his
Family’s prosperity conspired against them and one day, an Army convoy of Nazi
sympathisers surrounded their ancestral house, lined up each and every member
of the house including his brothers, parents and young children and shot
everyone dead after accusing them of being inimical to the Nazi cause.
Only one young boy, who
had managed to scale the boundary wall into the neighbour’s house without being
detected, escaped alive. The neighbour’s
family not only brought up this child as their own but kept his identity a
secret from the Gestapo and the Nazis.
The Haegar family’s
industries were confiscated by the “Fatherland” (“Deutschland”).
Uncle
Haegar: An Allied Army Prisoner of War:
Devastated by this
tragedy, and having lost his family and fortunes, he continued to serve in the
German Army and rose to the rank of a Colonel. When World War II broke out and
the Allied Armies were advancing upon the German heartland, he was taken
prisoner and shipped to a Prisoner of War Camp for German/Axis soldiers at the
British colony at Malaya. Here he was treated well by the British Army and
given his passion for horticulture, he was allowed to go and help out a Malayan
rubber plantation owner on how to
improve the yield of his plantation.
When World War II ended
and the German Prisoner of War Camp was dismantled, he was given an option to
be shipped back to Germany, but he declined on grounds that he had nothing to
look forward to in war-torn and devastated Germany. He continued to stay on in
Malaya, married a local Malayan lady and started his own rubber plantation
there.
As time went by he became
a prosperous plantation owner, but once again tragedy struck him. He lost his
wife to a terminal illness and was completely heart-broken. He lost interest in
his Rubber plantation and began to neglect it.
Around this time, he was
offered a job at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) as the Chief
Horticulturist. Among his various jobs was setting up of the landscaped gardens
of the AMU, cultivation of flowers, fruits, vegetables and ornamental plants,
both within the AMU Campus as well as in an old Fort area called the “Qila” (meaning “Fort” in Urdu), where
several horticultural experiments were under way, financed by the AMU and
Foreign grants.
Uncle
Haegar took up this job around 1960, which is when my Father joined JNMC as a
pioneer doctor at the Medical College.
Uncle
Haegar, the Chief Horticulturist at the Aligarh Muslim University – a great
success:
Uncle Haegar took upon
himself the onerous task of landscaping the AMU’s gardens and making them the
finest gardens among all the Universities of India.
His horticulture and
cropping experiments got him India-wide recognition and Horticulturists from
several Universities and other establishments around India visited him and were
constantly in touch with him to consult him regarding his landscaping
techniques, his innovative experiments et al.
Uncle Haegar used to walk
away with all the prizes at every flower show whether it was Inter or Intra
University or any other flower show.
A Black and White photograph of Uncle Haegar proudly sitting next to one of the Trophies won by him, taken by my AGFA Click III camera.
Riding
on a bicycle and later a cycle rickshaw:
I remember that, at first
he and his Assistant Wali Khan used to ride on bicycles, both of them wearing
Khaki hats or Panama straw hats and khaki shorts & shirts in the manner of dressing
up for going on a Jungle Safari, and they were an easily recognizable duo all
over the University. They were a kind of Laurel and Hardy team – Uncle Haegar
was rather portly, while Wali Khan was quite wiry.
Later, when Uncle Haegar suffered his first heart attack around 1967,
he got a rickshaw made for himself and would be driven around by a rickshaw
puller who was employed on a monthly pay of Rs.100/-.
The
Berha kids and the “Laal Muh ka Bandar”:
As the rickshaw would pass
by a small village of poor people ( called the “Berha”) on the way to our home which fell on his way to the “Qila” where he would go often to
supervise the horticulture experiments being conducted there, the children of
the Berha would run along with his rickshaw teasing him by shouting “Laal Muh ka Bandar” (meaning “the monkey
with the red face”) – Uncle Haegar being a German was rather white in
complexion, and with the Indian summer sun beating down on him, his face would
become flushed with the heat, hence the children addressed him thus). Uncle
Haegar asked my father “Doc sahib what does a “Laal Muh ka Bandar” mean?” At first my father was evasive, but upon
Uncle Haegar’s persistence, explained to him the meaning of this phrase.
Uncle Haegar immediately took “remedial
measures”. He got a large sized walking stick, and began wielding it when the
naughty boys would come running towards his rickshaw. He never hit anyone, but
the boys stopped calling him “Laal Muh ka
Bandar”. Instead they started respectfully addressing him as “Good morning
uncle” or “Good evening uncle”. I learnt from Uncle Haegar, that to get your
own way, you only have to show that you are the person in the “driver’s seat”,
without using that power and everyone will fall in line.
Uncle Haegar responded by
giving each one some toffees and chocolates, and he became very popular with
the “Berha” kids.
Horticulture:
Interestingly, Uncle
Haegar and my father shared a common interest in Horticulture. So in the vast
compound of our house, Uncle Haegar got the topsoil changed all over the
gardening area and planted the most amazing varieties of flowering plants,
including carpet grass, and roses which changed colour several times in a day
and each one was a beauty in itself. My father would spend a couple of hours
every day weeding out the lawn. Sometimes, Wali would be deputed to inspect
that the garden was simply looking great and take remedial measures wherever
necessary.
I remember that one rose called
the “Black Prince” got me a prize in a Flower Show, even though it was Uncle
Haegar’s creation and I had nothing to do with it.
Under Uncle Haegar’s supervision, we had a
paddy field, a “singhara” pond,
papaya trees, all growing upto the third floor of the house, a vegetable garden
growing all kinds of salads, onions, beet root, potatoes and just about
everything one could think of was growing in our residential compound. Whatever
successful experiments were being undertaken on plants and crops at the Qila,
found samples being brought and planted in our house.
A
strict vegetarian with a love for food:
He was a strict vegetarian
and was very fond of my mother’s dishes of fried peas, “Aloo ki Tikiyas” (potato cutlets), “Samosas” and Onion “Pakoras”
for snacks, apart from fried rice “Pulao”
for lunch whenever he visited our house. He loved eating the “Kachauris”, “Pooris” and “Dosas” or “Idlis” which my mother would cook, among
other items.
He also helped out with
the hand-driven ice-cream maker and loved the ice-cream my mother made in
various flavours. When he was leaving for his residence, he would invariably
leave a request as to what he would like to eat the next time he came over
visiting us.
Meeting
his surviving nephew by a lucky stroke of chance:
Uncle Haegar made every
effort to find out about his surviving nephew. Several German students who came
to study at the AMU also helped him out in his search for locating the missing
nephew.
Ultimately, Uncle Haegar
got a series of Advertisements published in leading German newspapers. Finally,
he received a call from the boy who came to India to visit him.
They spent a week together
catching up with each other before he left for Berlin again. Uncle Haegar
learnt that his nephew was serving in the German infantry, in his own footsteps
and was now a Captain in the German Army. The wheel had turned a full circle.
Another generation of the Haegar family was serving in the German Armed Forces
now, though free from the Nazi yoke.
The
last time I saw him:
I remember that I was
being sent to the La Martiniere College, Lucknow hostel in 1970 after having
got admission in Class VII. This was the first time that I was going to stay
away from the family. As Uncle Haegar was like a family member, it was but natural
that I would go along to say goodbye to him. I remember that he shook hands
with me and wished me all the best in life.
I was admitted to the hostel
on 12.01.1970 and my parents came to get me admitted to the College. This was
also the day when Uncle Haegar suffered another heart attack and passed away.
Wali
told us later that he kept asking for my father as he breathed his last. I was
personally very distraught, and I know that my parents were too on hearing this news.
Somehow, even though 45
years have passed by, it has always stayed in my sub-conscious mind that had I
not been admitted to the hostel in Lucknow on 12th January, Uncle
Haegar may have got better medical facilities, if my father was there at
Aligarh, instead of being with me at Lucknow, but, I suppose, nature/providence had willed it that way.
Since that year, on the 12th
of January every year, I remember Uncle Haegar and offer a prayer to his memory.
His
legacy:
Although he was unlucky in
his personal family life and faced several tragedies throughout his life, he
became very much a part of our family and gave to the AMU the most elegant landscaped
gardens of beauty & excellence, which the University boasted of, as his
legacy.
Links to some other short stories on this Blog by Rajeev Prasad:
6)
Leisure Time Short Stories: Remembering Uncle Paul Haegar: A German
Army Officer in World War II, who became an exemplary Horticulturist and
transformed/landscaped the gardens of the Aligarh Muslim University
(AMU) into examples of beauty and excellence
7) Leisure Time Short Stories : Connecting through several lifetimes: The Story of the "Panditji" (Priest) of the Hanuman Temple at Chandrasekhar Azad University, Kanpur
7) Leisure Time Short Stories : Connecting through several lifetimes: The Story of the "Panditji" (Priest) of the Hanuman Temple at Chandrasekhar Azad University, Kanpur
Remember him as a very loving Hagar Uncle
ReplyDeleteThank you, Raka.
Delete