I was born when my father was posted at Dehradun.
First male child (Govind Sarup) of my parents only two years old had died of diphtheria.
My mother (Sushila Mathur) was totally shattered and crestfallen due to this catastrophe in her youth.
Presumably giving great solace to my mother, I was born two years after his passing away in 1951 and she was extra possessive and careful in bringing me up.
Subsequently, her care and anxiety for me had increased manifold as four sisters were born after my birth but sagacious, she brought us all with equal love and care.
I had one sister elder to me also.
Till date, we all her siblings, have enormous bonding.
But her task of bring me up was agonizingly painful because I used to have frequents bouts of pneumonia and she used to spend sleepless nights and was always worried about my well being.
In 1955, when I was four years of age, my father (Krishan Sarup Mathur) was transferred to Delhi and lived in Karol Bagh but here too the frailty in my body was continuing.
My mother’s ancestral home was at nearby Sohna (Gurgaon) where one of her uncle (Chacaha) Mathura Parshad Mathur who had not married was also residing in a family Havali (the grand regal structure though is shambles is still standing).
(Her father and grand fathers were big land owner and were known zamidars of the area.)
Her Munni Chacha was associated with mysticism, Sufism and theology and several mystics were in his contact.
When my mother narrated her anxieties about my frequent illnesses to him assuring her of bright future and cure, he got prepared an amulet (Taviz) for me from ‘a mystic lady to whom we used to call ammaji. (She used to go to Hajj at Mecca) quite often.
Mounted in silver and cleansed in the sacred water fastened in black tread my mother tied amulet on my left arm and every Thursday used to show to it frankincense (loban) fumes.
I was admitted in a school in Delhi and I used to get upset when other students were teasing me about the amulet following which mother hiding under the shirt tied the same on my tummy.
How I had lost it or how it was disappeared I do not remember.
All I remember is that the amulet had given confidence to my mother about my well being.
Amulets are believed to have inherent power to protect against disease, to ward off sudden dangers and to prevent evil influences threatening the person.
It is said that they are cherished with the utmost care and remained potent as long as the wearer trusted them.
A student of English literature I can remember that Charles Dickens ‘David Copperfield was born with a caul which he wrote that it safeguards against drowning.
In these small objects, most of which are without any intrinsic value, mankind throughout the ages has sought comfort and protection against the manifold dangers of life.
(I am a rationalist but amulet tied to me once had given solace to my other hence the write up is a tribute to her.)