The third eldest grandson of Dada Roop Chand, Chaudhary Ram Singh is in the village since early fifties, who went there after completing Matric in 1950 and has spent almost whole life-time there. At present, he along with his three sons is only residing in the village since last about seven decades and a major portion of our ancestors collective land-holding is being managed with the assistance of his sons. So he is the only available person whose eyes have seen all good and bad days as well as events. He is well-conversant with all the land records and other historical facts of our ancestors. As explained in the write-up of ‘Origin and Background of the Family’ our great-great-grandfather Chaudhary Kushal Singh Dalal had migrated to India and settled in village Mandothi. His two sons Chaudhary Bahadar Singh and Chaudhary Thana Ram shifted their place of living to present place, which could be far better look-after and management of their large land-holding.
As per bhai Ram Singh, Chaudhary Bahadar Singh owned 900 Bighas of land and was the first family in the village to have such a large land-holding. Chaudhary Bahadar Singh donated 100 Bighas from his land-holding to ‘brahmin’ families of the village as ‘Daan’ (charity) for enabling them to well settle in Mehandipur village. In addition, 700 Bighas were distributed as a gift to his seven nephews, sons of his younger brother Chaudhary Thana Ram. Ultimately, his own son Chaudhary Turti Ram was left with only 100 Bighas of land with him. This land size was passed on to his son Chaudhary Sada Ram to Chaudhary Rampat and finally to Dada Roop Chand.
Dada Roop Chand worked hard and established himself as a prosperous farmer who was also a philanthropist known for helping generously to the less fortunate villagers. He increased earnings by increasing crop yield and also through sale of grains purchased at the time of harvesting season and selling at higher rates but not at exorbitant price. This was taught by his teacher Lala Ghisa Ram, who always used to say that “Sawaya Dhan”[1] i.e. 25% profit was always more long lasting than 3-4 times profit. So he could increase his land-holding from his savings and bought 100 Bighas from the family-members of Chaudhary Thana Ram, who were disposing their land besides 50 Bighas purchased from the farmers of the adjoining village, Dabodha-Khurd. Thus, he owned 250 Bighas land making the family’s holding the largest again in the village.
The Presenter’s Great grandfather Chaudhary Rampat built the first ‘pucca’ (permanent) ‘haveli’ around in the year 1865, which was the only pucca-house in the village. The house was named by him after his son Roop Chand and was popularly known as ‘Roop Chand ki Haveli’ in the village. As soon as the field operations were fully taken over by Dada Roop Chand, Chaudhary Rampat left farming and started devoting rest of his life-time for performing social work. After Dada Roop Chand, this haveli in the division of property between his sons was passed on to his two sons Hardwari Lal and Jai Lal. So now all the sons and daughters of these two brothers are the owner this haveli being used for a good cause to serve villagers particularly the women folk. In this haveli, “Dada Roop Chand Read India Gyan Kendra” has been started for learning skills of various house-hold activities. This Kendra organises short-term trainings for women-empowerment on house-hold based activities such as stitching, embroidery, beauty-parlor, computer, processing of nutritious food etc. As most of the activities are for women who are hesitant to move out-side the village, the nearby villages are also covered under off-campus need based trainings through specialized trainers. In addition, these training courses are helping and empowering women-folk to enhance their family income and self-employment.
In fact, chacha Jai Lal on various occasions and especially during his visit to the house of the Presenter, while attending meetings at Delhi used to discuss about opening a Library in the haveli and we had started preparing papers to create a Trust. This dream remained unfinished which was fulfilled by his son Ranjiv, who took up this task and arranged foreign/inland funding from different sources to create “Dada Roop Chand Read India Gyan Kendra”. Since this task involved multifarious activities and physical support at the ground level, the sons and grandsons of bhai Ram Singh who are stationed in the village provided all possible support in remodeling the haveli and establishment of this center. Apart from this, the family members of Chaudhary Thana Ram, the other family-lineage of our parivaar and all the villagers provided moral support and cooperation for the creation of this Kendra as a unique landmark in the name of our Great Dada Roop Chand Dalal. This also had the blessings our elderly villagers and support of the youth from our village to create a memorable institution. The future generation of the village will remember the real desire of our Dada, who was a preacher of educating the children particularly the girls, which is the main activity of Kendra, for women empowerment.
The father of Dada Roop Chand built a number of ‘Piaos’ (road-side drinking water facilities for travellers) of which one still existing on Badli-Mandhothi road. This ‘Piao’ is on road side built on the land donated by a family of adjoining village Silothi for a good cause to serve humanity. Great grandfather (Pad-dada) Chaudhary Rampat used to visit to this ‘Piao’ very often for offering drinking water himself for some time to the tired travellers where they could also take rest in adjoining in-built area. Although now this non-functional but the concrete structure and a small water-well (Kui) can be seen even today, which is located on the adjoining area of our lands. On this hut, there is an engraved stone also that this was built by Jat Rampat of Village Mahandipur Dabodha for his son Roop Chand. Pad-dada Rampat dedicated his last life-period to help and serve the needy people of the society.
Dada Roop Chand was a progressive farmer and well known person for his helping nature particularly the small and marginal farmers of the village. At the same time, he was also very fore-sighted person and very much concerned for the future of his children as the family-size was growing. So he purchased 3 Bighas of land in vicinity of ‘haveli’ during 1928-29 and built a huge complex for his children covered with a very thick strong boundary-wall of about 12 feet in height. This place was also called ‘Nauhara’ like a ‘Chaupal’ where men-folk could gather to discuss common issues in the interest of the village and visitors could also comfortably relax, enjoy hooka and stay.
After Dada Roop Chand, his sons divided the agricultural land, buildings and other assets. However, as narrated by bhai Ram Singh about his sordid-past that when he shifted in the village to start farming, no built-up area was allotted to him as a share in the name of his father to live with his family in spite of interventions by Ch. Hardwari Lal, who was upset due to service issues and left for his work place and the decision was taken in his absence. Ultimately, he had no other option but to build his own house in the vacant area provided to him in-side the campus of boundary-wall built by Dada Roop Chand. So at present his built up area is also there in the campus of Dada Roop Chand and one of the houses owned by Tau Kanhaya has been purchased for one of his son.
See the destiny and His decision, today those who considered bhai Ram Singh as interference and deprived him of his right of equal-share in built up property of Dada Roop Chand none of them or their next generation are there in the village. It is only bhai Ram Singh with assistance of his sons who is managing most of collective family lands, which once belonged to Dada Roop Chand.
[1] 1.25 times value of original money