Dadi Rukmani Devi, the gracious wife of Dada Roop Chand belonged to a respectable and prosperous family of Yacoobpur near Badali village of tehsil Jhajjar in district Rohtak. She was of Gulia Gotra. Although she was illiterate, yet a very intelligent lady with superb common sense, good habits, good physique and robust health. She was very well-versed both in domestic affairs and agricultural field operations. Besides, good cooking, she knew sewing of clothes, making mats and mudhas[1] of sarkanda[2] and munj baan[3], making toys, dolls, charpoys[4], earthen chulas[5] and kothas[6] (for storing grains). Above all, she used to prepare several types of eye ointments from local herbs, etc. which she would apply for eye ointment for treatment of tiny tots and babies in-arms not only of our village but also of the surrounding localities. Thus, she became very popular and well known for her generosity in the area. Dadi Rukmani Devi was blessed with seven sons and one daughter. Unfortunately, she lost two of her sons in their young age. Later on, one more son Banwari Lal died at the age of 25 years due to cholera. Although this was a great shock to her, yet she withstood it with boldness and remarkable courage.
Besides being very homely and well versed in domestic affairs, she possessed a tremendous capacity and technique of performing farm work. She was very hardy, tireless and fastest at work. Besides having unlimited capacity to do hard work, she was very knowledgeable and conversant with every detail of farming techniques. She was blessed and born with a very amicable and cooperative nature. On the top of it, she was a dependable advisor to her husband Dada Roop Chand. In fact, she was a good companion and an asset to him. It was an ideal couple in all respects. She was a wise house lady and loving mother. However, she was very strict in dealing with her children. She did not believe in over-eating, especially, fatty eatables and felt much contented without them. Partly, this was her reaction to excessive feeding of nutritious foods to the children by their grandmother. Naturally this made them favourite of their grandmother, of course, at the displeasure of their mother. This type of healthy controversy was a frequent feature in the house. Otherwise, mother was very respectful and obedient to grandmother and there was never any quarrel or hot discussion on any occasion between them. They lived with great peace of mind and their mutual trust and harmonious life was an example in the village.
Dadi Rukmani Devi loved all her sons and the only daughter very much. She was very particular in imparting training to them with minute details and would observe that nothing was overlooked. She was more inclined towards her daughter Hardeyee and her youngest son Jai Lal, which is a natural maternal instinct. Dadi Rukmani Devi had a balance mind and attractive personality. She was intensely humane and nice in social behaviour. The robust optimism was a part of her strong mental power. Her quite cheerfulness arising from a consciousness of any work well done was her noble quality. She was a sober thinker with a clear vision and grasp of facts.
She was a woman of great confidence with our great grandfather. Unlike, most other ladies, she would desist from indulging in gossips and go to bed early and rise very early in the morning. After grinding 20 seers of grains, she would bring two pitchers of water from the village well, broom the dwellings, carry and throw cow dung in the manure pit and then cook morning meal for our Dada, great grandfather & permanent labourers and carry it to the field. This amply shows that she was exceedingly fast in carrying out her normal everyday chores. In certain field operations like, hoeing with Kasola[7] and harvesting of crops, she surpassed even the faster male workers of the village and defeated them quite often. She was also an artist and made very beautiful toys and articles of daily use. This trait of hers was largely inherited by most of her children, especially, Tau Hari Ram who made a land-mark in this field.
She was exemplary hard working and with extraordinary strong will power. This can be visualized from the fact that she delivered eight children without any trouble and would stay as Jachcha[8] not more than a week under any circumstances. It would be unbelievable and surprising to know that while in an advanced stage of pregnancy, one day she was hoeing with Kasola in bajra crop field about a mile away from the village, when labour pains started. She informed quietly to our great grandfather who was a very hard task master and left for home. No sooner did she reach there, she delivered a son. It was Janmashtami day and therefore he was named Kanhaya. Such was our Dadi from whom al her children and we all cousin brothers and sisters inherited the par excellence qualities of head and heart.
She died at the age of about 87 years suffering from diarrhea which lasted for a few days. She knew that her end was very near which was expressed by her in the presence of her son Hardwari Lal. So my father used to visit her every week end for about a month or so carrying medicines and fruits for her. She was very happy and satisfied with the care being taken during the time of her last days of old age. Unfortunately, the day she took her last breath, my father was not with her though the medicines and fruits brought earlier by him were of no use as she was no more. He kept remembering her and regretting his absence later in his life span.
[1] Sitting chair / stool made up of local raw material of Sarkandas (Saccharum species)
[2] Plant used for making various items like rassi
[3] Rassi made up of sarkanda skin
[4] Cot
[5] Burners
[6] Small room for storing grains
[7] Farm tool used for hoeing operation in the fields
[8] Mother of a newly born baby