13
RadeshyamDye Master’s
Memoirs
“In the seventies, Ganesh and I became a
little more religious and began to go on
pilgrimages. We started visiting the local
temples and holy men along the Narmada
river. There were no motorbikes then, not even
bicycles, so we walked.
Around the same time we both became
involved with REHWA and our lives changed
completely. We were very busy and had very
little time. Ganesh continued his visits to his
guru, Chandrama Das, but he had to give up
playing in the
Bhajan Mandli
with Mohan.
We carried on like that till today. All of us loved
films: Ganesh loved old Hindi films and we
often gathered at his house to watch movies,
laugh and have a good time. Sometimes we
went on pilgrimages with our wives, once
we went right up to the Himalayas. Ganesh
visited almost every holy place he wished to
before he left us. He even managed building a
beautiful temple in Maheshwar. His last words
were the name of his guru.
Life is very different now, without him.”
Mohan Tailor’s Remembrance
“Ganesh’s family was very poor and there were many children,
so his mother learnt weaving to support them. She wove for a
master weaver and sometimes there was a little bit of yarn left
from what she was issued to weave. She secretly saved that
yarn and, little by little, had enough to weave herself a saree
to wear.
I never liked weaving myself because the Master Weavers of
those days were unkind to us; so I became a tailor. But Ganesh
and I were in school together and our homes were close by,
with only the temple in between. Also nearby lived Radeshyam,
who became the dye master for many years at REHWA.
We all used to swim in the Narmada river together.
I studied till the sixth standard; but Ganesh dropped out in the
fifth standard to help support his family by weaving.”
