Shri Nathji was the
most affectionate father to His sons. He gave them the best of education, the
best of toys and the best of everything this world has to offer. He and Maha
Mateshwariji, made tremendous self sacrifice for their sons. HH Pran Nathji and
HH Priya Nathji has the most expensive toys and the latest gadgets and gizmos
to play with, which even the millionaires of the world were not able to source
for their children. Following are some of the notable toys in their inventory -
Kiddie Cars
Pran Nathji and Priya
Nathji fancied the Kiddie cars at Shri Nathji’s devotee Brij Bala home. Brij brought
two brand new kiddie cars that thrilled Pran Nath and Priya Nath. Even as Shri
Nathji spoke to Brij and gave her his blessings, the children drove around in
the drawing room merrily on the kiddie cars.
They played with the
cars in Mussoorie. Their driver Victor would be seen at Jhoola Ghar, squeezing
himself awkwardly into the kiddie cars of the boys, and riding down the slope in
them.
In Calcutta, the
children spotted some very fancy kiddie cars in a shop. The cars were very
expensive, and were made in England. They were small models of the Wollesley
Cars in England. Shri Nathji was never one to break the children’s heart and He,
therefore forthwith purchased two cars for the boys, which were later, brought
to Delhi by train. Shri Nathji would later recollect the Calcutta trip for the excellent
cars he had found there for the children.
Later in Mumbai Shri
Nathji purchased two Jeep Kiddie cars from Thackers for the children to add to
their increasing inventory of toys. These kiddie cars were later taken to Mussoorie
and kept there along with the earlier Vauxhalls, and Wolseley kiddie cars.
Bayko and Meccano
Shri Nathji purchased
Bayko building sets for Priya Nath who seemed attracted towards architecture at
the time, and Meccano construction sets for Pran Nath whose interest clearly
lay in electrical and mechanical engineering. These were expensive toys meant
for intelligent boys, and Shri Nathji continued to purchase them for the
children all through his stay at Delhi.
Bayko was an English
building model construction toy invented by Charles Plimpton, an early plastics
engineer and entrepreneur in Liverpool. First marketed in Britain it was soon
exported throughout the British Commonwealth and became a worldwide brand between
1934 and 1967. The name derived from Bakelite, one of the world's first
commercial plastics that was originally
used to manufacture many of the parts. Bayko was one of the world's earliest
plastic toys to be marketed. Bayko was primarily intended for the construction
of model buildings.
Meccano is a model
construction system comprising re-usable metal strips, plates, angle girders,
wheels, axles and gears, with nuts and bolts to connect the pieces. It enables
the building of working models and mechanical devices. Meccano was invented in
1901 in England by Frank Hornby and manufactured by the British company,
Meccano Ltd, between 1908 and 1980.
Ram Gopal Mehra’s son
Lalit was surprised to see the expensive Bayko and Meccano building sets with
Shri Priya Nathji and Shri Pran Nathji. Even his millionaire father has not
purchased these for him.
8 mm movie camera and
projector.
During their stay in
Bombay in the winter of 1955, Shri Nathji devoted his time to the boys, who were
anxiously seeking a small 8 mm movie camera and projector. Shri Nathji searched
all over Bombay, going to various shops in the city to get what theboys wanted.
Ultimately the search for the boys’ projector was successful as Shri Nathji
found the required 8 mm movie projector in a small shop dealing with Kodak
goods. Shri Nathji purchased a silent 8 mm Kodak projector as well, along with
the movie camera for the children. The shopkeeper, who sold the 8 mm movie
camera and projector, was so overcome with devotion for Shri Nathji that he
said to the boys: "Use the camera to make movies of your father. There is
no one like him in the whole world. Preserve his image on the film; do not use
the camera for your own frolicking. “Javaani ki masti men naa camera zaayaa karnaa.”
It was only 23rd
of June 1962 when Shri Nathji gave a powerful lecture at the Rialto that HH Priya
Nathji made an attempt to film the occasion
with his 8 mm camera, which had till that time been used in juvenile pursuits.
Shri Nathji had purchased the camera for the amusement and entertainment of His
sons.
Wire Recorder
Shri Nathji had
discovered a Wire Recorder that was displayed in a shop at Mussoorie, and had
told the boys about it. This was the first recording machine ever invented
which was to be a precursor of the tape recorders to follow. The recording of
the voice was done on a wire as thin as an electrical fuse, several meters of which
was wrapped around on a small disc that was played on the wire recorder. There
was a microphone as well as an attached loudspeaker in the system so that a
person could record one’s voice and also listen to it. The shopkeeper knew Shri
Nathji would be interested in it because he had heard Shri Nathji speak so often
at the Majestic and Rialto Theatres at Mussoorie. The shopkeeper gave the wire
recorder to Shri Nathji and asked him to try it out at home before deciding on
whether to buy it or not. He knew that Shri Nathji never returned anything that
he took, and that the bargain was as good as sealed once the machine had been
taken home by Shri Nathji. The boys were very excited about the machine. Pran
Nath learnt the intricacies of running it and very soon they were recording their
voices and listening to them with great fascination. It was the first time in their
lives that they had ever had their voices recorded. Shri Nathji was so happy at
seeing how much Pran Nath and Priya Nath liked the machine that he decided to
buy it for their sake. There was a shortage of money in the house at that time
as Shri Nathji had just then made heavy payments to a lot of people. The
shopkeeper who had given the wire recorder was anxious that the payment be made
early. He had reposed absolute confidence in Shri Nathji by giving him the wire
recorder for use at home. Therefore Shri Nathji wished to pay for the machine
at once. And so Shri Nathji mortgaged Mateshwari’s bangles and obtained the amount
of sixteen hundred rupees for the purchase of the wire recorder. It was the one
and only time in his life that he ever had to mortgage Mateshwari’s jewellery.
He redeemed it soon after, before he left Mussoorie. Shri Nathji recorded but
one speech on the wire recorder, while the children used it for their plays in
English and generally had fun with the machine, which was what Shri Nathji had
wished for in the first place. The incident showed the great self-sacrificing nature
of Shri Nathji for the sake of the children.
Wire recording is a
type of analog audio storage in which a magnetic recording is made on thin
steel or stainless steel wire. The wire is pulled rapidly across a recording
head which magnetizes each point along the wire in accordance with the
intensity and polarity of the electrical audio signal being supplied to the
recording head at that instant. By later drawing the wire across the same or a
similar head while the head is not being supplied with an electrical signal,
the varying magnetic field presented by the passing wire induces a similarly
varying electric current in the head, recreating the original signal at a
reduced level.
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