From the autobiography: ‘Narmad’, a pioneer of modern Gujarati literature, recounts his childhood
My birth was a painful one for my mother (Navdurga, called Nani by most and Rukmani Vahu by her in-laws). At the time of birth, my head was rather long and my appearance rather strange (of course, now my head has acquired its normal roundish shape). In six months, I had learnt to crawl on my knees.
About ten months or so after my birth, my mother and I, accompanied by my mother’s uncle Dullabhram, went to Bombay, where my father was stationed. I learnt to speak at the age of two. Until then, I could eat no solids and survived on milk and mashed food.
When the Great Fire occurred in Samvat 1893, I was in Bombay. I remember rather distinctly that I was playing in the drawing room of our home in Bhagwan Kala building when one of our neighbours, a Vaniya named Dayaram Bhukhan, came rushing in at about noon. He seemed greatly agitated. “All of Surat has burnt down,” he exclaimed. Hearing him, the women tenants in the building who came from Surat (the men, naturally, were at work) were stunned into silence. Those words, “All of Surat has burnt down”, still ring in my ears.
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