Last Words of Nehru: 'What is the matter ?'

I attended Jawahar Lal Nehru's funeral on May 28, 1964. Recollections are faint. I travelled 6 hours or more, from North down, by rail, standing or sitting, no idea ! Ticketing had been waived off, India over, I'm sure. It was an overnight journey. With whom – I can't recall: a friend, of course, whose name I forget; even his face.

A kin joined us in Delhi. He had a friend, too. We left our lodge early. I recollect, we had hitched a ride, for free, on a pony cart. The farthest we four could reach was the Ring Road. We stood atop an unjoined; unlaid concrete sewer, somewhere opposite where Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium stands today. It was in the wild.

How I bore the scorcher of May 28 Sun, I don't know ? Could we quench our thirst, this too I don't know ! Nor do I know, if we got to munch snacks. Vendors weren't selling wares. Crowds were swarming. The stream seemed to swell by the minute, heading for the hallowed 'site' which was to be later baptized the 'Shanti Vana'.         

The cortege was on its way. It came in sight, late afternoon. From beneath the tricolour, gleamed a face, still and serene, and aptly a 'Kashmiri' Pink. A day earlier, Jawahar Lal Nehru had met his Maker. Today, by consecrated fire and sandalwood, a grandson, Sanjay, 18, was to 'transmigrate' the soul of the Maker of India, 74 !

I never came to pen my eye witness account. However, 20 years later in 1984, I reported on the cortege of Mrs Indira Gandhi, rather quiet, as riots had preceded it. It were as if a community in gloom was islanded in a country in gloom. (In 1980, Sanjay Gandhi's cortege had a combo of detractors and the dedicated).

Forty seven years after Nehru died, I thought: be done with the story – not a prosaic presentation but with a never-too-late-to hunt, what his last words were ? Two accounts emerged: First, Nothing ! Second, 'What is the Matter ?' Dr Bedi, the in-house physician at Teen Murti after Jawahar Lal Nehru's stroke on January 8, is dead.

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