Punjab: A watch, running shoes and the end of a marathon

Punjab: Fauja Singh always understood the value of time, not just as a marathon runner who defied age, but also as a human being who cherished every moment. A day before his demise, 114-year-old Fauja Singh showed his beloved Rado watch to his youngest son Harvinder Singh with a serene smile. The next day, after Fauja Singh’s sudden death, the doctor placed the same watch in Harvinder’s hands. Overwhelmed with grief, he broke down. “I never imagined that the watch he had shown me with so much love would be the last time I would see him like this,” he said in a trembling voice. Fauja Singh died in a fatal road accident in Beas village in Jalandhar on Monday. His sudden death has shattered the family. “If he had died naturally or after an illness, maybe we would have found some peace. But his life was taken by someone else and this is something we cannot accept,” shared an inconsolable Harvinder. Fauja Singh lived with Harvinder, daughter-in-law Bhanjit Kaur and a granddaughter. His elder son and two daughters live abroad, while another son and daughter passed away several years ago.

Despite his age, Fauja Singh had a great sense of style. “He loved branded things. Shoes, clothes and even his socks matched his outfit,” Harvinder recalled with a smile. A close friend of the family, Balbir Singh, visited Fauja Singh daily. He was the first to seek him out after the accident. “He was conscious but in a lot of pain. He was trying to say something but I couldn’t understand what it was. I will always remember him as a friendly, funny and kind person,” Balbir told The Tribune. Bhanjit Kaur said her father-in-law avoided doctors because he did not like medicines and injections. He said, “Even when he was sick, he would recover on his own. We never thought he would leave us like this, badly injured and forced to undergo painful treatment in the hospital.” When The Tribune visited Fauja Singh’s house, mangoes were scattered in the courtyard. The house, which once resonated with his voice singing Gurdas Maan’s “Umra cha ki rakhiya, dil hona chahida jawan” and “Baike dekh jawana Babe bhangra pande ne”, was now silent. Harvinder smiled through tears, recalling his father’s peculiar habits. “He would eat 8-10 mangoes at a time. No one could stop him. And not a day would go by without his ‘alsi ki pinni’. Those little joys are no longer with him.”