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Li Peng to meet with Dr Kotnis's family

Syed Firdaus Ashraf in Bombay

Opposite the Kennedy Bridge in south Bombay is Model House. Unknown to the thousands of people who pass the building every day live Leelavati Palekar, 83; 80-year-old Manorama and 73-year-old Dr Vatsala Kotnis.

Chinese leader Li Peng rescued the sisters from obscurity when he asked to meet them on Wednesday morning. The chairman of China's National Assembly is on a week-long visit to India.

Why would Li -- the adopted son of the late Chinese premier Zhou En Lai and a former prime minister himself -- want to meet the three sisters? Because their brother is Dr Dwarkanath Kotnis, immortalised by V Shantaram's classic film, Dr Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani. The same Dr Kotnis who died thousands of miles away from home in distant China, and remains a symbol of the Sino-Indian relationship in good times and bad.

"We are very excited and feel very honoured. We are one of the few people whom Li Peng is meeting in Bombay," says Manorama Kotnis.

"The younger generation in our country do not even know who Dr Kotnis was. In China my brother's name is very familiar; the younger Chinese generation still respect him," adds Dr Vatsala Kotnis.

In 1937, when Japan invaded China, General Chu Teh asked Jawaharlal Nehru to send Indian doctors to China. Five doctors embarked on the 'Indian Medical Aid Mission to China.' Four of them returned; Dwarkanath Kotnis died in China in 1942.

"I was in my teens when my brother left for China to help them on humanitarian grounds when they were attacked by the Japanese. We did not know then that he would not return," recalls Manorama Kotnis.

Their home has a bust of their brother; a photograph hangs on the wall reminding a visitor of the turbulent times when their brother lost his life helping the Chinese against the Japanese invasion.

"Our father died four months after my brother left for China. But my brother refused to return on hearing the news because he had gone with a mission to serve humanity," adds Dr Vatsala Kotnis.

Dr Kotnis married Kuo Ching-lan, a Chinese woman, and had a son, Ing Hwa (Ing=India; Hwa= China).

Are the sisters in touch with Kuo?

"Very much," says Manorama Kotnis. "We correspond with her. In January 1999 she came to Bombay and stayed with us."

Kuo first came to India in 1959 with Ing Hwa, then 16 years old. Ing died in 1967; he was just 24. Kuo married again and now lives near Dalian in northeast China with her son and his family. She was an honoured guest at the banquet Dalian Mayor Bo Xilai hosted for President K R Narayanan last June.

"When Kuo went to Sholapur, she was in tears. My brother had told her about our village," recalls Dr Vatsala Kotnis.

Dr Kotnis had two brothers and five sisters. A brother and sister are dead. But Li will meet the second generation on Wednesday as well. "We forwarded 19 names to them and Li Peng will meet us at 11 am. We have been requested to reach the Taj half an hour earlier, considering the security aspect," says Dr Vatsala Kotnis.

"The Indian government, especially the Congress, never bothered to acknowledge that our brother left for China on Pandit Nehru's call. They did not acknowledge his sacrifice," complains Manorama Kotnis.

"The Chinese remember him and have regular functions in his memory. In our country, we do not think of doing such things. When Zhou En Lai came to Bombay in the 1950s, he too met us. Nobody in India is bothered," adds Dr Vatsala Kotnis. Adds Manorama Kotnis: "When (Chinese President) Jiang Zemin came to Delhi in 1996, he sent us a flower vase to pay his respects to our family."

The Chinese released a postal stamp in Dr Kotnis's honour in 1992; the Indian government followed suit three years later.

What will they give Li Peng? "A table cloth for him and his wife," says Dr Vatsala Kotnis. "From Sholapur, from where our brother left for China to serve them in the war."

Photographs: Jewella C Miranda

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