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Kanpur: 'Vijay vishwa tiranga pyara, jhanda uncha rahe hamara...' Everyone sings this patriotic song on Independence Day and Republic Day, but not everyone knows that this famous song was written by Shyamlal Parashad, who hailed from Kanpur. Parashad wrote this song in 1924.
When the song was composed, Kalika Prasad Suman, the manager of Khanna Press, published 5,000 copies of it. "The song's popularity could be gauged from the fact that among several other patriotic songs written in those times, it was honoured with the title of 'Jhanda Geet'," says Sanjay Gupta, grandson of Parashad.
The 'Jhanda Geet' got the recognition the same year from the 'Akhil Bharatiya Congress Committee'. As you walk through the meandering Jagannath street in General Ganj, the chances are that you would pass by the house number 48/63 without noticing it. This is the house where Parashad lived. Today, it's just another old structure adding up to a congested mass of concrete.
But once, it used to be the meeting place of famous freedom fighters like Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi and Sohan Lal Dwivedi. Today, Parashad's three grandsons live here with their mother, wives and children.
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