Every morning and evening a large number of people from Kachriawas village, which has a population of about 1000 people, would assemble in the local Manokamana Purteshwar temple of Lord Shiva to pray for making Shri Bhairon Singh Shekhawat the next President of the country.
At the other end of the village Muslims after offering namaz on Friday would seek the blessings from Allah to see him on the top constitutional post of the country. In this village Shri Shekhawat is loved by everyone.
This is the ancestral village of Shri Shekhawat, where his elders served as Thikanedar (chieftain) during pre-Independence era. Though brought up in a feudalistic atmosphere from the school days he preferred to behave like a commoner. His childhood friend Noor Mangniar has many sweet memories of teen age.
?Ek bar khelte khelte mein gaon ke sukhe kuen me gir gaya. Bhairoon (Bhairon Singh Shekhawat) ne doston ke sath mil kar mujhe kuen se nikala. Baat yaheen tak nahi rukee, vah mujhe apne sath haveli mein le gaya aur mujhe vaheen rakha. Us samay aisa karne kee na to koi soch sakata tha aur na hee koi himmat kar sakata thaa? (Once playing, I fell into a dry well of the village. Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, along with his friends there organised a rescue operation and got me out of the well. He did not stop there only, he took me to his haveli and kept with him for some time. During those days no one could think or have the courage to do so), says Noor Mangniar, who is almost of the age of Shri Shekhawat, affectionately called here as Babo Sa (grandpa).
Though Shri Shekhawat had hardly contested any election from this area, his ties with the village, for a matter of fact the entire Shekhwati region, had always remained very close and strong. He would not miss any occasion to come here and make sure to meet all the old friends.
As Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, then as Chief Minister and now as Vice President, he had told his staff that if anyone from this village or from Shekhawati region comes to meet him, he or she should be brought to him straight away. With his sharp memory, he would inquire from those visitors about their children and even grand children. ?Ve intne unche paddon par pahunch kar bhee hamare sath aise vayavhar karate hein jaise ve bilkul sadharan adami hee hon? (Despite having occupied many top posts, he behaves with us as commoner), says Sultan Singh Shekhawat, his cousin.
The village has three big havelis and all of them belong to Shekhawat families. Sultan Singh Shekhawat has named this part of the village as local Civil Lines and would compare it with Civil Lines at Jaipur, where his cousin had lived as Chief Minister of the state.
One remarkable quality of Shri Shekhawat, which both his friends and foes admire, is that he has no lust for money. According to his another cousin Sharvan Singh Shekhawat, long before he was owning about nine acre prime land in Jaipur, but he surrendered it to the Government. Again at the time of marriage of his only daughter Ratan Kanwar, he received costly gifts and cash as shagun. But soon after the wedding ceremony, he decided to accept the shagun only from the family members and close relatives. He returned all the other costly gifts and shagun money by saying that he was not a rich man and could not reciprocate the big shagun money and gifts at the time of marriages in their families.
On his part Shri Shekhawat maintained that long before an astrologer had told him that throughout his life he would stay in a government bungalow. ?Isliye maine kabhee apna makan banane kee jaroorat hee nahin mahsoos kee? (So, I never felt the need to have my own house), once he told this correspondent.
A few years back he donated a piece of agriculture land, adjutant to the haveli, to build a temple there. He also generously contributed for the construction of the temple. This very temple of the village has now become the rallying point for the residents, who had twice organised the sahsarghatabhishek of the Shivling to fulfill their wish to see Shri Shekhawat as the next President of the country.
