It was a summer of the very late 50's when we shifted to Delhi from Bangalore. By the way my father was in the Indian Army and we were posted in Bangalore for almost 5 years. Looking back; Yes, my Bangalore days were truly golden . I still remember how I cried and cried in the Shaktimaan while we were travelling to the City station, Bangalore. I have never cried like then while leaving any city.We have been posted to Allahabad and Calcutta previously but Bangalore was different Gone are those days so let us move on.
After a long journey of 52 hrs in the Grand Trunk Express we reached Delhi on a hot sultry afternoon in July. . It was on our way from the New Delhi Station to the Cantonment in Shaktimaan truck that I saw the PARLIAMENT HOUSE for the first time , I was truly proud of the Edwin Lutyens, the architect of Delhi Those were the real days... my friend. Now it is more than 60 years and Delhi has changed beyond identity. Is it for good ,bad or ugly is a discussion that will never end. So, let me leave it at that and move ahead..
My first year at the Army children school was fun filled, I used to cycle away in the afternoons to the ridge to pick up berries This is the same ridge where now stands the Defense Officers Club and a magnificent Golf course, While in Cantonment we were staying in a spacious Army Qrs with a large kitchen garden and a huge compound Global warming was an unheard concept. I remember covering myself in razai while I went to the nearby ground to watch Ram Lilla and this was around September.
My Father after a year was posted to Gaza Strip (Egypt) on a UN deployment.His stay there was for nearly two years and since 56 APO was not a family station we continued to stay in the Army Qrs. I was a little over 11 years old and the youngest of the four siblings. I remained totally a pampered and spoilt by my three sisters and of course by my Mom.
Every Sunday, I would go cycling to Palam Airport. Airport in Delhi those days was a small affair. Truly Delhi was then nothing more than an Urban village. On three different occasions I had the opportunity to see the then P.M. Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru alighting from the Dakota. Well, that was Delhi calm, chirpy and safe.
Once on a wintry evening, on our way back from school my sister and I picked up a puppy from the hedges. We called it Rookee, a name suggested by my father in his letter addressed to me while he was in Egypt.My father used to send all the four of us letters from Egypt almost everyday. I wonder how he had stuff enough to write on something or other almost on a daily bases to all his children. Reply to my letters mostly came back to me in an envelope with loads of corrections in red ink. Letter writing indeed helped us all to put pen to paper and indeed made us our day .
After his return from Egypt he was posted to Alwar ,a small town in Rajasthan. Alwar was a peace center, hence we had to surrender our Quarter and find a suitable accommodation in civil area. Since all of us siblings where growing up my father decided to not to take his family to Alwar. We continued to stay back in Delhi. During our civilian days we almost saw the entire of West and New Delhi by staying in different colonies like Gole Market and Inderpuri. Finally my father was posted to Army HQ in Delhi
Almost a year before his retirement we got an Army qrs in Sector 2 RK Puram. It was here my eldest sister got married. We then shifted to South Extension and gradually my other two sisters got married and I got graduated from one of those notorious colleges of Delhi called DAYAL SINGH .Subsequently I got a job and we ie me and parents moved to Lajpat Nagar. Life indeed kept us moving from one place to other in Delhi and in the process we were eye witness to fast changing Delhi Delhi Today is far away from what it was. But for me it is still Delhi that I love the most. Like numerous speed breakers on Delhi roads, politics of this city is also ever jerking. Is this good bad or otherwise is a never ending discussion so let us keep it for some other day.
Comments