Growing up in CP - Lalit Narula

Growing up in CP

LALIT NIRULA


Dilliwallahs was a term used for people whose families had been living in Old Delhi – or Purani Dilli – for generations. My family migrated to Delhi in the 1920s and settled in a brand new, still-under-construction, 20,000 inhabitant-strong, New Delhi. And that, I guess, would technically make us Nai Dilliwalas! My folks were one of the few Punjabi families who lived in Delhi in the ’20s and I, the Nai Dilliwala or CP wallah, was born at Lady Hardinge Hospital, just a stone’s throw from Connaught Place. The first four years of my life were spent at Hanuman Road, right next to CP and from then on, for the next 58 years, I lived and worked in CP.

My father remembered seeing a train track passing through the not-yet-completed Connaught Place complex, en-route to Raisina Hill, carrying building material for the under-construction Rashtrapati Bhavan, North and South Blocks and Parliament House. While the whole complex of the inner and outer circle is popularly known as Connaught Place, or CP, the outer ring of buildings was called Connaught Circus and the inner ring was called Connaught Place. Most of the buildings came up in the ’20s and ’30s and the last buildings to come up were as late as the ’50s.

There was a big divide between the old parts of Delhi and the new, culturally and physically. I remember an aunt telling me how in the late ’20s, she returned to Delhi by train with her brother and got off at the main Delhi station which was in Old Delhi. As her husband lived and worked in New Delhi, she wanted to go there immediately. However, it was winter and dark when she alighted from the train, and she was advised not to venture towards New Delhi until the next morning, as in the area between the walls of Old Delhi (where Asaf Ali Road and Ramlila grounds are now located) and Connaught Place, there was a jungle and it was not safe to travel at night!

CP was not a favoured shopping centre in the early days and there were very few people who wanted to open retail outlets there. While the ground and mezzanine floors were commercial space, the upper floors were residential and till the ’70s, continued to be primarily residential.

My father and uncle were young bachelors running a photo studio in D-Block and, being fond of good food, had to travel to Chandni Chowk or Kashmiri Gate in Old Delhi to get a proper meal. So was born the idea of starting a small hotel with a restaurant on half the upper floor of D-Block so they could be assured of good food! Encouraged by their neighbour, Mr Beaty of S.M.G. Beaty, they opened Hotel India in 1934. Hotel India became popular, as the only other hotel that existed in New Delhi at that time was a luxury hotel, The Imperial. Marina Hotel in G-Block came up a little later.

While CP was still developing, my father and uncle discovered a large ground floor location being used for charpai storage on the corner of L-Block in the outer circle. They negotiated with the four owners and took it on rent and opened a first class restaurant and bar serving continental and Indian food and named it Nirulas Corner House in early 1942.

During the War years, business improved substantially and the restaurant became well-known for its food and entertainment which included cabarets, flamenco dancers, magicians, and performance ballroom dancing. A friend’s father told me that as a young cavalry officer in the early ’40s, posted in Delhi Cantonment during the war, he would motorcycle down to our restaurant once a week to have ‘desi khana’, as all he got in his very pukka British Army Mess was insipid British food!
An Englishman who met me in the ’90s showed me one of our table d’hote menus from the early ’40s that offered two 5 course meals, for two rupees each! His father had picked up the menu when he was posted in India.



Gol Dakhana (GPO), New Delhi.

I remember being told of a legendary gourmand, a very eminent tall and rotund lawyer who was a regular at our restaurant for lunch. He would sit at his favourite table and ask the butler, Jameel, what was being offered. He would select one of the full meals and many times, after finishing it, would proceed to enquire about what else was available as he was still a little hungry. He would then order the second meal and proceed to finish that as well.

Christmas and New Year’s eve were magical times for me. The restaurant would be decorated for the festive season on the evening of 22 December, the eve of my birthday. I would go there on the 23rd and be delighted to see all the decorations which I thought had been done specially for me! Imagine my delight at seeing a sparkly, brightly festooned Connaught Place done up just to wish me a happy birthday.
Besides our establishment, there were two other restaurants in CP by then, both owned and run by foreigners – Davico’s, the present Standard Restaurant in Regal Building and Wengers. In the ’40s and ’50s many more restaurants opened – Kwality, Gaylord, Volga, Alps, United Coffee House, York, and more.

Post 1947, my family realized that with the British leaving, market requirements had changed. They closed down the existing restaurant and in 1950 started three new restaurants in the same space.
The first one was a 150-seat modern cafeteria which catered to the large new middle class, and soon became very popular. It introduced into India – what is now commonplace – clean hygienic food cooked to order in front of the customer, with payment at the end of the cafeteria line. It also introduced the long milk shake spoon which would often be in short supply as it became a great souvenir item!
The second restaurant was a ‘brasserie’ modelled on the ones in France, but the concept was 50 years before its time and not very successful. The third restaurant, the Chinese Room, was the first de luxe Chinese restaurant in India owned by non-Chinese people. It ran successfully for over 55 years.
The Chinese Room’s first chef, Li Wo Po, was introduced to us by the interior designer, Edwin Chan. Li Wo Po had come to India in ’42 with Chiang Kai Shek and decided to stay on. He was very happily married to a South Indian lady. They had an ideal relationship , as he did not speak English or any Indian language and she only spoke her mother tongue! How they communicated remains a mystery.
He came to work wearing a suit, but without a tie and was a great chef in the classical sense of the word. While communicating with him was difficult without an interpreter, he did manage to get his requirements across. I remember being in the office when he arrived all upset about something and started going red in the face as he tried explaining something he wanted and which my father was not able to understand. He then rushed off and returned with an egg which he placed on a chair, half sat on it and then said ‘no no’! It subsequently transpired that for his soup stock, he was getting hens while he wanted old male chickens.

In the ’40s and early ’50s, it was quite common for the well-off to go out for dinner and dance as all restaurants had a live band, many with crooners. As the ’50s and ’60s progressed, this became more and more expensive and by the early ’70s few restaurants had a band.

In 1958, we had opened the first modern fully air conditioned 3-star hotel in India at L-Block, above the restaurant complex. By the late ’50s, my family had seen the trend and in 1960, shut down the cafeteria and brasserie and opened two speciality restaurants without any live music. One was for Indian food and was called Gufa, with the interiors done by a close family friend, the artist, M.R. Acharekar, who had won Filmfare’s best art director award three times. He got his team of set designers from Bombay to do the work, and the restaurant was unique in its presentation. Created like the Ajanta Ellora caves, the entire service was silver and the waiters were dressed in white and red with high pugdees. The restaurant had three different chefs – one for vegetarian cuisine, one for meat, chicken and fish curries, and one for tandoori dishes.
I had by then started working part-time in the restaurants and was present in the office when the meat chef was being interviewed. He was a burly Sikh who had worked with the Maharaja of Patiala and when asked what his food was like, his reply was that it was of such good quality that our customers would taste it in their burp’s 24 hours later! He was hired but his rich food was toned down substantially to meet the digestive requirements of mere mortals.

The second restaurant was called ‘La Boheme’ and was designed by Luc Durant, a Swiss architect based in Delhi. La Boheme was avant garde and set a trend in food, concept and design. It had a wood beamed ceiling with the beams set at different heights. Jute fabric runners in black and white ran over and under these beams and lights in cylindrical lampshades with a switch, hung low over every table. Specializing in Austro-Hungarian cuisine, La Boheme served continental food. It was the first restaurant to serve a large variety of coffee and boasted of the second espresso machine in India, a chrome beauty by Gaggia. Heading the kitchen was the Hungarian Mrs. Messinger, a professional chef who made the best apple strudel I have ever eaten.

The restaurant was a novel concept and became popular with artists and writers and the regular business and shopping crowd who visited CP. It also became a favourite haunt of young couples as at that time there was a dearth of places for the young to hang out. After a few months we had to remove the light switches from the lamps that hung on top of the tables, so that the lights were always on, particularly in the quiet corners that had become very popular with them!
In the ’50s and ’60s, Sunday noon saw the college going trendsetters at jam sessions hosted by restaurants. These sessions served two purposes; first, the crowd got to hang out and meet new people and second, the dancing was considered quite trendy. These were times that saw the birth of the chacha cha and the twist.

Most of the corporate offices in Delhi in the ’50s and ’60s were located either at CP or Asaf Ali Road. It was the done thing among the managerial class, the shop owners and the local politicians to go to a restaurant for a mid-morning and early evening break. In the early 1960s, a very popular large India Coffee House was started by the Coffee Board in the area where the underground Palika parking is today, opening onto the inner circle. It soon became a favourite among politicians, the press and the ‘intellectuals’. When Palika Bazaar was planned in the late ’70s, it was removed to an upper floor of a building on Baba Kharak Singh Marg where it currently languishes.

By the time my generation reached college, we started visiting restaurants to listen to the music, and there were some good bands playing jazz. Of course, we could not afford to eat anything and had to make do with a coffee or a cold drink. As we wanted to spend the maximum time possible in the restaurant, and there were free coffee refills, this was not an issue. However, if one did not like coffee, bottles of coke were ordered and drunk with a paper straw pinched in the middle to reduce the flow of the cola to make it last for at least an hour.



Nirulas Corner House, L-Block, Connaught Circus.

By the mid ’60s, restaurants in CP wised-up to our money saving techniques and put a limit of two cups of coffee per person. They had discovered that even with a full house in the evenings, their sales were minimal and constituted primarily of coke and coffee.
In the early ’70s, with maximum income tax levels being 97.5 per cent along with managerial salary restrictions, the CP restaurants, including ours, found business dwindling. This prompted our experiment in ’71 with a new style of restaurant in CP, where food offered was very reasonably priced, cooked to order and picked up from counters. It had a variety of Indian and Anglo-Indian food items as well as soft drinks, soft ice cream and selected bakery products. It became very popular, with both maharajah’s and taxi drivers visiting it and even ending up sharing tables, where they ate the food standing.

In ’48, our residence moved to D-Block in the inner circle of buildings from Gokul Niwas in M-Block where we had lived for a couple of years. It was one of the few upper floors in CP which had an entrance from the inner circle verandah while most others had their entrance from the back of the building. As our building had only one upper floor, the ceilings were almost 18 feet high and we had internal courtyards for air and light besides a huge 12 foot wide verandah running the full length of the building and facing the park. We slept in it during the summer or on the roof with mosquito netting and it was magical in summer at night watching the stars and seeing the clouds move over the moon. Of course, any rain would cause much scrambling to remove the beds to safety. One of summer’s compensations was the fragrant motia (jasmine) strung into a small mala (necklace), available from the vendors roaming the corridors. Women would wear these malas in their hair or on their wrists. The men would buy them for the women and I would wrap one in a wet handkerchief to keep it fresh, and go to sleep with it next to my pillow.

The road on which D-Block was located abutted the building with a narrow pavement and cars (the few that were there) parked perpendicular to the building. The central park was much larger in those days as it included the area which is now the road, whilst the road was where today’s parking lots are located. During summer, a water tanker with a spray at the back would make a round of the CP roads in the morning, spraying water to keep the dust down. This continued until the ’60s.
The Central Park was divided into four parts with a small circular raised section in the middle like a bandstand where the Police Band would play every Friday. In the ’60s, a fountain was unsuccessfully installed in its place and the pavement surrounding it sometimes had impromptu art shows and other such happenings. This area now houses the metro station.
The park primarily had gulmohar trees and beds of canna lilies while the circumference was lined with jamun trees. As children we would throw stones at the trees to bring the fruit down, albeit unsuccessfully! And during the jamun season, fruit contractors would lay down large sheets onto which they harvested the ripe fruit by vigorously shaking the branches. We played cricket in the park in the 1950s using a gulmohar tree as the wicket. Its end came only recently when the Metro station was built.

I distinctly remember August 1947. We were not allowed to go outside after sundown. Late evenings were pitch dark, the shops were closed and one could clearly hear the sound of sirens. Sleeping on the roof, I remember looking towards Old Delhi and seeing a reddish glow in the sky and being told that there were fires burning in that area.
What I remember most distinctly after that was probably the second half of ’47 and ’48 when the inner circle was more crowded than it had ever been. The verandahs were full of people and walking space was limited as the refugees had opened little stalls with gas lanterns on the covered corridor floor. These people were initially shifted to Irwin Road (Baba Kharak Singh Marg) and Panchkuian Road where they opened kiosks and then some were later shifted to what became Mohan Singh Market. Many other pavement vendors were also shifted to Queensway (Janpath), as well as across the outer circle near Shankar Market, and are still there. Though Oriental Fruit Mart in E-Block was supposed to be the best fruit shop in New Delhi, the new Irwin Road fruit shops, opposite Rivoli cinema, soon became popular as they sold the best in terms of quality and price.

One of the most frequented dhabas in New Delhi in the ’50s and ’60s, Kake da Hotel, opened across the road from our restaurants and continues to be popular. It was then run by two brothers, each one doing either lunch or dinner with their own raw material and freshly cooked meals. Hence the food served was always freshly cooked and not leftover from the previous meal.
We were also taken for dinner to Moti Mahal in Daryaganj by the parents for tandoori food which was still a rare treat in the Delhi of that era. Kundan Lal, the owner of Moti Mahal, introduced Delhi to the delights of tandoori chicken as normally meats were cooked on horizontal skewers on a charcoal grill and the tandoor was used for cooking rotis and naans. I remember him as a large, smiling man with a large moustache, wearing a pathan suit with a pathani topi, who always greeted his regular customers at the entrance. I think he was also the inventor of ‘butter chicken’ which I was told came about when his chicken curry finished and to provide a gravy chicken dish, he took a half-done tandoori chicken, added butter, tomatoes and spices and cooked it in a frying pan. It has now become so popular that it has replaced the traditional chicken curry in popularity and is synonymous with Delhi cuisine!
CP was a very quiet place at night in the ’40s and early ’50s and I remember going for a family picnic in the inner park as it was absolutely deserted by 8 pm. I learned to cycle in the Central Park in the solitude of the early mornings. We often went for picnics to Qutab Minar and Okhla, which really seemed to be in the countryside, a long way away from CP. And the long distance made a visit to them into day trips. The area around Qutab Minar, including Mehrauli, had mango orchards and had some bungalows, and I remember hearing that the ‘Dilliwala Seth’s’ who lived in the walled city, had country homes here to house their mistresses! India Gate lawns with King George V at one end and Rashtrapati Bhavan at the other was also a favourite place in the summer evenings and for lunch during winter months up to the early ’60s as there were few people there. A favourite activity for us kids was rowing at the Boat Club.

I think most people in Delhi do not realize how the city has grown and that too, relatively recently. One day in 1962, my father and chacha brought me to an area full of fields, just beyond Moti Bagh, and showed a hillock they had bought. From the top of the hillock we could see people farming. This entire area now comprises R.K. Puram, Vasant Vihar, Anand Niketan, Shanti Niketan and West End!
Going for a picnic with college friends to Hauz Khas in ’61 is vivid in my memory and the monuments were then surrounded by a forest! I also remember a small village there, with no other habitation.
Very few cars were seen in the late ’40s and ’50s. The public transport system was not able to cope with the population growth post-1947. With the spread of Delhi, most people resorted to travel by bicycle. At 9.30 am, we could see hordes of bicycles interspersed with a few cars in CP. The most unusual bicyclist I saw from our first floor wore a dressing gown and was armed with a toothbrush in one hand. I have still not been able to fathom what this person was up to!
As we lived in D-Block, the Republic Day Parade would pass by on the street in front of us every other year and next to us on alternate years. As a matter of routine, this event would see many people visiting us who discovered that they had not met us for a long time and would, coincidentally, lean over the verandah railings to watch the parade pass by!

My schooling started at the age of four in a tent at Delhi Public School (DPS), a new school started by Reverend J.D. Tytler, a big (to me as a little child), smiling and very red-faced bearded man. It was located in the grounds of Cathedral Church of the Redemption in Church Lane near Rashtrapati Bhavan. DPS then moved to its present Mathura Road location and still operated from tents till I left the school in January 1954 to join a boarding school. Tents made for interesting classrooms and, as children, we did not find them unusual at all. In fact, whenever it rained, I had dreams of using my table as a raft and floating home on it!
Rains were a delightful and exciting time as CP roads were sure to get flooded at least once, with sometimes even the shops getting flooded. The flooding at Minto Bridge was a yearly event. I would look forward to going with someone older after the rain stopped to walk around CP, as water on the roads would be thigh deep for a 11 year old child. Minto Bridge would always be a great place to visit as normally there would be a bus or two roof deep in water! Ah, the excitement of those days!
Connaught Place in the evenings was exotic. There were peacock feather sellers, and people selling caged parrots which were also seen flying around CP in large numbers. Many times the bhaluwallah, the sapera with his ‘been’ and the bandarwallah would be seen on the open pavements and in the park.

The one person I have never forgotten was a dignified elderly white turbaned man who probably moved to Delhi after partition and who would walk with his bicycle in the verandahs of CP selling chooran of two varieties – ‘lakkad hazam’ and ‘patthar hazam’. He would ring his cycle bell to advertise his presence as he walked the corridors. As a child, I did not appreciate the the digestive properties of the choorans, but they were delicious and I would buy a small ‘purria’ for two annas or if we had more money, a small glass vial of chooran.
Edwin Chan lived in CP and was an interior designer who specialized in wood furniture and interiors and as a very young man had worked with his father on the woodwork of the Viceroy’s House (Rashtrapati Bhavan). His passion was to invent and develop a perpetual motion machine and till he died sometime in the early ’90s, when asked how the project was going, he would optimistically proclaim that it was just a step away from completion.
Another interesting and talented individual was Nishi Nakra, whom I got to know in 1960 when he did the music system for our new restaurant, La Boheme. He was a good engineer and passionate about sound. He developed speakers and amplifiers under the brand name, Enbee, in an era when such items could not be imported. Besides being an inventive engineer, he was also a very talented singer and I would often visit him at his shop in Shankar Market which was just a few minutes from my home and office. There one would often meet or see many of the people who were to become well-known in public life and business.
Looking at it today, it may be difficult to believe that CP was a great place to grow up. For a child and a teenager, it had everything. As children, we were sent to the central park every evening where we had a lot of space to run around and play games. There were vendors selling balloons, toys and sweets, ice-lolly chuskis which were made of shaved ice particles fixed on a stick with a choice of lovely coloured syrups poured onto them! Despite the scolding we knew we would get (the water was not ‘safe’), we loved them.

There was also the seller of buddi mai ke baal (candyfloss) who would sell his goods from a glassed in trolley. Delicious aam papad (beaten and dried mango) and soft imli (tamarind) was available at a bania’s shop in the middle circle behind M-Block and was another favourite. The aam papad was sour and leathery in feel but was utterly delicious, especially with a sprinkling of kala namak (black salt). The imli was soft, gooey and sour and much appreciated. When we had saved some money, we would go to J.B. Mangaram on the side of F-Block, facing E-Block, which had a great collection of sweets in glass jars on top of the counters which were the same height as we were.
D-Block, Connaught Place, located in the inner circle was a fascinating place to grow up in. Our neighbours included Odeon cinema, Snowhite dry cleaners, S.M.G. Beaty, Ramchander & Sons and Bata, among other well-known shops of the time.
One of our favourite treats was to go to Bengali Market to Bhim Sain’s shop and stand next to a opening on the side to eat gol gappa’s, except during the monsoon when we were forbidden to have any street food. After Shankar Market came up, the best alu tikki’s were available from a vendor who made them fresh, sitting in the verandah.

From a very young age, Hanuman Mandir was a popular place to go on Tuesdays when there was also a weekly bazaar there. My elder sister would buy bangles and parandis and I would look at the interesting shops and people, including the fortune-teller who used sparrows to select cards which answered your questions. The market had no electric lighting and all the luminescence came from smoky kerosene lamps. It was a magical place with hustle and bustle, lot of colour and textures and glittering products. Another popular place to visit was Jantar Mantar with its astronomy instruments made out of large brick structures set in a park which provided great places for playing hide and seek!
My elder sister and I would visit ‘Panditji’s’ bookshop on Irwin Road in the early ’50s to borrow books. Later on the shop moved to Shankar Market where it still operates from. The rate was four annas a book, returnable in a week! Panditji’s real name was Ram Gopal Sharma and he was a short rotund man who wore a Gandhi topi. He had a quick turn of phrase and would suffer no fools! I continued borrowing books from him till the early ’60s and my younger siblings followed the tradition.
The three main bookshops in CP that I visited were B.D. Galgotia, Rama Krishna and Sons and New Book Depot, located next to each other in B-Block. Rama Krishna had books not only on shelves but in stacks on the floor. It dealt with more serious stuff which at the time I was not interested in. I had little money and preferred the other two shops as I could read their hard bound comics till I was shooed away by the staff. In my college days, I started visiting another interesting bookshop in Shankar Market called Piccadilly which had fascinating books on sociology, religion and spiritual subjects and was, in the late ’60s and ’70s, frequented by hippies who were looking to give a new meaning to their lives.

The best movie halls in Delhi were in CP and the favourite recreational activity of many at a time when there was no TV and very few options for entertainment. There were four movie halls – Odeon (right around the corner from my home), Plaza, Regal and Rivoli. As a teenager, my desired quota was one movie a week and that depended on my pocket money. Tickets ranged from a low 12 annas to a high of three rupees and 12 annas. One of the earliest movies I remember seeing was ‘Bud Abbot and Lou Costello meet Frankenstein’. All I remember of it is that I spent half the time (which was whenever Frankenstein appeared on the screen) hiding my face on the seat!

The best dance schools in New Delhi were in the CP area, including one for ballroom dancing. As a little child, I would reluctantly accompany my sister to her school, Sangeet Bharati on the first floor of G-Block, where she learned kathak and I vividly remember the sound of bells on the anklets of the girls.
There were three well-known shops for haircare in the CP area – Roy and James, Tawar and Susan, and A.N. John & Co. where people got their hair cut in individual cubicles. Tawar, known as ‘Chuttan’ to us, came to our home once a fortnight since the late ’30s. It was only after he died in the 1960s that I started going to a haircutting salon.

The best shops in Delhi were located in the CP area, such as Empire Stores, Hamiltons, Trevelyan and Clark, Enid’s (for western dresses), Cooke and Kelvey, Kanji Mull & Sons, and the two large sports goods shops – Uberoi and Pioneer Sports. Harnarain Gopinath on the side of B-Block sold a large variety of good quality achars (pickles) and morabba’s (preserves). Next to it was Keventer’s which sold sweet bottled milk and other dairy products, including butter. M.R. Stores on the corner of G-Block was an unusual shop as it sold two very different items – hardware and knitting wool.

Shops selling musical instruments were located on the outer circle on G-Block below Marina Hotel as well as on Parliament Street (Godin & Co). The Cottage Industries Emporium opened in a temporary barracks sort of building on Queensway (Janpath) in the early ’50s and became very popular because of its large variety of well-designed and crafted handicrafts and handloom clothing available under one roof for the first time in India. Bata at D-Block and Baluja’s at B-Block were there even when I was a child and that’s where we went to buy shoes almost every year for school. The biggest toy shop in New Delhi, Ram Chander & Sons, was just about 40 feet away from Bata.

By the time the ’50s and ’60s came around, CP was the best commercial and retail centre of Delhi with all the new offices of the multinationals and airlines. Later on, when the new high-rise buildings on the connecting roads like Barakhamba Road and Curzon Road (now Kasturba Gandhi Marg) came up, its position as the commercial centre strengthened. In those days, most senior managers working in the CP area who had personal transport, would generally go back home for lunch and a quick siesta and CP would be empty with no one walking around as all shops closed for lunch.

Walking in Connaught Place recently was a strange feeling as I have rarely visited it after I stopped working there just over five years ago. CP now is so changed from the magical world of my childhood and youth, it is like stepping into unknown territory. Instead of the relaxed shopping centre it was until the ’70s, it has changed as has Delhi. By the 1980s, a large number of multistorey office buildings had come up both on Barakhamba Road and Curzon Road (K.G. Marg) and as life had got more competitive, all shops now remain open in the afternoons. The state emporiums have been given their own section on Baba Kharak Singh Marg (Irwin Road) and are popular with tourists. With the coming of the metro, CP is now charged with a very different energy and like the city of Delhi, not very sure of what the future holds.

Many old restaurants have disappeared, even as more new ones have opened. Most of the movie houses have long gone and the best shops are no longer in CP. The traffic is horrendous as it has become a transit point for people travelling to different parts of Delhi. The metro has also contributed to the crowds and eventually I see CP becoming the biggest and best market for the growing middle class in India, compared to my childhood years when it was the exclusive shopping ground

The article above is written by a person who used to live in CP years ago and describes the life then. Brings back memories. His father owned Nirulas .

Varsha' Travelogue of Purani Dilli

Tomb of Ghazi-Ud-Din (Circa 1710)

I love traveling and in the course of my travels if I can go across centuries then my travel is fructified. Recently I did just that, I boarded  a Metro train to New Delhi in the 21st century and when I got out from gate no 3 facing Kamla Market, I found that I was in the 17th century. Well, as I sat under a tree at 7 in the morning, I felt the cool breeze of the tree and felt that I had somehow got transported back  to the times when Aurangzeb was the Badshah of Shahjahanabad. He had been entrusted with conquest of the South by his father Shahjehan and therefore even after becoming Badshah himself, he spent most of his time in the Deccan-Dakhin-Dakshin. 

I was taking part in a walk where I met unknown people from Delhi as well as from different countries who had got together to learn something about Old Delhi and the crafts and businesses that flourished there in olden times.

AJMERI GATE

Our first stop was the Anglo Arabic School which is situated bang opposite the Ajmeri Gate. Shahjahanabad was established by Shah Jehan the Mughal emperor in 1648 AD. The Red Fort which is at the centre of this new city had a surrounding wall which had 14 gates. Ajmeri Gate is one of the gates that still stands. At one time it stood tall but now looks dwarfed by the many multi storied buildings which have come up around it. This school was located outside the walls of Shahjahanabad.

ANGLO ARABIC COLLEGE

 This School was established by Ghazi-ud-din Khan, Feroze Jung I(1649- 1710), who was Commander and Chief of the Mughal army at the siege of Golconda Fort in 1686 when Aurangzeb conquered the fort and took the last Sultan Abul Hasan Qutab Shah of Golconda prisoner. Ghazi-ud-din was later made Subahdar of Gujarat Province by Bahadur Shah I the next Mughal Emperor after Aurangzeb. When he died in 1710 in Gujarat, his body was brought back to Delhi and buried in the tomb that he had built for himself in the premises of this School. 

TOMB OF GHAZI UD DIN

Ghaziuddin was the father of Asaf Jah who went on to become the First Nizam of Hyderabad and began the Asaf-jahi dynasty of Hyderabad.

In 1790 the school closed down but the affluent people of Shahjahanabad funded the system and in 1792 the Delhi College was started at the same premises teaching literature, science and art. The East India Company became virtual rulers of India in 1757. After establishing themselves politically, in 1828, they turned their attention towards education and in this magnificent building they reorganised it as the Anglo Arabic College. For the first time English language and Literature were introduced in the curriculum of this educational institution. At that time Rev.Jennings started secret Bible classes  at this secular College and in July 1852,  Dr. Chamanlal who was a personal physician of Bahadur Shah Zafar and his friend Master Ramchandra a Lecturer of Mathematics at Delhi College converted and became Christians. Master Ramchandra was the author of "Treatise on problems of Maxima and Minima" which was published at his own cost at Calcutta but later on Augustus De Morgan the famous Mathematician got it re-published in London. Prof Ramchandra taught at Delhi College and then at Thomson Civil Engineering College, Roorkee(IIT Roorkee).

THE COLLEGE

The premises of this college are quite large, there are many rooms on two floors, there is a mosque and the tomb of Ghazi-ud-din on the west of the compound. The tomb is open to the sky but all along it, there are very intricately carved screens.

From this quiet, clean and magnificent educational premises, we stepped out into the crowded area of Ajmeri Gate. This area houses the whole sale market of sanitary ware. From behind GB Road now called Swami Shraddhanand Marg we entered a small gali which was the place where the gwalas or people who supplied milk to Shahjahanabad resided. Today no cattle can be found here as they were removed from the city and re established in Gazipur on the outskirts of Delhi.

 As we moved further on, we entered a street full of small eateries where fresh poories were being fried and served with aloo ki sabzi. The halwa was very sweet but was needed to compensate for the teekhi potato curry. A cup of tea which we got for Rs. 10 was very delicious. This area was basically a Muslim area but the aloo pooriewala was a sole Hindu in that area and his sales were quite good. Further on there was a person frying kachories. One could get 4 kachories for Rs. 10.

FAST FOOD-FRESH FOOD

Further on there was a little corner shop selling chicken biryani and another one selling Nihari. In old Delhi traditionally people would eat aloo poori and jalebi with milk or  halwa with small sooji poories. Fast food, street food, fresh food, you have it all here.

As we moved on we found a tonga stand on the main Hauz Qazi road. There were a few dilapidated tongas with a very thin horse standing in the shed. Once upon a time tongas were the main means of transport for the local people. The tonga would be clean, comfortable and a delight to travel on. The trot of the horse, the fast moving wheels and the tongawalla calling out to the pedestrians to make way, made the journey quite pleasant, comfortable and fast. Till about twenty years back tongas used to ply on the State Entry Road going to the Railway station from Connaught Place. There are any number of beautiful songs picturised on the tonga in Hindi movies.

In earlier days there used to be an annual Tonga race held between Ajmeri Gate  and Mehrauli. That used to be a very colourful event, now with too much traffic on the roads and the extremely fast paced life these tonga races do not take place with much fanfare. As I told you earlier, I felt I had reached the 17th century, because when you walk on the streets and alleys of Old Delhi, one can see life going by at a leisurely pace, one does not feel any rush  or anxiety. 

THE METRO STATION 

On Hauz Qazi road is a monstrosity of modernity. The Metro station stands out like a sore thumb. They could have maintained the outside facade to gel with the kind of shops that exist on that road to maintain a continuity.

Behind the Chawdi bazar Metro station stands a huge building. In its hey day it must have been magnificent. Some portions of it are maintained well and some portions are absolutely dilapidated. Obviously the property must have been split between inheritors. Those who could, have maintained it while some others have allowed it to disintegrate.

Moving on from observing  food business and transport business, we moved further on to see a gate which led into the area where people who dealt in salt lived. In fact it is interesting to note that Delhi was the hub of the spice trade in North India. Khari Baoli is the market near Fatehpuri Mosque at the end of Chandni Chowk where all the wholesalers of spices and dry fruits are located. 

We then walked down Sitaram Bazaar which is the area where aristocrats of yore lived. They have palatial houses in huge compounds. On the facade would be a beautiful door, beyond which one entered a world of peace, old world charm, style and space. The walls were thick, there were many open spaces called dalaan and aangan. At the entrance usually one would find space for people to sit on both sides of the door. There would be ornate work on top of the door. Often the name of the owner would be written in Hindi, English and in Persian. Persian was the official language of the Mughal empire and even after the end of the Mughal rule it continued to be used by the aristocrats.

HOUSE OF KAMLA NEHRU

As we walked down Sitaram Bazaar, I observed that we reached a lane which was inhabited mainly by Kashmiris. One prominent house was of the Kaul family which was called "Atal House". The daughter of this house Kamla was married to Jawaharlal Nehru the son of Motilal Nehru a prominent Barrister of Allahabad High Court. Almost the entire who's who of Allahabad had been invited to this wedding so the Kauls requested Mr. Haksar who lived close by and had a huge mansion to accommodate the baraat. The wedding therefore took place in this sophisticated and aristocratic area of Purani Dilli on 08.02.1916. Mr. Sapru of Sapru House fame also lived on the same lane. Most probably affluent and educated Kashmiris even then left Kashmir for the purpose of employment with the Mughal rulers. The Kaul haveli is now in the hands of some other owners who have Dhiman Market written at the gate. The Haksar Haveli has only a gate standing there. The Sapru property now has flats.

KALAN MASJID

We went past the 84(Chaurasi) ghanta temple and walked towards Turkman Gate, where we saw the 13th century Kalan Mosque built by the Prime Minister of Feroze Shah Tughlaq. The name of the prime minister was Khan-e-Jehan Junan Shah Telangi who was from present day Telangana. This gentleman got seven mosques constructed across Dilli. Kalan mosque is still in use and therefore maintained up to date. It has been painted green outside although at one time it was also called Kali masjid. The steps leading to the mosque are original-seven hundred years old and are quite uneven. If one looks at old time pictures of the mosque one can see how majestic it must have once looked. 

COOKS AND FOOD

Mughals were connoisseurs of good food. Their legacy continues to this day and we find that there are some cooks occupying an area near Turkman gate within a compound. They have huge cauldrons, and chulhas(stoves) where they cook food on order. One can take raw mutton to them and they will cook it with their secret ingredients and spices and give you the delicious finished product. Their secret ingredients remain secret and secure. 

There is something about Purani Dilli that is fascinating. One does not get put off by all the filth lying around. There is some sort of community living, togetherness and a feeling of belonging to the place. The chaiwalla, the pooriewalla serve you as if you are their guest and not a customer. 

Purani Dilli makes me want to return again to see what was and how magnificent times were one hundred years ago, actually even fifty years ago. Times are changing, landscape is changing and what was once standing majestically may just remain so only in pictures.

B.I.T - Bit by Bit

After a long effort and wait - my memoirs of BIT Mesra are finally converted and published as a paperback as well an ebook (KINDLE edition).

An introductory preview is also available and the same can be also seen on http://trilokinagpal.wixsite.com/triloki 

To order the book:

1. For Readers in India (for edition printed in the US) - please Click here

    For Indian Published edition - Paperback - pothi.com/pothi/node/188501

2. Readers in UK - please click here

3. Readers in rest of Europe - please click here

4. Readers in USA/Canada - please click here

5. Readers in Australia/New Zealand - please click here.

6. Order the ebook - KINDLE edition - by a click here



Thank you for your interest. Please leave a review on the web-site from where you order your copy.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN AUTOGRAPHED COPY, please send mail to triloki.nagpal@gmail.com

must you forward

Lumbini to Kushinara

WEEKEND GETAWAY - CITY OF JOY

Victoria Memorial

WEEKEND GETAWAY - CITY OF JOY

Ranchi University's students' issues and strikes often gave us plenty of opportunity for unplanned vacations, Calcutta became one of my favorite weekend getaways. It was just an overnight journey by train. It was easy on the pocket. I had a place to stay that was almost like home and yet with the freedom that I would not have if it were home. My first cousin - a family man - had a flat in Alipore, one of the posh areas of the city. He would give me a spare key during my stay there, allowing me the freedom to come and go at any odd time.

I had also spent four years of my schooling in Calcutta during childhood and was perfectly at home with the local Bengali language as well as the city. As I loved the city, it would be in order to tell my readers a bit about my background and that of the city. Even our college had a sizable Bengali speaking population and Calcutta was as important to us as Ranchi or Ramgarh towns.

My father was in the Central Government. In the year 1955 – when I was just 10 – we moved to Calcutta from Delhi. We found a decent rented accommodation in Lake Place – which was close to the famous Dhakuria Lake in south Calcutta. It was a quiet neighborhood, predominantly a Bengali dominated area. All the youngsters around spoke only in Bengali, and I was totally unfamiliar with the language. It was then I discovered that “bone” means ‘sister’ and not the rigid organs that form our skeletal system. A young Bengali boy almost fainted with shock when I told him I have 32 bones – as I had only studied about the vertebra of the human body till the time. In spite of the language barrier, I found the young Bengalis quite friendly and acceptable, especially after I defeated another youngster of my size, in a freestyle friendly wrestling match. They slowly accepted me in the fold and I was a boy belonging to the “pada” (neighborhood).

Calcutta – now Kolkata – is likened to a mysterious lady, with many colors and hues. One either loves Calcutta or just finds it deplorable. There is no middle path. Any person who has lived in the city for at least a few months or a year would invariably fall in love with it, a strange love that remains for life; whereas a visitor finds it a terrible place. Sweaty in the summer, slushy in the rains, no winter as such. Filth, stench, urchins, traffic jams, rallies are what is the essence of the soul of Calcutta. Calcutta is the only Indian city where the tram service – a legacy of the British – is still operational.

The aura of Calcutta is evidenced from a book - "City of Joy" a novel written by Dominique Lapierre (1985) and in a 1992 film directed by Roland Joffe has been made based on the book. A very popular song “The Ladies of Calcutta” had hit the top of the charts in the early sixties. Cliff Richard has made a notch for himself in the western world. He was an Anglo-Indian born in Lucknow, spent some childhood years in Dehradun, was in Calcutta (Howrah) before his family moved to England after the Independence of India. Mother Teresa, Sourav Ganguly, Satyajit Ray have all been associated with this strange love.

Bengalis have a passion for football – not just cheering for Mohan Bagan or East Bengal – but also playing the game from childhood in the nearest patch of open land they would find. Rain, sun or clouds – whatever be the weather – football was a regular game with the young “pada” crowd. There was no park nearby. An empty plot of a house was enough for us and it was transformed into a football field. Every Bengali in Kolkata was a supporter of either of the two teams mentioned above (excluding the Muslims – who supported Mohammedan Sporting). They would not ask which team you support or root for; merely ask “Mohan Bagan or East Bengal?” I became a supporter of Mohan Bagan right away – before even knowing the name of a single player in the team. It sounded more palatable to me than East Bengal – and one cannot feign ignorance unless you want to be banished from the pada forever.

Every Bengali household has at least one singer or a person learning Rabindra Sangeet. One could find a harmonium in every middle-class household and could listen to strains of songs and music wafting across in the evenings. Around dusk, you could also hear the conch shells being blown – puja time. The shops would burn a sweet-smelling incense – the smell and smoke would permeate in the atmosphere – and this scent was as much a part of Calcutta as anything else.

Fish. That is another thing found everywhere in Calcutta. Every pada market will have a section for fish. You will find an abundance of freshwater fish like Rohu and Ilish. Smaller variety like Bata. And of course, Bengalis are also fond of the shelled varieties of seafood, viz., prawns, crabs, and lobsters. Sea fish are less popular however these days they have also invaded Kolkata, especially Bombay Duck and Pomfret. So it goes without saying that the smell of the fish market is also much a part of Calcutta. If you are in a Bengali neighborhood – the smell of cooking of fish will be pervading the atmosphere between 10.30 and 11.00 in the night. The Bengali bhadralok (gentlemen) or the elite of Calcutta generally return home to the family quite late, after midnight. Calcutta has a very colorful nightlife. Bars, night clubs are in abundance. In fact even today its one of the best places in India of nightlife for the young. Pubs and discotheques remain alive till early hours – 4 a.m. is not considered late. The old rich lot – the landlord type – had huge palatial houses with their own natural pond – called “pukur” in Bengali. Having your own pukur on your property, along with your supply of fish from it, was a status symbol in Calcutta.

It would be in order to mention the famous jhalmuri, non-veg. rolls of Nizam's near New Market, and the sweet shops selling rossogolas and sandesh - without which the Bengali folks cannot survive. The New Market itself with its famous pâtisserie shops - referred as bakeries. These are as much the soul of the city as other features. The New Market was established as an architecturally Gothic market-complex crystallized in 1873 and was formally opened on Jan 1st, 1884. Was christened Sir Stuart Hogg Market in 1903. Its a landmark and historically one could buy anything there. Centrally located between Chowringhee and Dharamtala, it is still a must for any visitor.

Duga Puja (courtesy Wikipedia)

Durga Puja. The most important and biggest Hindu festival of the state of Bengal. The entire city has a totally festive look for the 10 day period when the idols Durga, Lakshmi, Ganesha, Saraswati, and Kartikeya are placed all over the pandals in the city. Its festive time. Pandals are set up in every small colony or area with the statues (idols) of the gods in all their finery and vying attention. The city is adorned with lights and people flock to the city from all over the country. The evenings are filled with the sound of drums and conch shells and the strong incense smell. Traffic comes to a standstill as people do pandal hopping to visit as many as possible. Stalls for clothes and eating are set up everywhere. Durga Puja in Calcutta is often referred to as the Rio Carnival of the Eastern Hemisphere. After 10 days the idols are consigned to the river - and that is another festival, you will see truckloads of idols and people - with beating drums - going all over the padas before the idols are taken to the banks of Hooghly river for the final destination, its called visarjan.

After staying for a couple of years in Lake Place – my father got government accommodation in Belvedere Area, a very upmarket colony for Central Government Officers – newly built, in the heart of the city, in the very compound of the famous National Library. So I moved out of the pada life to the sophisticated English speaking crowd. The library used to be the house of the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal during the British Raj. After the independence of the country – it was converted into a Government Library, in 1953 when it was shifted from its location at Metcalfe House, to the present location at Belvedere. It is the biggest and the best library in the country containing about 2 million books and half a million documents. It is also the second-largest public library in Asia.

According to popular belief, this building was not built by the British. Azim-Us-Shaan is believed to have constructed it in 1700 A.D. After the Battle of Plassey, Vanceytart got charge of this Bhawan. He was an Italian who named this mammoth building 'Belvedierre', giving the present-day name of Belvedere to the colony. The word connotes 'the queen of beauty'. Lady Hastings was also the owner of this house for a short while. It was sold to Major Tulley in 1780. The modern-day 'Tollygunge' in Calcutta bears memoirs of Major Tulley. However, this building was put to auction after the demise of Major Tulley in 1802. In 1850, the Govt. took charge of this palatial house. Some believe that Nawab Meer Zaffar had once stayed in Belvedierre Bhawan. Tollygunge has become synonymous with Tollywood – like Bollywood – Kolkata was home for the Bengali theatre and films (Tollywood).

Once I moved to Belvedere – it was another culture. The Senior Government Officials were nowhere near the Bengali culture that I was exposed to at Lake Place – it was more of the Raj Culture. All children would speak in fluent English – studying in English medium schools or convents. The Bengalis were in a minority. We were from all over – Punjab, Delhi, Bombay, Pune, Karnataka, Madras (now Tamilnadu), Andhra, Rajasthan, U.P., Himachal, etc etc, there were quite a few Anglo-Indians also in the officers’ lot. Football took a back seat, the youngsters played cricket, hockey, and rugby (with a football). It was a complete transition to British culture. In fact, Calcutta was so British even otherwise that at that time there still existed few clubs where Indians (dark-skinned persons) were not permitted. Royal Calcutta Golf Club is the oldest golf club in India and the first one outside Great Britain, it was established in 1829. Calcutta Rowing Club too was the first of its kind outside Great Britain – it was established in 1858. There is a 9-hole Calcutta Ladies Golf Club, established in 1891, the only ladies’ golf club in the world.

In Belvedere there was a club for the Central Govt. Officers – having facilities for tennis, swimming, table tennis, squash, badminton, etc, and of course card tables. One could see young lasses dressed in western attires, skirts, shorts, and the like.

The name Kolkata and the anglicized name Calcutta have their root in Kalikata, the name of one of the three villages (Kalikata, Sutanuti, Govindapur) in the area before the arrival of the British. "Kalikata", in turn, is believed to be a version of Kalikshetra ("Land of the goddess Kali"). Alternatively, the name may have been derived from the Bengali term kilkila ("flat area"). Again, the name may have its origin in the indigenous term for a natural canal, Khal, followed by Katta (which may mean dug). While the city's name was always pronounced "Kolkata" in the local Bengali language, its official English name was only changed from "Calcutta" to "Kolkata" in 2001, reflecting the Bengali pronunciation. Some view this as a move to erase the legacy of British rule. This change has not always been reflected by overseas media. While news sources like the BBC have opted to call Bombay Mumbai, Kolkata remains Calcutta. Many Indians also refer to the city by its British name.

Calcutta is one of the few cities which has a sizable population of Muslims, Chinese, Anglo-Indians, Marwaris apart from the majority of the local Bengali Babu or bhadralok. You have a China Town within the city. It was the only city in India that boasted of original Chinese cuisine till the mid-seventies before it started becoming popular in other places. It was a town where you could buy Chinese hand made leather shoes at prices cheaper than that of Bata and which would literally last you a lifetime. These were made to order to the size of your feet from the designs in the window. You could see the traditional Chinese dentists in Calcutta.

Calcutta also became the hub of the cottage industry in leather. On way to the Dum-Dum Airport, at Tangra – one could see hutments with leather sheets spread on their thatched roofs after tanning, and giving an awful smell to the entire area. Calcutta’s leather goods are still considered good and cheap although the bulk of the tanning industry has had to wind up or shift due to pollution control. Here the bulk of the tanneries were owned by people of Haka Chinese origin. "47 South Tangra Road", maybe the most confusing postal address, as it used to cover the whole of Chinatown Tangra with over 350 tanneries. Most of the standing structures have been built, over many years, by the industrious Hakka Chinese, upon marshy and reclaimed low lying land. Over the past several decades, it has served as the location of Calcutta's Chinatown. Food from Tangra is a distinct variety of traditional Hakka Chinese cuisine adapted to Indian ingredients and the Bengali palate. This has spread to the rest of India, along with the recipes earlier unique to Tangra. Tangra is now the most popular destination for Chinese food. Chinese food sold in Tangra restaurants is now known all over the world as "Hakka Style" Chinese food.

Calcutta served as the capital of India during the British Raj until 1911. Once the center of modern education, industry, science, culture, and politics in India, Calcutta has witnessed intense political violence, clashes, and economic stagnation since 1954. Since the year 2000, an economic rejuvenation has spurred in the city's growth. Like other metropolitan cities in India, Calcutta continues to struggle with the problems of urbanization: poverty, pollution, and traffic congestion. Because of the British legacy – we can see massive buildings with beautiful colonial architecture. One walk of 3 km along Chowringhee, will leave you thirsting for more. As a matter of fact – any of the older areas of the city will reveal to you the ancient beauty of the colonial and Victorian architecture. The famous Victoria Memorial is a marvel of architecture by itself.

Now Kolkata is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located in eastern India on the east bank of the River Hooghly. When referred to as "Kolkata", it usually includes the suburbs, and thus its population exceeds 15 million, making it India's third-largest city and urban agglomeration.This also makes it the world's 14th largest metropolitan area.

Bengal is noted for its revolutionary history, ranging from the Indian struggle for independence to the leftist and trade union movements. We have names like Subhash Chandra Bose, Bipin Chandra Pal, Chittaranjan Das, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Khudi Ram Bose, Sarojini Naidu, etc. Also, there were well known social reformers who shaped the history of our country - most notable being Rajaram Mohan Roy (He is best known for his efforts to abolish the practice of sati, the Hindu funeral practice in which the widow was compelled to sacrifice herself on her husband’s funeral pyre) and Swami Vivekananda (considered to be a major force in the revival of Hinduism in modern India).

Calcutta is also known worldwide for its many bridges that link the city to its sister city of Howrah. The Calcutta Bridges include Rabindra Setu (Howrah Bridge), Vidyasagar Setu, Vivekananda Setu, Nivedita Setu, and Jubilee Bridge (India). The railway station that served the city was on the west bank of Hooghly river and the only connecting bridge - the iconic Howrah Bridge was the only link. It was known for its traffic jams and one had to add a couple of hours for the journey for that stretch of just half a mile of Howrah Bridge. The invention is the mother of necessity if you are going to catch a train and are stuck in a traffic jam - no worry - you could get coolies anywhere on the entire span of the jam to carry your luggage to the railway station.

Calcutta has also been the hub of culture. With Rabindranath Thakur having won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, he became a household word. Theatre had strong roots in the city too and the famous CLT (Children's Little Theatre) had world-class histrionics. Bengali movies were also a class apart, most Bengali movies were art and not commercial – with doyens like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, and Utpal Dutt who have achieved international fame for art cinema. I never met the former two, but Utpal Dutt used to teach the English language in my school (South Point School) and I had the privilege of learning the language from him. We had quite a lot of teachers who were associated with the CLT and our school used to be a showcase of talent in the theatre world.

The sea is not too far either. If you like beaches move to the nearest one - the Digha Beach and en route catch a glimpse of the Diamond Harbour as well.

The famous Botanical Gardens on the west bank of the Hoogly at Sibpur in Howrah. Known for its famous Banyan Tree more than 330 meters in circumference, the largest of its kind in Asia, it is considered more than 250 years old. The Gardens have a large variety of plants - more than 12000 - spread over about 130 hectares.

The place has a history in its churches & temples also. Of the better-known places, we have, on the banks of Hooghly river that snakes through the city – the Dakshineswar Temple. It was built in 1847 by Rani Rasmoni the place where Ramakrishna attained spiritual vision while working as a priest of Kali temple. On the banks of Ganges, north of Belur Math (the headquarters of Rama Krishna Mission), Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa lived and offered his prayers here.

The mall culture has pervaded the city and the old traditional shopping and the soul of the city is disappearing. I left Calcutta in 1959 when my dad moved back to Delhi, but the magic of the place had gone into my blood & I am still in love with the old lady. At present, one can see a reasonable blend of the old and the new. The Metro is another feather in the cap.

Calcutta is now being often referred to as a 'dying city' – more than the earlier popular name of the City of Joy. However – in spite of it, my love for the city remains and I still always want to go there.

My Sixtieth Birthday - Gretna Green - Memories # 1

(It would be nice to read this post as a sequel my Chapters 1 to 4 of the series "Episode" - clicking here would take you the first chapter)

Although it has been over 6 years that I celebrated the day when I completed 60 years of age, I still remember it as if it was yesterday.

It was December 2005 that we decided to spend the Christmas and New Year with our children and grand-children in London. Chaitali & Raja had two young children, Anurag & Jharna had yet to start their family. The children had planned a 3-4 day holiday in UK, starting from London and going north to Scotland and staying over at St. Andrews - the home of golf, where the game has nurtured for over 600 years. Anurag and Raja were both golf buffs - so that was the destination organized for my birthday bash and ringing in the New Year.

(Click here if you wish to know more about St Andrews)

Being a group of 6 adults and 2 growing up children and the thought of being cramped in Chaitali's Honda CRV for 5 days in travel was not very attractive - and it was decided to hire a bigger vehicle, even a 7-seater would be cramped, so Raja and I set out to get a bigger vehicle and we ended up hiring a 9-seater SUV for the trip. The route and halts were planned. On the 29th - we were driving through Gretna Green, that is a small village on the border of Scotland and England (click here for location map - zoom in or out), just within the Scottish side. Historically - it had been a village of blacksmiths; but its vantage position made it ideally suited for runaway marriages of the youngsters from the conservative English society.

Gretna's famous "runaway marriages" began in 1753 when Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act was passed in England; it stated that if both parties to a marriage were not at least 21 years old, then parents had to consent to the marriage. The Act did not apply in Scotland, where it was possible for boys to marry at 14 and girls at 12 years old with or without parental consent (see Marriage in Scotland). Many elopers fled England, and the first Scottish village they encountered was Gretna Green. The Old Blacksmith's Shop, built around 1712, and Gretna Hall Blacksmith's Shop (1710) became, in popular folklore at least, the focal tourist points for the marriage trade. The Old Blacksmith's opened to the public as a visitor attraction as early as 1887. (courtesy Wikipedia).

In South India - there is custom where the couple performs a marriage ceremony when the man reaches 60 years of age. So that clinched it - we decided to get married (once again). What a perfect and romantic choice of the venue - Gretna Green. and the historic Blacksmith Shop with the historic anvil which had witnessed millions of marriages performed by the blacksmith priests.

The "priest" put my hand on the anvil, the asked my wife Varsha to put hers on top of mine. He picked up the sledge-hammer, looked at Varsha and said, "It will just hurt a wee-bit ..." - literally draining the color from our faces. Then he gently tapped the anvil with the sledge-hammer making a resounding sound and said, "May the bond of this marriage be as strong as this steel." And thus the ceremony was over. We got a certificate of our marriage duly signed by the priest and witnessed by a couple that had come visiting from the U.S.A. He told to click the photos and it was over. Short and sweet.

After the marriage ceremony, we drove on - lunching and snacking on the way. We had a halt at a beautiful way side hotel along the highway. We checked into our respective rooms and then Raja dropped in, "Lets go for a drink."- he chirped. It was a most agreeable suggestion and we headed for the bar. I was expecting our whole gang to be there but we were the only ones from the group. They will be just joining, he said - must be freshening up after the drive. Anyway, we settled down with our beers and peanuts. It must have been another hour so so - and none of the others showed up. We went up to our room and what do we see - all the others were there. The room was decorated with balloons and a happy birthday sign. The bed was strewn with many gifts - all for me. Some tiny and interesting knick-knacks, some odd gadgets, chocolates etc etc., and in the middle was a laptop - an IBM Thinkpad. It had always been my desire to own a laptop. How well the family knows you, you cannot just fathom. I was overwhelmed and my eyes became moist. This was the best birthday I had had in my entire life. This was not the end of the party - we moved on next day.

Our next halt was at St. Andrews Bay - a hotel and a 5-star resort. St Andrews is also known worldwide as the "home of golf". This is in part because the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, founded in 1754, exercises legislative authority over the game worldwide (except in the United States and Mexico), and also because the famous links is the most frequent venue for The Open Championship, the oldest of golf's four major championships. Visitors travel to St Andrews in great numbers for several courses ranked amongst the finest in the world, as well as for the sandy beaches. Raja and Anurag are both great golf buffs - so this destination was a dream come true for both of them.

The resort was decorated beautifully for Christmas and the New Year with an indoor X'mas tree that must have been over 40 feet high. The dining area was impeccable, the service was beyond compare. Kunaal and Aaliya were yet to see their 5th and 2nd birthdays respectively - and they were treated like royalty by the staff of the resort. Had some of the best dishes and wines over here. In the evening there was a show which was again just out of the world. We retired to our rooms quite late in the early hours of the morning, next morning was bright and sunny although the temperature was below freezing.

After a sumptuous and a lazy breakfast - we set out to see the historic golf course and the local sights of St Andrews. The golf course was fully covered with at least 5"-6" of snow - yet we went on to the course to click the photographs near the flag of the 1st hole. There were few other areas of interest - including a golf museum. We spent some time there. There was a small practice golf course for toddlers and kids there and we ended up buying a whole lot of mementos from the museum shop.

We then drove on to our next stop which was Edinburgh. An Scottish couple - the Aldyth and Theo's house - were our destination and we had the evening tea at their place. Lovely people and with a zest for life and knowledge. they were both retired and well past their prime and yet so full of energy. It was always a pleasure to meet them. Click here to know them better.

We halted overnight at their place, and we enjoyed a bit of sight-seeing of Edinburgh the next day. Visited the castle, the local market and the high grounds from where we could get an the birds' eye view of the town. In the evening we left for London. Chatali also bought 2 electronic SUDOKU puzzles for Varsha and me from a cafe joint at an exit on the motorway. We reached my daughter's house well past midnight and were asleep after the long and hectic journey.

It was the best celebrated and the most memorable birthday of my life.

The Terrorists Have Succeeded - Random Thoughts # 13

It was past 8 pm, I wanted to see a movie with my wife at one of the malls in Saket - which is less than a couple of kilometers from the gate of our colony.

First I encountered a road block as soon as I got out of the colony gate in my car. There were armed cops at the road block and the traffic had to trickle through because of the bottle neck created by them. One vehicle at a time - the tail of the traffic must have been about a kilometer long. The cops had detained a couple of motorbikes on the side and were apparently checking their papers, and maybe pocketing some small denomination currency notes.

After considerable delay we reached the approach road behind the malls. Right in the middle of the road, there was a structure like a pill box, apparently made of sand bags and covered with a green sheet of  camouflage fabric. Propped up in the 'pill box' I could see a cop or or an army jawan who had his automatic rifle trained towards the traffic. Two more khaki uniformed men were checking the vehicles - getting the boot and the bonnet opened. Am not sure what they hoped to find.

Finally reached the entrance of the mall's underground parking. I had to open the bonnet and the boot again. One guard with a flashlight asked my wife to open the glove compartment, he shone his flashlight in that. He also scanned the rest of the car interior with his flashlight. Then we were asked to move on.

After getting off the car we had to enter the mall by an elevator - before entering the elevator we were made to pass through a metal sensor doorway, we were scanned by a metal detector (body scan). That too did not seem enough. We were frisked bodily by the private security agents at this point. My wife was asked to open her handbag and the female security guard peeped in rummaged the contents with her bare hands.

We went to the 2nd floor which had the ticket counter to the movie theater, got our tickets and we were once again frisked by metal detectors and body search by frisking. The security guard could feel a container in my coat pocket - which was the case for my spectacles. He asked me to take it out and show it him.

This is the life of a citizen in this free country in its capital city. You can imagine what it might be for a less privileged citizen.

The extremists/terrorists have succeeded in holding the entire country to ransom - just think about it. 


Note: This was a normal day - no high alerts. If a guard does notice a bomb or a gun and does face an actual terrorist. What will be his reaction? He either gets some greenbacks OR a bullet through him....