Nostalgia
I get in to this nice laidback mood every year when I go to the place that I lived for over 36 years. We moved in to this lovely independent house in 1971 and till we moved out completely in Jan 2002 - this was my permanent home. I did move out to Mumbai for a period of time but this was the place that I always liked. I go there every year ( fierce banking need forces the yearly trip ) and after the banking work is complete, I, just go around the colony driving through the streets , looking at the houses and recollecting the residents …and all of my childhood
The place has changed a lot but still remains very distinct . I have roamed on all the streets , nooks and corners , shortcuts and we all knew each other in the colony so well. When we moved in 1971 , there were hardly any dwelling. If I went to the Terrace of my house , I could see Villiwakkam the next Railway station about 6 KMs away ( I am not kidding ). There was so much empty space of land and then development took place. Today , there is not a single piece of land available till Villiwakkam . Goes to show how much development has taken place. The colony in question is Jawahar Nagar named after the former Prime Minister of India . This is a suburb past Perambur and one can relate to this place if they know where the Coach Factory ( ICF ) is .
We played our cricket on the empty lands , flew kites from our terrace ( deel poduvom ), Gilli dandu , Koli ( marbles ) and bambram ( Tops ) . We had fierce road loyalties ( naan fourth Main road pa ) . Would not speak to the next road guy unless he is from your school but as we grew these road loyalties disappeared and I made great friends who shaped up what I wanted to do in my career.
The Colony is well laid out . Six Main roads and six Circular roads . Each main Road has close to 60 odd individual houses and the circular roads were the same. The First Main is the real Main road. All shops, banks are on this road and this road is the thoroughfare to the next colony which actually lead to our colony getting development . Periyar Nagar was a colony that was allocated to State Government employees. That did the trick for our colony to get better facilities. Bus Services improved , more Banks , Cooperative stores and a Government Hospital to boot.
The banks and the Nidhis ( these are NBFC which are very local and operate only in the colony. Our nidhi was called the Jawahar Saswatha Nidhi and they give Gold Loans ) have remained as they were . The banks have moved around quiet a bit , getting in to larger space to serve more clientele. The newspaper vendor mart , the Maligai Kadai Nadar , the Waste Paper mart , Ajanta Bakery ( we love the Puffs that come in hot daily at around 3 PM ), the Devi Saloon have survived the period of time and competition. I also noticed the "Quality Meat Shop ' still out there - No change !!The NR clinic , became a hospital later and now it is a Speciality hospital !! New things that we would have never imagined coming to this colony were
Café Coffee day , Agarwal Eye Clinic , Petrol Pumps ( IOC and BPCL )…. More banks , and a Mall as well. The Venus Theatre where we went to watch movies ( the theatre will release movies that are minimum two years or plus old ).. The highest priced ticket was Rs 2.90 . The theatre is now converted in to a Mall .. The Murugan temple ( 70 Ft road ) which was a roadside one is now big Temple with proper building , a compound wall and is well maintained.
Roads in the colony even now are neat , clean ( yes clean , the exnora set up works well ) . We sold off our home in 2005 . This time as I went around in the car on the streets I noticed that our Maths Tuition Masters house ( on the road where we lived ) was demolished and waiting for construction of a new flat may be . He was the tuition master for the entire colony except me !
The colony is quiet with no great traffic . It was a quick round visit but it brought out many of the good times that I have had in this place. Who can forget our childhood days….
Need to go again , visit the school I studied and just munch around time as the Cow do !!
The place has changed a lot but still remains very distinct . I have roamed on all the streets , nooks and corners , shortcuts and we all knew each other in the colony so well. When we moved in 1971 , there were hardly any dwelling. If I went to the Terrace of my house , I could see Villiwakkam the next Railway station about 6 KMs away ( I am not kidding ). There was so much empty space of land and then development took place. Today , there is not a single piece of land available till Villiwakkam . Goes to show how much development has taken place. The colony in question is Jawahar Nagar named after the former Prime Minister of India . This is a suburb past Perambur and one can relate to this place if they know where the Coach Factory ( ICF ) is .
We played our cricket on the empty lands , flew kites from our terrace ( deel poduvom ), Gilli dandu , Koli ( marbles ) and bambram ( Tops ) . We had fierce road loyalties ( naan fourth Main road pa ) . Would not speak to the next road guy unless he is from your school but as we grew these road loyalties disappeared and I made great friends who shaped up what I wanted to do in my career.
The Colony is well laid out . Six Main roads and six Circular roads . Each main Road has close to 60 odd individual houses and the circular roads were the same. The First Main is the real Main road. All shops, banks are on this road and this road is the thoroughfare to the next colony which actually lead to our colony getting development . Periyar Nagar was a colony that was allocated to State Government employees. That did the trick for our colony to get better facilities. Bus Services improved , more Banks , Cooperative stores and a Government Hospital to boot.
The banks and the Nidhis ( these are NBFC which are very local and operate only in the colony. Our nidhi was called the Jawahar Saswatha Nidhi and they give Gold Loans ) have remained as they were . The banks have moved around quiet a bit , getting in to larger space to serve more clientele. The newspaper vendor mart , the Maligai Kadai Nadar , the Waste Paper mart , Ajanta Bakery ( we love the Puffs that come in hot daily at around 3 PM ), the Devi Saloon have survived the period of time and competition. I also noticed the "Quality Meat Shop ' still out there - No change !!The NR clinic , became a hospital later and now it is a Speciality hospital !! New things that we would have never imagined coming to this colony were
Café Coffee day , Agarwal Eye Clinic , Petrol Pumps ( IOC and BPCL )…. More banks , and a Mall as well. The Venus Theatre where we went to watch movies ( the theatre will release movies that are minimum two years or plus old ).. The highest priced ticket was Rs 2.90 . The theatre is now converted in to a Mall .. The Murugan temple ( 70 Ft road ) which was a roadside one is now big Temple with proper building , a compound wall and is well maintained.
Roads in the colony even now are neat , clean ( yes clean , the exnora set up works well ) . We sold off our home in 2005 . This time as I went around in the car on the streets I noticed that our Maths Tuition Masters house ( on the road where we lived ) was demolished and waiting for construction of a new flat may be . He was the tuition master for the entire colony except me !
The colony is quiet with no great traffic . It was a quick round visit but it brought out many of the good times that I have had in this place. Who can forget our childhood days….
Need to go again , visit the school I studied and just munch around time as the Cow do !!
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Vidhya