Oh!! Those Homes, There Was No Place Like Those Homes
Childhood and the young days.
Most of them live with their
parents . No parents dare to put their child away from their own house but my
case was different. 1970 was the year when I was about to celebrate my 11 years
of ligfe that my parents decided to shift me to a Hostel at Bishrampur which
was the Boarding Hostel for the Carmel Convent School and since then boarding hostels
were my home.
However I did have the privilege to stay with my parents at
the various QUARTERS, the
Government quarters that were supplied and provided by the authorities for us
to stay as my Father was an Government employee at the National Coal Development Corporation which in 1972 became the Coal India Limited.The MEMOIR still lingers as these homes carry a lot of meaning and importance to me and my life. Today I shall write about those homes and pay me GRATITUDE to those who BUILT those and gave us a shelter to dwell properly.
The First Home-: Gone With The Time , buried Under The Earth Crust
I was born at West Chirimiri Colliery on July 6th 1959. My “ JETHU ” ie the elder brother of my Father was posted there. He had a big family to maintain. My father who possessed a Diploma In Electrical Engineering had come to join him as he landed in a job at West Chirimiri Colliery known a PORI
During those days that area had only ONE District and it was Surguja . That was the place I was born. It infact IS THE MOST BACKWARD AREA OF ENTIRE CHATTISGARH AND ENTIRE INDIA EVEN NOW. Unfortunately with the advent of the OPEN MINE AREA that came into the force this house went into the rouble after the blasting dug that into the crust of the earth for the Coal to come out beneath that.Hence the picture/photo of the same could NOT be put here.
I visited the place some two years ago only to see a beautiful JHEEL ie the LAKE that was standing there as the entire area which had about 30 quarters have all become a lake . Beautiful lotus flowers and the FISHES were all that I could see.
This house has it’s importance as I was born at that house and at that place and my “ HAATH-ER-KHORI ” ie the FIRST word that I write ,took place at that house . In Bengali culture and system it means the FIRST alphabet that I could write to start my education and writing career and I remember I was only and hardly two then, I wrote the WORD “ OM ” then. The second was “ THAKUR ’’ ie ‘’ GOD ’’
Duman Hill Colliery : That Double Storey Building, the Second House.
Two and a half years of a job in that private Coal Mines at West Chirimiri Colliery, my Father got his FIRST appointment at N.C.D.C at Duman Hills Colliery which is situated at a distance of about 50 Kilometres from West Chirimiri Colliery .
All I remember that it was a Double- Storey building that we were clubbed at . We stayed there uptil 1963 May when my Father was transferred to Kumbda Sub Area , under the Bishrampur Colliery .
That home/house holds importance as my initial studies started there at that house and I was taught the Bengali alphabets and some other teachings that related to Bengali . Unfortunately I DO NOT REMEMBER ANYTHING ABOUT ANYTHING THAT WERE TAUGHT TO ME IN BENGALI AS I DO NOT KNOW TO WRITE OR PROPERLY READ BENGALI
3 ) . Kumbda Sub Area : The House which send me to the School
This was the house where we stayed from May 1963 to about June 1966 when my Father was relocated at Bishrampur as he had to see the proceedings of the Dragline at Bishrampur beside his operational activities of the Jainagar Incline at Jainagar which is situated on the roadway between Bishrampur and Kumbda.
This hose at Kumbda holds TWO GREAT memoirs for me. The first is this was the house which send me to the School. I was admitted to the Carmel Convent School . However the Bus Driver who drove us to the School took me to Hindi School on the First day . On returning to my house after the School from Bishrampur I was asked all about my studies that took place in the School.
My reply turtled my Father. He had admitted to the English School but here I attended the Hindi one. During those days there were only TWO Schools at Bishrampur, the Carmel Convent School and the Hindi Public School . There was a gap of one day when I was shifted to Carmel Convent .It was in 1963. I was promoted to the next class then, even I attended the School at the Pre-primary for only five months then and then in 1964 I was at the Carmel Convent proper in the First standard then . That is how my schooling career started.
This house also holds a BAD and a CRUEL MEMOIR. One fine day early in the morning we brothers and sisters were seated at the verandah near the ‘’ SHIGHRI ‘’ ie the oven. It was nail biting cold and we were enjoying the heat that the oven threw. My youngest sister pushed the elder sister , ie the eldest of the two, to find her place at the spot and the eldest one fell into the oven.
We were kids then. We could never understand as to what was happening lest our servant Ramdas who saw that . He ran and pulled my sister from the spot and thus she was saved. The burns took a lot of time to heal but the scars still exists in her body
Just this year from Jan 9th to Januray 16th I was at Bishrampur and I took the opportunity to visit the house. The pic is put here .
The house still remains to appear the same except that the shead for either placing the scooter or the cycles etc was not there then . Still this house which now remains under the lock stands erect as a memoir to my FIRST grounding that took place as this was the house which send me to the school.
4). Bishrampur : The ‘’ GOLDEN ’’ era of my life.
The pic that you see is and was the house where we stayed at Bishrampur . During out time we did not have that barricade as you see in the pic now. The front portion had the sitting bar raised to a good height which now is not there as the barricade from the front side has demolished that to take it’s fixed place and position.
This house had a beautiful garden in the front where there were a lot of flower of ‘’ ROSE ‘’ and the ‘’GENDA ‘’ beside the ‘’ PAPAYA’S ‘’ .The back portion had a wired area which was too big an area where the vegetables wer grown. Potatoes, Tomatoes, Ginger, Onions, Cabbages, Cauliflowers, Brinjals, Pumkins, Cucumbers, and Maize were grown in that area according the the season.
We had two servants, one to look after the household matter which also included cooking and the other one looked after all the gardening and agriculture by that means.
This was the HOUSE that brought us a COW for the FIRST time and I particularly took an evince interest in it. My FONDNESS for the COW and the CALF started from this house when I personally would serve ‘’ RANI ‘’ and her calf that came to us one by one.
The FIRST ‘’ CALF ‘’ delivered by RANI unfortunately got killed . However from 1968 to 1972 Rani was with us at Duman Hills again where my Father was transferred in 1970 when I had entered the Class Sixth on a promotion and a transfer. In 1972 when my Father got transferred to Pathakhera Colliery at District Betul at Madhya Pradesh, we decided to give Rani as a gift-cum-donation, donation to the one who was looking after Rani . My association with rani is the reason why I get myself associated so MEANINGFULLY and so DIVINELY with the cows and the calf
5). Duman Hills Colliery : Lighting Does Strike Twice
Once again during the fag end of June 1970 my Father was transferred as a Sr Executive Engineer at Duman Hills Colliery at Surguja. This was again coming back to the old house and the old place.
I was at standard sixth then and this was the HOUSE that send me to the Boarding Hostel . It started from 1970 and it lasted till 1978 at Nagpur where I was at Young Men’s Christian Association on the Sitabuldi – Maharaj Bagh road at Nagpur. Well back to Duman Hills.
Again when we went back to Duman Hills , it was the same two-storied building and the same hose where we stayed in out first sojouirn at Duman Hills. This house send me to Hostel.
However when I came back from the Hostel for the FIRST time to spent my winter vacation after the FIRST TERMINAL EXAM at the School, I found that we were shifted to the SINGLE QUARTER at the entrance of the Officer’s Colony . The other notable feature was rani had delivered the calf which took a lot of my time during that holiday . We stayed at this house till the start of June 1972 when my Father was transferred to Pathakhera Coal Mines .
6). Bishrampur Hostel :; The First Of a HOME away from Home
Prudently it would be a GREAT injustice if I did not mention and potray the Hostel at Bishrampur . This was the statrt of my LIFE where at such a YOUNG age I was separated by the destiny to stay alone and MANAGE all by MYSELF to pass and carry of each day.
It was to the BENEVOLENCE and the PROVIDENCE of the Coal Mines Authority to give as many as 18 quarters to the Carmel Convent School Authority for FREE of charge to conduct and class and run the school. The school which was started in 1963 with a handful of boys’ and the girls’ saw it blossoming into a population of about 10 plus when I left the school and the hostel in 1972 and now it not only has it’s own building at the Prem Nagar area of Bishrampur adjoining Satpata but has a population of about 750 plus and a sprawling arena which runs the business of maintain and running the school in terms of education.
During those days there use to be a PRIMARY BOARD examination , a Middle School Examination and the Higher Secondary School examination .
Well I was admitted to this School in 1964 and I passed out my Middle school Exams from this School in 1972. I’m placing the picture of the Boys’ Hostel ie the wing where the boarders, the Boys’ would stay. The TV pic displayed is the space and the place where I use to sleep as my cot and the bed were laid at that place. This hostel now staffs the employee of the Bishrampur Coal Mines .
I was at this Hostel from July 1970 to May 1972 and this was the Hostel as I said before from where it was like - ‘’ AKELAY HAI, CHALI AAO, KAHAN HOH , Jahan Awaaz De Tumko Kya Tum Wahan Hoh ‘’ as for most of the time during that age inspite of being amidst of all the boarders I use to feel and the pang to miss Rani and her calves and those were too much to swallow.
This hostel life made me very TOUGH as HARD as the NAIL and very DETERMINED in the sense that it inculcated in me the habit of – SPOTTING WHAT I LIKED THE MOST AND HOW TO GET IT ANY ANY COST, SINGLE, AND WITH FULL OBSTINATISM AND DETERMINATION. This was the place which TAUGHT me NOT to COMPROMISE with anything BAD or UNLAWFUL and that HABIT REIGNS and REINS in me even after the passage of the time from 1970 to 2020 .
7). The Hostel Of C C B H S S at Jabalpur : Physical Punishment, Army Moulding was the ‘’ LIFE ‘’
It would not be good for me to miss out on the Hostel Life at Christ Church Boys’ Higher secondary School at Jabalpur where I sepnd my time from July 19th 1972, ie a day after the famous singer Geeta Dutt was dead to May 1st 1976 .
Admitted to this School, ONE OF THE VERY BEST AT INDIA THEN and PERHAPS the BEST at Madhya Pradesh then, I spend four years of my life at this School .
The MILITARY administration , the NAIL-LIKE-TOUGHNESS and the MOULDING which were very PHYSICAL for us to BEAR and DIGEST was something which has made the guys who were with me especially as the boarders then are very tough in their attitude and aptitude of life.
Every thing from washing a pair of socks to the undergarments and the vest beside taking care of sall our belongings with the additional charge of putting ourself in the vagaries of a very computerized life which also included the discipline added with the REGIMENTATION that was involved with it made me a very DIFFERENT kind of a man altogether and even to those who were with me at the Hostel.
This school could not see me passing out with flying colours as I was more into MILITARISM and SPORTS. Studies were FEW and FAR then but it had sown the ESSENCE and the VALUE of LIFE which now has many a DIMENSIONS that one could see.
The MULTI-TASKING at that era, managing SELF, managing studies with SPORTS and expediting the duty of a SCHOOL PREFECT a responsibility subjected on us by the school was too much to bear but that training is what has seen me and is seeing me through at the ROUGH times that I have been facing and my LIFE has NEVER seen a EASE-OFF-TIME at all. That training at the school has seen me crossing the FINISHING LINE everything with many an experience WORTH to remember. NO ‘’ FALTUBAAZI’’ and ‘’ BAKWAASBAZ ’’ goes well with me, and mind you at that age when we were hardly 16 years of age when we had passed from that School . The hard training which was more subjected to PHYSICALITIES and PHYSICALS has made the MIND so TOUGH that IT HARDLY MATTERS is the ATTITUDE and that had carried me to this stage of LIFE.
Time FLIES the age takes a back seat. Youth turns into OLD and there are many intances which bring about many a reminiscences of those GOOD GOLDEN days . This was just an effort to pay a kind of a TRIBUTE to those ROOF which were above our/ my HEAD on those days and a TRIBUTE to those LABOURERS who toiled hard to GIVE us/ ME the comforts of life . A TRIBUTE to those FORGOTTEN warriors of ARCHITECTURE and CONSTRUCTIONS.
No DOUBT as they say-:
WHO JAWANI KAY DIN, WHO KHWABO KE DIN ie those days of DREAMS and those days of STRUGGLE
Regards
Shyamal Bhattacharjee
Mr. Shyamal Bhattacharjee, the author was born at West Chirimiri Colliery at District Surguja, Chattisgarh on July 6th 1959 He received his early education at Carmel Convent School Bishrampur and later at Christ Church Boys' Higher Secondary School at Jabalpur. He later joined Hislop College at Nagpur and completed his graduation in Science and he also added a degree in B A thereafter. He joined the HITAVADA, a leading dailies of Central India at Nagpur as a Sub-Editor ( Sports ) but gave up to complete his MBA in 1984 He thereafter added a Diploma In Export Management. He has authored THREE books namely Notable Quotes and Noble Thought published by Pustak Mahal in 2001 Indian Cricket : Faces That Changed It in 2009 and Essential Of Office Management in 2012. He possesses a experience of about 35 years in marketing
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