Wrapping up Hubli visit series Part II. NOSTALGIA. 1967. Dad posted to Hubli as XEN ( Executive Engineer)/ Remodelling, Railway workshops, Hubli. We used to stay in a sprawling quarters in Deshpande Nagar . We had lots of garden space in the front. My grandfather, an avid farmer assiduously planted and tended a variety of flower plants. Not in vain. For two years in a row, we won the BEST BUNGALOW GARDEN in a competition conducted by Hubli Dharwad Horticultural Society competing with well heeled locals employing maalis from Tungabhadra region. And in the well appointed outhouse my tuition teacher Mrs Vacha, widow of a senior railway officer lived with her son Brian Tucker who went to join the Indian Railway Medical Service and a petite daughter Virginia Vacha who used to win gold medals for being an all rounder inviting considerable flak from my mother at my own .... er..... well.... rather uneventful performance :-) I completed my fifth and sixth std in St Marys Boys High School. Right across the road we had two Parsee friends, Rohinton and his sister Wallace Baria whose father owned a Philips radio showroom in the city. My dads peon as they were called those days was a genial old Basappa who used to bring jolada roti packed by his wife and we would open the box and gobble them, even as my mother chided. He would indulgently stop her. A kind old man on the verge of retirement, we were taught to treat him with respect. My brother and sister were too small then. Forty seven years later, I returned to the compound and stared as all those enchanting moments trickled down with my tears creating a welter of emotions never to be experienced again ! Pardon my prattle. What to do, I am like this only :-) Some captures of Deshpande Nagar Railway Quarters !
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 11:46:53 +0000
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