Dehra as I Knew:-

It was start of summers (April-May) 1989, when we arrived at Dehradun. My father being on a transferrable Govt. job was transferred from Mysore (now known as Mysuru) to Dehradun. I was small kid then, but memoirs of Dehra have been imprinted in my subconscious and will be with me for a life time.

I still remember, the day we arrived at Dehradun was a sunny day. My Mausaji (my mother's sister's husband) was there at the railway station to receive us. Mausaji and his family used to live in a place called Badshahi Bagh, near Vikas Nagar, which was around 1-2 hours away from Dehradun. Mausaji was a very resourceful & helpful person and had arranged for an accommodation for us. This accommodation was a house built by Awas Vikas in Indra Nagar. Indra Nagar was a well planned residential colony. Back then Indra Nagar was considered far from the heart of the city and was still considered to be on the outskirts of Dehradun. 

As the train arrived at Dehradun first think I noticed was the colonial style architecture of the railway station. As we started moving towards Indra Nagar and crossed the small bus stand near the Railway station (called the Mussoorie bus stand, where you get busses for Mussoorie and other hill areas) I could see pony driven tongas. They reminded of the colonial British Era when tongas were a common mode of transport. As back then there were few vehicles and the distances with-in the city were small. Tongas have vanished from the roads these days. Probably people have moved on too fast and have forgotten the tongas. 

As we moved towards Indra Nagar, on Kanwali road near Balliwala Chowk, we crossed a dried pebbly river. Although very common in the hills, it was a new phenomenon for us to witness traffic plying over a dried river. I remember during the course of our stay at Dehradun we regularly crossed this river which was dried up in summers and was full of water & silt in the rainy season. Now a bridge has been built over it.
As we reached Balliwala Chowk we noticed a Canal running along the General Mahadev Singh road. It was again altogether a different sight, where you see a Canal flowing through the heart of the city. Dehradun had few Canals similar to Canal at General Mahadev Singh road back then. The Canal on General Mahadev Singh road has now been covered and a road is built over it. One would not find even traces of the Canal there. Someone who was born after the Canal was covered would never ever imagine that there used to be a "Living" Canal at the place where there is traffic all around. One would now see a flyover also built on General Mahadev Singh road near Balliwala Chowk. Modernization and urbanization have engulfed the vanities of the past .I have fond memories of the Canal which I have penned down in my Blog The Canal on General Mahadev Singh Road.

Crossing Balliwala Chowk as we moved towards Indra Nagar we could see Leechi Orchards. In those days Dehradun was known for its Leechis. We used to enjoy Lecchis and Leechi Juice in summers. Unfortunately the Lecchi Orchards have now been replaced by the concrete jungle. Buildings, houses etc have been built on a lot of Leechi Orchards. Now we seldom see Leechi Orchards in Dehradun.

Crossing the Leechi Orchards just a few meters away was Anurag Nursery, a well know Nursery (and landmark) of that time which used to sell all sort of plants. Near Anurag Nursery one sight that left me awestruck was to see a lady drive a scooter. Although it was quite common for ladies in Dehradun to drive all sorts of two wheelers and four wheelers but I had never seen a lady drive a vehicle.

Taking a left turn from Anurag Nursery and driving for some more time through roads covered with the weed Lantana on both sides we finally reached our house. We noticed that our neighbor was army personnel. We were later told that Dehradun was one of the chosen locations for the Army Personnel to settle down after retirement.

The first look of the house made it pretty evident that the house has not been inhabited for sometime as within the boundary of the house in the open area it had all sorts' weeds and grass growing. I noticed that the open area was covered with small pebbles (gravel) locally called Bajri. In those days Bajri was a common feature in houses of Dehradun. It was a kind of a natural aid to facilitate rain water harvesting. The rain water would seep down into the ground to enrich the ground water table without leaving any muddy puddles. It was also believed that pet dogs guarding the houses could hear the sounds of any invader or rodent/reptile (like snakes etc) better in Bajri. Of late Bajri has been replaced with cemented and tiled floors. Probably houses in Dehradun have lost the Old World Charm.

Another prominent feature that I noticed in houses all around was presence of a small garden in the front and presence of fruit bearing trees like Mango, Lichi, Guava, Papaya, Pomelo ( a Citrus fruit locally called Chakotara) etc in the backyard (and in few cases in front as well). 
People used to maintain a well manicured lawn in the front of the house. The lawn had all sorts of flowering and ornamental shrubs and herbs, few flowering plants I can recollect now are bottlebrushes, bougainvillea, marigold, roses, jasmine etc. During rainy season all the houses were covered by blooming, colorful flowers giving them a vivid and pleasant look. The fruit bearing trees, the blooming flowers, the gardens etc have all lost their places in the multistoried building dwelling all across Dehradun these days.

As we entered the house, we could smell and fell dampness. I remember dampness was something that was common in all the houses built by Awas Vikas or houses is general in Dehradun.
The door of the bedroom was jammed due to dampness. My father gave it a push, it opened and we went in. It was a damp room. As we were inspecting the room a small piece of roof plaster broke and landed on my father's head. It was a small piece hence it did not hurt him. One thing was pretty evident that plaster on the walls and the roof was all in tatters. Later while living in that house for next 21 Years we got the complete house mended and re-plastered. Anyhow we finally settled down at the place that day.

I remember in those days, unlike nowadays, neighbors were quite helpful. We were welcomed and greeted by our neighbors. I remember our neighbors bringing in Tea and Snacks to our place the day we arrived. We were also invited by them for lunch and dinner until our kitchen was all set. I seldom see such gestures these days.

The biggest asset of this house was that it had a playground just in-front of it. I was introduced to a new sport football in this ground. Read my Blog Love for Football where I have penned down my love for the game. While growing up we played football, cricket and all sorts of games in the playground. After the games, at dusk, the ground was the place for friends to sit down chit-chatting, especially in winters when the sunset was early. In years to come all the festivals like Holi, Dussehra etc were all celebrated collectively by all the colony members in the ground. i have very fond memories of all the activities we did in the ground.

As our luggage arrived and we got our bicycles, we started exploring the place. We would cycle down the streets here and there without any fear. One day as we cycled on the main road for some more distance, from the house, than usual we reached at a place which had a huge entrance gate. This place was called SeemaDwar. There were one or two small general merchant shops and a cycle repair shop near it. The huge entrance gate was the entry point to I.T.B.P (Indo-Tibetan Border Police) campus. Inside this campus going forward we would have our school.

In those days it was customary to call places "Upar Ki Taraf" or "Upar" meaning some place which is some-bit uphill or on a gradient and "Niche Ki Taraf" or "Niche" for the places which were on the slope. I heard these colloquial wordings by a lot of Doonites.

Behind our house as we cycled we found a lot of trees and crossing the trees we found a great trough, a low lying area. People used to colloquially call it "Khala". It was a place which had huts and Kache Ghars (un-cemented houses). It was a place where the maids, servants and other worker community lived. The slope here was of high gradient; hence sometimes for fun we would take our cycles there and ride downhill.

Across the "Khala" there used to be rice fields and a huge lake. The rice fields were in the Majra region where the world famous Basmati rice was grown. The huge lake had fishes. During our growing years we heard stories of boys fishing there and having fun.

Both the rice fields and the lake have now been replaced by building, houses etc and now is just a concrete jungle. The so called modernization has engulfed countless lakes and rice fields.

I miss my old Dehradun, I wish someone could bring it back...

To Be Continued...