Dehra then and now:

My recent visits to Dehradun have prompted me to pen down this blog. I see stark differences in Dehradun now, from the days of my childhood. Somehow I was trying to find the Dehradun of my childhood in today's Dehradun and I must say I failed miserably. It puts me into deep pain when I see that the Dehradun of my childhood is lost somewhere in rapid urbanization. I am not sure if this is true with other cities and towns as I don't have a point of reference in the past to compare them with today's situation. But for Dehradun I am sure things have changed beyond the point they could be compared with their counterparts in the past. Someone who is born in recent times cannot even imagine how pristine Dehradun was. I just want to add my perspective and view point so that anyone of generation Z reading this blog would know how Dehra was before the time they were born.

• Dehra has transformed into a concrete jungle. I see multistoried apartments and high rise buildings which were never the part of Dehradun's skyline. I remember Dehradun used to have independent houses with slanting roofs. A glimpse of which can be seen in various bungalows in FRI and perhaps in some old houses. The slanting roofs probably aided for the rain water to slide down and would save from water seepage in houses. I still believe the downpour Dehradun used to have, was very efficiently handled by these slanting roofs.
  Also the open areas around the houses which used to have Bajri (gravel) laid over them to facilitate rain water seep into the water table have been replaced with concrete floors.
  The gardens, kitchen gardens etc. have automatically vanished in the apartments. I remember every house in good old days used to have gardens having various fruit bearing trees and various kinds of shrubs and flowering plants. During rainy season the gardens were blooming with vibrant and vivid flowers, they have all vanished now.
  I was told that a lot many apartments & houses have no inhabitants and are taken care by their caretakers as their owners are outsiders who visit Dehradun only during summers or winters. 
  
  
• Dehradun, what used to be a sleepy settlement have transformed into a big city, the Capital of Uttarakhand. Population has grown many folds which has added so much of traffic. I was so appalled to see traffic jams in Dehradun. Every household has a car, some families have multiple cars. All these cars put on the roads create a choking situation. I could witness the number of two wheelers have also gone up many folds the Two wheelers and the Four wheelers really choke the roads and the city. Somehow I felt that even the newly built flyovers and widened roads are under pressure of ever increasing traffic in Dehradun. At certain places I felt Dehradun is no different from various metropolitan cities known for their traffic jams.
  Many fold increase in vehicular traffic supported by many other factors including cutting of trees have raised the pollution levels, which is so very sad. As kids living in Dehradun we did not even know what air pollution meant as we never experienced it.
  
  
• Dehradun has in way lost its beauty. So many trees have been cut down. More trees are still being cut down for widening of roads and other purposes. The canals have been made underground, covered with roads over them. The Canal on General Mahadev Singh Road met the same fate and has also perished (Read my Blog on "The Canal on General Mahadev Singh Road" here). The Litchi gardens across the city and the Rice fields of Majra are near to extinction, they have given way to multi-storied buildings, housing societies & apartments.
  I saw a lot of encroachment over the streams that used to flow in and around Dehradun. These streams used to facilitate proper channeling of rain water have now been encroached which causes flooding of water into the city.
  People told me that the lack of proper channelization of rain water due to the encroachment of streams, concretization all across the city (which avoids water seeping into the water table) and improper ways for rain water harvesting sometimes cause a lot of water logging in the Dehradun these days.
  
  
• Dehradun has become so much crowded now. Every place you go is full of people. There was so much inflow of people into the city that probably every place in and around Dehradun was occupied. Other than the inhabitants, I could see a lot of floating population of tourists, students, daily workers from adjoining places etc. etc.
  
  
• I was told by the inhabitants that the weather in Dehradun has also changed a lot. There was a time when there were no hooks for fans in the old houses in Dehradun as Dehradun never witnessed harsh summers. Now summers witness temperatures soaring above 40'C. During my childhood Dehradun used to witness local rains that used to bring down the Temperature in summers. These days the locals rains are sporadic even Monsoons are less furious and winter rains are less in number (Read my Blog "Rains in Doon" here).
  
  
• The single Screen Cinema Halls have been demolished to give way to Malls. We all had so many memories of these Cinema Halls. Probably these Cinema Halls were Heritage of the by-gone era which would now never be seen by the next generation.

I see a lot many positive changes as well but what grieves me more is I miss Dehradun of My Child hood in Dehradun. I really wish that our Pristine Dehardun is given back to the next generation so that they know what Dehradun was.

Enjoy More Memoirs of Doon on the Links shared as under:

1) Memoirs of Dehra
2) The Canal on General Mahadev Singh Road
3) Festivities of my Childhood
4) Dehra as I Knew
5) Love For Football
6) The Samosa Bet
7) The Wrestling Match