Life in a Township

7th day of #Blogchatter daily write challenge  

I was born and did my schooling in Ernakulam/ Kochi Kerala. Subsequently, I did my graduation and  post-graduation in the then Madras or today's Chennai. As these were cities, I had had no exposure to living in a township of a company. It was when I secured my first job as management trainee in Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Ltd (VISL), Bhadravati that I got the opportunity to live in a township, situated 250 Kms away from Bangalore. Around 60 of us joined VISL as management trainees (mostly engineers) in April 1981. I lived in the township for about 10 years and left on being transferred to another unit of SAIL in Kuteshwar, Madhya Pradesh in 1991. The township brings back sweet memories as it was the place to which I brought my bride after marriage, where we celebrated the first birthday of our elder son Manas and other such events. 

In recent times cities have been attempting to replicate the township style of having all your requirements met at arms distance within a township or a couple of kms away. As for example, those days people who wanted to do important shopping in Bangalore went to commercial street, MG road or Majestic area. Today, malls and super markets have come up in various residential areas like Jayanagar, Koramangala, JP nagar etc . 

At Bhadravati, in our township, we had the post office, a beautiful park, a100 bedded hospital with specialist doctors , the VISSJ Government polytechnic and the Visvesvaraya college all in walking distance. The officer's club premises had facilities to play shuttle,  indoor games like carroms and of course some enjoyed playing cards. We also had a canteen at the club and small hotels in the township. For other requirements like the movie theatres, you only had to drive a couple of kms. Therefore, most families had two wheelers that took them to wherever they wanted to go including the work place. 

The road facing the main gate had lovely flowering giant trees on either side giving it a grand peaceful air to it (See picture on top). I was thrilled to see this road when I first came from Madras to Bhadravati. Unlike Madras, Bhadravati had a cool temperate climate. Seasonal vegetables were available in abundance brought from the nearby villages. I could appreciate this aspect all the more when I moved to Kuteshwar MP, a mining area on transfer. Here, most vegetables were not available. People mostly bought potatoes and onions in large quantities.   

Those days, Bhadravati town depended mainly on the business generated from the customers working for the two industries viz VISL and MPM (Mysore Paper Mills). As the factories worked for 6 days the markets in Bhadravati for the convenience of customers were open on Sundays and had Tuesdays as their weekly holiday. In the township there was close bonding with everyone knowing each other. This is particularly so in respect of neighbours. As for example my neighbour on the left of our house Balakrishna Shetty had joined the company together in 1981 and both worked in personnel (as HR was known then) department. My wife Jitha and Balakrishna's spouse Asha became good friends. 

Nostalgic memories flow to my mind when I think of Bhadravati and our township. My son started his LKG schooling  here. His first birthday is a sweet memory. He could just about stand a few days prior to the birthday. My wife was teaching him to blow the candle for a week before the D day. Friends who had assembled for the celebration were surprised (some amused) to see the one year old birthday boy blow his candle before cutting the cake. 

At the time of writing this post, I searched on the internet for pictures if any, of our township. I found a you tube channel "Namma Payana" (our travels) with an episode "Bhadravati - A glimpse inside new town". One of the comments written below the video was by a nostalgic viewer who said "This makes me very emotional. Next time can you please show our home at D/F quarters?" To my surprise and delight the one who had written the comment was Nanda Vijayadev, the daughter of our neighbour, Vijayadev who used to live opposite to our house. I can understand her feelings. We share a similar nostalgia...