Often, I come across a strange question - "Where is your home town ?". Its actual meaning is - where is your home ? Or, let us know the name of the town, where your parental home exist. But, I end up with strange answers. My father was born and brought up in Machillipatnam (Andrha Pradesh) and migrated to Madhya Pradesh (Now, Chhattisagarh) in search of job. He got a decent job in Bhilai Steel Plant and spent rest of his career/life in Bhilai. It was also the place, where he took his last breath in 2004. My mother was a telugu origin person, born and brought up Jeypore (Dist. Koraput, Orissa). She got married to my father and obviously settled in Bhilai. Their hometowns should be Machillipatnam and Jeypore (going with the right definition). Bhilai is a semi-metropolitan city now. Its 40 kms away from Raipur, the capital city of Chhattisagarh. Bhilai Steel Plant is spread across several small towns/mines and villages. But, what I still can recollect is - it has a very big hospital, i.e., Sector - 9 Hospital. So, myself and my two senior siblings were also born and brought up in Bhilai Sector-9 hospital. To put in proper words. myself and my second brother were born in Bhilai, but were brought up in a small city, called Dalli Rajhara. Its about 80 kms away from Bhilai. The golden town. The city of friends. The city of friendship. The city of togetherness. I completed my education till graduation from this small city Dalli Rajhara. Afterwards, I migrated to Durg/Bhilai for my post-graduation. It was long back in 1994, when I last visited Dalli Rajhara, and the purpose was to collect my graduation certificates. Somehow, events turn so and so that I could never visit this city again. Somewhat similar story evolved around Bhilai too. I completed my post-graduation from this city in 1996. My parents were well-settled in this city, as we have built our own home in this city. Life was good and fine, even though my relations with this city also came to a pause, as I proceeded for my higher education to Thiruvananthapuram in 1998. But my affection with this city never died, as my parents were there in Bhilai. I kept on visiting this city reasonably and frequently till 2004. But, the city where we were born, and my father built up his own career....became gradually apart from me. It was in May 2004, when after some prolonged disease, I lost my father. He was finally admitted in Chest Ward, Sector-9 Hospital. With his sad demise, my relations with this city almost came to an end. We preferred to move Amma together with us, rather than leaving her alone. My eldest brother was well-settled in Orissa, while my second brother was in Bhopal. I was temporarily in Hyderabad, but later moved to South Korea for post-doctoral work. In short, my relations with Bhilai came to a big pause. Ever since 2005, somehow I never got a workable opportunity to visit back this city. Almost after 12 years, my school friends made it to happen again. They called for a Reunion of School mates of 1991-1992, and I very readily agreed to visit this place again. I was extremely excited to visit my hometown, where I was born and brought up. September 30, 2017 - I took flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Hyderabad and subsequently from Hyderabad to Raipur. Nothing was more exciting for me, as my closest friends Nasiruddin Malik and Arun Kumar Bera came all the way to Raipur Airport to receive me. Finally, I was in my own Chhattisagarh. I'll soon post my next blog about - Reunion of my school mates (1991-1992) batch. In the meantime, I'm hereby posting some of the very memorable photographs below. "What kind of food will you prefer ?". Thats what Arun and Nasiruddin asked me for dinner. I said, some Jain food. They drove me to a very good restaurant in Bhilai Supela. Let me admit that I took more than what I generally do. Superb food. Everything was perfect. Thanks again to Arun and Nasiruddin. [ DISCLAIMER ] All content provided on this web-page blog is for informational purposes only. The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site. The owner of this website will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the availability of this information. The owner will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information. This terms and conditions is subject to change at anytime with or without notice.
1 Comment
Jimmy George
11/10/2017 19:18:34
Subbu, perfect narration. Eagerly waiting for further blogs. :-)
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