How will you feel, if you have not visited a city/place for about 25 years, And God gives you an opportunity to visit it again ?
Surely, you all may have some sweet/sour memories of almost all the cities that you have lived in. Some cities are left behind, but come back in our life cycle, and majority of us will agree with me that - we will prefer to visit back the places that we have left behind. Dalli Rajhara: I can call it as a small city, not very big in area, not very big in infrastructure, not very excellent for tourism, but it has something very very big. Whats that ? Its the heart of people who lived in here. The people of Dalli Rajhara are born sweet, brought up in atmosphere of sweetness, togetherness and nurtured in blood of pure friendship. The people around this city have ample of time to invest in friendship. They will join you for all small nitty-gitty things. Even a small plant leave cannot be replaced in this city without knowledge of the complete society. You just name a person, and take it from me - every small, medium age, and old age people will know about the person. I was fortunate enough to spend more than two decades in this city - Dalli Rajhara, the city of iron ore. Its about 80-85 kms away from Durg/Bhilai. To the best of my knolwledge, there is still a single train from Durg to Dalli Rajhara. It goes up/down twice a day or so. And the name of small villages within this railway line is very interesting. Let me recollect from my childhood memories: Dalli Rajhara Chikhalkasa Kusumkasa Balod Latabor Gunderdehi Maroda Durg The rail journey from Dalli Rajhara to Durg is probably one of the most interesting journeys, you may ever get to enjoy. In my childhood days, the rail engine used to be Coal Engine which require plenty of coal, and its black plume will turn your eyes red, and white clothes pretty brown/blackish after the journey. Overall, there used to be 4 bogies excluding the guard bogie. Balod was kind of intermittent station, where the rail engine used to fill water from the top. As a child, I was always astonished to visit the engine from nearby, but always had fear that - the so-called black color engine is actually very hot. Or that is what was told to me by my parents, and I used to keep away from this engine. In between, it used to release clutch or so, which will make extremely noisy sound, and I used to run away miles apart. Balod...yes, it was very famous. Why ? There used to be a famous SAMOSA shop in this railway station. And the logic of the stay in this station was simple. The so-called station master/guard of this station will not show green signal, unless and until all the samosas are consumed by the passengers. Quite funny, right.....still it was the fact. Maroda station was again famous, because the engine used to change the direction here. So if you were moving in forward direction till this station, you will start moving backward from this station. A common terminology for Polytechnique and other college going student was - WITHOUT TICKET. In early 1980s or so, the price of Dalli Rajhara-Durg ticket was less than a rupee, but still the youngsters used to travel without ticket. I too did it once, but that was my first and last journey without ticket. I was quite feared in doing WITHOUT TICKET. Well, once upon a time, this small city was a heritage of schools. There were so many schools in this city. To name a few: BSP Higher Secondary School No. 1, 2 and 3. Primary School No. 28 and 6 were another two famous schools. Nirmala School and Senior Secondary School were another two famous schools. Those who were born in 70-80 generation will know the hierarchy of these schools. In each of these schools, there used to be two shifts - (1) Morning shift 0700 am - 1200 noon; (2) Noon shift 1200 noon - 0500 pm. And in hindi, we used to tease each other as : Subah wale Sundar Barah baje wale Bandar I recollect some more hindi sayings.. Chikani Mundi Chane kaa daal, Maaro juuta ud gaye baal. Well, thats something about morning and noon shift. Among the two famous primary schools, school no. 28 was close to Officers Colony. Just nearby, there was a Ganesh Temple on somewhat top mountain. During exam time, school girls of 28 no. school used to offer bananas (school tiffin) to God praying that - Bhagwaan, is baar bus maths nikaal do. I was/am a product of this school. Rather, let me admit, I am a proud student of this school. Shri Thakur Sir was my first primary school teacher. During my visit, I am told that - he is no more. Quite sad. But this is part of life. There was another school no. 6. It was almost in the heart of city, close to Post Office and Ram Mandir. Ram Mandir was built later. I have affection to both the schools like anything. I never studied in school no. 6 (except for a week or so, when we all students of school no. 28 were put in this school during some renovation of 28 no. school). My affection with school no. 6 is due to its cricket ground. Famous cricket ground. You can play cricket 12 months here. Whether its raining or chilled weather, the brown/red color ground permits us to play cricket all the times. Through out my stay, I enjoyed cricket here. We had very very famous team : GPG. Abbreviation of GPG was - Great Progressive Group. My friend knows the other full form. I won't reveal it here. Another rival team was Moonlight team. I still recollect the golden days of cricket. We were famous for discipline, direct throws. First time flood light match was quite memorable. We used to hit sixers to Ram Mandir. Sharp 04 pm, we used to start our cricket, which used to go till 0630 pm or so. After all the matches are over, we used to have strategic discussion on - what went wrong, who played bad etc. etc. Full politics. There was a senior secondary school. Presumably, the students studying here were considered to be english-speaking, intelligent and above school no. 6 and 28. Well, whatever, there were three more schools. School no. 1, 2 and 3. BSP HSS No. 1 was in Pander Dalli, School No. 2 was in city, close to cooperative society while School No. 3 was in camp. There was a private school - Nirmala School. In fact, Nirmala Sector itself was on its name. Shahid School was yet another school to mention. If there is any strike, we used to get holidays, and it was most memorable for us. All the schools, societal elements, good, bad and all kind of persons were attached to each other through a biggest possible event, known as Football matches. Dalli Rajhara used to host national level football matches, and we used to get tickets in schools at subsidized rates. Special privileges were given to BSP employees. Once, you have completed schoolings, we had a single college, i.e., Govt. Nemi Chand Jain Arts, Commerce and Science College. Often the full form of this college was asked to junior students during ragging. Starting from Hospital Sector, Nirmala Sector, Pander Dalli, Andhra Samiti, Utkal Samiti, ZE Office, Market, Bus Stand, Railway Sector, Camp.....the city was spread across length and breadth but the society was united. Those who stayed in my childhood can very well recollect the very very famous event of a person (Jogi***** Bhaiyaa) hitting a person with knife in front of hospital. It was block no. 1, famous as Russian block. A tileted Puliya was in front of this block. My childhood was spend in 3F/3A. After retirement, we moved to Lakshmi Typewriting Institute, BSP Shopping Complex, Behind Cooperative Society. In this home, we were fortunate enough to grab Yadav Uncle's famous samosas. He use to carry samosas to Open Air theatre where badminton, carrom, table tennis kind of plays were held. But we used to grab hot hot samosas intermittently. His chutney was fully famous in Rajhara. Andhra Samiti, Utkal Samiti, Fataka Bazaar were some more famous landmarks near to this home. Just behind this home, we used to have famous famous NISHAD CHAT BHANDAAR. Those who have tasted CHAT and PANIPURI of this shop will never like Mumbai Chat stalls. INTUC Office was yet another landmark behind our shop. RAJHARA BABA, MAHAMAYA, JHALMALA, BORDIE DAM....the list can go on. For tourists, these places may sound nothing, but those who spent their life in Dalli Rajhara will never forget these places. If a boy is behind a girl, the news used to spread faster than internet and aajtak in Dalli Rajhara. Which love affair is fructifying, and which love affair is going in wrong direction, everything was known to everybody in this city. One of the saddest event that took place in this area was - Murder of very very famous leader SHANKAR GUHA NIYOGI. He was a true leader. I happen to leave this city in 1994 after completing my B.Sc from Govt NCJ college. Somehow, I could never visit this place again till I made it again in 2017. My sincere thanks to my friends Arun Kumar Bera, Nasiruddin Malik, Sanjay Kumar Pandey, Surendra Tripathi, Manoj Kumar Gupta, Atendra Srivastava (to name a few, sorry if I forgot some names, extremely sorry). My wish was to re-visit this city as part of reunion. My dream came true on 1-2 October night. After successful completion of school reunion, myself with my friends travelled to Dalli Rajhara. On the way, in Gunderdehi - I was offered world class KALAKAND and TEA. Worth remembering. We checked in Dalli Rajhara around 1130 PM in Chatkaare Hotel. Excellent food and affection. We all stayed together close to Sapna Medical. Our friend Pandey jee preferred to get the food packed at 1130 PM, rather than having it at Chatkaare. 2nd October is supposed to be dry day, but intentions were clear. He wanted to have drinks. No problems. From 12 night to early morning 0330, he continued his drinks without disturbing anybody. Myself and Nasiruddin gave him a dry company being with him. He enjoyed his drinks, while we enjoyed talks. We recollected so many old events. Had time stopped then and there, we would have continued till next week. But we slept in same room at 0330 AM. Strangely, I got up at 0530 AM itself, as I was very very excited to see my old home, school etc. Thanks to Arun Kumar Bera, who gave a night drive to me at 1200 and shown all the famous places in night itself. 2nd October morning, myself, Nasiruddin and Arun went in a two-wheeler for a short ride. We visited our school no. 28 and many other places. Fun was unlimited. I can keep writing, but will take a break now. Though everything went fine, but I missed our cricket team. I could not play cricket again in school no. 6. I will regret it forever, but what to do ? It has boundary wall and gate, which was not there in our childhood time. When I left Dalli Rajhara, I was sad. Sad because, it is no more the same city that I left behind. Only lesson I took from this trip is - WHATEVER BELONGS TO YOU TODAY, IT WILL BELONG TO SOMEBODY ELSE TOMORROW. NOTHING IS YOURS. WHATEVER YOU GOT HERE, YOU TOOK FROM SOMEBODY AND YOU WILL HAVE TO GIVE IT TO SOMEBODY. My sweet home, which used to be full of crowd around....is now so lonely. Not even the sound of plant leaves is heard here. My favourite school no. 28, where we all kids used to gather in morning. Two small shops run by two ladies were at the school gate who use to sell Chana, Chewing Gum etc. ...Now, we don't find those ladies there. The school is converted to a guest house. Just behind was the Male Urinals (Open field), now it seems to be occupied with some building. My infamous/famous college, where I used to ride my YAMAHA (2258) blindly at the speed of 80, is no more the same college. It has got a big gate now. I could not even enter the college. It was closed. Only I could take a selfie in front of this college. I wanted to enter my class room, but it was not possible. There used to be a samosa shop near college, but I could not find it again. NISHAD CHAT BHANDAR was also not seen. My famous GPS batchmates were not seen around school no. 6. There was no announcement in rickshaw that.....ARORA OPTICALS....BANO BHAIYOO, AAPKE SHAHAR MEN KAL SHAAM ARORA OPTICALS ME AANKHO KE DOCTOR AA RAHE HAIN.... Asha Talkies is not running anymore. The tickets of Rs. 1.60/-; 3.20 and 5.00 are not available anymore. Mahavir Tourin Talkies is also not functional any more. The famous gas godown which was sunk in rains once upon time is missing now. Probably, we should not fall in love with any cities. But I did. And I know, many of my friends also did. Because Dalli Rajhara deserves to be loved. Share it, if you too love Dalli Rajhara and post your comments below. I'm posting some of my memorable snaps taken during my revisit to Dalli RAjhara on 2nd October 2017. 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10 Comments
Mukesh Dwivedi
12/10/2017 00:57:26
Dear Subbu,
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Subbu
12/10/2017 01:15:53
Thanks a lot Mukesh. I'm glad that you liked my blog. Dalli Rajhara is a place to be loved.
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Jimmy George
12/10/2017 15:44:30
Dear Subbu,
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CA Vikas Jain
5/8/2018 14:57:22
Very Nice. Very nice collection of old memories relating to Dalli Rajhara. Really there is something in this town, which makes it different and very special. Everyone who was connected with this place can not escape from it's attraction and magnetic effect. There were many places, occasions and events of this town, which are still in the soul of all the people relating to this place. Football match was like biggest festival of this town. Any many more things which can not be explained in the words. CA Vikas Jain
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Vijay Rao
7/9/2018 00:13:13
Nice to read this blog. Rajhara was a unique place, like a Shangri La hidden from the rest of the world. I enjoyed reading your CV too - congratulations - you made quite a career journey from NC Jain to ISRO !!
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Subbu
7/9/2018 02:44:57
Thanks a lot
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Biju Pillai
13/2/2021 09:08:49
Dear subbu,
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Terrence Joeboy
16/2/2021 04:34:03
Dear bro
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S.R.KRISHNA
27/8/2023 13:25:49
नमस्कार !पढकर काफी खुशी महसूस हुई।
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