NRC colony – Navraatri and Dusshera

I left colony somewhere in 2001… and 8 years have passed by since I have last played Garbaa or Dandiyaa or Heench in Navratri. The simple reason for this is that I have spent atleast 15 Navratris on the CN Garbaa Ground and I could FEEL the vibes coming out of that ground… be it those days when we, as kids, use to just run around playing Chor Police around the CN 6, Parking Lot, other CN buildings and the Substation and so on and so forth…

I used to love Navratri for a few reasons. Being a gujurati, it had to be my default MOST Favorite festivalJ. A more powerful reason than this was the variety of PRASAD that we used to have in those 9 days. I loved the CRUSHED GROUNDNUT + SUGAR wala Prasad. I used to be crazyyyyyyy for that Prasad. Suppose Bhatt uncle gave this Prasad to the people standing near the Main road, I used to make sure that I also sneak into the crowd over there…then I used to sense ki Bhatt Uncle kahan jayenge.. the most of the times I used to make out ki uncle kaunse group of people ki taraf jayenge, I used to run to that group of people to get Prasad once more!!!.. I guess AMBA mata didn’t like my greediness and cursed me that I will never lose weight, however hard I try to lose weight!!!

I enjoyed playing Garbaa and all.. Ritesh Upadhyay was a pleasure to be watched. He and Tappaj used to play like crazy. The extra gravitational force on my body prevented me from hopping like grasshoppers… (while playing Heench, it pays to be hopping like a Grasshopper..!). The last reason was the party that we used to have on the last day of Navratri. We have used to have Pav Bhaaji or Paani poori, or Bhel or some delicious thing on the last day in the CN 6 ka Mahaila Mandal Room.!!! (Tikku miss ke baaju wala room.)

Another sweet thing that I can recollect is the visit to company in Dusshera. I guess it was only this day that the Gates of NRC were open to anyone who was interested in having a tour of the NRC Company. In 26 years of existence on this planet, I happened to visit the company just once. I went with my father. Ritesh Upadhyay accompanied me. Actually speaking, I didn’t understand much about the machines or anything in those days. It was just that I was proud of the fact that my dad knew so much about machines. He was in Nylon Plant then. Other co-workers used to look at me when I accompanied my dad and I used to strut while touring the whole company. Even though my dad wasn’t among the top bosses of the company I used to feel proud when someone referred to me as “Ambalia ka Beta”. I am sure that, up there in Heaven, my dad must be missing these wonderful days in colony, as much as we miss him today.