Rawatbhata: A quaint town on the banks of chambal river, famous for its reactors and hydel power projects. Now that is one info you can find it on google. But thing which you can not find it on google is the colonies , the people which lives in them that makes this town so special for me and for all of us who had been a part of town at some point in their life.
Rawatbhata as we know today is primarily divided into 6 main colonies, namely, HWP (Borivali of Rawatbhata), NTC (Bandra of Rawatbhata), ESL (Dahanu!!!!), Township (South Bombay of Rawatbhata), RAPS (may our own version of Khandala as we use to bunk school and chill out here at the thadi (refer the pic)!!!). I am comparing colonies to Mumbai as i am more aquainted with mumbai than any other city and the similarity of the people in colonies and those in Mumbai are quite striking.
Each colony has seperate set of people and thats what makes it worth appreciating. So lets take each colony one by one.
HWP : Heavy Water Colony : As a life long fan and a resident for good 21 years , I welcome you to our own version of borivali . The place where i grew up. A gossip monger's heaven, place where you can find group of guyz hanging out at midnight ( probablity is of meeting our group is more) near the Manav Mandir football ground or at sum discreet bus stop. As far as my memory goes, i have never found any dull moment here. There is something happening here always. Its a typical government colony where if a student scores 90% marks, his dad would spread this news in his office, and if he flunks, his friend will spread the news. Aunties will gather in winters to make hand woven sweaters with the initials of their child's name in capital. They will crib about their spouse , hoping that the lady sitting opposite will do the same and trust me she does and thats how the PR machinery works in HWP.
One thing that has really gotten into HWP residents is the jealousy and very K-Serial type one at that. Nothing can hide in HWP, if yadavji has purchased a new scooter, before he arrives at home with his scooter, neighbours act like a subject mater expert on chetaks and advise him on do's and don'ts (Obviously Yadavji has to oblige them with sweets and well timed yes or no to their advice).
I still remember, my neighbour , Mr.Joglekar , i fondly call him, kaka, so kaka purchased a brand new daewoo tv, and akai 3-cd changer on diwali, the next day i came to know that our other neighbour has bought the same (tht was actually quick!!!). This is one of many countless experience of jealousy. There was time when everyone started purchasing scooters and flaunt like as if its a superbike. If you are not going to Dusshera mela then you are not cool. It was a big this actually to go in crowded bus to kota to watch mela. I have never been to mela but trust me i have seen some of the aunties come to my house and show concern for us as !!!!
But the time i lived there was something different for me and i can safely say, for my friends as well! Boys of HWP were more like chilled out-no worries kinnda guyz, they are more open to nightouts and sutta at manav mandir than their counterparts in NTC or Townships. Though we made our den in NTC coz of all the pretty girls that lived there (as i said it was the BANDRA ) but smoking at Manav Mandir was something different.
HWP Gang: Jhola, Chomu, Kalla, Katora(me), Golu, Deepu, Bhoot, Pandey, Paddu, Jatpoot, Montu.
I still get nostalgic when i think of the time when i played with all these guyz , Jhola and Chomu and me used to go to gurudwara (our pre-ed) and in evening we used to play cricket, our captain was Nishu Bhaiya. Jhola was a great cribber and he has tortured Montu and Chomu in cricket like Hitler tortured Jews. Once me and him made some 670 runs and then he ran away with bat to his home , denying team of Chomu and Montu to show their batting skills. This and many such incidences fill my heart with joy and smile on my face whenever i am alone.
2000 was a year of changes, i saw a lot of changes during that year, people actually got more aware of IIT's and soon we had IIT revolution in HWP. It became and and it still is a matter of pride to send students to kota for IIT coaching and Medical coaching. Even our dads were like "are saxena uncle ka ladka kota ja raha hain" "yadavji to office me chaa gaye, unki ladki IIT me select ho gayi bhai" with a fake smile on their faces , clearly makin a hidden statement to us. While most of the student that wen to kota made it big later on.
I love you HWP for all the gossip you do and all the jealousy you show . I love the way you look at try to hog attention of some officer at shooping center to earn some brownie points in front of your colleagues. I love the way you force your childrens to follow the great middle class dream so that you can show off in office. but i love you more because you made what i am today, a free bird, bound by no one .
NTC( Our Bandra) : Earlier we used to think it as a big deal to go to NTC or know someone from type-4 or type-5. Its was a time of maruti 800's, double door fridge, colour tv, and ntc had it all of them and much more. Where our dads were getting hand blenders from orpat from HWP as diwali bonus, ntc was a cash rich society in 90's and it still is being a semi-govt firm.
But we actually starting appreciating it when we came to know that the hottest and prettiest chicks lived there , and we welcomed this change with y2k. Our processors changed and so does our computational abilities.
We did all those things which are now called the 70's style of pataofying chicks. Calling our own names in front of their appartments. Going behind them on cycle and staring at them in school and if he acknowledge your presence luckily, it was kind of christmas for us, those heartbreaks we celebrated by playing sad songs over n over again.
Though I still feel, NTC crowd was more reserved and considered themselves a superior race, i guess the people had an idea of the hotness of their girl crowd (we don't mind tht!!). Friends i had their were more likely to study on sunday. Most of the toppers were from NTC!!!
Its was the cluster, the girls and the school that made this colony colourfull. Otherwise it was on its way to become more of a class biased society. I guess Jhola was the first one to hit with girls in this colony and that really broke the ice (thanks Jhole!!).
I thank you NTC for the cluster, school, club, swimming pool, and the GIRLS. Thanks for the wonderful times we had chasing them.
NTC Gang: Koka, Chauda, Aseem, Ponga, Padda, Andy, and all our crushes till date.
Township (SoBo of Rawatbhata): We used to call this colony , nadiya ke us paar as you literally have to cross the dam to reach this colony and people their are equally snobbish , exceptions my friends. I think they considered it as matter of great pride that they were living in leftovers of canadians and they used to boast about that. They had the first swimming pool in town (one more left over!), the head of NPCIL lived there, and all the biggies of the firm. Students from township rarely came down to HWP or NTC after school. And if they came, it was kind of surprise for us. They used to tell the stories of panther sightings and all that. But it truly is a touristic place, and situated right at the banks on chambal. You can see the reactors and the dam, all the crocodiles charging themselves in the winter sun. Even for us going to township was a big deal. We had to get permission from our parents to go there.
As it was much less visited , i can not comment further on this town. But Love you township for giving us a heeras like, Chinu, Dutta, Jhabra, Chapoor.
Then there were places like ESL and CISF colonies which were more of a side actor in rawatbhata drama but none the less completed the colorful jigsaw of this town.
More landmarks, the one which you see in this pic is the THADI where most of them including me smoked thier first ciggis. Manav Mandir, submersible bridge, Bhainsroad Garh etc.
I might have missed some names or some events or some places , i do apologise for them. I could actually write a novel or make film on Rawatbhata but i niether a writer or a film maker, all i can do is write a blog full of gramatical errors.
I do like to mention it to all my friends , that please write their funny experience of colony life in the comments section in brief.
A blog on our school life coming soon ....
