Once upon a time in Allahabad

"Once upon a time in Allahabad"

First came the musical chimes - one chime, loud and clear, for each quarter of an hour. Then came the powerful gongs that set the skies vibrating for miles around. Eight gongs in all, as I entered new katra colony at eight o'clock  on my first morning in Allahabad.  Welcome to the University of Allahabad !!

Yes that was the welcome note to my arrival at Allahabad university several decades back.  The powerful clock tower was on the top of the majestic, red roofed yellow stone Senate Hall in the Arts faculty campus. This clock had been supplied by the manufacturers of the London Big Ben and was a perfect copy of the famous clock.

As I look back through the mist of time I see the university road connecting the science  and the arts blocks. There were several shops on either side of the road, some were book shops and  there were at least two restaurants.

Towards the Sir Sunder Lal  Hostel side the last shop was a restaurant cum  bakery of Bhat ji. That was two shops after the barber's shop.A young man from there carrying a big tin  box in the carrier of his bike used to come to our hostel in the afternoon. There were fresh buns, butter, pastries and  loaves of bread in the box

. We either paid in cash or noted the amount in a long narrow book that he carried, to settle the payment at the end of the month.

Somewhere in the middle of that small market was the popular Jagati's restaurant, its owner, Mr. Jagati always in a Gandhi cap over the western dress.  It was usually fully packed at lunch time with students and others. I believe that it is no longer there.

The corner shop at the crossing towards the science block was a general merchandise shop run by two almost identical looking  young brothers.

They stored almost every thing a student required. When nylon was first introduced, this shop was among the first to sell somewhat expensive pure nylon socks which were tough enough to last for ever! The cotton socks used to wear out within weeks.

From this general merchandise shop crossing,  there was a road towards the Anand Bhawan. Right at the  beginning was H D Pant tailor's shop. At a little distance, close to the Diamond Jubilee hostel , was a corner tea shop run by an old woman.

The shop was popularly known as "Buria ki dukan"(old woman's shop. She offered some ready made snacks and good quality tea. A tasty, spicy "mixture" of puffed rice and various "dals" was popular with students, most of whom were on shoe string budgets.

The Arts block side had the stately grand Senate Hall.

The science campus  consisted of  yellow stone buildings of various departments and one could locate  the chemistry department by the pungent odors of various gases including H2S emanating from there !. The university's cricket ground, hockey and football fields as also the squash and tennis courts were located here in the  ample open expanses. There was also  that timeless stately Muir tower.

The campus was very  clean.Plastic desposable shopping bags and plastic bottles had not yet arrived and the menace of plastic garbage was blissfully missing. All  food in the hostels  was organic as the use of fertilisers and pesticides had also not begun. The air was  clean. The menace of smog came later.

That was way back in the past. But the gongs of London's big Ben at the start of  BBC news still keep resurrecting the  memory of my days once upon a time in Allahabad !

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