Patna memory trek
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| At a dinner party in Maurya |
I
am visiting Patna almost after 20 years. I was last here some time
around 1993 or 94, I don't remember exactly. I left Patna after
completing class 4 from St
Karen’s School
but continued to visit Patna once or twice a year till 1994.
I
went to the Hira
Palace
market at Dak
Bungalow Road
where we once had our family business shop of suitings and shirtings
called Chandan.
It has now changed into a jewellery shop. I went inside the market
looking for other shops of which I had faint memories. I stepped into
a mens' wear shop and asked the person there if it used to be the
Vatika
Sari shop.
The person, Savar Agrawal, looked at me and asked which year I was
talking of since Vatika
was closed many years ago.
When
I asked him about another shop called Chola,
he said that it had closed down some three or four years ago. I had
fond memories of two shops in that market. One was the Wonderland
which used to be a video game parlour and the other was the Sweet
Home Confectionary
shop which sold vegetable patties I used to madly crave for. I still
remembered the exact location of both the shops.
When
I reached where there used to be Wonderland,
instead I saw another shop called Doma
Saha Mohanlal Jewellers.
But the Sweet
Home Confectionery
was still very much there. I stepped into the shop and hesitantly
inquired, “Do you still keep vegetable patties!” And almost
instantly I noticed a box of vegetable patties lying in the same
corner where it used to during my childhood days. Later, I came to
know that the
Sweet
Home Confectionary
shop
had done very well. They had made a very good name for themselves and
have opened a few more outlets in the city.
I
saw Kamani
Beauty Parlour
and on my way back from the market I also saw Sahib
& Sahiba;
the shop which used to keep Raymond suitings & shirtings and from
where we used get our clothes stitched. I wanted to step in for a
while but had no time. I told the driver to take the car to the
Income
Tax Chauraha
where I used to live in the house of one Sumitra Devi.
It
did not take me more than a minute to find my way straight to the
house which still had that pinkish red colour and also the nala
which we used to call ganda
nala. Much
to my
surprise even afer three decades, that nala it is still open and
lives up to its name.
 |
| With Dr Ajit Pradhan, Vikram Seth, Indoria ji and Vikram Sampath |
There
was a maid who came out of the garden and I asked her about Sumitra
Devi. She looked quizzed and said that she had died more than eight
years ago. Sumitra Devi’s family is into politics and one of their
relatives, if I remember correctly, her daughter-in-law, is Meera
Kumar – the current Speaker of the Lok
Sabha.
I asked the maid several questions and she kept telling me that she
did not know much about the house. I will have to speak to Sumitra
Devi’s daughter next week. The
maid probably thought that I had gone there to look for flats
available on rent in the house.
From
there, I went to the railway station opposite Hotel
Samrat
to look out for shops called Mehman
and
Mayfair.
From the road I could spot the sports shoes and equipment shop.
After
I left Patna on completing class four, I still visited the city and
used to sit in the shop Mehman
which belonged to our extended family till
1993-94. I asked about Mayfair
which used to be a very famous restaurant selling vegetarian and
non-vegetarian rolls which they used to serve outside to customers on
their bikes and cars.
 |
| With Pavan Verma and Gulzar Sahab |
After
a quick trip, I returned to the Patna
Museum
and had lunch with many of the authors. I had a chat with Pavan Verma
and Gulzar about the Fest.
There
was some respite from the rains today and the weather had cleared up
though it wasn't sunny yet. While going through these old places, I
found it somewhat hard to believe that I was visiting Patna after 20
years.
ess
bee
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