Batanagar, Shahabad : a lifetime back.

How could i have not blogged about Batanagar till date ?? How could I have been so apathetic towards that phase of my life? I probably repressed that memory! I was so unhappy in those 6 months, that I probably preferred forgetting. Well, it so happened when I was about 9 years old, the company that dad was working for, in Shahabad  (ABL, then, ABB now), suddenly closed down. Dad went back to the company he started his career with - Bata. Yes, the same Bata shoe company. The only glitch was that it was near Calcutta and we were so cosy, down south. I for one, was so not prepared to move out of the colony, leaving my friends and school behind (I was in class V ). But we had to, and we all did so with heavy hearts. Only a Shahabadi will now what it meant to have lived and grown up in a place like that. I really cannot put down those memories to words - no matter how much I write, it will never be enough said about the place and people, and I really will not do justice. So then, we moved to a new place - Batanagar. The only solace about this move was that Batanagar had a colony too and we'd not feel too alien there. However, we had to go to the city everyday for our schooling.

The journey to Orient Day High School (super pathetic school, then) from Bata was a nightmare. The school didn't have its own bus and we were left to the mercy of Calcutta's public transport. A man was appointed to accompany us to school in Kolkata's public transport - which was most often an over crowded maroon coloured Mini Bus. How I hated it. For a kid, who cycled to school everyday on clean, deserted colony roads, this was a sure shot killer. But then there were days when dad would come in a taxi to pick us up from school - I loved those days. Taxi was an indulgence in those days for us. And it spared us a treacherous 2 hour drive in the claustrophobic bus.

But somehow we got by. Not a day would pass when I'd not write to my friends, teachers,even principal of the school in Shahabad. I even prayed every night for the company in Shahabad to re-open. I was sure dad would go back. Life in Bata was so different from what we had imagined. It was a British company so the colony was also very 'Saheb' types. Very prim and propah club, and pish posh uncles and aunties. of course, I owe learning swimming to that place. That's probably the only good thing that came off our stint there. And yes a friend called Titan (Teetan Di - daughter of one of my dad's old friends in Bata. She was and still is a class apart. I hear she is doing very well for herself in Penguinthe publishing house ...have lost touch with her now though).

There was a clear distinction between the workers colony (colony no 2) and the officers colony (colony no 1). I remember making friends with a kid who also took a bus from the Bata Bus stand - the day she came to know i was from Colony No 1,  she stopped talking to me. I felt like a criminal.  I was just not ok with the whole deal. I never hated anything or anyplace as much. I called it - another brick in the wall theory, later in life. I was a pretty popular kid back in Mount Carmel Convent, Shahabad. So when Orient Day didn't give me the required attention, I was obviously cheesed off! And also the kids of Batanagar colony no 1 mostly went to real good schools which had school busses to pick them, so i was obviously offended, and gave my mum a real hard time about how they couldn't get us into a better school (we got there in the middle of the academic year, and then we had no great political/celebrity connections to get us into a school like South Point or Loretto or La Martinere....I was such a horrid child to my parents, come to think of it!). I secretly hated children going to all these hep schools - just imagine a scene from Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar and you will get the picture! It was just a bad - grapes are sour - case.

Anyway, 4 months passed and one day I over heard dad tell ma that ABL had reopened and they were taking ex employees back....I waited no longer. That night I wrote to Sr. Beena (Primary school Principal of MCC school), asking her to please reserve a seat for me (i forgot about Dipu) in class V - 'A' section only! It was no surprise that dad took the decision to really move back. When we finally did get back to Shahabad, and dad went to the school to request for our admissions there, Sr Beena told him, it was already done on his daughter's request. She presumed he wanted his son admitted too, which his daughter had not requested for! Dad was a little shocked :).

It was amazing to get back to the same old streets of Shahabad and  to the same old friends. We had to unfortunately leave the place again when I was in class 9. But am glad almost my entire childhood was spent there. I still cherish  memories of that place. I owe almost everything to that place and the school. Some of my best and oldest pals are from Shahabad, and the bonhomie of that place still binds us all together. I can smell a shahabadi out, you know :)! And every single pass out of MCC is excelling in the respective lives they chose. Like I said, neither do I have the appropriate words, nor the skill to write about a place as glorified as Shahabad. But I do wish someone did - write one big book about the place and people, that once was so beautiful and blessed.

 

(This morning R and I were talking about Meeshu's second day at Montessori play school. I was reminiscing about my student life in general and all these memories just came flooding back! Sheesh, can't believe it was so long back, and now I am with a kid who has to go through the entire 'school' phase. Time sure runs. I better get started with my Salsa classes before I get any older!)