Bhilai Memories
நிலாக்கால நினைவுகள் - 3
Bhilai Memories
https://youtu.be/vIQSnBbfeXY
This afternoon I happened to hear an old Hindi film song 'bindiya chamkegi' from the film Do Raasthe.
My very favorite film and song. Love it so much. This is the first Hindi Film I saw in my life, at Bhilai. This refreshed my thoughts of stay at Bhilai for two months during vacation during 1971. I saw this film four or five times during a span of just 15 days when it was screened at the only available theatre named 'Chitra Mandir',at Sector 10 where my Appa, Amma, Chithappa, Chithi and their daughter Meena were staying. This film was really a hit ! All songs used to be so nice . From then on I became a fan of Rajesh Khanna. Being a cosmopolitan area, where people of different regions stayed , Chitra Mandir used to screen excellent movies from all languages. That is the place where I saw my first Malayalam movie ''Lanka dhahanam" , starred by Prem Nazir and Vijayasree.. Lovely songs in that film too ! The next Malayalam Film I saw was titled 'Sarasayya' , a SATHYAN Starrer film. Memorable films.
Bhilai, in Durg District, Madhya Pradesh, is the place where I learnt Malayalam to read, speak and write ! Kalyan chithappa used to encourage me to learn the language. Oh! BHILAI MEMORIES are just thronging my head. Very pleasant memories ! I stayed there for just a short span of two months during vacation of my Second Year B.A ! What a nice upcoming place it was. So memorable because there only, I learnt so many things. I learnt to drive Scooter; I learnt Malayalam and colloquial Hindi ; learnt to value relationship and friendship; learnt to socialise with people; learnt to appreciate different cuisines; learnt to appreciate Nature; so on and so more! Never to forget that major part of my knowledge and refinities are through my father's incessant talks about his life and experience there !
Bhilai Memories
This afternoon I happened to hear an old Hindi film song 'bindiya chamkegi' from the film Do Raasthe.
My very favorite film and song. Love it so much. This is the first Hindi Film I saw in my life, at Bhilai. This refreshed my thoughts of stay at Bhilai for two months during vacation during 1971. I saw this film four or five times during a span of just 15 days when it was screened at the only available theatre named 'Chitra Mandir',at Sector 10 where my Appa, Amma, Chithappa, Chithi and their daughter Meena were staying. This film was really a hit ! All songs used to be so nice . From then on I became a fan of Rajesh Khanna. Being a cosmopolitan area, where people of different regions stayed , Chitra Mandir used to screen excellent movies from all languages. That is the place where I saw my first Malayalam movie ''Lanka dhahanam" , starred by Prem Nazir and Vijayasree.. Lovely songs in that film too ! The next Malayalam Film I saw was titled 'Sarasayya' , a SATHYAN Starrer film. Memorable films.
Bhilai, in Durg District, Madhya Pradesh, is the place where I learnt Malayalam to read, speak and write ! Kalyan chithappa used to encourage me to learn the language. Oh! BHILAI MEMORIES are just thronging my head. Very pleasant memories ! I stayed there for just a short span of two months during vacation of my Second Year B.A ! What a nice upcoming place it was. So memorable because there only, I learnt so many things. I learnt to drive Scooter; I learnt Malayalam and colloquial Hindi ; learnt to value relationship and friendship; learnt to socialise with people; learnt to appreciate different cuisines; learnt to appreciate Nature; so on and so more! Never to forget that major part of my knowledge and refinities are through my father's incessant talks about his life and experience there !
Bhilai Steel Plant was started somewhere around 1956 and my father joined there during 1958, as Technical Assistant. He retired as Divisional Engineer during 1975. The place slowly developed into a very nice Township, with very nice Quarters built for the employees. When I went there during 1971 the Township had 12 Sectors with atleast 25 streets in each Sector and about 20 houses in each Street. Like in villages , evey Sunday a vegetable market used to be there, almost in each Sector. A Big Sunday Market at a place called Rooba Bandha (I don't know if I have spelt it properly) used to be there near Sector 10 where we were staying. I used to like shopping there. If I remember correct, Secor 2, and10 had Central Schools and there was a College in Sector 7. I think it was named Kalyan College of Commerce. There was a vey big Shopping Centre in Sector 10 which was called Civic Centre. That building only contained the theatre called Chithra Mandir. Each Week End they used to screen Regional Language Films other than Hindi. One very big Hospital of Bhilai Steel Plant was also there with good facilities. The main fuel for usein houses there used to be Coal, other than kerosene which was supplied in Ration. So many things in life at Bhilai were new and interesting to me !
Learning Malayalam in Madhya Pradesh was the best part ! I was hardly 20 during that time. There was a shorthand and typewriting institute in sector 7 where I went to learn shorthand. It was run by a Malayali Teacher. Bhilai at the time had more of malayalees and tamilians. My mother tongue is Tamil . I had such a big fascination Malayalam language. Most the people coming there to learn typewriting and shorthand, were malayalees. I can't forget those days of my learning there. I had a good friend by name Sathyanathan Nair. He knew only Malayalam and he wanted to learn Hindi from me. He was very helpful in making me a learned 'Malayali'. I started learning alphabets with the help of the book 'Malayalam in 30 days' and also from the magazines which my friend Sathyanathan used to give me. I used to hear the Malayalam songs through Radio Cylon. The Carnatic Music-based Malayalam film songs of those days impressed me so much and those became the base reason for me to develop a taste for the language. Within 2 months I was able to read write and speak Malayalam as good as my my mother tongue Tamil. Till today so many people think that I am a Malayalee, of which I am so proud of. I owe so much to my friend Satyanarayan Nair for this and also to my uncle Kalyanaraman for the encouragement he gave. Even after I came back to Chennai (the then Madras), he used to correspond with me. He is a native of Mavelikkara in Kerala. Subsequently I lost touch with him. I very much long to revive his friendship . Life in Bhilai during those two months were very peaceful. Summer used to be terribly hot and Winter was so pleasant.
Learning Malayalam in Madhya Pradesh was the best part ! I was hardly 20 during that time. There was a shorthand and typewriting institute in sector 7 where I went to learn shorthand. It was run by a Malayali Teacher. Bhilai at the time had more of malayalees and tamilians. My mother tongue is Tamil . I had such a big fascination Malayalam language. Most the people coming there to learn typewriting and shorthand, were malayalees. I can't forget those days of my learning there. I had a good friend by name Sathyanathan Nair. He knew only Malayalam and he wanted to learn Hindi from me. He was very helpful in making me a learned 'Malayali'. I started learning alphabets with the help of the book 'Malayalam in 30 days' and also from the magazines which my friend Sathyanathan used to give me. I used to hear the Malayalam songs through Radio Cylon. The Carnatic Music-based Malayalam film songs of those days impressed me so much and those became the base reason for me to develop a taste for the language. Within 2 months I was able to read write and speak Malayalam as good as my my mother tongue Tamil. Till today so many people think that I am a Malayalee, of which I am so proud of. I owe so much to my friend Satyanarayan Nair for this and also to my uncle Kalyanaraman for the encouragement he gave. Even after I came back to Chennai (the then Madras), he used to correspond with me. He is a native of Mavelikkara in Kerala. Subsequently I lost touch with him. I very much long to revive his friendship . Life in Bhilai during those two months were very peaceful. Summer used to be terribly hot and Winter was so pleasant.
There used to be one Bhilai Club there. People used to gather there during holidays forsome Meet. People of each commune used to have some entertainment programmes in each of their own language.
Had I stayed there for a month more, I could have learnt Bengali too ! Can't forget the Bengali speaking cook at neighbour's house who used to be talking to me in Bengali, even though he knew that I was not knowing the language. But still because of his speaking everyday I could pickup and understand the language a little. He used to complain more about his boss the owner of that house, explain his way of life, his native and about some Bengali films too ! I feel bad that I could not develop my Bengali knowledge !
--- K.Balaji
June 20 2020
Sunderrajan,61 born, 1962,Chitramandir was born,,so much nostalgia can be felt, this page can't support, "Dogs day afternoon", Yaadon Ki Baaraat, etc,etc., few at Bhilai Club and Bhilai Hotel,screened CINECLUB,movies , saw few international classy movies.
ReplyDeleteThanks ,could fish out from Google,rare collection for those who can associate.