Monday, November 17, 2014

Nashik and the Mumbai holiday crowd with faloodas in Deolali


Believe it or not, I get nostalgic when I remember the Nashik of the sixties with a wonderful corner known as Deolali which was famous for its faloodas, holiday crowds from Mumbai with their latest fashions and the majestic Hill Temple.
Deolali of the late sixties was one of the most attractive summer getaways for Mumbaites. With the onset of summer vacations, all the sanatoriums would be occupied with the young, the not so young and the old. In the evenings, they would stroll lazily down the streets in groups, stopping to exchange pleasantries with acquaintances. Some of them would settle in the Bharat Cold Drinks House where a bottle of the original Coca-Cola could be had for only 20 paise – the same price as that of a glass of fresh lime juice!
BCDH was also famous for its mouth-watering faloodas! Its patrons never seemed to be in any hurry. Other vacationers would walk down to Cathay or Adelphi – the two cinema halls, which ran English films. Or spend the evening atop the Hill Temple, an experience not easily forgotten – this landmark of Deolali was in a world of its own where time literally stood still. There were no fumes of auto-rickshaws, no dust hovering in the air, no obnoxious gases to destroy the freshness of the colorful bougainvillea. There was lovely greenery all around and concretization had not set in. The silence would be broken by the occasional clip-clop of the horse driven tongas or the sudden passing through of the State Transport bus en-route to South Deolali or one of the bicycles clanging along with its load of milk pots. Milk in pouches was something nobody could have visualized!
In Nashik City proper, the favorite meeting place of young and old alike was the Bhagwantrao hotel on the main road and near Ravivar Karanja – lovebirds would occupy places on the banks of the Godavari and watch fascinated as the waters rolled over the stones and they wove their dreams.
In Nashik Road where the railway station was located, the only Hotel worth its name was Hotel Raj at Bytco corner. Other hotels had not yet seen the light of day and people were afraid to venture deep into the jail road area after dark because of wild animals. Muktidham, a landmark today, had not yet been constructed.
In the Nashik of the sixties, cereals like rice and wheat were cheap - rice was 85 to 90 paise and wheat 60 to 65 paise per Kg.! A basketful of onions could be had for only 10 paise – the basket would contain 1 to 1 ½ Kgs. Ten grams of gold were available for as little as Rs 160.00 and the fares in the state transport buses were in denominations of 15 and 20 paise.
Moreover, you were not permitted to travel standing and boarding or alighting from a running bus was absolutely no-no for the bus conductor who was and, still is, the Supreme Commander of each ST bus. In fact, I was once reprimanded by him for boarding the bus before it had stopped.
The two most popular two-wheelers of the sixties were bicycles and very few owned scooters which were of only two varieties namely, the Lambretta and the Vespa. Motor cycles were of the Harley-Davidson types of the Military Police and, in order to commute short distances, the common man relied on the ST bus or on his own pair of feet. I have seen such peaceful days and have lived through them!

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