Childhood memories

The saying is – “First impression is the last impression” and I say – “Childhood memories are the lasting impressions.”

If given a choice, I would love to re-live 6 years of my childhood days during Rourkela days, which was full of awesome memories amidst pets, nature, a seemly full house, and everything soul soothing.

Rourkela diaries – 1986 to 1991

My paternal roots are from the city of lord Jagannath Puri, Odisha, where I spent my toddler days till the age of 5. Dad worked with railways and he got transferred to the steel city of Rourkela, Odisha when I was 6 years old. It was a complete change from the crowded temple beach city of Puri to Rourkela, where the railway’s accommodation was in an isolated area at the foot of a hill with huge greenery and tribals around. The city, being at the Bihar border at that time; most people spoke Hindi, which helped me pick up the language speedily. Dad being in a decent position then, we were blessed to stay in a British-era built double-height quarter which was magnificently surrounded by a large garden and a pond.

My dad has a green thumb and within 6 months of shifting to that neglected house with the messy garden, he totally transformed it with the help of his assigned Nepali assistant. The filthy abandoned pond was soon filled with Indian Koi fish, the garden had 14-15 varieties of roses and hibiscus flowers and a natural grass lane. The property’s boundary already had many trees like mango, Java plum/Jamun, guava, sweet lime, ber fruit, jackfruit, custard apple, silk cotton, and whatnot. Dad additionally planted banana, pumpkin, cauliflower, brinjal, bottle gourd, yam, and me being the mini replica of him, learned gardening by planting tomato, green chili, coriander, mint etc. The garden started miraculously flourishing, few trees started bearing fruits for the first time. I remember, many people in the colony paying a visit to our garden and dad generously distributing the veggies and fruits to everyone. My school bag used to be always full of fruits and berries for my classmates. We ate those as it is, with no sugary drinks or grinding. Our maternal grandfather would send sugarcane from his farmland and around 25kg of jaggery in earthen pots and we would eat sugarcane by peeling using our teeth.

We had many pets including our dog “Rocky”, rescued pigeons “Pinky and Blacky”, a mynah, a flock of love birds, parrots, and, of course, the fishes in the garden pond. We even spotted a king cobra in our garden a few times, there were large varieties of insects and birds. Dad taught me gardening, buying vegetables and groceries, and taking care of the pets. It was a full house with our granddad, parents, elder brother, and, sister. I learnt to climb guava and mango trees eating freshly plucked fruits. Everything used to be seasonal then, mangoes in summer, jackfruits during rain, guava in winter, and custard apple in the autumn. I even built a tree house using thin bath towels, spending weekend afternoon hours. The railway colony itself was spread over a huge area with two large playgrounds. I used to walk a lot and play in the cement slides with my friends and climb the small hill just behind our home. Railway’s lower primary school was only 200mtrs away from home and prominently visible, where I studied from class 1 to 4. The next one was upper primary, where I studied 5th and 6th and it was at a long walking distance crossing an unmanned railway track, a vegetable market, and a crowded road. In all schools and colleges before engineering, I have either walked or cycled without any supervision and this habit has till today kept me active. Overall, I would have 4-5 dresses to wear outside apart from 2 sets of school uniforms and a few to wear at home. There was no confusion or hassle about what to wear. The entire family’s clothes can fit inside one Godrej steel cupboard. The small state board schools that I went to, had no strict rules and hence I wore house slippers to school.

At the early age of 5, I had shown interest in the kitchen and could make tea, sooji ka halwa, and omelet. The best part was the picnic cooking I used to do in the garden, using a few bricks, dried twigs from mango trees, and the utensils and groceries provided by mom. Most veggies and herbs were supplied by our home garden. By the age of 12, I could cook an entire meal, bake a cake, and run a house all alone doing other house chores. I even learned to cycle on my sister’s heavy cycle, on which I could barely touch the ground. There was a wooden swing in the garden, which was my favorite. If am not in the playground, either I will be found on the swing or climbing on the tree. Am so thankful to have been born in an era to witness such nostalgic times, which today’s generation can only imagine. Free from any digital invasion, so-called luxury accommodation, or even vehicle; that was the happiest time in my life. Dad used to cycle to work and at times drop me halfway to school, we never even had a scooter. As a family, we used to walk a lot to markets or other houses. Our first luxury purchase was a refrigerator and I was obsessed with scrapping the ice from the freezer to eat. I remember my dad purchasing our first-ever nonstick dosa tawa for Rs. 200 during his work tour to Delhi, which was a major financial discussion between my parents. My haircut was done at the gent’s barber shop, where dad used to go. Basic materialistic assets were treasured like major possession.

Weekend lunch used to be a major affair, with many delicious non-vegetarian dishes, and veggies prepared. My dad has been a strict follower of equality and hence we all contributed to the efforts. All the outside purchases, cleaning, and preparing the fish, prawns, and vegetables were done by dad. I learnt quite a few life skills from my dad, which helped me further become a strong individual. I also worked with my mom in the kitchen, my siblings would help in laying the plates and cleaning. Even the rotis were made and kept in the casserole. We all ate together, there was no sign of only my mom serving the food to anyone. Also, my grandfather and pets were fed first; before we ate. I admire my dad for many such important rules he established in the house, which empowered everyone. We never bought restaurant food, rather enjoyed all seasonal fresh home-cooked delicacies, and learnt to cook food from the scratch. The fresh cow milk was sourced from the local dairy nearby and paneer, and curd were made at home.

We had a small color TV back then and witnessed the Sunday morning deserted streets, closed shops, early bathing, and finished cooking to watch Ramayana during 1987-88. Doordarshan was a totally family-friendly broadcaster and we watched programs together and briefly. Being from an Odia Brahmin household, mom made us recite Ramayana and Mahabharat during daily evening prayers.

Mostly as kids, we played, read plenty of books, pursued multiple hobbies, laughed a lot, made loads of friends, and lived our lives. We traveled by train all the time, dad being in Railways and never complained about the crowd or long distances. My first flight was an international one during my first job and to date, I take trains for the experience. There were no door-to-door AC cabs either, we mostly walked carrying our luggage to the train stations at Rourkela, as the colony was isolated. We always carried water, and food during the journey; there was no packaged food those days. The first fast food we tasted was Maggi, which was given to us maybe once a month.

A life with pets was much more relaxing than a life full of human beings nowadays, just crowded everywhere but people feel lonely inside. We have to think and plan so much to even meet our next-door neighbors. Judgment and arguments are part of daily life. Thanks to those beautiful days of no-stress school or no mad rush. People used to be muchmore hard-working, loving, made time for each other and had tons of patience. Overall, my childhood taught me family values, independence, kindness to all living beings, life skills, and many more.

8 year old me with our dog "Rocky"