The Pilani Trip:
It looked almost impossible to realize a dream trip to Pilani, like every other year. The years were just flowing by and every year I was breaking the promises I used to make to my younger sister, Shobha Perlekar, like the New Year resolutions. Surely, the guilt was beginning to tell on me. So this time when I finally decided to hang my boots ( professional ones ) and take a voluntary retirement, the best way consume my leaves, I thought, was to plan a trip to Pilani.
Initially we planned a grand Rajasthan dekho trip with my new buddy, Appa ( Nandana's Father - in - Law ) with all his family members. Yes, because after our Pavankhind trip during Diwali, we sort of decided to make at least one trip a year together. We never thought it would be so soon again. They had to back out because Nans and Naveen had almost no leaves to their credit now. We tried to hook up Neela / Usha Tai, Babans ( my elder bro and his wife ), but they too backed out but not because of any leave issues. They had fear of the cold in early Feb. Pilani - Delhi climate. You never know what different fears one develops in life.
We were left alone eventually. However since we were determined to go we cut short all our other plans and restricted our trip to Pilani alone. Thank god, we did that, because we all realized after our trip that no amount of time is good enough for a Pilanian, particularly if he or she is going after a long long time. We had almost 10 days at our disposal, including the travel time. Still those were not enough at the end of it. So we all thought on return.
The Perlekars had arranged a taxi for our journey from Delhi to Pilani. I was almost there at Pilani from the moment we got in to the cab. The lush green farms with crowns of yellow mustard spread all over the farms greeted us through out our journey to Pilani. As we came closer to Loharu, the nearest railway station to Pilani on the route, my excitement had no bounds. I was beaming with joy as I narrated the story of our cycle trip from Pilani to Delhi and back. I could remember the spot where my cycle got puncture near Pilani, and recollect the whole story of how my friend Billo was dispatched back my father to hunt for me. Anupama was especially excited to see my excitement.
Finally we hit the Bhagat Singh Circle where from it was all Pilani and nothing else in the talk. In addition, by around three in the afternoon we were there in my sister's house sitting and laughing on just about every thing.
Hospitality :
Our days used to start with tea at around nine in the morning. Who could think of coming out of the warmth of the Rajai and at an ambient temperatures hovering around 5 - 8 degree Celsius. The morning chorus followed, then by sumptuous morning breakfast of garmagaram parothas and curd and pickles. Ah ha ha. Just mouth-watering experiences, those were. Every day it used to be a different stuffing. Meena and Anupama tasted such juicy and sweet mulis and gajars ( Some how I hate the English words for the so very Indian MULI & GAJAR ) for the first time.
Then we had the privilege of hospitality of real PILANI in the homes of Bauji, Surekha, Viru ( Gogna ), Sharda ji, Raghav besides Chabu's Place ( we call our sister by that name ). The Makkey ki Roti and Sarson Da Saag, the Gajar Ka Halwa, Garma Garam Phulkas, the Pulavs etc. were a few of the many delicacies served that are now etched in the memory. In Anupama's words, it was all NUMBER ONE, COOL, and JUST TOO GOOD. In short, we were just eating and eating and eating and in between, we were busy with some typical Rajasthan style shopping.
I thanked the almighty because the likes of Waliwadekars, The Ghules, The Deshpandeys, The Joshis, have all left Pilani after their retirement. Otherwise, we would have burst out on seams due to excessive eating.
Site Seeing:
We did not just spend endless time in eating , shopping, but utilized our time to some good use too. Yap, we did some site seeing also. Surprising as it may sound, but Pilani and near by places have their own charm, and more so if you are a Pilanian accompanying others. You get that extra excitement to show different flavors and colors of the place to the ones who have not seen most of it earlier, like Meena and Anupama.
The beauty of Pilani is that you do not move alone. Every one you know there has time for you. They all just love being together. In fact, happiness manifests out of this relation. I am quite confident now that the happiness quotient of people in such places must be very very high compared to the urban class. So, in short we moved to all the places in a Jathha ( a large group of people ).
If some time Surekha and Her Husband, Dr. Vimal( they are so lovable couple I must say ) and the Perlekars were with us on our trip to the Pahadi, The Birla Haveli, Panchvati in Pilani then at other times there were a couple of additions only. The point I want to make here is that the places were not at all the great wonders of India, but then the company of these all-lovable guys made those same places out of the world kind. I must also admit that it had a lot to do with my child hood memories, which were attached to all these places.
We also went to a place about 140 kms from Pilani called Shakhambari Temple and also visited the famous Rani Sati Temple and the Aurobindo Ashram at Zunjhunu, on our way back.
In addition, yes how can I forget a trip to our college, our new library, the great audi ( our age-old grand auditorium ) and our cafeteria. Here too we were in a bigger Jathha. I was touched by the courtesy shown by Mr. Bhat ( the Librarian ) who took out time to show case the features of the majestic library to us all. We had the world's best ( famous Marathi writer Acharya Atrey's style adjective ) , mouth-watering dahi samosa and the dosa and finally the grand tea of our cafeteria. You would be all surprised to know a fact little unknown, and that is that the south Indian delicacy " the Dosa " which you would rarely have got to see those days ( forget eating ) in this part of the country and even in Delhi, used to be served in our grand cafeteria even in late 50 s. So that south Indian delicacy made with north Indian flavor used to be simply out of the world.
Similarly the visit to the museum, my father's karm bhoomi, was no less memorable. I felt having put extra pounds of flesh when I explained the various models made under his supervision and more so when I showed them my father's painting given an honor in the arm's gallery and yes above all when they saw his portrait on the way to the workshop which is just behind the main museum building. The icing on the cake was the treatment and hospitality of Dr. Dholakhandi, Director of the museum and all the old staff members. He personally took us around the ar-moury gallery and that really was embarrassing to us .
He gave the last pleasant shock when he handed over the souvenir ( statuette ) of the statue ( standing tall out side the museum ) to Meena. That day will always remain special in my life. The sweat and toil of my father is still not forgotten even after 3 decades or more, and that made the day very very special.
Fond Memories:
Topping it all was the memorable moment we all spent at our old houses, House no 7 in the choti colony and the D 140 house where we spent our most of the college life. Followed then a visit to my primary school where I studied up to class VI th and then to the Higher Secondary school where I studied up to XI th. I took them all to each of the place , our prayer ground, our labs, our class rooms, the drawing hall where Shri Bhursingh ji ( My father's friend ) used to draw sketches of students during the lunch breaks, yes 3 to 4 every day in a break of 30 minutes. It used to be great fun. I literally re lived all those days and years in a span say 3 - 4 hours that day.
The Canought Place Tea Breaks:
How could any Pilanian miss out not being part of the evenings at the grand canought place? We gorged on the choley bhature and the tea / coffee. This used to be the place of our brain storming sessions ( whatever little we had ). We used to endlessly deliberate and argue on almost all the issues under the sky, and that too only over a couple of cups of tea. Yes, that is what we all used to have in our pockets. Even then we felt we were the lords of the land. I and my other old Pilanian explained every thing in details to Meena and Anupama. It was not only to impress them for sure about the Pilani air, but also take them down the memory lanes and make them live those moments.
Meeting old friends and acquaintances :
It was for the first time that I had so much time, as earlier two odd trips were just flying visits of sorts. So, I made a point to meet all my school buddies like Gnash, now the shopkeeper in C E E R I Complex, Viru ( Virendra Gogna, fondly called as Gogi ) who is the stores in charge in B E T, and his wife. I met Anand Kumar, now a curator in a museum at Jaipur, who specially came down on my request to meet us, and his wife Sucheta and daughter. I met Babban ( Dr. Umesh Dhyani ) now a professor of humanities in B I T S, Dr. Surekha who is HOD of EEE department in BITS and Dr. Vimal who is also in BITS. I also met Dr. Arya Kumar and his wife Kusum, the Raghav & Keshav brothers and their family . The list goes endless.
In addition, yes, Bhai Saheb ( Bauji ) & Behanji cannot be missed out from any list, how so ever long it may be. Their magnetic halo just encompasses every one in their proximity. All my family members and I are privileged to have been associated for almost 6 decades now. What can I say or talk about Bauji. It would be like me trying to tell the world about the SUN. Yes, he truly has been a great source of inspiration and motivation to us all. I have yet to see and meet such a humble person and a voracious reader like him. It also applies to Behanji, the ever-smiling lady with lots of creativity in her own fields. She excelled and expressed her thoughts in weaving sweaters and carpets and cooking.
My parents and they were really members of a well-knit joint family, like the proverbial joints of FEVICOL. That rubbed on to us kids of both families also. we played, we quarreled we fought and we stayed together all these years.
We had great couple of days together during our stay at Pilani. Bauji gave us all different kinds of books and reading materials and spent hours telling the positives and negatives and the significance of the numerological birth numbers and how could we channelize our energies for a more purposeful and meaningful life. Behanji on other hand showed her skills of weaving carpets even today. I distinctly remembered how I had picked up the art of weaving carpets and navar used for making cots.
Such people, who are bundle of energy even at this age, are great fun and company. Behanji gave Meena a Carpet Piece woven by her. It was probably the loveliest gift she ever must have got. I could also meet some very old and special friends like Basantji, His brother Dinesh at Daruheda on our way back to Delhi, Sushil Somani and above all Sushil Tondon who came to Delhi station on my request and came with a huge box of cookies. The taste of those cookies is still lingering in our mouth and memory. Yes, Taste can linger in memory only.
The missing deserts:
However, we really missed out on the sand dunes and the lovely deserts of past. Viru took us to a nearby place called Zerli where we thought we could still find some sand dunes and deserts, but alas every piece of land in those deserts have been changed to either mustard farms or houses. We could not see the deserts and dunes even on our trip to Pahadi and to Shakhambari. No doubt, it is heartening to see the deserts converted in to great farms, as it is surely sign of growth and prosperity in this region also. But then Anupama and Meena will have to probably wait for couple of years till we plan our trip to interior Rajasthan, like Jaisalmer, Jodhpur etc.
A rich memory:
Finally like every good thing has to have an end, this trip too came to an end. We all have carried rich and fond memories of this trip with us, which shall remain with us forever. We have captured some of these moments in our camera. The album will help us refresh our memories as and when we scan through these captured moments.
