CSK Fan Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 Snippets :- Glimpses of India I thought of sharing some of my personal experiences every week as a way of recalling old memories. Please contribute your own stuff to in this thread Ranchi What can one say about this small, beautiful town. Having grown up there has obviously made me prejudiced towards it but it was the ideal place for growing up. Not very crowded, very good weather, cold in winter and vast open places which a growing boy could explore to his heart’s content. Umpteen number of waterfalls, small forests and empty lands surround this small town. It’s been 13 long years since I last visited this place but the memories linger strong as ever. A pot-pouri of multiple language and culture, this city still manages to hold its own distancing itself from the quintinsal bihari stereo-type. Among the various things I remember, is the very entertaining penchant for telling and re-telling ghost stories which would send a thrill down an imaginative kid’s spine and keep him awake wondering at night. Many such stories were related to my school. Bishop WestCott dates back to 1927 and is an example of living history. I was one of the poor ‘day-schoolers’, who were considered inferiors to the ‘boarders’. So most ghost stories were passed second hand to us and were supposed to be the first hand experiences they faced. One such famous legend was based in, of all places, a toilet. There was a toilet(urinal) in a remote part of the grounds. Behind it, there was one more similar kind of toilet, broken and un-used. It certainly was a curiosity that a new one was built beside what looked like a fully functional but disused one. Various tales abounded about the reason the other one was never repaired. My favourite was about a chemistry teacher who fell in love with his close friend, a hindi teacher’s wife. One night, they went together to the toilet, their favourite smoking place, where, in a fit of rage, the husband murdered the lover and left his body there. The case was never proved against the hindi teacher and the charges were dropped. Some nights, or so claim the boys, if you visit that toilet (which they actually have no reason to as there are toilets in their dorm), you can see a lighted cigarette tip in the disused one and if you are brave enough to walk into it, a voice will ask you for a lighter. While I was there, a boy fell down from a nearby terrace, flying kites, and drove a spike through himself. Obviously the ghost was said to have pushed him. (The fact that the boy survived and denied any such thing is neither here nor there). The atmosphere was brilliant, the teachers were old fashioned and crisp-accented oldies who put the fear of God in you. God, I miss the place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty_South Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 nice post :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
varun Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 Nicely done. Thanks for the read Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lurker Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 Ranchi is a fascinating place. I can so easily understand where you were coming from MTC. Specially the part about the era of 15 years or so. I have a ton of relatives in Ranchi, areas ranging from Hermu to Dhurva to Kanke etc. Most of these townships came up in my own times. From houses with big space between it has now crammed up with too many people. Back then every mohalla had a big playground, essentially a vast open land really, wonder if the scene is the same these days. A few things that comes to my mind: a) My summer training at HEC Ranchi. About 6 weeks or so. It was amazing to see the sheer infrastructure and how Indians, specially Biharis, screwed up a fantastic place. Machines that simply took your breath away were rotting because of attention or lack thereof. Also had a whirlwind one-day romance with a Mauritian dame so that did not hurt. Nor did the 25 paise ka lunch in the subsidised canteen with 5 paise samosa if I remember correctly. b) Cricket tournament at BIT Meshra. We played as part of REC Jamshedpur team. Lost in the semis to Meshra after a game that went to the last over. Excellent memories of that game, and the trip, specially of team members getting drunk and arriving the game late by half an hour. c) Many dinners that I have had at Kantatoli chowk bus stop. There was this little hut who would make simple and mean chicken curry. Nothing better in cold Ranchi weather(Ranchi generally always is a tad cold) in the night than hot chicken curry to warm you up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kabira Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 Dhoni Dhoni Dhoni Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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