Our house was built by my father in 1967 but we moved into it only in 1974. My father was in the Ministry of Mines and Fertilizers. When the house was built the area was all very empty, and my mother used to say “kahaan jangal mein aa gaye hum…”. Earlier we used to live in Central Delhi near Connaught Place, so she was very unhappy about shifting here. When we moved in, Mr.Shastri’s house opposite ours was being built, later E-1/3 came up, and then others. Mr.Shastri used to teach at St.Columbus, and our nephews who studied there, used to be scared to come to our house in case they came across Mr.Shastri!
We could see Qutab Minar from our first floor. Later, right up to the 2000s we could even see Lotus Temple from the second floor, and also the balloons that floated up on Republic Day from India Gate. (Arpita- I remember there was no first floor in most houses.. just walking in the streets…it was amazing. We used to have peacocks coming to our house… once a huge one came on our terrace and now we don’t see any more coming.)
In the early years, we didn’t walk outside much as we were scared. It used to be completely dark since even street lights weren’t there apart from a couple of them. When shops were auctioned in 1968 in C-block market, the price was Rs.200 per sq. yard – only three plots were sold in the initial round. Water supply was good – the pressure was so much that we didn’t even need to run any pumps, and the water would fill in the overhead tanks by itself.
Where the Priya Complex is today, there used to be cattle sitting around and dogs used to bark at passersby. DDA had put up a board there saying “Buy any shop for Rs.80000”.
Most colony parks were not maintained. Even the space where DPS is there now, used to be an open ground with unkempt plants growing there. When the school started coming up, the noise level was intolerable and the nearby residents were very upset. Initially, DPS, Modern etc. had promised that they would give preference to kids from the colony. But later most of them didn’t really follow it. Lohri and Holi jalana used to happen in the small park near Magic Years School, and also used to happen in Kalyan Kendra.
The clothes shop Poshak (in C-block market) used to be owned by Mr.Arora, and to begin with he had opened a dhaba over there. He used to put out a tandoor, and chapatis, dal, sabzi etc used to be made there. After we moved here, my mother just didn’t feel like going to the kitchen and cooking. She missed all the amenities and staff we had in our government house. So I think we used to frequently get food from that dhaba. There were fruit and vegetable stalls at the various road crossings, but we used to go to get these from Indira Market as the rates were much better. Or we would go to R.K.Puram markets, which also had a deserted look at the time.
For transportation, initially there used to be a bus #660 which used to go to Sadar Bazar. Later they stopped the bus route passing through VV as the schools came up making the traffic much more. The unused bus stops at C-block market and on Vasant Marg are from that time. They started mini buses for VV but then those were stopped due to objections. Now only #623 runs on Poorvi
Mother Dairy was there from the beginning. But there used to also be ‘gwalas’ from where we would fresh milk supplies. When our twin boys were born, we had a cow kept especially reserved for them. So all the milk from that cow was taken by our house.
Vasant Vihar had a hostile equation with Basant Gaon, because they claimed that they did not receive full payment for the land that was taken for the colony development. There was a case which went on for many years in the High Court, which they finally won sometime in the ‘80s. So then we all had to pay an additional amount. For example for our 600 sq yards, we paid around Rs.70,000 which was given in instalments.
Earlier there was no boundary wall at the back of D-block. So all the cattle from Kusumpur etc would come there and the Gujjars would be sitting around there on their charpais with their hookahs. Slowly they were asked to clear the area, and then the boundary wall was built.
Expatriates came in only during the 90’s. Before that mainly one place – 1 Palam Mg – had been given to an embassy for a very long lease. Kenyan Embassy was probably one of the first ones to come up.
Among the restaurants, Golden Dragon was the first one to come up. Later Janta Restaurant came up and an atta chakki. Even now, the food in Janta is often better than in the fancy new restaurants, for a fraction of the cost. As for Golden Dragon, when we used to eat there, the chilly chicken used to be Rs.45 per plate. Today, the tax amount in the bill would be more than what used to be the full bill amount.
RWA activities gathered momentum only from 1980 onwards. My father was involved in the RWA activities. There wasn’t much politics at the local level. Initially, he volunteered but later he felt it was like a peon’s job – people demanded service from the RWA functionaries.
All the temples – Arya Samaj, Lakshmi Narayan, Singeri temple – had come up quite early during the colony’s development. Earlier, the Shankaracharya used to visit the temple regularly to give discourses, and stay for 7-10 days at a stretch.
Initially, we used to use the Dukh Nivaran dispensary near Arya Samaj for our medical requirements, when we didn’t have all these doctors around. In the beginning it was just a one room structure but gradually expanded with donations from residents, Lions Club etc. The major contribution came from the Australian High Commissioner. He used to give Rs.1 lac every month. St.Luke hospital used to be there next to DPS run by Dr.Zal Kutar.
(Arpita – During the 1990s when I was young, 5 o’clock dot, all the kids in the house used to run down to the club because we had to be there by 5:01 for swimming. The fun was the swimming gala and even won two trophies at the galas. We had our gang which used to go regularly to the Club. There was one restaurant in the club. We borrowed books, comics. My brother was always busy with the tennis, the billiards, table tennis. We literally lived in the club during our summer holidays. During our time we could roam around alone when we were in Class 6, 7, could go wherever. Holi was mostly in the houses – ours, the neighbours – then go to the Kalyan Kendra.)
By P.K. TANDON & ARPITA TANDON
E-1/2, Vasant Vihar