Vasant Vihar! The name brings comfort and a feeling of home in an increasingly mobility driven and interconnected world where one question is increasingly difficult to answer – What is Home?
Having lived there since the age of two and with schooling at Modern School Vasant Vihar my life was all about VV.
Wide tree lined streets with wide footpaths, occasional cars driving by, lots of friendly and familiar morning and evening walkers, grandparents, friends in every block, moving on to parents’ friends and then of course our friends. We pretty much knew who lived in every bungalow, and if that house was ‘friend worthy’ or not. If a house with no kids had a long driveway for cricket, or a useful gate for badminton, we would request and be allowed access, else commandeer it! During the rains, the sides of the roads would be overflowing and that’s when the paper boats would come out.
With lots of diplomats in the colony, we had a lot of interesting international friends early on… some with very cool cars! The Nigerian/Ghana and the Iraqi gang in particular were mean soccer players. And when we had our regular evening soccer game with the Janata Colony mavericks every African player counted for two of theirs in team formation!
Cycling around the colony was a pleasure. Occasionally we would trek behind D-block to the hillocks near the airport early morning, to sight the aircraft landings – that was a frowned upon adventure! Evenings were soccer and cricket games and cycling…. and not a single kid stayed in the house! All you needed to do was to stand outside your driveway and some pack of friends or the other would come by in sequence and commence the hangout.
The DTC buses were a fixture – 660, 640 and 623 still embedded in my mind. As were the lending libraries in C and E block market, the jazzy (for its time!) Modern Bazaar, Fantasia video game arcade at Basant Lok, and the all prevalent Nirulas.
Going to School in the colony at MSVV was a breeze – just jump over the wall opposite our house, have the School soccer team run by your home at 6:30 AM and give you a wake up shout, and school friends over all the time for post school time events.
Some specific memories – Ashok lending library and Nanking in C-block market; the ‘Site for Club’ sign for 15 years before the club actually came up; construction of the D-Block Arya Samaj Mandir into a beautiful space; Modern Bazaar, Priya Cinema; the groaning trucks carrying stone from the D-block quarry out of the colony; and the Indian Airlines and Air India buses.
Yes there was a reason VV was VV, and Delhi folks regarded it as a haven.
Friends all around the neighborhood (though we would occasionally get clannish around our respective blocks!) – till today some of my closest friends – we still do the annual walk down D block and Paschimi Marg and the warm memories come flooding back. Landing back at 49 Paschimi Marg whenever I can, is an indescribable feeling, and it’s great to still come to the original unaltered home and stand by the front gate and reminisce….. and for sure some of the old gang will come sauntering by….
By GAUTAM SAXENA
D-49, Paschimi Marg, Vasant Vihar