It was way back in 1969 we shifted to Vasant Vihar. There were just a few houses (one could count on one’s finger tips) that had sprouted up in between the fields of wheat crops. There were two on C – 2 street, one on Palam Marg, another one on B – 8 and C – 8 street, which we could see from our house on C – 2 street. A few more houses had sprung up in the other blocks and only one shop was built in C- block main market. A little further up towards the north was Basant Gaon with low mud / brick houses and a small yard in front of these to tie their cows and buffaloes.
We could see the sun rise early in the morning out of the flat horizon against the profile of a lone hillock of Swami Malai Mandir, R K Puram which had not come up at that time. The sunset was equally visible on the horizon on the left of Basant Gaon. A blazing ball of fire dipping down into the earth rendering the evening sky into brilliant orange colour. I remember walking through the fields of wheat crop to go to a solitary Gill’s store or the Modern Bazaar (yes, the one in Priya Complex) which was then run from a one bedroom house in C-block. Sitting in our living room one big glazed picture window framed a magnificent Qutab Minar in the distance, as JNU and the Qutab Institutional area hadn’t developed then.
The only places to buy our groceries were Gill’s Store or Modern Bazaar in C-block market. Fresh milk was brought from Basant Gaon and basic vegetables from a temporary market across Ring Road now called Indra Market. We still had to go to Khan Market for other shopping.
All the houses that had come up till then were only ground floor and a barsati to go up to the terrace. But these houses turned out to be like a catalyst, and soon many houses started coming up in all the blocks, the block markets started developing, and even Priya Cinema came up. I remember driving right upto the main entrance of Priya in our old Ambassador car, to drop my parents for a movie. The Basant Lok complex and rest of the blocks came up later. R.K.Puram, Munirka and JNU also started coming up by then. Within Vasant Vihar, along with the developing blocks, came up the schools, temples, gurudwara, church, community centre and the Club.
The social fabric of Vasant Vihar until this time was very warm and gentle, with close interaction between neighbours. We would be chatting with our next door neighbours across the boundary walls, the elderly ladies would sit in the front lawns sunning themselves in the winter sun, there were get-togethers in the small parks of the neighbourhood. I remember 2-3 of us taking our babies out for a walk in prams and exchanging notes of the day (the roads used to be quite free of traffic). Slightly older children had their own little clubs (Sunshine Club) doing their activities. On festivals like ‘Holi’ we used to form a group and go around the colony playing Holi with everybody; some would also join in the group (toli), sometimes even the few foreigners (who had shifted to VV by then) would join in to have fun.
Then came the phase when the second generation grew up, and more accommodation was required in each plot. With this, the 1st and 2nd floor started coming up above the older structures. Close proximity to Chanakyapuri brought in the diplomats and some of the embassies. At this time some families from the business community also moved in. This gave Vasant Vihar a tag of an elite colony.
This brought about a subtle change in the nature of the colony. The social fabric which was warm and gentle started hardening. One didn’t know one’s next door neighbour, issues of traffic, parking and security came about, apart from the pressure on the infrastructure. At this point in time, a large population of security guards erupted. Every other house had an ugly wooden structure outside the gate for their guards, and when we went for the morning walk we could see them changing their clothes or brushing etc. which was pretty embarrassing.
Somehow the sense of belonging to the colony got lost, it had boiled down to ‘my property’.
In time, with the change of bye-laws, the permissible ground floor coverage and total covered area increased. And that was an opening to the builders. Houses started changing from 2-3 floors to 4-5 floors. Now as one sees almost every second house is being broken and rebuilt by a builder.
The sunrise and the sunset is behind a skyline of buildings, the picture of Qutab Minar in our living room has faded away, my hand grazing over the wheat crops while walking across to Gill’s store in C block market still remains crystal clear in my memory…
By ARUNA MATHUR
C-2/9, Vasant Vihar