Returning to Chilka - Nostalgia and excitement

I just realized that I havent put a post about one of my happiest times in recent years. I am talking about my trip to Chilka towards the end of last year. Chilka is the place I love the most. I had a happy childhood there between 1991 and 1995. For the first time I stayed with my own mom and dad (my early childhood was spent with my grandma). I learnt Hindi there. I made the first of my ‘best friends’ in life there. And that was the only time in life when I lived life in full flow. If only I had continued there for the whole of my adolescence, I might’ve been a very different person now. Definitely not so shy! Me and my friends were so full of pranks and mischief back then…

Guess I’ve digressed a lot from the original intent of the post! Coming back to this trip in Oct 2008. There are times we all feel a bit lonely and think of old times and forgotten friends. I was going through a similar phase last year. I suddenly got back in touch with my childhood buddies from Chilka – Rahul, Santosh and Subhasis. Couldn’t track down Gulshan and Naveen – the other 2 guys in our old ‘gang’. After a couple of calls with my old friends, I thought of meeting up and how nice it would be if we all got together in Chilka. All of us, except Santosh now live outside Orissa. So we had to plan in advance for this. Though everyone seemed eager, it didn’t quite work out as planned. Rahul and Subhasis cancelled their plans due to professional commitments. Santosh and I decided to go ahead rather than wait for another opportunity. I was going through a torrid time at office and thought this trip would recharge my batteries.

It was a lonely 18 hour journey to Balugaon-the nearest station to Chilka. I didn’t know what to expect; meeting Santosh after nearly 15 years I didn’t expect a smooth resumption of an old friendship. And I wasn’t sure how much Chilka had changed. I reached the Balugaon station at dusk. Just as the old times, there was a power cut and the station was dark! As I got down with my luggage, I saw a handsome and confident looking guy in a black t-shirt approach me quickly and punch me on my chest. It took me a second to realize, then I smiled and we hugged each other. All the awkwardness I had thought of during my journey evaporated immediately. Santosh had biked all the way from Bhubaneshwar (5-6 hrs drive) and was completely drenched in rain. Though my dad had arranged for transport from the station, he wanted to be there in the station to receive me. As we left the platform and reached the station entrance, I could see that not much has changed in this part of the country in the last 15 years. Power cuts are still a part of daily life. The roads are still bad. Buffaloes still block the way. The only change seemed to be an increase in the highway truck traffic. We went to Panth Nivas guest house on Santosh’s bike. He had booked a 4 bed room anticipating that Rahul and Subhasis would also come. We freshened up and went outside to Chilika Dhaba for a genuine dhaba dinner. After dinner we chatted about how great it would’ve been had all 4 of us gotten together. We had so much to talk about and share with each other. We spoke about a few things that night, trying to bring each other up to date with the most important happenings in our lives. We slept late, but decided to get up early and catch the sunrise.

That meant getting up a 4.30 am. And we did get up that early! It was still dark outside. We took the camera, put on our clothes and left the guest house. We jumped over the fence and walked in pitch darkness towards the lake. The villagers were just about waking up – most were still sleeping. Some kids were experimenting with fire and cigarettes while their fathers were still sleeping. The buffaloes were still sleepy. We reached the banking of the lake and sat down waiting for the sun to come out. It was pitch dark and a bit cold. Slowly the sky transformed to purple and deep blue, signaling the arrival of dawn. I was reminded of an old hindi poem I had learnt in school. The poem described how the colour of the sky changes to various hues as the sun comes over the horizon. After more than half an hour the first specks of orange appeared in the sky. It took us some more time to realize that we would not be seeing the sunrise over the lake that day. It was just too cloudy! But we did stick on for another hour and enjoyed the glorious morning. I took some nice photos. We watched the serene water slowly being taken over by dozens of fishermen in their small and unique boats. As it grew brighter we noticed ducks feeding on weeds at the banks. The villagers had woken up and the day had well and truly started. Santosh tried to bargain a deal with one of the fishermen for some prawns, but we didn’t get what we wanted. We were hungry and walked back to the guest house for breakfast.

Breakfast was good – poori and aalu and some tea. We then left for INS Chilka. We gained entry into the INS, thanks to Santosh’s uncle who worked there in the MES. We went straight to our school. As we approached the school, the smell of the grass and the trees was simply intoxicating. I saw that the school had been recently painted and it was a beautiful yellow with colourful logos of Kendriya Vidyalaya. Beautiful flowerpots were decorated in front of the school. I noticed that the old cycle stand was still there. Santosh was speaking to the watchman about letting us inside for some time. I just stood there and observed the surroundings. I saw the kids in their neat uniforms and walking in a queue formation as the class monitor led them back from the playground to the class rooms. I saw the smile in their bright little faces. That was a very intense moment for me. I was close to tears with emotion. I was happy, I was nostalgic, I was on a high. Though I haven’t taken drugs, I guess that particular moment felt something like that. Very intense, very happy! Those 5-10 minutes was sooooo good! I was rudely interrupted by a phone call from my office. Curse the mobile phone! Anyway, Santosh soon convinced the watchman and we went inside to meet the principal. The principal wasn’t in, so we met a senior teacher and got the permission to be in the premises and visit the classrooms during lunch break. We went to all our old class rooms that we had used during 5^th, 6^th and 7^th standards. Most of the kids were too shy and ran away from us. Some of them, mostly girls were having lunch inside the classrooms and couldn’t escape us. We chatted with them. They asked us a few silly questions and giggled stupidly. We unsuccessfully tried to convince them to share their lunch with us. As we moved slowly to the higher classes, the kids were more forthcoming and were curious to find out who we were. I had long hair at that time. Some of the kids called me Ishant and the name caught on with the other kids! We chatted with some of the existing staff. We went to the art room and saw the paintings of the current students. The library room was pretty much the same. We spent quite some time in the school. Finally we were thrown out as the kids’ excitement caused too much noise and some teachers got annoyed.

We went to Santosh’s uncle’s house for lunch. Aunty had made an awesome lunch and we really enjoyed it. After a nap we took bicycles and started to explore the INS. Simply riding the bicycle through the roads was amazing and full of nostalgia. We met an old class mate – though I had no recollection of him. Santosh spoke to him and we setup a daaru party that night. We were joined by another class mate. The other 2 guys weren’t in a stable job and weren’t doing that well in life. I was ashamed to even tell my real salary to them. It seemed to be too much money, to the point of being disgusting. I put aside the awkwardness and tried to strike up some lively conversation. The liquor for the night was something called “Panga”. It was supposed to be rum, although it tasted mildly sour. And it was packaged in a plastic bottle!! For a moment I was reminded of vague news stories about illicit arrack casing deaths and blindness. But my friends insisted that this was a ‘trusted’ brand in the local market. So I took a leap of faith and finished my first round. We had a lively evening. I guess Panga wasn’t all that strong. Because even after a quarter I was confident enough to take the bike and ride triples in the unlit and crumpling highway to drop a friend home at midnight.

The next day Santosh and I went to Kalijai and Narayani temple. But I was really waiting to go back inside INS and see my old house. We went there in the evening in fading light. We spent some time there. We then went to Apsara theatre. Since it was a weekend, a movie was playing – A Wednesday. We bought the tickets – whole of Rs 8 each! Before the show started we decided to check out our ‘old’ school, which was now being used as a Kinder Garden. We jumped over the compound and in the fading light checked out the class rooms and assembly ground and the old Imli ka paed which had borne so many stone hits from us kids and was still standing tall.

As we reached the station on Sunday morning to board my train, the trip seemed to have been too short. But that’s how good things in life are, aren’t they? This trip was a beautiful time in my life and the memories will remain treasured for the rest of my life.

Pictures: Please click here to see some nice pics of the dawn sky and more.