22 New Friends, New Life in the Colony – Part I

We had a lovely playground in our Colony and from our flat on the 4^th floor, I had an excellent view of this ground, where every evening cricket was being played. I looked longingly each evening from my bedroom window, at all the kids playing cricket, albeit with a tennis ball. Unfortunately, my Mother was over protective and she initially refused permission for me to go down and play. Being even in those days a very strong minded personality, I finally had my way and my Mother reluctantly allowed me to play cricket. I had learnt the game by just looking out of my bedroom window and finally when I went on to the pitch, I got into the thick of the game quite easily.

Once I was allowed to play cricket, I soon discovered that there was a YMCA around the corner where I could play table tennis. I persuaded my Father to get me membership at the Y, and soon armed with a Barna table tennis bat, I was off to the YMCA in the evenings. Victor Barna was a table tennis legend and the hard table tennis bat was named after him. I recall with great pleasure, my evenings at the YMCA where after a rigorous table tennis match, we had fresh lemonade to drink along with some spicy bhajias. I also met at the YMCA – Rafiq Ellias who has remained a good friend till now. Rafiq became my style icon and role model, but more about Rafiq later in the narrative.

Another lifelong friend that I made, was from my School ANZAS. When I was in the 3^rd Standard, one evening we missed the school bus and we were wondering how to go home. At that time I met my fellow student Anjum Samel who happened to live in the RBI Colony, and also travelled in the same bus. Both of us decided to walk home – it took us about 45 minutes and during this long walk I got to know Anjum well, and this marked the start of our friendship. Anjum lived in the adjoining building and soon I started visiting him and his family regularly – Anjum is another person who will crop up regularly in this Memoir.

Life in the Colony continued – we had a very popular medical officer who attended to the needs of the Colony residents, Dr YG Benkar – a very down to earth man, whom the residents adored and literally worshipped! We had a wonderful Club House with an ultra modern underground badminton court, where celebrities of those days like Nandu Natekar came and regularly played. There were also Whist Drives and Christmas parties conducted for the residents, and finally we had the 10 day Ganesh Festival; where a special Pandal was erected. During the festival, apart from regular pujas, every night there was variety entertainment for the Colony residents including plays, skits and a full blown musical orchestra. In short, there was never a boring day, and we the Colony residents lived life to the hilt.