Writer Basti

 That's the name of a colony (basti is a colony) we lived in in the small coal-mining town, ages ago. In general, life in the towns was slow, devoid of any major city-style entertainment. But I was fixated on the radio, and later, the gramophone records. The Club where we socialised and played Badminton or went swimming took care of the rest. The radio had cricket commentary and news too, so it was the Google of yesteryear for us. Plus Youtube, minus the videos.

We were there mostly in the summer holidays, and we played a lot of Bridge with friends and parents too. So we were happy and carefree, though the heat reached the high forties Celsius quite often. Sometimes, movies were an outing, and at others, a trip to the river. The Godavari was not too far from one of our homes.

Recently, we caught up with some old friends from that era, so this is nostalgia born out of that meeting.