Bellampalli Memoirs

Bellampalli literally means Gud-gaon. Gud as in jaggery. We lived there for around 7 years, from 1970 to 1977. I was a teen then. It's a small mining town in Adilabad district.

It was a one-horse town, and I will concentrate on the merchants there.

We had a cloth store. It was run by a sweet-talking Marwari called Banwarilal. His patented dialogue, once you selected something to buy, was "Hum aapko purane rate se deta hai. (I will give it to you at the old price)."

Then there was a tailor, Laxmi Tailors by name. The proprietor's name was Mondi. We went and sat in his shop to collect clothes left for stitching, and it usually was a fairly long wait, because the clothes had gone for ironing, or for fixing buttons.

And then there was Jeetmal Moolchand Chitalangi, where we got our monthly groceries. In a narrow lane, the shop was badly lit. But Mr. Jeetmal was always bright, and made good conversation with us, his customers. Maybe we got a free toffee once in a while, or a cold drink if we were lucky. All in all, a pleasant experience.

There was a movie hall, Rama talkies, where I remember watching Haathi Mere Saathi, Hare Rama Hare Krishna and Saawan Bhadon, Navin Nischol's debut film.

Coal-fired Nostalgia

I grew up in a coal-mining town in Andhra Pradesh. Actually, three of them-Kothagudem, Bellampalli and Ramagundam, where Singareni Collieries had its mines. This was a remote set of towns, what you might call one-theatre towns, with Hindi films coming in six months after their Mumbai premiere.

The earliest film I remember seeing was Jewel thief. There was a club in each of these towns (a British legacy, as were the mines). This was the centre of social life, and sporting life. We kids of all ages played a lot of Badminton, Table Tennis, and used the swimming pool extensively when summer came along. Some billiards too, when allowed by the elders.

There used to be films screened outdoors in 16 mm with a whirring projector. I remember seeing a film called Aulad in which Mehmood donned a chaplinesque costume and sang Jodi hamari jamega kaise jani with Aruna Irani. Also remember an English film starring Shashi Kapoor.

On festive occasions we had parties, where the food was usually good. On Christmas Eve there was a fancy dress and I once became a coal-miner, with a dhoti, and a miner's lamp. Santa also gave us gifts, and it was fun.

We did a lot of cycling those days, and played all kinds of games outdoors. NTPC putting up a big new Super-thermal power plant was a sight worth seeing in Ramagundam, and so was a wide Godavari river. 

To get out of Kothagudem by train (on steam engine trains), we travelled through quaintly named stations such as Tadkalpudi, Bethampudi and reached a junction called Dornakal, which was a gateway to Delhi and Madras. Similarly, Kazipet was always on the way from Ramagundam to Hyderabad. There was a metre gauge line from Kacheguda (Hyderabad) to Ajmer via Indore, and we travelled on it once to visit an aunt in Indore.

Iftar at Campus

There was an Iftar party last evening to mark Ramzan, at the campus. It was a nice affair, with a great spread. Made me think about the several parties at our club in Singareni Collieries while I was growing up. I don't know about grown-ups, but we kids (then) had a lot of fun at those. Generally groups of us would gather, play various games, gossip, do singing sessions, and so on. We were left alone by parents, and sometimes had to be dragged home late at night by them.

I learnt how to play Badminton, Table tennis and Billiards at the club. Swimming too was a regular pastime in the hot Andhra summer, reaching 48 degrees centigrade. I remember doing a lot f cycling too. When we lived in Bellampalli, we had a foursome and played a lot of Bridge (now you know the secret of the razor-sharp brain, ha, ha). We did not have TV then (till 1980 or so), and I don't think we missed much.

Iftar is the breaking of the fast for the Holy month. I have never been able to fast, and I have great respect for those who have the self-control to do it.

Trip Down AP Memory Lane

A train journey that I went on two weeks ago brought back some memories of a life in my twenties, when I frequently went by the same railway stations and the views in between.

This was on the Andhra sector of the Nagpur- Secunderabad journey. We lived in Ramagundam and Bellampalli those days, and took a train to Hyderabad quite often. The train travels pretty fast (we clocked it at 120 km an hour at times) on the Kazipet-Secunderabad section, so you whizz past Ghanpur, Pindial, and on to Bhongir and finally Ghatkesar before you enter the Secunderabad terrain through Moulali.

There is a huge bare rock and a fort atop that in Bhongir (Bhuvan giri is the real full name) which looks inviting for a climb, if you are the climbing type, or the fort-visiting type.

The Kazipet station has a long platform where trains used to stop for quite a long time, sometimes to change the direction of the engine by detaching and re-attaching it. Vijaya dairy had just introduced buttermilk in pouches those days and it was a big hit in the heat which was huge.

Also met a friend from the Bhubaneswar days (circa 1991) after two decades in Hyderabad, adding to the rekindled memories.

Mir Osman Ali Khan

He was one of the Nizams of Hyderabad. He was responsible for a lot of good things. Osmania University being one of the biggest in education. He was the seventh in the line of Nizams. Before him too, many predecessors did a lot of good. But this one was probably one of the best. The buildings housing the university in Hyderabad are majestic, and resemble the palaces that many kings around the world had. Our engineering college in the campus was also a part of that stupendous set of architectural wonders.

This guy also set up Singareni Collieries, a coal-mining company later taken over by the Indian government. This company is where my parents spent most of their working life. It is spread across towns like Yellandu, Kothagudem, Ramagundam and Bellampalli in Andhra Pradesh.

How do I know all this? Happened to visit the Choumohalla Palace where one of the Nizams lived. It is close to Charminar in Hyderabad, and is a nice example of palatial yet simple, elegant living. Huge courtyards and a fountain are the mainstay of the complex, which was opened to the public after a restoration only a few years ago. There is also a section housing vintage cars and buggies that is classy. Includes a yellow Rolls Royce, sparkling. I was inspired to visit after reading of a trip by some students of IMT. Also, a friend's book had a cover shot taken in this beautiful place.