I have been enumerating various episodic memories which are shining nuggets to be preserved as reminisces on my Facebook posts & many a times ,they are odes to Servant Quarter. Folks & buddies of that era must be having the reminisces of Servant Quarter some sparkling ,some hazy but none can say it was just passing phase of their life, rather deeply etched in their memory , as we shifted to Hostel 1 or Hostel 2 after the famous flood of 1968 of Surat. The edifice of Servant Quarter is now dismantled but the memories of sheer joy & despair is preserved .
After the fiasco engineered by Rambhai , we were trekking to perhaps Hostel no 1 for our staple food of day & night in the mess hall . The eating table's top were Aluminium foiled accommodating 6 to 8 boys with proper chairs three or four wash basins fitted both side of the wall was a luxury as first time we were provided wash basins for washing our hand after taking meale . This is a trivia but worth describing the feeling ! The gang of persons preparing food had come from Rajasthan & they were jovial & happy lot . Our mess secretary was perhaps Mr S.K. Agrawal & Mr R.P. Verma ,both were my seniors & they both belong to Bihar . In the month of February of 1968 , Vasanta Panchami came & celebration of Saraswati Puja was mooted . I think the 1st & last time a small celebration of Saraswati Puja was done in S.V.R. campus , albeit it is celebrated with gusto in Bihar & U.P. But, we were thinking of shifting to Hostel no 1 & 2 in near future as the finishing work of hostels were going on.
Now, after four & half decade these hostels 1 ,2 &3 are abandoned lot & new glitzy & snazzy hostels are provided to S.V.R aka NIT Surat students but the joy of transition from paid lodge in the Surat town to Servant Quarter as regular hostel to Hostel no 1,2,& 3 is incomparably peerless.
The vast swathe of barren land observed from room no 27 in Dumas beach side from the single seat space ,outside the window, one or two grazing cows, changing panorama of clouds in the sky ,sometimes bulbous,some time russet ,sometime aquamarine & sometime azure blue with white bevy of playful clouds brought languid lethargy to whole being . Engineering books, kept on wooden self related to curriculum were so repulsive at times looked odious & ominous to hilt . Rainy season had started & in long swathe of barren land ,small puddle of water were formed after rainy night . In leisure time frogs of different shape & sizes & their playful activity was good pastime for time pass in solitude keeping a thin chadar covering the body . In the night.sound of drumbeat of rain drops against the window panes ,some time slow sometime furious, sometime harmonious & in between croaking of frogs for mating brought such pleasing cacophonous sound ,one was forced to doze off .
How the time passed difficult to describe but the rainy season had come .Sky always remained cloudy & bulbous dark clouds hovered pregnant with rain .When they will deliver raindrops, difficult to predict. Rain coat was must which added to the meagre budget but no escape ! Prior to coming of flood it was incessant raining for three days.The whole night was having heavy rain & evening was very gloomy . The whole campus & land around Servant Quarter was water logged .
In the morning confused faces of folks & buddies were craning their necks from the long corridor of Servant Quarter from different positions,mostly from the landing spaces of staircase for all around view towards Piplod village, our approach road to Servant Quarter & from the landing space of another staircase looking the vast sheet of muddy flood water toward Tower of Silence .The vast expanse of flood water around village Piplod dotted with houses covered by steep slanting thatched roof,copse of small trees & shrubs although coppiced but marooned by flood water giving very morose look . No where, a single soul was moving whether human or other specie . All seemed in dazed lethargy !
After the fiasco engineered by Rambhai , we were trekking to perhaps Hostel no 1 for our staple food of day & night in the mess hall . The eating table's top were Aluminium foiled accommodating 6 to 8 boys with proper chairs three or four wash basins fitted both side of the wall was a luxury as first time we were provided wash basins for washing our hand after taking meale . This is a trivia but worth describing the feeling ! The gang of persons preparing food had come from Rajasthan & they were jovial & happy lot . Our mess secretary was perhaps Mr S.K. Agrawal & Mr R.P. Verma ,both were my seniors & they both belong to Bihar . In the month of February of 1968 , Vasanta Panchami came & celebration of Saraswati Puja was mooted . I think the 1st & last time a small celebration of Saraswati Puja was done in S.V.R. campus , albeit it is celebrated with gusto in Bihar & U.P. But, we were thinking of shifting to Hostel no 1 & 2 in near future as the finishing work of hostels were going on.
Now, after four & half decade these hostels 1 ,2 &3 are abandoned lot & new glitzy & snazzy hostels are provided to S.V.R aka NIT Surat students but the joy of transition from paid lodge in the Surat town to Servant Quarter as regular hostel to Hostel no 1,2,& 3 is incomparably peerless.
The vast swathe of barren land observed from room no 27 in Dumas beach side from the single seat space ,outside the window, one or two grazing cows, changing panorama of clouds in the sky ,sometimes bulbous,some time russet ,sometime aquamarine & sometime azure blue with white bevy of playful clouds brought languid lethargy to whole being . Engineering books, kept on wooden self related to curriculum were so repulsive at times looked odious & ominous to hilt . Rainy season had started & in long swathe of barren land ,small puddle of water were formed after rainy night . In leisure time frogs of different shape & sizes & their playful activity was good pastime for time pass in solitude keeping a thin chadar covering the body . In the night.sound of drumbeat of rain drops against the window panes ,some time slow sometime furious, sometime harmonious & in between croaking of frogs for mating brought such pleasing cacophonous sound ,one was forced to doze off .
In the morning confused faces of folks & buddies were craning their necks from the long corridor of Servant Quarter from different positions,mostly from the landing spaces of staircase for all around view towards Piplod village, our approach road to Servant Quarter & from the landing space of another staircase looking the vast sheet of muddy flood water toward Tower of Silence .The vast expanse of flood water around village Piplod dotted with houses covered by steep slanting thatched roof,copse of small trees & shrubs although coppiced but marooned by flood water giving very morose look . No where, a single soul was moving whether human or other specie . All seemed in dazed lethargy !
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| Flood around Servant Quarter in 1968 was like this |
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