SANCHI & BHOJPUR.

Our school took us for picnic trip to Sanchi ( A place of religious importance for Buddhists ) which is few hours drive from bhopal.There was round shaped structures  which are called stupas and structure like gate with some sorts of scriptures engraved on it.The whole journey was full of excitement and after reaching the place we played various games but the best part was when we all sat together and opened our tiffin boxes and shared food with each other because everybody got to eat so many delicacies at the same time.I till today remember eating poha and egg bhurji from my friends tiffin boxes.
Another place we visited was Bhojpur which is also few hours drive from bhopal.It is famous for biggest Shiv Linga ( A hindu God ) in world.It was a very old structure and we all have to climb up the ladder to reach to the shivlinga.After that we all did the parikarma ( going round the lord ).There was a very big Beehive suspended from the roof and we all got scared incase the bee will bite us.But the scenery was very beautiful and there was a stream also in which the water was flowing but it was just ankle high deep.We also came to learn that hundreds of years ago King Bhoj was used to rule over this area and bhojpur was its capital and he was one of the richest king of his time.

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FATHER'S V/S SON'S

Continuing from my earlier blog about cricket now i want to tell you that one day one of  our friend Kartik proposed that we should fix a match between father's and son's.All of us welcomed his idea but very few of us were optimistic that father's will agree for this sort of match.But he said that he will talk to his father who was ex-first class cricketer.His father not only agreed for the match but also pushed his friends who were good cricketers to play and slowly some of other friends father's agreed and formed their team.It was decided to play the match on sunday in all white uniform.Not only that father's made arrangements for snacks for all during innings break.Although son's team won the match but father's team gave us a tough fight.
Ashok Jagdale & Sanjay Jagdale who was BCCI secretary till recently were living in E-2 sector of bhopal which was in neighbourhood.They both used to play for state and my eldest brother got the chance to play with them in one of the club matches.
Another feature of bhopal was annual cricket tournament organised by Ex-Indian Captain Mansur Ali Khan Patuadi who has a Palace in bhopal.This tournament was organised at Tinshed Stadium and most of the Indian first class cricketer used to participate in it.We used to go to stadium to watch the tournament and we saw Sunil Gavasker,Gundappa Wishwanath,Karsan Ghavrey,Brajesh Patel,Pataudi himself,Bedi and so on.But most excitement used to happen when Sharmila Tagore ( Wife of Pataudi ) used to arrive at the stadium since she was one of the top heroine of hindi films of her time. Sunil Gavasker was the top opening batsmen of  the world and he was the centre of attraction.We used to have lot of fun in the stadium.

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Cricket and Bhopal.

Although Hockey is the National Game of India but actually for general public Cricket is truly the national game in fact it is considered a religion now-days in India.So although we played all sorts of game but cricket was like a passion for all of us.There was a big ground in our colony and we prepared the pitch by digging the ground 22 square yards as prescribed by international law of cricket and we dug it deep approx. 2 foot. After that we put small pebbles of brick in the pitch area,after that one layer of badarpur ( Mixture of coarse sand ) was put on it, after that one layer of earth of fine quality was put on it.After doing all this we used to get it rolled by road roller and after that for three days we used to sprinkle water on the pitch and after it get dried again road roller was put on it.So after three days of hard work by all of us the pitch got ready with little bit of grass on it.All the material we got from construction work going in the neighbourhood.
Both my elder brothers were fast bowlers and eldest brother was captain of the team also.Another friend welcome was another medium pacer, hemant and maheshwari were spinners while daboo was our wicket keeper who letter represented state in the Ranji Trophy.( National Championship ) Other member of the team were Tom ( Looked like Clive Loyed ) ,Kartik, and Ganesh.I was the 11th member of the side and the youngest at 11 years.I was a all rounder and used to bowl both medium pacer and spin and that too from both right hand and left hand also.Actually at that time Karsan Ghavery was indian test cricketer who was opening bowler and later in the innings he used to bowl spin.He was one the most popular cricketer of his time because of his look and his bowling run-up with long hair flying in the air.So he was also my hero.As i told you that i was the 11th player and in cricket when 10th batsmen gets out then innings get closed and most of the time i remained not out so i complained to my brother who was the captain that why should i suffer and i should be given my batting.But my brother told me that rule us rule but i remained adamant and refused to leave the crease.Finally i was sacked from the team.

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Kite Flying

Kite flying season used to be quite exciting and very hectic for us.Preparation for it used to start days in advance because first we used to buy white plain thread  for kite flying and then we used to boil one product called Sares and used to mix it with different colours and then glass pieces which we used to grind like fine powder and then boil the mix in high temperature and after it cooling down we used to apply on the plain thread by using cloth and tieing the plain thread from one pole to another pole in both side of the ground.By applying the paste with glass powder we used to get knife edge on the thread and so we used to cut most of the rivals kites because of it.Although it was quite dangerous to do so because you can cut your hands also with such sharp thread.But we used to take adequate measures so that we should not get hurt.
But it was more fun to loot the kites which was cut and myself and my friends along with younger brother used to loot the kites of different colours and sizes and shapes.We used to keep all the kites in one room because as i told you in my earlier blog that we had a big house with several rooms.In whole season we used to collect more then 50 kites.And every time we were successful in chasing and looting the kite,it was felt like wining the world cup because there were other children's with whom you have to compete.

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JAI SANTOSHI MAA

In 1975 there was a hindi film released by the name of jai santoshi maa,who is a hindu Goddess and the film became a cult film and became super hit.People used to go to theatres without wearing shoes and whenever the goddess  used to appear on the screen public used to throw coins and flowers on the screen.The moral of the story was that if you fast for 16 Fridays continuously without eating any food or fruit containing citric acid such as lemon or oranges then the goddess will fulfil all your wishes and it spread like wild fire.Most women started keeping fast and the ritual was that you have to give food to at-least 7 or 11 children and since this fast was for 16 weeks so every Friday we used to kept invited from more then 2 families and the item common in food was pooriees  ( Made of wheat flour & fried in heated oil ),choley( dish made of grams ),Kheer ( A sweet dish made with mixing milk in rice and sugar added to it and boiled to the maximum ).As i told you in my earlier blog that in bhopal we used to live like close knit family like village in the community and since we belonged to the upper cast ( Brahmins ) community of Hindus,so every family wanted us to eat at their place so we had no other option but to eat at each place on the same day.
Another hindi film which is considered to be the greatest hindi film ever till date was released at the same time called SHOLAY.It broke all box office records and every single dialogue of the films became so popular that every indian remembered the dialogue by heart and there was a character called Soorma Bhopali in the film which was  based on dialect spoken in a particular way in bhopal and we also started speaking like that in our daily life also.

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Trekking in the hill.

After spending few days in our village we came back to bhopal but our vacation was still on since its 2 month holiday in summers.In bhopal the whether used to be nice even in summers also so we were able to spend time outdoors.As i told you in my earlier blog that we had hills in backside of our house and one day we all friends decided to explore the hills and decided to go there.We were going to an unknown territory but we were all very excited.After walking for half an hour we entered the hills and started going upwards and on the way we found different type trees,birds,flowers but we all got excited to find tree of one fruit called Karonde which is used to make pickle.On the way back we collected lot of stones of different shapes and sizes and some stones were very light with shining material like silver ( Abhrak in hindi ) which i think was some kind of mineral stone.There after we went to hill number of times.One more thing which i forget to mention is there were lot Butterfly's of different colours and we used to catch them although it was a tough task.Another insect which we used to catch is called helicopter by us and then we used to tie thread from its tail and then he used to fly upwards and thread remained in our hands like kite flying.

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Mango Orchards.

Continuing from my last blog where i told you about reaching our village during summer vacation and taking bath in the pond and after taking breakfast we all used to go to our own mango orchards which was just 100 mts. in front of our house and most of the day was spent there relishing different varieties of mangos,Jamuns from the trees or playing cards etc.In the mango orchard villagers used to built temporary small hut made of bamboo and roof was made of rice husk and sitting space was around 2 to 3 feet hight because there were lot of snakes use to roam around and they were of different colour & sizes and one snake is having head on the both side which is called Gahuman.But our cousins told us that we should not be afraid of them because they don't harm you unless you harm you. In fact in our place people worship snakes and specially there is festival called Naagpanchmi in which people offer milk to the snakes.Snakes are also very useful for farmers since they ate rats who used to destroy their harvest.Another fruit which was very unique is called jalebi which grows on tree and it is called jalebi ( Indian sweet Dish ) because it is exactly like this sweet dish in shape & size.
The whole day was spent in no time but in evening it was like hell because there was no electricity and plus lot of mosquitoes so we have to sleep in the mosquito net which we are not habitual to in cities.So we used to sleep quite early in the night.My Grandmother used to keep best mangos for my father hiding it from all of us.She had a very good personality and was the only sister of seven brothers.My Grandfather used to command great respect from villagers and incase of any dispute among villagers his word was considered the last word on the matter.My story of village cannot end without describing our dog Moti .Even if he used to be 3 kilometers away in our fields if my grandfather used to call him from his house,he used to come running within minutes. It was a big surprise to us that how he can recognise his master voice so far away.

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