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The South
Asian Life & Times - SALT |
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Contents Cover Story
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By O.P. Dutta
(O P Dutta was a regular contributor to SALT –
his column ‘Social Comment’ was popular and eagerly awaited by all its
readers, and so were his articles that he wrote from time to time. It will
be a year this February, since he passed on. In his fond memory, we are
publishing one of the very first pieces he wrote for the magazine – while it
was still only on the web.
In this article, O.P. Dutta, film-maker
and writer, fondly remembers his first ‘hometown’ Chakwal - now in the
Punjab province of Pakistan.) The railway station at Chakwal, the second last
station on the ‘Mandra-Bhon’ railway as it was known then (I am talking of
twenties and thirties during the last century) was a running distance from
the town, if not a walking distance. The moment you alighted from the only
train that arrived from Mandra, you were greeted by the drivers (and not
coolies) anxious to grab your baggage. Not only were they looking for
passengers to the town, but to neighbouring villages such as Karyala,
Bhalla, Udharval and Roopwal. They gave special attention to well-dressed
ladies and the gentlemen of the ‘Khoja’ community who were mostly engaged in
the leather business at ‘Calcutta’ or ‘Hong Kong’. The attention was for
obvious reasons. As one drove down (or walked) the road to the town,
one was greeted by the aroma of cooked food in the air. There were quite a
few cooking joints (they are now known as ‘dhabas’). The aroma of the
curried lamb was so arresting. A little distance down the road was the bus
‘adda’ (then known as the lorry stand) which looked more like an auto
garage. It seems the vehicles were constantly under repair.
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