My childhood in Thakurli

tandblekningar strips  My family is from southern India. I grew up in the suburbs and my neighbours were few south Indians, Tam Brahms, people from Kolhapur, Raigad Zilla and Koils mostly. I lived in a place called Thakurli where we had beautiful Bara Bungalows. The road from Thakurli station to my house was one stretch with trees lined on both sides of the road. We had a gola wala ringing his cart in every afternoon. we had our ration/subsidised granary shop, a barber, two restaurants, Sandeep restaurant,  a pure veg hangout with a paan beedi shop outside. Alka Hindu hotel served veg and non veg food including patal bhaji, misal pav etc. we had a milk dairy, a flour mill, where I used to go and get the wheat ground to a flour for chapatis to be made at home. Yes, there was also a laundry, dry cleaner. A chana, bhel shop and Babu Rao's vegetable hut/shop. e was also our village/town quack. He cured my skin disorder with some powder placed in a ripe Banana. A few years later we also had a jakat Naka and a General Store riht in front of our house. They sold nail paints, hair clips etc. By the way, the chana wala bhaiyya also had something called Sorat, it is a kind of gambling where we pay five paise and pull out a pocket stuck to a board and if that pocket/envelope said 25 inside, it meant we had won a 4 annas. or quarter of a rupee. I always won something and collected for my trip to the big market where I would splurge on dfferent things including Bore, a red or green and orange colored berry with a hard pit inside.
We used to wake up to a siren sound from the Chola Powerhouse. 5.45 am, 6.00am 7.15 am and 7.30 am. I had to catch a train to go to my school in Ambernath. (Fatima High School). There used to be a Karjat train @ 6 .10 am and another one for Ambernath @ 6.35 am. I used to travel by first class. Ususally first class compartments in local trains are not that crowded, but for some reason, even that early in the morning, it used to be crowded. I used to warm myself on wintry morning on a stove that was used for boiling milk at the railway canteen. The worker/manager was a kind gentleman named Killa, wearing a Railway uniform, he used to give me slice of creamy cake, some days it used to be rusk, khara biscuits on other days. He was a kind person. waiting for my train to arrive, I used to watch people from nearby homes who had no access to running tap water at home, used to come and fill their glistening brass pots from the hose pipe of the canteen.
Yes, scattered memories, but I have started working on them today. I hope to keep adding here after everyday.
Ranga Rajah