Thrills of of a township life
Irrespective of where we live, we are all social animals. We long to have long lasting relationship with others and are always wondering how to keep and maintain such relationships.
In families that are used to living in different environments, in different States, for example, there is always seen a different kind of bonding that goes far beyond mere token friendship.
People who live in company townships often experience a different kind of friendship and bonding. They meet people of different States, and cultures, who have very unique ways of worship and so on. Yet, the bonding that happens in a township is really very unique and can help one learn several lessons about life in general.
My father was working as a HR executive in a huge Public Sector Undertaking in Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu. This Central Government organization had a huge township, where we all lived and studied together in the same school.
The school was affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education, New Delhi, right from inception. We, that is, children of employees, were about twenty -- ten boys and ten girls, who grow up in the same township, but belonged to Kerala, the then undivided Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradeh, and even Jammu and Kashmir. Students who joined in later years also came from heterogeneous backgrounds.
I still remember a Punjabi aunty, who was very friendly with us. She would come with her daughter who was studying in standard seven in the same school, when I studied in standard ten. The young gilr took huge interest in the doll show during the Navarathiri time, in September, every year. It was so interesting to see the Punjabi lady also speaking Tamil and singing their own songs in Hindi. The entire atmosphere was one of fun and jokes and a huge amount of sharing, particularly of the food that came from various States.
Yes, there was politics in offices, but to the credit of the men, they never allowed the politics to have any impact on the way we, the children, interacted with each other. In fact, there was a big emphasis on mixing of boys and girls, and we were always a very noisy crowd. Even the neighbors used to enjoy all the fun.
We never had to bother about mundane things like scarcity of water. It was available aplenty, and each of our houses had good amount of garden houses. In our days, the flats were not too much. Only in the latter stages, the flats were more common. Some of the old houses, have been partially rebuilt now.
The Township had a huge bus station, from which there was a bus to the town of Tiruchi, some twelve kilometers away, every five minutes or even less. In fact, we just hopped into a bus and would go to watch movies in the neighboring cinema halls.
In those days, the cost of living was never huge, and our parents did not earn the five figure salaries in those days. They had to make do with monthly salaries of just around two thousand rupees every month. However, since the housing was highly subsidized and even schooling was some what subsidized, our parents were still able to educate all of us. The cost of living was not a big worry, as it is now.
The Township had round the clock security, and it was not so easy for strangers to enter the Township at will. The employees of the organization, had other ways of bonding as well. The officers had their own club, and it was here, that a huge amount of informal meetings took place. Even love at first sight was common, as the employee would suddenly show up his sister-in-law, born and brought up in another city. Some young employee would simply ask his parents to discuss with the girl's relatives, and even inter-State weddings have happened in this fashion.
We, the children, had some social responsibilities too. We often collected good old clothes and gave them away to many orphanages. We never told lies to anyone. We never knew what is caste or creed, though we, as children, saw huge processions even within our own Township, against the Hindi impositio, over four decades ago.
Township life had several advantages. The first advantage was that there were so many people to help us in times of need. Secondly, there was absolutely no mention of caste, or region or color, in our discussions. Thirdly, we knew about latest fashions, even in those days. Even when we saw the North Indian women wear sleeveless blouses with sarees, four decades ago, no one even bothered to make any silly comment. In fact, such was the bonding that our own parents would often visit their houses, they would visit ours and so on, and still maintain their own cultures.
Fourthly, we never had any opportunity to speak ill about others, or indulge in any form of violence. Our teachers in the school, taught us very good skills, and the command over the written and spoken English language, stood us in good stead, in our later years.
Fifthly, we were exposed to everything that us quite unknown to the wider world. For example, we knew everything about the giant Public Sector organization, that till today, manufactures a wide range of electrical products.
When we grow from strength to strength, it becomes essential that we learn to appreciate the other person's point of view. This was automatically taught to us, even in those days, as day in, and day out, we were told to hear others and respect others.
Today, each of us is well placed, and Facebook has brought us together. We recall, with fond affection, the good old days of fun, and frolic and character building as well.
The modern version of the Township is called the gated community, where everything is available. However, we are still to understand that the bonding, that took place in a Township, where all the employees worked for the same organization, is so difficult to build in a gated community, where strangers get together, but bonding does not so easily take place.
Perhaps, when the present generation that is just in their twenties and thirties, grows up and faces all the complications of urban life in the next three decades, they will came back to square one, and try to bond in far better ways. This might as well happen.
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