Sarojininagar-memories

For the old residents of Delhi, this colony occupies a special slot and has lots of nostalgic memories of a lost era.The place holds special place in my heart because I grew up as a teenager in the environs.
This is primarily a housing complex for government servants , called "colony" was earlier known as Vinay Nagar when I first visited in 1956 . but by the time we started living there in 1961, it had become known as Sarojini Nagar , named after Smt.Sarojini Nayadu , and other parts were made into Netaji Nagar, Nauroji Nagar, Laxmibai Nagar etc.
The housing layout was divided into blocks from A to M, and some extra blocks such as EPT, LPT, ( P&T quarters), BD,XY& DG. A set of flats ( known as quarters) were earmarked for RBI employees in K Block.
SN was a full fledged, independent , self supporting township with its own Bus Depot, Market, Post Office, Police Station, Parks ,Community Hall ( BC Park), Municipal Hospital, Schools, a Bengali School and even a private industry; Gwalior Potteries.

SN was the first of its kind newly constructed colony in independent India, especially New Delhi and became a model for all the colonies to come up in the Capital around SN and elsewhere.Of course there were other older colonies like Gole Market, Lodhi Colony, Kaka Nagar etc.

The Main attraction was the Sarojini Nagar Market which had a charm of its own which it retains till today. Even now, it is best known for the fantastic shopping experience and is called the KarolBagh-cum-Connaught Place of South Delhi.
What I remember of my childhood days was the H shaped main market dotted by famous shops of those days of 60’s and 70’s. Albany Expresso at No.1 in the front row near the Bus Stand, was the only deluxe ,A/c restaurant , one of its kind in the entire neighborhood for the well heeled where an espresso coffee (nowhere else available)used to cost Rs.0.75 ,a princely amount those days when it used to be Rs.1.25 at Standard Restaurant above Regal in CP! Tiwari, the panwala at the corner shop used to be the best cigarette shop, a meeting point of all our friends circle. Watni Dhaba next door was typical Punjabi restaurant. Sindhi Boot house next door always had a Sale on.Bhushi's tea stall near the arch used to be the meeting point for all lafadis in the evening, Bhushi, a happy go lucky youngster then, used to supply grass to the adventurous among us.Next door was BabuLal , with a shack in the corridor had all kinds of miscellaneous items including Hindi film song booklets available for 5 paisa, and a variety of choorans and candies, next door was Ahuja Pharmacy. New Fotolife was a snooty photographer. In the more famous L shaped backrow, we had Mohan Sweets with those incredible, famous Samosas , next to Sagar Studio, Paradise Stores with an incredible collection of readymade garments was the fashion house,next door was Novex Dry Cleaner. Another well known landmark was the Golden Bakery where we used to take the Atta & Ghee from home to get the biscuits baked on jobwork basis, just as we had many Tandoors in the colony baking rotis on jobwork basis.

Other side of the L, we had Sardar Dairy famous for Cream & Desi Ghee and Keventers milk store. A couple of Radio Shops, an Ice cream shop, and a few furniture shops followed by Capital Dry cleaners at the corner which into fire accidents every now and then. The mirror image block at the rear had a couple of Banks, a few typewriting institutes, Sports& Shoes, the only store where one could buy canvas shoes, badminton racquets’, shuttlecocks etc. They also had branches at Lodhi Colony& Khan Market.
Rear Block had BluestarTailor at one end, and Manzil restaurant on other end , the only South Indian restaurant in entire region serving Dosas & Vadas. All the south Indians had only one place to have their native type of snacks and Thali food whenever felt homesick. Other few places where one could get south Indian food was CP, and of course Karol Bagh.
SN market started becoming more expensive as it started serving the more monied clientele of next door Chanakyapuri including bus loads from Russian embassy, then came up a ramshackle Babu market in shanties that offered daily needs of the poorly paid government babus at nearly 25-35% less than the next door main market. The shoppers started getting polarized. Then , one fine day the whole market got gutted in a fire accident. So much was the furore raised by the residents that the local government of Jansangh had to build a new concrete market within a few months and that Babu Market is still drawing crowds.

In between the lanes of the main market were houses a few coaching institutes like PT College etc. which used to offer certificates like Punjab Matric, Gwalior Matric etc. to the people who could not pursue a regular school education.A teacher in one of such “College” was Mr. Ramdhan who became a local level Politician, and many years later joined VP Singh into forming Jan Morcha. I am told even Sahib Singh Verma, who grew up becoming CM of Delhi stared his teaching career in one of these institutes before joining DAV College at Srinivaspuri.
Sarojini Nagar was an important votebank which no major politician could afford to ignore,and Jansangh ( now BJP) had its firm base here. I have as a school kid, attended political rallies addressed by ML Kurana, VK Malhotra, KN Sahni, ML Sondhi, and even Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Sanjay Gandhi.I moved out of SN in 1975 to Motibagh, another Govt.colony.
Sarojini nagar of today is very different from what it was during the good old days, yet it still has its own charm and place in the hearts of Delhites.A colony which had only bicycles& scooters today has huge parking problems! I for one, have unforgettable memories of my younger days and everytime I pass through SN , those nostalgic memories come flooding back. My siblings who are away from Delhi for decades, make it a point to visit SN whenever they come to Delhi.My childhood friends many of them in Europe & US, say they can recognize a Sarojininagari anywhere in the world!