My memories of NRC!

Hi everyone !!! This is Manali, a proud NRCite. Its just couple of years we left the colony and it seems like years have passed. I spent my 14 long and most memorable years in NRC !!! My life started there and I would have loved had it ended there only…!!! Some things cannot be expressed they need to be understood, and I know you all can understand it …
If anybody asks me about my best days till now, they are undoubtedly the ones spent in NRC !!! Those were the days which I would cherish all my life. Every single moment which I lived there is so unique. On earth there are may be places more beautiful and pleasing than NRC, but let me tell you one thing there is no other place other than NRC, which would give you so beautiful relationships in form of friends, brothers, sisters, uncles and aunties J, so beautiful moments of pleasure. All those memories are still so fresh in my mind that I can’t believe that now I won’t be able to get back those days of my life! Now that I am writing down my memories I would do as and when things come to my mind. No specific order, no specific series… straight what my heart says.
Let me start with my friends. Our group was a one where you could find kids of almost all age-group. It starts from 1st std and it ended at 10th std, actually there was a time when college goers also joined us, but then maybe they started feeling that playing that ‘chuppa-chuppi’, ‘lagori’, ‘chor-police’, ‘galli-cricket’, ‘damshras’etc etc too childish to play. It was like when we came to know that now there are hardly few days left for us all to be together in colony, we decided to enjoy these days to the fullest!! We did all our kiddish parties and stuff. We played from 5 in the eve till 9 in the night. It was only after the aunties of my building when shouted at us for singing songs at high pitch we used to go home feeling that for today it was enough of our manual DJ. But it was all so fun !! We played damsharas so much that we were sure that we could win international championship and make our colony proud! The sound still rings in my ears, “Manaaaaaaaaaaaliiii, Manaaaaaaali diiiiiiiiidi, niche aa na. Kitna time leti hai. Jaldi aa. Tab tak hum log teams girate hai.” And then all those “kaccha-limbus” used to cry that they were not included in the actual team. And then we used to console them by saying, “Arre buddhu you are so lucky, you can play for both the teams as per your wish. We have to play for only one team. Tu kitni/kitna lucky hai, mujhe aisa chance nahi mila. Shi yaar… !!!” And then they used to think that we are correct and that they are so lucky. Hehehehe…. We used to feel so nice to fool them. And then those fights that whether it was a four or a six. Gosh !!! I don’t know why we wasted half an hour shouting at each other. Better we had given them those extra two runs without the fight and continued playing, atleast we would have got half an hour more to play. But I still believe that it was a four and not a six… Then when we played those ghar-ghar and bhoot-bhoot games in night. It was fun with all so quiet and only trees all-around. I still remember one of our friends (she was a small baby just 7 yrs old) went home running and crying claiming that she actually saw ‘bhoot’. Hahahah, it took so much time for us to make her understand. Then came the badminton, carom, etc etc we played in the club. We being kids had to wait for long for our chance to come to play in the court. We got so furious!!! But then when we got the chance we did the same to our juniors, so our frustration was compensated. Hehehe
Then those New Year’s parties, something for which we waited so eagerly because we had practiced for our dance from probably Diwali itself. It used to be fun, in the start we used to have zero co-ordination. Kisi ka haath upar jate hai, toh kisi ka niche. Koi right jata hai toh koi left ya toh koi kahi jata hi nahi, jagah pe sirf khada rahta hai. God !!! Our ‘dance teacher’ ( Satyendra bhaiya or Sangeeta didi) used to shout in their own ways and make us do again and again. It used to be so much fun. Those dance practices which we did on our club’s stage were so embarrassing. Everybody playing badminton or other stuff and we dancing and sweating on the stage. We could see the boys watching us from the corner of their eyes and then we complaining silently and then they were made to go from their. Really, we laugh so much when we re-collect those memories. But then all this was worth when we performed in the party and then at the end those chants – ‘Once more, once more’ used to make us so happy and proud! All our ‘mehenat rang layi’. Then followed the boring orchestra, a couple of games, dinner, housie and then the count-down begins…. 3,2,1 and its “HAPPY NEW YEAR” !!! Everyone giving a warm hug and wishing a prosperous year ahead! I used to feel so nice. The best New Year’s party ever!
Then, ofcousre, the most famous – killa that we made in Diwali vacations. Some of our parents, including mine, never supported us in this ‘messy’ stuff. But hum sunne walo mein se thodi hai. We would start from morning and end till our mommies don’t shout from balcony/window/ sometimes even come out to pull us in. While burning crackers we used to be careful that we don’t finish ours, and whoever finished his first we were all there to tease him that now he has left with none and we still have so many. Hahahahaha, the expression of disgust was worth watching. Holi – was another time when it used to be great dhamaal !!! People throwing balloons from their balcony, from behind the trees and from terrace. And then almost entire colony used to gather in club, thats a different thing that we hardly recognized but it used to be fun playing games and dancing with such a big known crowd but still unknown…
I lived my 99.9% of my days in NRC in CN-2 building. Though we shifted but that’s from the second floor to ground floor. I remember, anybody coming to our place got surprised at the greenery of the surrounding and the spacious rooms. Their first reaction used to be, “Is this surely Mumbai?”. Never could they imagine that something like this can ever exist (it was like heaven ). During summers, when kids used to throw stones at the mango tree next to our building I remember shouting at them from the balcony. God!!! Had I collected all the stones that fell in our balcony they would have filled my entire house. But then it was ok, coz in evening it were we who did it. Then the big football/cricket ground behind our building. Our kitchen never ever had the glass window we only had the wooden border thanks to all the boys who played cricket/football from generations to generations and help us to continue the tradition of CN-2’s ground floor of not having a glass window …
Days in school were and actually are always the best. Anyway, talking about our batch we were tagged as the ‘most mischievous’ batch ever. So careless, so manner less, so shameless, we left no teacher un-troubled. Not even our principal. Even she used to get frustrated after entering our class (Rosely miss). The only two teachers whom we used to listen were Joseph sir and our PT sir (Aman sir). Thats it, otherwise it was all our ‘raj’. We never ever kept quite, from passing open comments to burning crackers is all we did. We never felt proud if a teacher praised you for the good work you did, we felt rather proud when we were thrown out of the class or made to stand on the bench ( I and my bench-mate cum best friend were made to stand on the bench for the first time in our life-time. It was like we were on the top of the world, smile on our happy face and when the teacher looked at us with a confused look it made us more happy.)
We, being the 50th batch of the school wanted to do something ‘hat-ke’ in our 10th std. We did party on our farewell, full-to maja-masti; even on teacher’s day we arranged a cultural program for our teachers (it was actually for our fun only not for teachers). All our teachers though were so frustrated by our batch but they were equally entertained by us with all our wonderful and witty mischievous. We used to talk so so so much (not just girls, but boys were equally strong when it came to talking) that even in practicals we didn’t stop our ‘chappar-chappar’. Even in Rosely mam’s lecture half the time she had to shout, “Keep quite, keep quite’. The limit of everything. She taught us geometry in 10th and in our first sem guess what were the lowest marks ???? It was ‘1’ mark. Yes !!! she was so horrified and worried what all days she has to see with our batch. But still the one scoring those precious one mark didn’t cared at all about it. The most bindass batch till date. We were something not only me but the teachers, clerks and even peons would never ever forget! And that’s the reason may be all had tears in eyes on our last day at school… I say ‘ALL’.
One of the most memorable one is during 26/7 floods. People from 3 buses fully packed had to stay in the school as there was no other way out. And all the aunties decided to make ‘khichadi’ (the only possible thing to be made then) and give the people to eat. Some also took few old clothes to donate. Its something that touched my heart. Even in school every class took up the initiative to help the affected students either by giving the extra set of uniform if we have or by donating extra books or by even completing their notes. There was so much unity. We all wanted to help the unlucky ones who suffered the loss in anyway possible. I think that’s where I learned that however trouble you are in make it a point to help others in any way you can…
Well, the memories are un-ending… and un-willingly I have to stop somewhere, so let me stop it here. But want to say a few things at the end.
NRC gave me some awesome friends, bros and sis from the colony, some people to whom I can turn up when I am in trouble, some people who always stand beside me to support me, some people with whom I share a relationship which is difficult for people to understand (its so unique and different), some people who taught me some life-changing values un-knowingly and some people who seemed nothing then and seem so much today. NRC – days were something which everyone of us would always treasure. Something which are so deeply imprinted in my mind that now even if there is a memory loss, I doubt whether I would be ever able to forget it.
Never in my or rather our life we would ever get such a unique place to live, never would we get the same friends and people back, those moments back… And this fact is so heavy that my heart couldn’t hold it and broke down this Diwali when I couldn’t stop my tears for hours… But things happen for a reason, may be all this happened so that we ourselves understand how attached we are to the colony, to make us realize that there is no other place better than it and that hundreds of hearts still want to come back and re-live those days…
Though today we all are parted away, our roads have separated, we would always be bonded with this unique thread which NRC has woven between us to keep us intact. (This thread has a guarantee period of lifetime) …