THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 2

THOSE WERE THE ,,,,,, ,       DAYS !!

Here i am , a retired person knocking on the doors of the seventies  , musing about the many childhood dreams some of which have been fulfilled and many which still remain a dream  . There have been many things which had caught my fancy as a schoolgoing kid or later on into my  teens .
Some of those dreams have seen the day of light  and sadly a large part of the same are never ever going to do so .
The early part of my teens was at a place called Kharagpur in West  Bengal . Now , don't  get me wrong , it was not at the IIT for which the place is more famous for the world over , but the Railway Colony of which my father was very much a part of . I did my schooling at the Railway Mixed Higher Secondary School there. My fathers previous posting was at a place called Chakradharpur ( in present day Jharkhand ) and due to very frequent transfers , I did part of my schooling at my sisters place at Bhilai in the  present day Chattisgarh  . My schooling was in the Hindi Medium till the 8 th Standard.
The school at Kharagpur was in the ISC ( Indian School Certificate or Senior Cambridge ) mode with English as the all important subject . This School had a sizable Anglo Indian crowd  and the ease with which they would chatter away in English was something which i could never bring myself to be good at as my vocabulary till then was very much  limited to the very basic yes and no and nothing beyond that . 

The school at Kharagpur was a fair distance from the Officers Quarters where we resided. A cycle was the sole mode of transport . What i yearned for was a Geared Raleigh bike ( that is what a cycle was called then ) , what i could finally get my father to agree to was a Second Hand 24 inches Ladies Eastern Star Bike costing all of Rs 60 , which was  a princely sum then .
Radio was the sole  mode of entertainment other than the Cinema and as was typical of most youngsters of that age group i too was addicted to the same . Ameen Sayani s Binaca Geet Mala at 8 pm on Wednesdays and Abhi To Main Jawan Hoon at 10 pm on Sundays  , plus the Aap Hee Ke Geet at 8 am everyday  by Radio Ceylon were all time favorites.
Cricket was played and keenly followed on the radio. Vijay Merchant and Dicky Rutnakars comments were like the words of the Gods to us . The hand held Transistor Radio was one item which we all longed for to keep us abreast of the happenings at the Brabourne or Eden Garden Stadiums .
The years have rolled bye and having completed my schooling at Kharagpur and then College in What is now  Mumbai , by virtue of my job , i am now a  retired Textile Professional settled amidst everything green in a village called Agasthiarpatty near Ambasamudram in Tamilnadu.

My daughter and son are both doing well and settled now with their own families in Canada . My wife dotes on me and we are an excellent support to each other .
But in spite of all these there are times when i still ponder upon those unfulfilled dreams of my younger days .  It is at moments such as these that those rare but fulfilled dreams come rushing in to soothe the pain.