59/3 CPWD Qtrs

Soon after my schooling we moved to a happening place in the city of Chennai- AnnaNagar. Quite an astounding place with posh houses, wide roads & pleasing greeneries. People living there for decades seem refined in all aspects of life. Life was a real bliss living there. The locality even today is a sharp but a silent bustling area for the cream crowd who have enough zest to explore the best & the latest in the city whether it be fashion, food, clothing ,gadgets, cosmetics & what not.
The very name of the locality will sound soothing to the soul if u have lived there. Though until now we never own a concrete piece there,a span of six serene years were gifted by god to enjoy life in such posh place in a city like Chennai. It added more color to my college life from day1. The central government of India had scooped this huge square land and christened it as cpwd quarters for its employees right in the middle of that hundred feet road. It mildly resembled a forest settlement with a planned green belt inside the campus. It was a paradise amidst the usual city's concrete jungle and I bet there is none to deny this.
I had no idea initially when i was told that we will soon be shifting to this strange place(cpwd qrts) in the same city of mine.But i realised the importance and charisma of this place once i landed in.Even today many of my friends have tender feelings associated with this place where i lived.Dense tall green ashoka trees on either side of the pathway at the entrance just gave a striking realisation of having entered an earthly heaven.For all those who have been there i am sure they would know, this is a no exaggeration. The ambiance was impeccable any day anytime sinking a warmth feeling of being in a earthly heaven .
I lived there for little more than half a decade . I remember very precisely how childish i was and how that place had seen me grow in to a matured,sensible and a self confident young damsel. We lived in the first floor of a well - ventilated block containing four stacked floors with each deck containing 2 houses. My house had it's own charm and we were the first one to occupy the newly built block. Soon people moved in to all the allotments and life became more vivid with compatible & amicable neighbors who made our lives truly colorful. We were more than a close knit family sharing food, music, culture, thoughts, joy, sorrow and sometimes even our ideas & practices. We knew more number of families than before.
Though it wasn't a huge or a amply spacious house, it was adequate enough for a four dwindled to three family, to live in. The walls of that house had witnessed me during my times of distress, anxiety& my moments of joy. If u were to ask every brick in that house,they would tell u what a cry babe,lazy bum & a dream girl I was in the initial years but managed to come to the reality world at the end. My favorite place was the window corner in my room. It was just not another window to me but was a window which showed me the outside world letting me dare my dreams. Every time i saw outside the window, i had an inspiring breath dashing in some fresh air while watching the green lush, the tall conical water tank strikingly visible from my window, teens playing with full of life, kids learning to peddle, the obese jogging to cut down & many more which were a typical vision of a peaceful settlement.
Every house had at least one portico which added life to the enclosed house. A tall green tree spread across almost the entire block of mine on either side added beauty to the occupied area. It was best enjoyed being in the portico.There were variety of houses, allotments strictly based on official rankings. Though my house is the best to me , i also loved and admired the one occupying the center of the colony. It was special in the way it's been constructed and the location for it being chosen. It had a single room on top of the spaciously built house fenced with it's own green area , portraying the one described in Enid Blyton stories. Every time i take a stroll around the colony it had always been my envy... and i wouldn't forget to give it a longing look. But people rarely lived there for long as it was a special cottage for the top most officials who were mostly on wheels shuttling between major metros.
It had a school, a kendriya bandar, playgrounds, badminton courts, care taking offices, postal facilities, open arena & temples facilitating the residents. It was the place from where i pursued my dream degree. It was a place where i managed to gain few friends of my own age sharing the same kind of dream in life with similar family back grounds. One cannot miss the teens flocking together all the time. They were the ones who rocked anytime. A perfect place to meet a lot of friends ,share some intimate thoughts, & play until the day ends.
As residents we enjoyed living there best during the rainy season when we imbibed a perfect feeling of living with the nature. It truly used to be a breath taking sight while it rains watching the fall colors, blooming flowers & the bright green grass . It still is a perfect ecosystem supporting hundreds of birds and other organisms providing them shelters on tree tops. Not all the time we enjoy the nature around us. But i promptly find some time during the winter months to admire the leaves wilting on the tree facing our block, standing in my portico realizing how times change even for the trees and not to mention, they again start sprouting back in summer months. Wonderful sight i tell you.
I enjoyed a very peaceful life & enhance myself personally .It helped me work upon my thoughts to achieve more than i thought i could, sitting under this roof than anywhere else, trying to understand my own self & figure out what this world was up to. That place had helped me evolve in to a mentally strong person just for the kind of life i have had here and kept me in close proximity to an eventful place in the city in catching up with the latest .
And finally when it was time for me to quit this place,years rolled by and i realized that I will never live in this place again in this life of mine. I am reminded of something when i type out these lines. When we moved away from a house where we lived for 15 yrs since i was a year old kid i spent hours crying aloud , unable to digest the fact that i was leaving that place forever. Probably people at home would have felt a bit amusing but i had to pour out just to get away with that hard feeling of departing from such a memorable place where i have had wonderful childhood memories. But now that i have grown with the years and those years grew with me,I simple bid a sad goodbye to the place where I spent the most important years in my life.
I knew nothing lasts forever. I also knew that no one can stay there permanently which is when i realized that place has a magical spell pulling people together for a short span & bid us good bye some day which is the same theory lying behind our very own lives .It was truly a deserving experience living @ CPWD AnnaNagar. I really miss that place even today.