Where is Jhumri Tilaiya?

Jhumri Tilaiya (Hindi: झुम्री तिलैय) exists. Forty years after I left Jhumri Tilaiya, I remember a few incidents vividly and most everything else is hazy. I turned to the web to find out more, JT has an interesting history and some notoriety and no surprise Wikipedia has a pretty exhaustive section on Jhumri Tilaiya (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jhumri_Tilaiya ).

I found a blog too http://squarecutsblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/jhumri-tilayya-town-of-farmaish-senders.html .

The purpose of my blog is not to prove Jhumri Tilaiya exists but to recount some of the memorable events in my journey from Jhumri to Atlanta via KGF (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolar_Gold_Fields), Udaipur, Jallandhar, Delhi, Bombay (Mumbai), Lucknow, Hyderabad, Indore, Rajkot & Bangalore...

The Great Escape - 1

I was in grade (class) 2 at that time and would walk to school, a short 5 minute walk. The government (public) school and our neighborhood (colony) were across from each other and separated by the Ranchi-Patna Road (National Highway 31). And if your were wondering, yes I had to cross this highway everyday to school and back - the traffic was not only bicycles and bullock carts but all kinds of other motorized vehicles including the most dreaded National Permit trucks. I wonder if they were given the National permit License to PLY or PLOUGH.

That brings me to The Great Escape - 1 (there are a few more in my journey and saved for other posts). It was a pretty regular day I was on my way to school , except that I was a little late that day and in a hurry, so I was running to school and just as I got out of the neighborhood and neared the edge of the highway, I had to make a split second decision. There was a NP truck hurtling down the highway, if I waited for it to pass I would be late to school and if I decided to cross the road and get run over, I would never ever get to school. Punctuality was a big thing for me then and still is and I guess I had not come across the proverb "Better Late than Never". So without breaking a step and with my satchel swinging wildly on my back I dashed across the road. To my horror - The trucker also did not break a step and continued hurtling down (I even suspect that he accelerated at that very moment and came directly for me -maybe he had had not scored his kill for the day!). In those few agonizing moments, I might have been the fastest kid on earth - TOUCHDOWN!! I was safe, but I kept running - my heartbeat maxed, I could hear the expletives from curious bystanders and the trucker as I beat him in the epic race. He sounded angry and defeated that a little kid had got the better of him, I kept running - I had to be in time to school, there was no time to celebrate. Did I say celebrate?....even now,  every few years I get nightmares of the NP truck hurtling down towards me and it always has the face of goddess Kali (Wikipedia: The name Kali comes from kāla, which means black, time, death, lord of death. Kali means "the black one") painted on the bumper or bonnet - How appropriate!

On another note - Is it a coincidence that my best friend in Jhumri Tilaiya (JT) also lives in Atlanta? - So we have at least two Jhumru 's (JT Residents) in Atlanta. 

On yet another note: the government school that I attended was called कच कचिया school , no idea why, maybe some Jhumru from that era can explain one day .