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 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 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 .
