I’ve spent a huge chunk of my life living in employee quarters (colonies). I was born in the hospital quarters where my mom worked. And then, when I was 3.5 we moved to my dad’s quarters and lived there until I was 22. I still have vivid memories of both places. At the hospital quarters, our flat was right next to the main hospital building and I used to play outside the entrance to the ER often. One evening, I decided to shove a pebble up my nostril and luckily for me, help was just seconds away! The hospital was like a second home to us, and everyone knew my brother and me. In fact, it didn’t change until we were adults and my dad retired (because it was the same hospital meant for employees of my dad’s workplace). My mom worked there as a nurse for a few years before moving abroad. All her colleagues (mostly young conservative Maharashtrian women) would not call my dad by his name and call him ‘Daddy’ instead, like my brother and I did. For the longest time, I thought my father’s name was Daddy! Many of their kids were my first friends and we would always be playing together. There was a dog who lived in our colony, he was a stray dog that my dad used to feed. My brother and I always played with him and he followed us everywhere. Dad had named him Major. When we left the place, we couldn’t take him and there were others who used to feed him too so Daddy knew he would be taken care of. He always made it a point to meet Major whenever he visited the hospital. A few months later, he found out that the other people taking care of him had changed his name to Maruti! I still remember Major, he was my first doggo friend. 

Our second home was in a much bigger colony and it was flanked by railway tracks on both sides - one was the Bombay local train line and the other was the track that moved cargo from the shipyards. If you crossed the goods tracks, you could hop over a hole in the wall and reach the hospital quarters. We often did that, instead of taking the longer route of walking from outside and crossing over a footbridge. The goods track was mostly quiet and inactive. There were several empty wagons strewn all over the tracks. Most of us kids used to hang out and play there, especially during holidays. We hated being indoors and there was no 24-hour television either. So we were always outside playing - between breakfast and lunch, and then again between teatime and dinner. Afternoons were when all the kids were summoned indoors by their respective adults and not let out until 4 or 4:30. That was when you could start hearing everyone calling out to their friends, the boys would whistle and each gang had their own special tune. Mobile phones were unheard of and most families didn’t even have landlines. Back then, it would take years to get a connection. It took us 5-6 years to get ours!

I remember this one corner of the colony which had a mini garden. One of the residents had slowly started planting trees and shrubs on an empty patch of earth… Over the years it grew and then someone added a couple of benches. It became a cosy little space and my friends and I would sit there under shade after returning with ice lollies (“Pepsi”) from the shop. 

We often picked the fallen flowers from the ground and took them home and gave them to the adults. I remember a frangipani tree (can’t remember if there was just one or more) behind the building where my best friend lived. I used to love the little flowers and always go there and pick them off the ground and bring them home. One day, my friend’s mom was stringing them together and she showed me how to do it. Then she put them in my hair and I was so thrilled. After that, Aunty would always put flowers in my hair when she was doing it for her daughter. But they were mostly jasmine and I used to be severely allergic to strong fragrances so I couldn’t wear them for long. I’m still allergic and never use floral perfumes and I just cannot bear the smell of incense and agarbatti. I actually get sick. 

I used to be a voracious reader back then and my dad would actually ask me to slow down my pace because he couldn’t keep up with my demands for books! He would come home in the evening with a book and the next morning while he was leaving for work, I would be moaning that I had nothing to read. So he took to getting me books from a lending library. He started by checking out 2 books, then he made it 4! I was obsessed with Secret Seven, Famous Five, Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew - but my favourite kid gang of mystery solvers was The Five Find-Outers! I tried several times, and failed miserably each time, to put together my own group with my colony friends. But those kids were so lame, none of them (except my best friend) had read a single book even. There was this one girl who came to my house with my bestie and said “My father said to talk to you to improve my English and ask you what you read.” I showed her my books and she asked if she could borrow them. My dad, the most generous person in the world even to this day, gave her a whole bunch of my books. She started hanging out with us and invited us to her home a couple of weeks later. I was shocked to see that she had written her name in ALL my books! I immediately confronted her and she lied to my face saying her dad had got her those books. My friend yelled at her and collected all the books, while I stood there in shock because I couldn’t believe how someone could lie so blatantly. Then my friend grabbed my hand and pulled me out of there cos I stood frozen to the spot like an idiot. I can’t remember that girl’s name now but she had written her full name - including her father’s name as her middle name! 

Once I threw an “ambition party” and spent days planning and prepping for it. I think this was when I was 7 or  8 and I  got the idea from a Mickey Mouse comic, in which Minnie throws a costume party and everyone had to dress up as the professional they wanted to be when they grew up. I had no tall ambitions at that age. I just wanted to always be surrounded by books and music and good food and my dad and yes, I wanted a puppy too. But my mom always said she wanted me to become a doctor so I thought that’s what I was supposed to do. I wore one of my dad’s white shirts with short sleeves and a front pocket, and strung a stethoscope around my neck (we always had one at home cos of mom). I made huge jars of orange Tang and asked Daddy to get a lot of chips and cake (cos that’s what I saw Mickey & Minnie serving). My Granny may have made some snacks too. My best friend and I invited the other kids from our colony, and my aunt sent my cousins too. I hand made the party invites and my friend helped me distribute them. We asked everyone to come at 4 pm and I drove my entire family crazy all day trying to make our flat look like the one I saw in the comic! The party was a disaster anyway. Just me, my cousins and my friend and her brother were there at 4, and we had so many games planned for a bigger group, plus you were supposed to say something about your ambition and explain your costume. We waited and waited, then a bunch of kids came at 5 (I think my friend and her brother may have done the rounds and yanked some kids out of their homes). They were all dressed in regular clothes and were least interested in the party theme. They gulped down the Tang, stuffed  their mouths with chips and cake and all ran downstairs to play! My idiot cousins joined them too. Then it was just me, my friend and her brother. My dad and Granny asked us to read out our speeches and clapped for us. Dad had even got some prizes for the best dressed - he gave them to us and we were happy and forgot all about the other uncultured kids… lol! 

And that was a slice of life from the late 70s and early 80s in Central Bombay :-)