It is very well said that the place where u belong is your motherland. I truly agree to this. Yes I am a citizen of India and I am proud of that but for me my motherland is a place where I have spent those days of my life when I was kid, a school girl, a college girl, a master’s student and now a lecturer. Yes I am proud that I have spent my entire tenure from a young girl to a mature person in this wonderful place “jyan vidya vase che”; VALLABH VIDYANAGAR. I still remember when I was very small my uncle used to take me to a place where goldspot was available. I was very excited when I used to go there. The place was Pankaj cold drinks. Goldspot was available everywhere but they insisted to go there particularly. For me at that time the only attraction was the cold drink and nothing else. I do not have much memories of how my uncles nikhilkaka(bholokaka) and chetan kaka(nanakaka) and their gang used to move around in those times at vidyanagar, but dad tells me that there were favorite spots like mallek ni lahri,maharaj,and ya not to forget Pankaj Cold drinks. I guess neha kaki was studying in VP Science so even that was a spot for nanakaka to roam around. My uncle’s gang was very very big. I know all of them;girish kaka, shailesh kaka (baka kaka I call him and he used to call me kukula),Kiran kaka, KC,KR I am not that well aware. I only know that whenever I used to cry they used to take me out to pankaj cold drinks and buy me a goldspot. As time passed I grew up and went to school. Frankly, I did not have much time to visit vidyanagar during school; but we used to visit hemant uncle and milind uncle when they used to stay at 6 bangla. I still remember it was a fascination to visit their place because I loved ice cream and that is what I used to get when I went there. These were some memories when I was a child.
But when I entered my teens and when I got my vehicle and entered the 11th standard my tuitions started and that was the time that I went alone on my own to vidyanagar. I don’t know why but I used to feel very fresh there. I still remember we had maths tuitions in 12th on Sunday at 6:00 am in the morning, and I used to leave the house at around 5:00 telling mom that I had doubts and all but now let me reveal that actually we all went to a chah ni lahri that opened at 5 in the morning and that was serving hot tea. It was at motabajar.
The real exposure to vidyanagar for me was in my bachelor’s at NV PATEL COLLEGE OF PURE AND APPLIED SCIENCES, just opposite VP SCIENCE COLLEGE. I was a very shy person till my 12th when I joined college and when saw the tremendous crowd and youth in V V Nagar I metamorphosed completely and blended myself with the crowd there. We used to roam a lot; mind u we especially I never bunked because I was very afraid that somehow I will be caught. May be I did not have the guts to do so I guess. There were loads of places where we used to go; maharaj tea stall (the new one not the older one), biting junction, kaka ni kitli near white house, bhel wala bhai near the shastri maidan who used make wonderful bhel and papdi chaat, honest, surashtra juice centre, mistry ni pau bhaji…..list goes onn and onn…….we enjoyed every moment. I even used to visit it once in a day during vacations- it was like a habit going there. Till date I go there for some reason or the other. I don’t understand I guess it has some magnetic effect or what that people are attracted to this place.
Then I did my masters in Biotechnology from the department of biosciences and once again the magnetic effect started…..the old department was near the university where vijay uncle, ujjwal sir and all studied..but we were in the new building that is situated at the bakrol-vadtal highway…we used to go to vidyanagar from the department now and then…and the reason was FOOD…..mohini corner was our favorite. We used to relish samosa, fafda, pulav……..all mouth watering delicacies…we had a gala time..we used to go to maharaj almost everyday and bhaveshkaka used to make wonderful tea for all of us…those days were fun..and till date whenever we have a reunion we make it a point to visit all these places that lies in the heart and the heart is VALLABH VIDYANAGAR….these are some of the memories that I could recollect…and there will be many more and am sure that all of you would be having more memories than what I have…kindly share and we can make it a successful enedeavour.
