Cottongreen, Kalachowky, Abhyudaya Nagar - 3 names to the same place. That is where we grew up. Most of the buildings in the Abhudaya nagar comprised of 5 storeyed ones being home to atleast 90 tenants in each. The ground floors of some of them had shops. In the 70's cottongreen was a pretty sight. The bullock carts carrying kerosene and ice blocks, the kulfiwalas and the salt vendor all on hand pulled carts. Cars were a rarity in the 70's so as to say even though you had good roads everywhere, the big sprawling mota maidan now renamed to Shahid bhagat singh maidan where good cricket tournaments were held. During the summer vacations, you could see atleast 30 active pitches where different groups drawn from the various buildings around used to play. If not attentive you would be fielding for some other team other than yours.
The roads used to get flooded during torrential rains causing us to wade in the waters. The main road parallel to the railway station used to resemble a raging river especially when trucks plied through the water way. Those were pretty sights to memorise.
There were a lot of colonies in this area, a great community of people living in MHB colony, bombay dock labour colony (BDLB), BPT quarters, the police quarters and so on. In fact the by lanes, roads, the grounds and the buildings was an eco system well maintained. Since most of the buildings had atleast one of your school mate staying, the whole area of around 6 square kilometers used to be one big playground. There were instances of parents sending out other kids as patrols to locate their wards.
Notable places included the Cotton Exchange buildings standing as ramparts of the olden british era, the popular soothing Ram Temple, The inaccessible Air Force base. Towards the back of the cotton exchange was the ship container yard where we used to play and study. Infact the godown or the so called warehouses areas had study groups where some members including me used to be seen perched on trees and studying. Come exam season, you would see atleast 100 plus students studying either sitting, walking or as said earler, in trees or sitting on the old platforms for goods trains in the ware houses section. We used to walk up to the next station - Reay Road while studying. Every day we used to walk atleast 4 kilometers.
The Abhyudaya Education Society High School, Ahilya Vidya Mandir, The Shivaji Vidyalaya and the Municipal School were the most prominent schools in this area, from most of us did our education.
The most prominent festivals were Ganesh Utsav, Janmashtami, Diwali and Holi. Abhyudaya Sarvajanik Ganesh Utsav Mandal and the one in the cotton exchange were the most prominent ganesh mandals. We were close to Lalbaug where we had Lalbaug cha Raja and Ganesh Galli at a distance of 15 minute walk.
Famous Family Doctor was Dr. S.R. Pandit who used to commute from dadar area and was always present in his clinic at Building 33 at sharp 9:00 AM. He should have treated atleast more than 10000 patients in his time in our area. I recall, he was one of the very few persons of that time who owned a car. A blue premier padmini.
The Lalit kala bhavan came in the early eighties thus creating one more avenue for pastime. Another one was the nearby jijamata gardens at byculla where we used to go even without slippers even though it was a good 30 minute walk. Sometimes most of them used to come down to play without slippers and take a decision to visit "Rani baug" as it was called in those days, the moment we have some paise with us. The entry fee was only 10 paise at that time.
During our walk in those hot afternoons, we had to run or jog, as the smooth tar resembled burning coals atleast for our feet. In the summer we used to trail the bullock carts carrying ice, so that the vendor when he used to remove the sawdust and cut the ice with his knife, we used to collect the pieces and gobble them up.
We were also welcome/unwelcome visitors to wedding parties especially to savour the ice cream and the cool drinks that were served. I rarely remember of having ventured deep inside the reception hall to see the bride or the groom during those parties.
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