🌱Mogra Phulaalaa

We meet so many different people. I noticed that if you meet happy people, their happiness gets transferred and you feel happy too. We get connected to the place from where the divine essence is
transmitted. Such places always stay in our memories, memories more effectively for the people who were there.

The story dates back to the 2019, when I was pursuing my master’s in urban design. Every semester we had to study different cities and emerge our project out of it. That year we were assigned to study Talegaon
town. Talegaon Dabhade is a town that has grown around two lakes close to Indrayani River. It lies in Maval Taluka in Pune district between Mumbai and Pune.

One fine day I & my team we were all set & ready to leave. We had done our train booking to Talegaon. We commenced our journey early morning from Dadar. Luckily the monsoon season was on. The journey was mesmerizing with picturesque views straight outside our windows. The journey routes cover absolutely enthralling and diverse landscapes – foggy mountain slopes, narrow valley’s, tunnels and falling out over the wide sea. The journey was nothing short of a dream!! After reaching Talegaon, we immediately hired an auto rickshaw to hotel. Arriving at the hotel we completed our check in formalities and got into our respective room for fresh up. Later we meet at a restaurant for lunch followed by group discussion. Our squad of 7 split into a groups by dividing the whole town into three parts to make our site study manageable and convenient . The site allotted to me was exactly two distinct sections of town i.e. One part covering the old core area and second one covers the new established area at periphery of town.We all proceeded towards our respective sites post lunch.
The core area of town was very dense and congested, so me and my mate decided to cover the peripheral part first as it was spaced.The peripheral part was virtually empty and inactive with a large unused parcel of lands, some incomplete or leftover construction site. It was very lonely and bit scary as we couldn’t trace a single human on the lanes. Finally after riding for hours, we have come across a small house. We call out inside the house, an old man came out in response. We made a brief introduction to us and told him our purpose of visit to town. We asked him if he is ok with interviewing him with few questions. He nodded his head in response. We almost started throwing questions to him, to which he polity answered. Merely, after looking at our over enthusiasm he realized this kids are not going to stop. He cut our conversation in between and said pointing to house some few kilometers from his place “My elder brother stays there, he is well versed with Talegaon and its history .He will help you out with all data. You can go and meet him “. We thanked him for his kind assistance and proceed towards his brother’s house.

The house was pretty larger than the previous house. The house had a huge and pretty front yard. The yard was graced with nearly straight rows of pot growing colorful flowers. One distinct thing about the garden was, every pot was growing different varieties of blossoms .There was a small verandah in front of the house with a wooden bench on which an old lady was sitting reading newspaper. I saw her draped in cotton saree that went up to her knees. Her fair face was wrinkled, but the lines on her face, made her look sweet. We approached to her and gave our introduction, followed by the reference of the old man we met before. She greeted us with a smile and ask us to wait as her husband was busy in the back yard. She screamed out for him” Aho hi mule Mumbai hun ali ahet, kahitari mahiti have ahe, ya lavkar baher” (This kid from Mumbai wants some information about Talegaon from you, come out soon).

After a while, the old man came out of the house. Fair and tall with forehead totally covered with deep wrinkles. Bushy white brows, frowned from time to time, making those wrinkles even deeper, and all this gave the old man’s face a strict expression. His pointy face was framed with short thinning hair, and accurate small beard, which he was stroking once in a while. We greeted him and told our background and purpose of visit. The old man gave us a firm look and before we could even start interviewing him. He set off a reverse interrogation.” Who are you?? Architects? As per my knowledge architects never do such work of roaming across interviewing people & all” .His tone was biting hard and crude. But still with little patience, we tried to explain him our master course and its requirements. He nodded his head in response, but his face indicated that he wasn’t much convinced with us.
( I opined in my mind that we are not going to earn any information from him & visiting this house might be a simple waste of time).
Later ,looking at the pages we were carrying he asked what are those map? We showed him the map extracted from Google and explain him how we had carved up our project followed by some basic information we had pre-researched about Talegaon. He exclaimed back in irritating tone ” You already have much information about town, so why have you come here and disturbing us at this hours.”
I almost about to lose my temper decided to leave the place immediately. I apologize to him for getting his precious time and thanking him ,was about to leave the house when this old lady (wife) shouted from behind” Aree tumcha kaam jhala pan, milali sagli information ” (You are done with your work so early, got all information you needed).I was about to recite the entire incident, to which my partner interrupted in between saying ” No grandma, uncle seems to be busy with his work and we don’t want to disturb him”. “It was nice to meet you”. She immediately replied back, “What work, from when he started getting busy. All the day is sitting ideal either reading newspaperor books. You guys relax and sit here, I will try to narrate you about Talegaon as much as I know.

We took a seat on the bench and she started narrating her story , I was born in Pune, after marriage I came to Talegaon and settled in this house. My husband was involved in glass manufacturing and had glass factory here. But for his business work he had to travel to Mumbai almost every week. As the days went along it became difficult for him to travel, so we took a decision to shift our stay to Mumbai. We stayed in Mumbai for nearly 30years.She being nostalgic, shared a look filled with too much emotions visible in eyes at her husband, and they had quick eye contact. The moment was so pure and felt like pausing it for a while. Surprisingly,after this scene, the Oldman took over the entire conversation and continued the narration, “Life in Mumbai was very busy and hectic. I had expanded my business and achieved big success and money. We got two kids and were happily living. Time flew fast, didn’t realize 30years passed, but there wasn’t a day when we not miss Talegaon. On our 50th anniversary, we took a decision to shift back to Talegaon as both our kids were settled and we were also missing Talegaon and our house.

One fine day we switched back to Talegaon. Reaching here, we both were shocked looking at the transformation Talegaon had been through. They were no more houses around us, the old people had sold their estates to private builder and developers. There were all big huge residential societies, nearly vacant or partially occupied. Most of the nearby farmlands were barren and vacant. Many of our friends have shifted to the main market area for easy access to markets and amenities. Our kids were suggesting us to shift to the core area for safety and security ,but we still chose to stay here at this place, though lonely”. Merely look at it, it’s the original Talegaon ” Silent ,calm, cozy and yet so beautiful”. Not overcrowded and dense like market areas and smiles back to us. This was a mini surprise to us, a picturesque view of grandpa breaking his strong look into a beautiful smile.He told us he also have book on Talegaon’s history and asked us to wait till he gets the book.

Meanwhile we were busy clicking the pictures of their house,the grandma said,” child, please don’t mind the harsh tone of the uncle, he gets rude and grumpy nowadays due to his old-age. He was never used to this steady and lone life, here we hardly have anyone to speak with. Hence he loses his temper frequently, but nothing last for long”.She didn’t even gave us a chance to reply back, she went along talking, Come here I’ll show you my vegetables  garden,holding my hand took us in the backyard of the house. She started showing us each and every plant planted by her. She was good at gardening and love her plants to the moon and back. Later ,She showed us her favorite plant of white mogras.
Those tiny white mogras were reeling
in the sunlight, and the air was charged with perfume, as with her presence. She touched the tiny, pallid flowers on their stem, delicately torn it to give me.
(That tiny fresh flower brought a delicate peace. The happiness of that afternoon was already fixed in my mind, and always would the scent of mogra recalls to my mental sight “The flower not only inspire memories, but also evoke profoundly positive feelings, and an instant connect with her.The entire scene stimulated the part of my brain to create emotions and some unfounded relationship with her.)

I reach her feet to thanks her and told that she is most amazing and beautiful lady I ever met. She was happy with this gesture and hugged me by kissing on my cheek. Love was filled with air and my partner started teasing me, more few minutes and she will unofficially adopt you. Laughing over this we came to the front yard looking for grandpa, if he brought the book for us. Amazingly there was a lady, thin and tall with dark complexion standing out there and arguing with grandpa in a bit louder tone. Grandma got in and immediately interrupting their conversation, ask her to leave and promise here to give one extra bulb from the back yard. Grandpa without uttering a word went inside the house. We cluelessly look at each other, with confused mind whether to ask grandpa about the book or not ,seeming at the return of his angry old man look.

I whispered in soft tones to grandma what the matter? She said pointing to the small structure just outside their compound wall, the lady stays there. The lady and her husband used to work on nearby farms for years. Merely, the land owners sold his farmlands to the private builder and they lost their livelihoods. Grandpa built those small structures for them to live and now they work for us on our farms and helps me with house chores too. Later, after a few years, some of their relatives from village join them and constructed two more rooms. In their presence even we found companions, because at night the area gets dark and scary . So since yesterday, she was complaining about the light cut in her room and with no response she finally drags in to an argument with grandpa .
In between our conversation, grandpa came in from the house with a lightbulb in his hand. And sarcastically said, Go and tell her now if anything happens to this bulb, she has to stay in the dark for a week.(Sharing a look at him ,i really felt bad to judge him at first place and was immensely impressed with his utmost work and care he had for those poor labourers). He came forward to lift the book from the bench and hand it to us followed by a small paper with written phone number and address . He handed the paper to me, saying ” the author is my good friend, you can go and run into his office tomorrow with my reference and get all required information.”. We thanked him by our whole heart and apologize to judge him at first proceed.

I looked at grandma , she kept few lemon candies in my hand, and said ” Eat them throughout your ride it will keep your body hydrated “. I was completely touched by her immense love and care.The way she stood, her back bent, and her eyes searching for something, with her eyebrows knitted, she reminded me of my own grandmother.

Some people are like that. Once you speak to them, they just make you feel at home.I hugged her back and left the place..