On a February evening I landed up in Delhi to work there in a Government office. For a few days I stayed in a small hotel and this had to be ended. A gentleman in the office belonged to Kerala and he advised that I rather move out of the hotel and start living independently. I was unaware of the ground realities there, in Delhi. He advised me further that a youngster lives in a room where he would need a room mate.
This was the normal thing for any youngster to do in those days. I agreed. The youngster was a bank clerk and he was at a loss to stay alone as he will have to pay the whole room rent alone. For me it was a God sent, that I can get the room as well as can stay with someone who had been there for a while and knew a bit of the Hindi language which is used in Delhi in colloquial language.
I moved my little leather box (these days, it is suit case, in those days it will be either a trunk box, a tin trunk or a leather box) and reached the room along with a few of my other colleagues who was of somewhat my age. I had a cotton blanket, a light woollen blanket and a thick coarse cotton sheet which we called 'jamukkalam' which was to be used for a mat. My friends advised me to buy a 'charpoy' a kind of natural cot, made of bamboo bars, wooden legs and braided grass rope platform for sleeping on. This was really good like the leaf mats available in kerala.
Once it was settled in the room the jamukkalam was spread on it. A pillow was added to it and using the light woollen and cotton blankets I settled down to sleep. My friend room mate was also in a similar bed on the opposite side of the room. As soon as I hit the bed, I was fast asleep. I liked it. After a few hours deep sleep, I came awake feeling very cold but could not know from where. I checked my watch. It was two o' clock. I remembered my father and mother and all my brothers and sisters at home who always saw to my welfare. I felt uneasy. After a long while I fell asleep. Same thing repeated the next day. I looked at my friend in the next bed. He was fast fast asleep and was snoring. This made me thhink. What can be that I alone cannot sleep.
Next day, I shared this fact with a number of my colleagues who had become friendly by now. One of them really wanted to help and started asking me the way I slept. I explained. He said "That is all right. But there could be a reason. Because the climate in February is best for sleeping as it is cold in the nights" At last he said, "I shall come to your room and see if there is anything lacking" That was a very kind and sensible thing for him to do for me. Once in the room he checked my bed and the sleeping materials and suddenly he came to the greatg find: "Oh..pretty well, that is why you are unable to sleep. Nobody sleeps on a jamukkalam. That can only be a first sheet. You shouldhave a small bed called a 'kosady' to lie down and a sheet on it. And over you, you need a 'rajai'. Both the kosadi and rajai are filled with air beaten and loosened cotton and hemmed up nicely.
We went straight to the market and got both of them. That night I went to sleep at ten o clock and within no time it was seven o clock in the morning!! That was the first day, I had a sound sleep in my independent life in Delhi!!
Oh...what a difference. With a 'rajai' on top and a 'kosadi bed' below on a charpoy..Delkhi is a place to sleep in winter! Oh..boy. I enjoyed the sleeps for the next few weeks through and through. At ten at night, I just go under the rajai and it is morning! When youngsters come from hotter areas of India to Delhi in winter if they do not have the sleeping equipments as I related, they will really suffer.
In the morning I walked to the bus stand in the four cross of RKPuram, Sector 4 where all the buses started. There was a few buses going to the Central Secretariat on the north of North Block. I went to office paying thirty paise every day and got down at the last point which was the Central Secretariat Bus Stop. There was a small bus bay where the bus stopped. Once out of the bus, I walked into the North Block, walked up the long flight of steps to cross the central hall of the North Block with the different star signs etched on the granite stones crossing which a further flight of steps arfe covered and one reached Raj Path. Once I crossed the Raj Path, is the South Block which is to be crossed to reach the Hutment office where I worked. The Hutments were covered with huge trees and the trees were full of monkeys where were generally harmless.
The hutments had heating arrangements with the hearth burning with firewood and coal in the morning. As soon as we reached we kept our bags and warmed up our hands at the hearth and then settled down in our respective seats and work started. Various clerks, Assistants, Section Officers all kept on with their files, papers, dialogues, telephone calls etc. etc. till five o' clock and then closed up the office, locked up every thing and came out to go home. The offices worked from 10 am to 5 pm in those days with Saturday being a working day and only the Second Saturday of the month being a holiday.
This was the normal thing for any youngster to do in those days. I agreed. The youngster was a bank clerk and he was at a loss to stay alone as he will have to pay the whole room rent alone. For me it was a God sent, that I can get the room as well as can stay with someone who had been there for a while and knew a bit of the Hindi language which is used in Delhi in colloquial language.
I moved my little leather box (these days, it is suit case, in those days it will be either a trunk box, a tin trunk or a leather box) and reached the room along with a few of my other colleagues who was of somewhat my age. I had a cotton blanket, a light woollen blanket and a thick coarse cotton sheet which we called 'jamukkalam' which was to be used for a mat. My friends advised me to buy a 'charpoy' a kind of natural cot, made of bamboo bars, wooden legs and braided grass rope platform for sleeping on. This was really good like the leaf mats available in kerala.
Once it was settled in the room the jamukkalam was spread on it. A pillow was added to it and using the light woollen and cotton blankets I settled down to sleep. My friend room mate was also in a similar bed on the opposite side of the room. As soon as I hit the bed, I was fast asleep. I liked it. After a few hours deep sleep, I came awake feeling very cold but could not know from where. I checked my watch. It was two o' clock. I remembered my father and mother and all my brothers and sisters at home who always saw to my welfare. I felt uneasy. After a long while I fell asleep. Same thing repeated the next day. I looked at my friend in the next bed. He was fast fast asleep and was snoring. This made me thhink. What can be that I alone cannot sleep.
Next day, I shared this fact with a number of my colleagues who had become friendly by now. One of them really wanted to help and started asking me the way I slept. I explained. He said "That is all right. But there could be a reason. Because the climate in February is best for sleeping as it is cold in the nights" At last he said, "I shall come to your room and see if there is anything lacking" That was a very kind and sensible thing for him to do for me. Once in the room he checked my bed and the sleeping materials and suddenly he came to the greatg find: "Oh..pretty well, that is why you are unable to sleep. Nobody sleeps on a jamukkalam. That can only be a first sheet. You shouldhave a small bed called a 'kosady' to lie down and a sheet on it. And over you, you need a 'rajai'. Both the kosadi and rajai are filled with air beaten and loosened cotton and hemmed up nicely.
We went straight to the market and got both of them. That night I went to sleep at ten o clock and within no time it was seven o clock in the morning!! That was the first day, I had a sound sleep in my independent life in Delhi!!
Oh...what a difference. With a 'rajai' on top and a 'kosadi bed' below on a charpoy..Delkhi is a place to sleep in winter! Oh..boy. I enjoyed the sleeps for the next few weeks through and through. At ten at night, I just go under the rajai and it is morning! When youngsters come from hotter areas of India to Delhi in winter if they do not have the sleeping equipments as I related, they will really suffer.
In the morning I walked to the bus stand in the four cross of RKPuram, Sector 4 where all the buses started. There was a few buses going to the Central Secretariat on the north of North Block. I went to office paying thirty paise every day and got down at the last point which was the Central Secretariat Bus Stop. There was a small bus bay where the bus stopped. Once out of the bus, I walked into the North Block, walked up the long flight of steps to cross the central hall of the North Block with the different star signs etched on the granite stones crossing which a further flight of steps arfe covered and one reached Raj Path. Once I crossed the Raj Path, is the South Block which is to be crossed to reach the Hutment office where I worked. The Hutments were covered with huge trees and the trees were full of monkeys where were generally harmless.
The hutments had heating arrangements with the hearth burning with firewood and coal in the morning. As soon as we reached we kept our bags and warmed up our hands at the hearth and then settled down in our respective seats and work started. Various clerks, Assistants, Section Officers all kept on with their files, papers, dialogues, telephone calls etc. etc. till five o' clock and then closed up the office, locked up every thing and came out to go home. The offices worked from 10 am to 5 pm in those days with Saturday being a working day and only the Second Saturday of the month being a holiday.
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