Deolali, the destination of the Mumbai crowd during summer

Deolali was a calm and quiet neighborhood when I landed up there. It was the beauty of the place with the clip clop of hooves on the tar road breaking the monotony of the quiet evenings or nights that impressed me. It was the sound of the tonga – or horse drawn carriages. These were an accepted form of transport and were available at the railway station alongside the taxis – those with money took the taxi, those who did not have that kind of money would opt for the tonga.
Anyway, as summer set in, the Mumbai crowd would arrive and put up in the various sanatoriums – these belonged to different communities like the Bohra Muslims or the Guajarati families. And – since HAL was still getting its family quarters built in Ojhar at the location of the factory, it had taken many of these sanatoriums on rent.
To go back to the Mumbai crowd – the women and girls would showoff the latest trend in dresses. It is of interest to note that the famed Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar was from Deolali! The Lewitt Market and surrounding areas would be where the Mumbai crowd would gather haggling over the price of flowers or fruits.
Or – they would head for Hill Temple … a hillock from where one could get a clear view of the surroundings.
For entertainment there were two cinema halls – one was in the military area called Cathay, the other in the civilian area and known as Adelphi. While most of the movies in Cathay were English, the Hindi movies would be screened in Adelphi.
And – for food, snacks and refreshments, the pick of the town was Bharat Cold Drinks. Its faloodas were beauties as were its ice creams. Just for information – the cost of a bottle of Coca Cola in the 1967 era was just 25 paise while a glass of fresh lime juice could be had for only 10 paise!! (to be continued …)

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