Walking through the narrow and busy streets in Itwari area with Rohit Bajaj and Prakash Jain and meeting some other long time friends like Ashok Yadav and Gaju Deolkar over a ‘half cup’ of tea took me back to my school and college days. Surprisingly in most parts of Nagpur things have changed significantly but in some parts things are the same. I remember Ashok’s Sari shop from more than 40 years ago – we used to meet there – and even today that area called Dharaskar Galli remains the same.  It was a unique feeling of sitting in 2006 in the environment that I used to share with him even before 1966!!
In other areas things look very different. There are signs of Shopping Malls replacing smaller shops in many areas. Considering the trend towards shopping malls, this is a period of transformation for Indian small businesses. Malls are going to result in consolidations that will drive out many small businesses. Many countries have gone thru that and now people here will be going thru that.
Sometimes one meets strange and intriguing behaviors. Many shops in India don’t seem to like somebody taking photographs of their shops. I was asked not to take a photograph of a modern looking book shop by the security people there. Later Rohit took permiossion from the manager of the shop. I remember being stopped from taking a photo of a menu in a Tea shop at the Leela Palace – an outrageously expensive hotel in Bangalore. Are these people worried about their competition imitating them or is it just a behavior that results from uncertainty and ignorance? I think it may be later – many things, including most religious practices, are practiced by people without any conscious reason. In fact, some times I feel that we Indians have much more than our share of such dogmas and irrational behavior compared to other countries.
I tried to capture some of my experiences of this nostalgic event in Seraja
http://www.seraja.com/event/583339
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hi
the tea shop in you mentioned is not owned by that hotel, but by the book shop, in association with the park hotel. As an ex Leela employee I would like to submit that the Leela is very open about allowing photography for all its guest anywhere in the Hotel. And if was outrageously expensive, it would be mostly empty wouldn’t it?
About practices without conscious reason, all countries have their share. for example the US now has this Intelligent Design thing being taught in its schools.
wish you a very happy new year!!
I am aware of the fact that the tea shop is not part of Leela. I have taken lots of photos there — I love the place.
Prof. Jain,
I am from Nagpur too and was searching the webspace for good blogs about the city (like most Indian metros now have). Unfortunately, there are none. It was interesting to read and see some inner city pictures from Nagpur on your blog.
Thank you,
Pankaj
Nagpur has nopt progressed in high-tech culture as it should have. I hope that it will catch up soon. I am disappointed about that.
I’m going back in a couple of months. I have like a million pictures. It great to see a blog that talks about the issues I care about.
I write a bit about Nostalgia and so stumbled across your blog. I’m old enough to know better but I must admit I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that, with only minor changes, your blog might have been written about ‘any’ where. Ah! The good old days.
Nicely done,
P
It was really very nice to read your lines about Itwari, being an born n bought-up at Itwari (and living far-off from nagpur) iam very excited to view ne thing about our place.
I am extremely inspired along with your site as smartly with the structure to your blog. Is that this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself? Either way keep up the excellent quality writing, it is uncommon to see a great blog like this one nowadays.