The years I am mentioning were 1960-63, when my father, who was posted in the Central Command of the Army, was staying in the two storied huge building, which housed about 100 very large rooms, with a corridor running in front and the portion of rear corridor partitioned for each room to provide a kitchen cum a sitting room.
The Raisina Road Officers Hostel was built during the First World War, and was of made of brickwork, being totally in white colour, as most buildings were in those days, except for post-independence large buildings like Krishi Bhawan, which were constructed in sandstone to match the Raisina Hills ethos of the twenties.
The Hostel was built to house the officers of the Central Government during the coming up of the capital of India of the twenties. In the sixties, when I was about 11-13 years old, I visited my father from Dehradun during the winter breaks with my brothers. The Hostel had some well known personalities of the All India Radio, which was situated nearby towards the Connaught Place, there being a shortcut to CP from the AIFACS (All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society) building precicts on Rafi Marg. One personality in the hostel was a lady newsreader Indu Wahi, who read the Hindi news in the A.I.R. The other was V M Chakrapani, who read the English news. He had a clipped style of reading the news. He also gave commentary for the cricket Test matches. During those days, M.C.C. team visited India under Ted Dexter during 1961-62 season, India defeated MCC by 2-0, in which the handsome Salim Durrani was the prime wicket-taker with his left arm slow spin bowling. But I missed seeing the match at Feroz Shah Kotla. I remember, pestering my mother to take me to see the hockey match between Great Britain and India, which India won 1-0. Probably, the year was 62-63.
Those were marvellous days. Delhi was not yet a megapolis. It had a population of about 16 lakhs only. The Inter-State Bus Stand at Dehradun was opposite the Railway Station near the Laxmi Cinema Hall and had only 3-4 buses parked at a time, while the Inter-State Bus Stand at New Delhi was at Ajmeri Gate. It was also not very large bus stop and looked more like a hill station bus terminal. Delhi in those days was not a huge city of today's dimensions and had a spirit of camaraderie between people. I miss those days.
About a mile from the Raisina Road Hostel was the India Gate, which had a canopy nearby, with the statue of George V installed under it, The former King Emperor held a globe of the world, half of which he once ruled and had a sceptre in his other hand. The statue was placed at that spot in 1911 during the Third Delhi Durbar.
Later, in the 60s, under the wave of nationalism, the statue was shifted to Coronation Park, Burari Road. Much time later, it was planned to install a statue of Mahatma Gandhi at the site of the canopy, but the plan was discussed and shelved by the Parliament in 1980. Instead, an 'Amar Jawan Jyoti' was placed below the India Gate. The INTACH has renovated the Coronation Park in recent years.
Outside the Raisina Road Hostel, at the triangle towards the Chelmsford Club, was a statue of a former British Governor General, possibly Lord Chelmsford. This was replaced by the statue of lanky and enormously built Bharat Ratna, Pandit Gobind Ballabh Pant, the former Home Minister, who saved lightly built Jawaharlal Nehru from a certain death from the baton of the Indian police under the British in 1929-30 and got himself a life-long physical tremor.
A few decades ago, possibly in 1980s, I also saw the statues of former British Governor Generals and British monarchs lying at the back yard of the Lucknow Museum. Some of the statues were so huge that they could not be installed inside. Maybe, by now they have been at least put on a pedestal in the park outside.
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| Canopy without the statue of King George V |
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| King George V Statue under the canopy (1911-1963) |
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