Aurangabad : Early days 08

It was actually because our entire family moved to Aurangabad on my suggestion, that I thought of setting up an independent office. My father was working in MSEB and we rented a place near the MSEB head office at Mill Corner. Incidentally the Police HQ at Aurangabad was opposite the MSEB office, and we got a place in a colony on the side of Police HQ, which was the only planned area in a sort of slum area in and around the Police HQ.

It was alleged that the land was owned by Aurangabad Mill, but there was some dispute, which was the reason for the un-authorised development. I do not know whether this is true, but I have never had any misgivings about slums. For one thing the Police HQ was nearby, but I have also seen the Mumbai slums quite closely, and found that it houses mainly good, kind people, though a bit short of resources.

Anyway, here I met Sanjay Ballal, his brother Hemant Rakhe and Vasant Bindu, all approx. of my own age, and we became friends very easily. Sanjay was working in an United India Insurance, and I do not now remember where Vasanta worked, and even Vasanta may not remember this now, as he is known to have changed his employers so frequently. Vasant’s grandfather was a senior government officer, and one of his uncles was an architect, employed in the AP Government at Hyderabad, who settled later at Aurangabad, and became a friend, but all this was much later.

In the beginning, we were all single young men, with the exception of Sanjay who was married, and it was good company for many exploits. My father gave me a gift of a Scooter, for which he had to obtain loan from his office, it cost us all of Rs. 6,000.00 at the time. This was in the year 1979, and before this I had been having a makeshift practice, travelling mainly on a bicycle in Aurangabad.

I was the 10^th architect to start practice at Aurangabad, and we used to have Sunday meetings at an open garden restaurant near Siddhartha Garden (where Hotel Devapriya is now), and I remember going to these meetings on a bicycle.

Owning a scooter changed my status immediately. Cars were very rare those day, and a scooter was some kind of indication that you are at least a higher middle class person if not rich. Near my office in Nageshwarwadi Meher Furniture had their workshop and office, and I made friends with the Manager Mr. Gaus there easily. He looked quite gruff, but was a very kind person, and when he learnt that I was an architect, he started greeting me with a great deal of respect.

Naturally, most of the furniture in my office and later at my residence was all bought at Meher Furniture, who had built up a reputation for using the best materials for all their products, which made them a bit costlier than the market but very durable.

This reminds me of the dining table that I have now brought in my Nanded City residence recently. When my father was transferred to Aurangabad, we had very little furniture, and no dining table. My mother urged me to buy a dining table, and I designed and got it manufactured at Meher furniture works, at a huge price (at the time) of Rs. 1,000.00 for a standard 5’ x 3’ table and six  chairs. This was my first attempt at designing any piece of furniture and as a design it is not great, but it has lasted for all of these forty-one years without much problem.

I thought of bringing it to Pune where I now live, when the new dining table and the chairs bought by my son Pranav started wobbling and gave way after only about four years of use. The old table only needed some minor repairs and polishing, which I arranged at Aurangabad and got it transported it here. It reminds me both of my mother who is no more and also the fact that the days of doing anything durable are over, at least for the furniture industry.