Thursday, December 4, 2008

Sriharikota - My place of Birth

Hello Guys ,
I m not sure of how many people know about the place SRIHARIKOTA, although there has been a mention of this place off late because of " CHANDRAYAAN - The Moon Misson ". Sriharikota is a barrier island which seperates the Pulicat lake from the Bay of Bengal. It houses India's only Satellite Launch Centre in the Satish Dhawan Space Centre also known as SHAR, and is used by ISRO( Indian Space Research Organisation ) to launch rockets like the PSLV and the GSLV.

Sriharikota is populated by the Yanaadis or the Adinivaasis ( The Nomads) who walk around almost naked ;) and as the name says it means 'one crore Sri Hari Lingas' .I was born in Sriharikota, and i remember very well about the place. There were a lot of lovely beaches where we collected a lot of shells , it had a peaceful environment,with a lot of sand around. The adinivaasis sold the fresh cashewnut fruit and my friends and me would collect money to eat that fruit.
We had a big house which had a big lawn in the backyard which had full grown trees like the Neem Tree and the Drumstick tree . I would climb the Neem tree and play with my friends when i was arond 3-5 yrs old. There were cotton plants too, which we used to get the cotton for the "pooja". There was the wall built around the house and i would jump off the wall ,on to the road when i had to go to my friend's place, and i was like a complete tomboy then.

My dad would take my sister and me on his green Bajaj Chetak Scooter to the beach on Sundays and the road, which he took us on,was very beautiful, surrounded by forests ,a jungle and monkeys running all over the place.I loved the ride with my dad . At the beach ,we would put our legs in the water and run in the water at the shore as my dad wouldn't let us get into the water with the fear of the tides pullling us into the sea with its mighty force.

The forest was closeby to our place and we children would get into it for trekking and experimented with all kids of fruits , leaves and other things. We could hear the howling of the foxes in the night but i would never be scared since my dad always told us never to fear , i was like the bold kid .
Since there were a lot of beaches close by to the house, a lot of of snakes came into the backyard . They were green in colour and would hang around the trees . When my dad spotted them, he would kill them and i still remember the blood would be all over , aahh,awful, bad thing to watch. But i must admit, my dad killed a lot of snakes and i would be so proud of my dad thinking he is the "HERO". hehehe

We had a long road in front of our house, and across the road was a huge ground which had a huge badminton court. I had a big bunch of friends ranging from small kids of my age to teenage kids. We would play the whole evening after school, and we would have a running race competion with the kids and i remember i always used to win. i would run, win and then my mom would be ready with a big glass of milk which i would drink and then again run. Fun it was !!
We would play hide and seek, and the kids would be scatterred all over , we would find them and give them some task if they got caught. Amazing feeling, actually a nostalgic feeling......
I was so innocent then;)

Sundays was real fun because my sister, me and her friends, we would take a walk in the island, wandering aimlessly near the beach side, and also dig into the sand, build some strange structures out of the sand. When we dug into the sand for about 2-3 feet we would find water , that was like an achievement for us..... During holi time, we would collect a lot of dry twings in huge amounts and put it all together in huge huge pile and burn it up.

I was very notorious even as a small kid, as i would hurt the other kids, beat them up and come home running and i would hide in my house.Hahahhaha... My sister would take me to this huge park which was so beautiful and green, and we would roll all over it, play on the slides and the swing, ohh i miss those days, i remember almost every thing about the place though i was aronund 4-5 yrs.

Last but not the least of the experiences i remember was the rocket launches that would happen from there. All people, all aunts, uncles, kids, elders would gang up on terrace and would wait for the rocket to take off into the skies. We would be sitting around 7- 8 kms from the rocket launch place and as the rocket would go up into the skies, it was a beautiful scene, worth watch once in a lifetime, and i m so glad i still remember it. The rocket would go up into the sky with the fire and smoke beneath it, and then as it went higher and higher, it would become fainter n fainter anf then gone into the skies above ........... We would all celebrate the rocket success... My dad told us the story of the space and the planets and the moon and it was awsome, i dreamed i would be an astronaut one day..

I lived there for 6 years and it was the most amazing time of my life . Those were the best days of my life ... after that we had to move to Bangalore, and i have lived here ever since..

15 comments:

Chetan said...

Hey Babes,

That was a nicely written, sounds like u had loads of fun in sriharikota and u so lucky to watch those rocket launches, its such a spectacular thing to watch.
i must agree u have had good times in ur childhood though u were naughty its fun:)

Cheers

Unknown said...

I feel u r a lucky gal to watch those amazing rocket launches, forest games....walk on the beach side ...had a good time of ur life there :) with lots n lots of fun..again :) Gone are the days..infact best days of childhood

Abhilash said...

Amazin experience..and very well written

Reminds me of my childhood days, the days of innocence n fun.

All is lost as time has gone by.

Sriharikota worth a visit i guess.

S.K Jain said...

Cool!!!
How about planning a VISIT there with friends

YOU can be a wonderful guide and source of JOY and re-living the childhood

Unknown said...

Hey,
Its remind me my childhood.
Really very well written.
Also u r lucky to watch rocket launche and you spent your valuable childhood days in a such a nice place.

Cheers :-)

sree... said...

hey sweet..

wondeful and well written..u r still a child by heart.aint u?

and coming to being naughty..u still very much are right there...

and to be really frank..i never knew u r a person with so much of soft thoughts and emotions inside u.
lovely...

way to go gal...

Jayant Joshi said...

i think you have worked on your Writing skills , its good.......esp u remember the bajaj chetak as the old warrior.I still ride it as a classic drives (when i am in my native)

R I T U said...

Hey its great gal....worth a read to cherish our childhood days and bring back that child in you :) good one....now launch these blogs often :) and i bet it willl a successful launch :) good luck sweets :) enjoy writing :)and i bet u can still do better :)have fun :)
Love
Ritu

Unknown said...

nice one usha :)

Unknown said...

Hey Husshhhh...

I cud get to imagine evry description tht u hav penned down.. be it of the green snakes hanging from trees..
or u having fun at the beach digging sand and making structures of it..
the rocket shooting up... n then fading off

n all the fun tht u had being a tom boy ;).. jumping over the wall... hihihii ...

U seem to hav had quite an adventourous childhood..

Very well written N thanks for giving a quick insight about Sriharikota.... seems to be a tourist destination
good job...keep writing...

MyFinalFrontier said...

Nicely written am from the same place born & brought up...
My parents still livin there at pulicat nagar...
Miss the place It used to be such a serene place with lots of cows & boy oh boy i miss my frnds at space central school teachers..how we used to bunk & go to my frnds home at phc/2 ..the bus rides back homes
the cultural events..the empty roads
so many things
Made me nostalgic....

Unknown said...

Hi Ussha,
Amazing picturisation.u r a gr8 writer yar...After visiting this blog I am able to see so many hidden talents and ur stand for the society.Keep rocking dear...

Unknown said...

hey usha

I also used to be in SHAR till 83..
what's ur father's name.. in which dept was he working and which phase were you folks staying..

Biju

hari prasad said...

hey i really missed sriharikota and your post really brought sriharikota in my mind

madhu.g said...

nice to read about sriharikota and good to know you were born at sriharikota. when you talking about treen in your garden I was remembering guava tree, mango tree and also we used to pluck jamu fruits and cashew fruits while going to beach or at sriharikota we used to go for jogging towards the helipad then its full of cahew trees. such a lovely place and pure nostalgia.