VIZAG matters - Sohan Hatangadi's Blog

This article appeared 11 Aug 2013 in the Times of India. I forgot to put it on my blog. As they say "better late than never" so here it is. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/visakhapatnam/Capital-punishment-for-Vizag/articleshow/21754914.cms Capital Punishmaent August 2013 I would rather be willing for a dentist to be drilling Ever since the Andhra Pradesh separation story broke upon us, every gathering seems to focus on this subject. Last week I sat in a dentist’s chair, getting my new crown fixed - the type that goes on teeth not on the head - and I could hear the topic come up again. Unfortunately as the pros and cons of the contentious issue swirled around me, I was restrained from giving my opinion as my mouth was full of dental instruments. I did of course emit a few grunts of assent or dissent as the procedure progressed to let the others know that I had an opinion too and to signal to the dentist that I was still alive. Last night we met at a frie...

My article in the Times of India dated 21 Feb 2016 Vizag's hidden history TOI web link People fascinated by Indian history are familiar with historical facts of several old towns and cities such as Varanasi, Hyderabad, Chennai or Mumbai. While most old Indian cities and towns have interesting past our own Vizag has a secret history that has escaped some of us residing here all our lives. We pass by structures surrounded by buildings as we rush about our work scarcely throwing a glance at those forgotten spots that have played a significant part in Vizag’s past. Tourist brochures convey a simplistic view of Vizag’s history describing it as a “sleepy fishing village” that over time transformed into today’s bustling city. Somehow we visualise a bunch of fisher folk sleeping all day. In fact Vizag has been an important town for many centuries and has witnessed the ebb and tide of rulers, armies, cultures and outstanding men of vision - who slept very little. What’s in a n...

My article in the Times of India dated 7 Feb 2016 How the International Fleet Review changed Vizag Our city has recently gone through a transformative change. Several parts of Vizag have gone from ugly to beautiful in a month. Encroachments have been cleared, greenery has been laid, walls have been painted, pavements have been tiled and the city has a clean new look. We must admit that Vizag has never ever looked so bright and shining. The challenge Getting an existing city like Vizag spruced up so quickly is not an easy job. Those of us who have got a house renovated realise that every work looks simple until we start. But then things go wrong. Workers don’t turn up, wrong materials are purchased, things break, unanticipated jobs crop up and the journey to completion is never smooth. Old parts of the city that has grown organically over many decades are never easy to fix. Plans were to be made, money had to come in quickly, contractors with adequate human and monetary reso...

My friend the Navy TOI dated 31 January 2016 Those who lived in the old town of Vizag in the 1950s to 1970s had an emotional link to the Navy. Many of us lived on or very near the beach road of the old town long before the entire beach front was taken up by the Outer Harbour project. From our sea facing balcony we would see the naval vessels steam in and out of the harbour and watching those grey vessels against our blue seas was a treat. Those who studied in St. Aloysius would be drawn away from the teacher and blackboard to gaze at these wonderful vessels bristling with guns. Where were they coming from, where were they going? What were the navy men doing on board? Our fertile minds created an aura around these men in white. We dreamt of lands far away and the life in the navy. Many youngsters wanted to make a career in the navy when they grew up. The navy had a profound impression on our young minds. Of fishing and navy ship watching During the long summer vacatio...

Tackling Vizag’s traffic woes Times of India dated 17 January 2016 One of the most dramatic changes that have taken place in Vizag is the numbers of vehicles that are used on our streets. Not only have the numbers increased but also the different types and makes of vehicles. When today’s old timers were in college very few households had bikes or cars. The four-wheelers we would see on the streets were the ugly Ambassador, the plain looking Fiat Premier Padmini and an occasional Mahindra Jeep all which started manufacture in the 1940’s and slowly made its way all over our country. Two-wheelers on the streets were the Vespa, Lambretta, Bullet, Jawa and Rajdoot. In the 1970s you could sit opposite where the RTC Bus Stand is now and would see perhaps 20 private vehicles in an hour of street gazing. Chaos on our roads Then in the late 1990s the automotive industry was released from the shackles of the license Raj and suddenly the action on the street changed. By the year 200...

Senior volunteers wanted My article in the Times of India Dated 3 January 2016 In a vast country like India there is always plenty of work to be done. There are farms to be maintained, water to be provided for agriculture and for homes, power to be generated and distributed, children to be educated, people and things to be moved every day, newspapers to be printed, babies to be made and delivered, the sick to be attended, financial services to be provided, politicians to be elected and Arnab has to shout for a couple of hours every night on TV. Plenty of work We have work to do because, we are 1.3 billion of us on a land mass of 2,973,193 square kilometers. We are in dirty crowded villages and teeming dirty crowded cities. We have a humongous 179.6 million folks below the poverty line in our ancient country and that my friend is 20.6% of planet earths poorest. One in four Indians are completely illiterate and Government schools with their “pass-them-anyhow” policy a...

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Click here The Old New Years, Times of India Yep, it is New Year time again. Our beautiful planet has traveled 947 million kilometers around the sun since the same time last year. Some of us have had amazing years and some are looking forward to forget 2015 and get on with 2016. Some of us have seen a few New Year eves and some have seen plenty. Whatever may be the case each of us has a special place for this part of the year. As we transit from “ho-ho-ho” to “Happy New Year” we experience a sort of déjà vu, that strange feeling that we have been through all this before. While New Year Eve has been now commercialized beyond recognition it was not always this way. Come let us travel to the “old new years”. The way it was The popular culture of Vizag was quite different in the 60’s and 70’s. Several companies, organisations and institutions from other parts of India and abroad set up shop in our town and Vizag developed a vibrant cosmopolitan culture. Much of it was driven b...

The art of torturing audiences I n the cooler months of the year a number of meetings, seminars and workshops are held in the city. Subjects ranging from Architecture to Zoology, from spiritual to spirits, from mundane to magnificent are all discussed in conference rooms and meeting halls by the erudite citizens of our learned city and by visitors from afar. Engineers, doctors, lawyers, managers, accountants, scientists, all meet to share their thoughts and expound their views. Some of these meetings are in closed group of invitees or paid seminars while others are open to public. Some seminars are held in the best hotels of Vizag while others are held in moderately priced venues. Different folks, different reasons Many Vizagites love to attend such events and they do so for different reasons. Some attend to garner knowledge and become wiser. Others, generally elderly men attend so that they may take a nap in the back seat of an air-conditioned hall. It is said that some...

Most of Vizag’s older residents lived in what we called “One Town” because the pin code for that area was simply “1”. While most parts of the old town were densely packed it also had several gracious old buildings like the recruiting office and officer’s accommodation that stood under the shade of massive banyan trees. The trees spread like an aerial city with sturdy roots supporting stout branches for hundreds of feet in all directions. Soldierpeta As the area was home to British soldiers it was also called “Soldierpeta”. In the 1960s and 70s when the port expanded its operations, coal and iron ore dust spread like a cancer over that part of town. Nice big structures were razed to the ground and slum like quarters sprang up everywhere. No one bothered about aesthetics and elegance; someone just pointed at the ground and simply said “build here” and that was it. Consequently from being the pulsating heart of Vizag it went to a scar that no one bothered to heal. The charac...