THAT WAS CHAIBASA...NOT CHAI...BASA....

Chitra Rajesh Brindha RaghavanChaibasa… and ..not chai…basa……. The word Chaibasa has nothing to do with Chai that is tea .It may be a Bengali name CHOR Basa which they used to say meaning place where thieves live….but may not be true as we all lived there for some period and enjoyed…. Recently I gave up taking filter coffee and shifted to chai or tea and was reminded of this place Chaibasa where we had a nice period of stay with our little child, Rajesh.Ofcourse we could get only chai there and no coffee like in many other places in Bihar. It was an opportunity and fortune to work in Bihar for about 6 years in Bihar from 1977 when we were just two. Bihar also is actually VIHAR means house for any .It was during our stay in Bihar we could visit many places including famous temples. We two went to Kasi or Varanasi from Jamshedpur visiting famous Viswanatha temple and also the confluence of three rivers namely Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswathi called Triveni sangam We had taken bath at the holy place and went there in a boat and collected some holy water in metal pots which we preserved for years along with some vishnupadham/sanku etc. Also we visited important places like Allahabad, etc. In addition we had visit to PURI Jagannath temple, Konark Sun temple and Bhubaneswar while in Bihar. Orissa state was adjacent to Bihar state. We were two in 1977 and transferred to Tatanagar branches, Bihar r say Jamshedpur Bihar. There were a lot of Tata companies like Tisco. Telco, and others..In particular I had an Ayyappan temple where I used to go..Some Gujarathi Basa,, Marwadi Basa, Marathi Mandir and a Madrasi sammelani were there. Initially we stayed in Madrasi sammelani for about 15 days, There was a restaurant run by a Palghat Mami where we could get good meals, Masal Dosa, curd . filter coffee, etc and enjoy food which we could not get anywhere in Tatanagar or Jamshedpur or even Bihar. While staying in the Community centre Madrasi sammelani I met Mr Ranganathan an Engineer, one of the office bearers of Sammelani and his wife was Mrs. Saroja Ranganathan my senior in the Bank at Jamshedpur. Their son is the Tamil cinema celebrity Madhavan must be a little older than our son Rajesh. In Tatanagar REC at Adityapur Ind Estate was there and a Branch of Bank also was there where I worked. There were many temples etc where my wife used to go with their mami gossip groups. While in Varanasi we two were taken in a boat to the centre of Ganges and the other side where there were dealers for Varanasi silk sari. I had bought one green sari for her which cost Rs 300 and came by post after some days. She had retained it till last year , 2019.. Later it was Majhgaon ..Singhbhum Dist.. Bihar tribal area presently in the Jharkhand area where we three lived of rover three and a half year. It was a tribal place with no electricity, roads, train ,Doctors,and other necessities but still cheap and good. Our son was grown and brought up there as a Bihari . Next before returning to Madras in 1982 we were in Chaibasa,We had opportunity to join the staff of the Branch in a picnic visiting various places like Nalanda, Rajgirh, Bodhgaya etc,.I remember staff colleague Miss. Shipro (Bengali) had brought her sister a Homeo Doctor in the picnic to take care of our son who was not well but became fine during journey, I had carried some essential medicines with me, We had nice time at many places in Bihar and in particular at Nalanda, Mithila, Bodhgaya, Rajgirh etc While being in Chaibasa our son would speak only Hindi and thus became called a Bihari in in our hose after we returned home .. In Chaibasa I went to a Homeo Doctor who cured me of my head ache by giving a few tablets. In Chaibasa we had very few south Indians except the ones from Bank serving nearby Branches. It was difficult to get meals or leave alone south Indian meals or curd or coffee ONLY Chai..Singada or samosa or jalebi and we liked them too. THAT WAS CHAIBASA….