Still a darling, no charm & love lost for Adarsh Nagar’s dwellers

Ajay Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 2

It’s a well established fact that the city is known for it’s sporting landscape. And some areas here only add to it’s glory. In 1956, one of the most happening places Adarsh Nagar was established. Chaupati, decades old hub of fast food and spicy cuisines, however, is still popular among people from every nook and corner of the city.

Considering the gathering of people, everyday Chaupati witnesses the climax of many evening walks, office gossips, and cricket match discussions. The construction work of the locality was initiated between 1956 and 1958. Jalandhar Improvement Trust (JIT) had allotted over 450 plots to the people who wanted to settle here due to its location — it connects almost every part of the town at shortest distance.

Owing to its vicinity to the Football Chowk, known as the heart of sports industry and market, Adarsh Nagar, despite being counted among the posh areas of the city, however, is a labour intensive area. It also connects the major locally inter-connected colonies, including Basti Gujan, Basti Danishmanda, Mithu Basti and Basti Sheikh among others. Locals, who have been residing in the area for the past 30-40 years, said there was a time when a large number of people used to migrate here in search of job and used to return empty handed.

Recalling his early days, Kavinder Kumar Ghai (74), who’s family arrived here in 1957, says: “Adarsh Nagar has always been a developed locality. Initially, there were only fewer mud houses and with time, people developed concrete ones.” The colony was mostly occupied by sportsmen. A large number of players from Sialkot settled here and still the deep connections remain. “I remember, cricket bats for England and Pakistani teams were manufacturerd here. So, there was never a dearth of jobs and people remained inclined towards sports,” he said.

His father, who was deputy superintendent of jails in Pakistan in the pre-independence era, migrated here after completing his services in Hisar, Ambala and Ferozpur jails. “When we shifted here, JIT was distributing plots to allottees. We had purchased our share of 14.84 marla plot for Rs1,900 and our house got constructed for Rs11,000 at the time. Along with JIT officials, my elder brother, a civil engineer, developed the entire society. The plots used to be sold at Rs110 per marla,” he recollects.

A lot of time has rolled by since then, a lot of demographic changes have taken place. It has became one of the top choices for settlement. Being the sports hub, people always want to visit this place. Moreover, even as Adarsh Nagar has transformed a lot, it still retains its speciality of being the most eco-friendly colony.

Ghai has spent his whole life here. After completion of his studies at DAV college, Jalandhar, he also served there as a political science teacher. He retired as head of the political science department. He has published over 200 books on the subject. Also, he is the president of Adarsh Nagar Dusshhera committee.

Similarly, Harjinder Singh Ladda (52), whose wife is presently serving as the councillor of the area, says, “In the smartphone-free world the Adarsh Nagar library was popular among intellectuals and people used to visit it for reading newspapers and magazines. It’s importance is still maintained and we have renovated the library with good sitting capacity and air-conditioned rooms. But the the cricket sessions in the Adarsh Nagar Dasehra ground are dearly missed. Many national and international-level players would come here for playing cricket. Ranji players, including Vikram Rathore, Ahit Singh, Sandeep Dholia, Rashpal and Harbhajan Singh, used to conduct cricket matches here,” he says.

Adarsh Nagar is now included in the Smart City project for its further development.