How
often have I been asked ? A south Indian, how come you have
settled down at Mhow? I have no clear answers . But every time I hear such a question, it triggers a series of thoughts on
the uniqueness of Mhow.
As a
fauji I have been through 23 different places of posting , generally
referred to as a military station or a cantonment. Many fellow-rovers
would agree with me that most of the people , toy with the idea of settling down in their place of posting, some time or the
other . It could be
the Nilgiris, a Punjabi might fall in love with or Pithoragarh
(google map please!) that might entice a South Indian. But these
places are known for the short tourist seasons , and the ideas for taking roots at such places are also seasonal... In Pithoragarh if you go through one winter , the salubrious climate in Summer is spoilt with this thought “If summer is here , can
winter be far behind ?, .. run before it sets in" . It would be John
Keats reverse-quoted (a word I just coined) .
So
it goes, one place good only for summer, another good only for
winter, too far North or too far South, East or west , too much rain or too little
rain, concrete jungle or too remote a place and it goes on... Now let
us look at Mhow. It is like the story of Narasimhavatar of Vishnu....
neither too warm or too cold, neither too North or too South, neither
urban nor rural, neither a cantonment nor a civil area...well , on
which ever axis you consider, it falls right in the middle ! It
Includes some dubious considerations; neither are people too law
abiding nor too lawless !
Any account of Mhow is not complete without a mention of Mhow-bazaar. The
Main street is almost as if custom made for the fauji ladies !
Walking across just half a km, they can find fancy gowns, dresses , suits, leather jackets,
leather boots, or beautiful curtains , paintings, wood carvings and such stuff for their drawing
room , ingredients to exercise all their culinary skills in Chinese and Continental dishes (poor husbands !). Mhow tailors , historically , have been catering for the
Rajas and aristocrats during British India and later to the army
personnel posted all over the country in the Independent India. I for
one have always got my uniforms made at Mhow, wherever I was posted;
did I say 23 stations ?
Whats
so great about a market and tailors? It is the ambiance that strikes.
Whether it is the people moving about in the narrow streets and lanes
of the town, or the shop keepers sitting at their desk on a summer
afternoon, there is a sense of timelessness. Many shops actually
shut down from two to four for the afternoon siesta. The bhoras are
always smiling with the 'koi dikkat nahin' attitude. I bought
curtain rods for my house, my measurements turned out to be wrong and I went back for exchanging them , not with much hope. As it happened ,
fresh piecees were cut to the revised size with a 'Koi dikkat nahin' smile.
An ancient defence service officers institute coupled with modern libraries, gymnasiums , tennis and squash courts, an olympic size swimming pool, a sprawling golf course and most importantly the ambiance of Mhow-bazaar has made this place truly a haven for a retired fauji.
