Kripal Singh Gill

Born in the year 1962 in Punjab, my father soon took me and my mother to Dunlop. My grandfather had moved to West Bengal sometime in 1941 and joined Dunlop as a security guard. The life in Dunlop was akin to the British as it was supposed to be. After all it was a British firm. The roads, underground electricity layouts, the sewerage system, the medical facilities, schools (Hindi and Bengali medium), club houses and swimming pools were some facilities which could be only heard of or rather dreamed of in those times.

The year 1971 is afresh in my memory when one fine morning the morning walkers frequenting the Dunlop grounds, saw a unit of the army (14^th Sikh Regiment) camping just behind the Dunlop Bengali Secondary school. No one even had any inkling of what was in store. People were very rarely in touch with newspapers which could have given them some news of the impending war with Pakistan. We children had a wonderful time watching the jawans of the army going through the morning drills, cleaning their weapons and playing volleyball in the evenings.

I remember the jawans shooting stray dogs that were troubling their routine workouts. The jawans would then instruct us kids to go search for the empty shells and then getting rewarded with chocos in return. Then suddenly after around three weeks, the unit embarked towards the eastern border as the war had begun. They left as they had come.

After the war was over, General Jagjit Singh Aurora, the hero of the war had landed on the Dunlop ground in his chopper after the historic surrender of more than 90,000 Pakistan troops. The Dunlop Management had given him a rousing welcome befitting a General. Dunlop had supplied tyres of different makes to Indian troops during the war. My father took me and my sibling to the grounds to be a part of the crowd to witness the event. People of neighbouring areas had flocked to see the General deliver a speech. It was a rare sight of a chopper hovering and then landing that people were glued to.

Talking about Dunlop Estate, I would rather say that it was a Mini-India. People from different states of India resided in the quarters practicing their respective beliefs and religions with immense fervor and equal participation from all communities. It was a learning experience for all to know about traditions and cultures of other communities which was possible only in the Dunlop Estate. What still mesmerizes me is the location of the Estate. Away from the maddening crowds of the city of Calcutta (as it was then called) situated on the banks of the Hooghly river towards the east and on the Grand Trunk Road (Sher Shah Suri Marg) towards the west, it was easily approachable by road from Kolkata. The environment of Dunlop Estate was extremely peaceful. The late evening walks were a treat as people chatted in a low voice lest the students studying in their studies get disturbed. We could hear students reading aloud and mugging up answers irrespective of nearing exams. The serene and quietness enabled us to hear the Amritsar Mail galloping past Bandel station at around 8.30 p.m. The whistling train would instantly take us to our distant parent-state of Punjab for a while giving us a sound sleep for the night.