Whenever I have debarked at the Jamalpur station from Howrah,I have felt like brushing out the cobweb of memories,somehow playing the tune of “The Swami”(If I guessed right!!) in my mind so a kaleidoscope of images hit my senses and pineal subconsciousness.
Once you are out of the station ,one sees some of the biggest rickshaws (with some seats slipping out) ,an erstwhile product of the the Raj (beckoning at you with those quaint rubber horns) jostling for space with the trekkers going to Monghyr, Buses going to Kiul and other places in a 30 kilometer vicinity and yes probably that one bus (KumarBhai).
A rickshaw will charge roughly 10-15 rupees to most of the places but still bargain.It is worth it as in other places across the orient and beyond!!Moving forward you will find the oldest tailoring shop in Jamalpur(Dressco) run by a centurion an easy six footer ,with dark eyes and a mehndi beard extending up to his chest….!!
When I was in school when I did not know about hair dye I thought he got the beard colored by chewing on a lot of betel and it was practically dried betel juice!!No offence but that was me then…
Move forward and you hit the tea shops in a row .If you went inside you could hear snitches of what went on in the darker sides of Jamalpur but they made an excellent glass of lemon tea…!!
The biggest landmark this side of Jamalpur is the Jubilee Well, …Yes!! There is a pucca well in the middle of the road and it is a fork from where the left one went to Monghyr and the other went to the Railway Colony of the sahibs!
Once on the railway bridge you get an idea of the expanse of Jamalpur!!The white building you see at 11 O Clock with a NtD on top is Notre Dame Academy.But that is another epic story I guess!!
If you went to Jamalpur ,you had be pleasantly surprised to see all the roads named after the British Royalty .So now once you are coming down on the other side of the railway bridge(Badi Pool) on the left you will see once of those structures resembling world war II hangars .It is the cinema hall called the National Institute catering to the natives who came for the movies ,some cards,a small library but most of the times just to loiter,chat and stretch after a day;s toil at the Railway workshop.
O ….I do have stories for this place as well…just wait …but that is another generation ,once that came to Jamalpur in the 50s and 60s for season change,love ,a job and not necessarily in that order.
So now you see the Albert Road on the left after the National Institute ,you have the austere Notre Dame School building rising out and then the post office in front and the I.W(Inspector of Works) office in the right.
So now let me take the second longest road in Jamalpur.The ALBERT Road
As you pass the school on the right and the Jamalpur Municipalilty office on the left,what you will love is the defunct steam roller on which some generations of Notre Dame guys have played. Another relic from the Raj days may be….at least I like to romanticize that way.Move forward to find the East Colony Bank.Even though it is now shifted to the first floor the tea shop beside it of Jadav ji is a place you cannot miss. Dark,dingy,old world….that’s it!!His son Raju now has grey stubbles so what.Behind them is an entrance to th Notre Dame schoold dispensary and post that you have a saloon, Priya Studio,a liquor shop(may be it is no longer there) , an old ration shop with stairs winding up to no where and a big banyan tree.
Take a right and you will be on the workshop road but i will stick to my road.The next stop is Hira Mode.There used to be a hira’s hotel which used to supply the brown sahibs with jalebis anmd sweet meats.The last i saw it smelt of dank sweat,burnt wood,two mangy dogs ,a dry tube well and an old man sleeping ….Just beside it you have the star hotel of Jamalpur the erstwhile Madras Coffee House .They used to sell only idli dosas but now they have some accommodation rooms as well .
More to continues…
Tunnel across the Rajmahal range was made between 1860-1861 and was the
bottleneck in the faster proliferation of the East India Railway
network, which started off from Howrah to Raneegunje(Raniganj,
collieries near Asansol)[121 miles, 1855], reached Jamalpur (1862),
reached Prayag 1862) and Delhi (1866) and finally Lahore (1866).
In the foreground is the grave of an Englishman, a soldier in 19th Century, British-controlled India. In the background is the grave of a tiger.
The Englishman and the tiger met one day and fought. The tiger attacked the Englishman and the Englishman shot the tiger. Both died from their wounds and were buried where they fell.
The tiger’s grave has an interesting story too. That one is still to come…
This site is the birthplace of the social activist and spiritualist Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar (spiritual name Shrii Shrii Anandamurti, or simply ‘Baba’). He was born on the full moon in May 1921.
The building in this photo is new and is used for practising meditation. The sign for “Abha Seva Sadhan” is a service project giving free medicine to the poor. The sign “Baba Naam Kevalam” is a mantra meaning ‘Everything is an expression of one infinite, loving Consciousness’.
Baba’s orginal house was to the right of this photo. The building is no more. Instead, a garden of many flowers and plants is being nurtured in its place.
In a lonely field on the outskirts of Jamalpur – a small town, insignificant but for the presence of its railway workshop – lies the Tiger’s Grave. A few feet away rests the grave of the Englishman – the soldier who shot the tiger and was, in turn, fatally injured by the beast.
The field was later cleared and prepared as a golf course, for the frivolities of the ruling British, but the project was abandoned and never completed.
In this lonely field, in the dead of night, Tiger’s Grave became the chosen spot for many sittings with spiritual master Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar (known also by the spiritual name, Shrii Shrii Anandamurti).
He gave lessons and demonstrations of mysticism and meditation to small groups of spiritual practitioners. He dictated many books and scriptures by the light of a lantern. Such seminal works as Ananda Sutram, Guide to Human Conduct and Elementary Philosophy were given here.
Spiritual aspirants still come from around the world to see and meditate on the grave – much to the bewilderment of many locals, who have but the slightest idea of the incredible spiritual heritage that was born in their homeland.
Jamalpur is best known as a very large workshop on the East Indian Railway, employing over 25,000 people at one time. The town was established during the British Raj and the cultural hub at that time was the Railway Institute. The Railway Institute was huge – it had its own movie theatre, a six-lane swimming pool, four tennis courts, two billiard rooms and a bowling lawn. Its dances were renowned and railway folk came from all over the East India Railway (EIR) to attend.
Geography
Jamalpur is located at [show location on an interactive map] 25°18?N 86°30?E? / ?25.3, 86.5.[1] It has an average elevation of 151 metres (495 feet).
The town is in the Munger district. Munger is 8 km North West of Jamalpur. There is a road as well as a rail link between the two towns. It is an overnight journey from Calcutta.
The nearest airport is at Patna from where Jamalpur is around four hours by Rail. Alternatively, on the Eastern side Kolkata is the nearest airport from where Jamalpur can be reached by Rail. Jamalpur also has a small airstrip.
Demographics
As of 2001[update] India census, Jamalpur had a population of 200,659. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Jamalpur has an average literacy rate of 83%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 88%, and female literacy is 77%. In Jamalpur, 14% of the population is under 6 years of age.
Alighting from your train at Jamalpur Junction station of the Eastern Railway and making your way through the market adjacent to it,you are not likely to be impressed.Turning right at the end of what could well be called the station road,you cross an over-bridge and enter the Railway East Colony.
This egalitarian title is now given to what used to be the European Colony in colonial days.There is a Jamalpur beyond the East Colony also,but most things in this town begin end here.The first turning to the right is the Workshop Road,that leads to the Eastern Railway Locomotive Workshop,the biggest and the oldest in the country.
It was only after the setting up of the temples of modern India after independance that bigger workshops were built.you next pass the Club Road and Stadium Road.You soon cross the Golf Road,before you come to Gymkhana Road on your left.
Standing between these roads, you see a vast expanse of a rolling green maidan stretching towards a right that seems to cover your entire field of view.This maidan is the Golf Course,a small but reasonably well kept 9-hole course,that is perhaps the cheapest in the world to play golf on.
Right in the centre of the course, you will note what looks like a grave. The epitaph on the tombstone tells you the gory tale:a 27 year old Foreman of the Erecting Shop was killed by a tiger near the spot two years after the workshop had been established in 1862. In the tranquil serenity of the present maidan, tigers had roamed in the not too distant past. If this was the situation,then why Jamalpur, is the question that is often asked.
The answer lies in the history of the area and the nearby town of Munger (earlier Monghyr). The inhabitants of this town and the surrounding areas had always been a reservoir of skilled craftsman in mechanical fields like ironware – notably guns ,pistols ,spears, and other weapons.
It is not a coincidence that Monghyr was often referred to as the “Birmingham of the East” in those days. It will also not be out of place to record that Jamalpur was on what was then intended to be the mainline of the Railway,had good water supply and congenial surroundings.
Jamalpur was at first only an engine changing station. The actual headquarters of the Locomotive Department were at Howarah,but the latter not only possessed great drawbacks but was too confined to permit extensions.There was ,in fact., no room for the work shop of the Locomotive Department as well as the Company’s carriage and wagon works, and after long and matured consideration , it was decided to remove the former to Jamalpur .
Mr. John Strachan , the then Locomotive Superintendent of the Company,gives the following account for the cause of the removal.”It was not till the early sixties that the late D.W.campbell decided to remove the workshops to Jamalpur ,and this was owing to the drivers and fitters giving trouble.They were covenanted men from home who had left their families there,and as hotel and billiard rooms were their only amusement,it was no uncommon thing for men to leave the shops during working hours and adjourn to a hotel that was then opposite to the railway station…
“There were also several other places of amusement in Howrah and Calcutta to which men could go and among them was a place known as Wilson’s Coffee Room.
“One day Mr. Campbell,returning from the weekly Meeting in the Agent’s Office ,happened to call at Wilson’s Coffee Room for tiffin,and here he found three of his principle foremen and two engine drivers enjoying themselves in rather a boisterous manner……The men were quickly retired,and after that Mr. Campbell never rested until he had the workshops and the Locomotive offices removed from Howrah to Jamalpur.”
And,so it was that the Locomotive Workshop came to be located at Jamalpur.By 1890,the workshop had 3122 men ,which grew to 9528 by 1906.(In its heydays 30 years back,the figure was 14000).By this time ,the number of locomotives whose overhaulwas based at Jamalpur had grown to 952.Since there was virtually no industry in the country,the workshop grew to be totally self sufficient.It set up the country’s first rolling mill in 1879,as well as the raiway’s first captive powerhouse,which was set up in 1895.A steel foundry with a 7-ton open-hearth furnace started operations in 1898.
The Iron foundry was amongst the best in the country and even produced cast iron sleepers.
Jamalpur has the distinction of manufacturing locomotives well before Chittaranjan Locomotive Works were set up. A total of 214 locomotives were built at jamalpur between 1899 and 1932.
Along with the technical side of the development ,care was also taken to develop the human resource.A Technical School was set up in 1988 for Trade Apprentices with one teacher.In 1905, the training of Apprentice Mechanics was started for Anglo-Indians and later in 1911,the Apprentice Mechanic scheme was thrown open to indians also.It is chronicled elsewhere in this issue,how the training of special class Apprentices at the Technocal School in 1927,set into motion the chain of events that we are commemorating this year.
Jamalpur has always attracted visitors who could well be a Who’s Who of the land.A sampling of the messages recorded in the Visitor’s Book of the Workshop can be seen in this write up.
Even today,the Workshop and the Training institute at Jamalpur are the mainstay of not only Jamalpur town but also the entire district of Munger.Although there are other workshops and units in the Railways and outside that are bigger and more contemporary than the Locomotive Workshop at Jamalpur today,the words of Mr.Huddlestone,C.I.E,Chief Superintendent of the East Indian Railway,give an idea of the Spirit behind Jamalpur.
“There are ,of course,larger Railway shops existing in Europe but not few are more self contained or better occupied with modern electrically driven machinery than this workshop.” http://jamalpurgymkhana.com/
This tree has a story. Apparently, in its previous life it was a human being. It was a man who asked to borrow money from his father. When the father refused, the son was so angry that he took an axe and killed him.
As a way to exhaust the mental reaction created by this axe-murder, the son was reborn as a tree with a cleave down its middle.
It has been around as a tree for several decades now. The monkeys seem to enjoy its company.
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