<p>Last night I dreamt I went to KGF again! Those who have spent their childhood days in Kolar Gold Fields in the ’40s and ’50s would be dreaming like me. When we siblings meet and recollect our old friends in KGF it will invariably be the Anglo Indians (AIs) whom we loved and admired.<br /><br /></p>.<p> To my father they were colleagues and to us children they were our play mates. In school they were our teachers. What is it that made this community stand out from the rest of us? We were unanimous in our conclusions. As teachers they taught us English and more importantly good manners. It became a habit to say thank you, sorry, please, if you don’t mind etc. even in our houses. This looked odd to relatives who did not live in KGF. We were branded as being ‘different’. The nursery rhymes and songs they taught us has remained with us even to this day.<br /><br />At work they earned the trust of the Britishers for their hard work. Miners had to descend to depths of more than ten thousand feet. The lifts were referred to as ‘cages’. Three or four cages, stacked one on top of the other, would be used to shift as many as 12,000 people underground on the day shift. The cages had to be operated with extreme care and precision. The chosen ones as operators were the AIs. A lift accident was unheard of. In the smelting shop burning molten gold had to be poured into moulds to make ingots resembling bricks. Handling this required strength, precision, tolerance to heat and total honesty. The AIs handled this tough task wonderfully.<br /><br />‘Rock Burst’ is a familiar term for miners. It is a sort of mini earth quake artificially created due to the deep shafts dug into the ground. These relieve neighbouring rocks of tremendous pressure. The rocks literally explode to resettle. The shafts get blocked by the rocks and miners get trapped. For those on the surface it meant shaking of the buildings with a loud rumbling noise. AIs would be the first to go down the shafts for rescue operation at great risk. <br /><br />Excelling in sports came naturally to them. Cricket and football matches were played between the ‘Europeans’ and ‘Indians’. The star performers would invariably be the AIs. We children played cricket and formed our own teams. We used to have friendly matches against the AI teams but never won. They were too good. When we as the ‘Marikuppam’ team had to play a match against the ‘Oorgaum’ team we would request Patty, Noel and Bertie to play for us since we came to know that Duggie was playing for the Oorgaum team! If anyone had asked us to recommend Test players for the country our choice would have been these AIs. <br /><br />Came independence, KGF was taken over by the government. The Britishers left. After a few years, the mines closed down. Many of us left KGF to settle in different parts of the country. The Anglo Indians migrated to England and Australia. The old world charm of KGF was gone. It became a ghost town.<br /></p>
<p>Last night I dreamt I went to KGF again! Those who have spent their childhood days in Kolar Gold Fields in the ’40s and ’50s would be dreaming like me. When we siblings meet and recollect our old friends in KGF it will invariably be the Anglo Indians (AIs) whom we loved and admired.<br /><br /></p>.<p> To my father they were colleagues and to us children they were our play mates. In school they were our teachers. What is it that made this community stand out from the rest of us? We were unanimous in our conclusions. As teachers they taught us English and more importantly good manners. It became a habit to say thank you, sorry, please, if you don’t mind etc. even in our houses. This looked odd to relatives who did not live in KGF. We were branded as being ‘different’. The nursery rhymes and songs they taught us has remained with us even to this day.<br /><br />At work they earned the trust of the Britishers for their hard work. Miners had to descend to depths of more than ten thousand feet. The lifts were referred to as ‘cages’. Three or four cages, stacked one on top of the other, would be used to shift as many as 12,000 people underground on the day shift. The cages had to be operated with extreme care and precision. The chosen ones as operators were the AIs. A lift accident was unheard of. In the smelting shop burning molten gold had to be poured into moulds to make ingots resembling bricks. Handling this required strength, precision, tolerance to heat and total honesty. The AIs handled this tough task wonderfully.<br /><br />‘Rock Burst’ is a familiar term for miners. It is a sort of mini earth quake artificially created due to the deep shafts dug into the ground. These relieve neighbouring rocks of tremendous pressure. The rocks literally explode to resettle. The shafts get blocked by the rocks and miners get trapped. For those on the surface it meant shaking of the buildings with a loud rumbling noise. AIs would be the first to go down the shafts for rescue operation at great risk. <br /><br />Excelling in sports came naturally to them. Cricket and football matches were played between the ‘Europeans’ and ‘Indians’. The star performers would invariably be the AIs. We children played cricket and formed our own teams. We used to have friendly matches against the AI teams but never won. They were too good. When we as the ‘Marikuppam’ team had to play a match against the ‘Oorgaum’ team we would request Patty, Noel and Bertie to play for us since we came to know that Duggie was playing for the Oorgaum team! If anyone had asked us to recommend Test players for the country our choice would have been these AIs. <br /><br />Came independence, KGF was taken over by the government. The Britishers left. After a few years, the mines closed down. Many of us left KGF to settle in different parts of the country. The Anglo Indians migrated to England and Australia. The old world charm of KGF was gone. It became a ghost town.<br /></p>
