Time Takes Village, Spares Gurdwara

By

Anamni Gupta

and

Sakschi Verma

The Six-Decade-Old Gurdwara Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Sahib Is Witness To All The Changes That Came to Sector 34 Since The

Times

It Was Fatehgarh Madran.

The gurdwara's serene ambience and white marble stand in contrast to the large field opposite with patches of wild growth and buses parked over in multiple rows.

Despite being separated by just a road, the shrine and the field are years apart.

The six-decade-old Gurdwara Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Sahib in Chandigarh's Sector 34 bears testimony to all the changes that happened around in this period. Its three blocks are built over the erstwhile Fatehgarh Madran village that the UT Administration acquired in the year 1971-72.

Gurdwara committee general secretary Amar Singh says that the village had a small gurdwara even before being acquired. “The villagers were asked to vacate the land but the gurdwara was allowed to remain,“ he says. “In 1984, it was allotted another 3-kanal space for a new block.In the early 1990s, the administration allotted it another 4 kanal, where they constructed the rest of what stands today .“

VILLAGE TURNS SECTOR
The small old gurdwara also had a dharamshala (inn). It has only grown bigger and better with times, to accommodate more people. “A lot of new things have come up around the gurdwara,“ Amar Singh says, when asked about h ow t h e s u r ro u n d i n g s h ave changed. Being a member of the gurdwara's managing committee since 1975, he traces his association with the place way before the village transformed into a sector.

“The residential sector came up first, and then the markets nearby,“ he says. He also states that before the space was allotted to the shop keepers, there used to be a rehri market in the vicinity.

REHRI MARKET
Rajwant Singh, who owns a pho to-framing shop in Sector 34, says the rehri market behind the gurdwara consisted actually of the small businessmen who had been evicted from their operating space in Sector 22. “It happened when Sector 22 was being developed by the administration's plan. At that time, this place was not included in Chandigarh. Forced to remove their carts from Sector 22, the rehri-wallas chose to sit behind the gurdwara.“

Later when Sector 34 was planned, these rehri-wallas were allotted cubicles in the local market complex. The market was not a happening one, yet one could find all the necessary items there. From station ery, grocery, and recharge-coupon shops to a shop or two selling clothes, shoes, and junk jewellery complete the list of the items one looks for in a market.

IDLE ASSETS
A number of showrooms at the market seem closed. Rajwant Singh says that: “For many years, their rich buyers have held on to these as assets. These showrooms never opened. The owners say they have kept them as investment for their future generation. They will operate the shops only if they are in a dire need. Else, they will sell them when the revenue prospect is good.“

CAR OVER CUSTOMERS
Rajwant Singh also mentions that in spite of using the desig nated space near the fair ground, the shopkeepers prefer to park their cars in front of the market only. “They do not get the simple fact that this hinders the customers from reaching their shops, and affects their own business,“ he says. “Years ago, not many people owned cars, but now a queue can be spotted outside the market and most of those vehicle are owned by the shopkeepers themselves.“

Harpreet Kaur, a resident of Sector 34 for the past 16 years, says that even though there has been an increase in the number of cars and the private buses that are parked at the ground opposite the gurdwara, the place has retained its peace. “It's not that the neighbourhood has gone all that rowdy as some people may claim. All this little rush was bound to come with time,“ she says.

As the gurdwara stands as witness to the changes this part of Chandigarh has gone through, Sector 34 has developed its own identity , complete with the private-bus parking, the mela ground, and the not so happening marketplace.

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