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Chitvan Singh Dhillon
WITH my eyes half open after an extended afternoon nap, I look above to see the slow, monotonous winding of the ceiling fan, the tedious humming of the air-conditioner, and stretch slothfully as a crackle of thunder jolts me out of bed.
I hear my parents croon to Shammi Kapoor’s hit number, ‘Tumne mujhe dekha…’ I push the curtains aside and the pleasures of pre-monsoon showers beckon. My guava tree is dancing in ecstasy, the young lemon tree looks happy and the gulmohar is content.
I can smell the dusty clamminess outside fade away, giving rise to the delicate smell of gentle earth as the rain catches vigour. I open my bedroom window to be greeted by a warm monsoon raindrop spray on my face, a breeze that brings the room alive and an aroma rising from the kitchen of crispy pakoras and sweet cardamom chai.
Nonagenarian businessman Basant Chadha dies in India at age of 92
Basant Chadha. File photo
PESHAWAR: Basant Chadha, a migrant businessman from the provincial capital who died of natural causes in Jabalpur in India at the age of 92, always greatly missed the city of his birth, said Dr Ali Jan, a noted cultural activist and historian.
He is survived by a daughter Shobha Puri and son Anil Chadha.
Basant Chadha was born in Peshawar on October 18, 1928. His father Gulab Rai Chadha owned a store on the Arbab Road in Peshawar Cantonment. Known as “Gulab Rai & Sons” the shop carried on until 1948 before the family migrated to India after Partition.