TRUE SPEAKING TREE: READING ROAD (Mandir Marg, Lower Ridge Road) New Delhi 110001

Reading Road: We believed that Reading Road has been named keeping in mind of the Schools that are there on it. We found later that the road was named after the late Viceroy of India. Reading was an English Jew, all others being Christians. The Reading Road was called the Lower Ridge Road in its early days and later renamed Mandir Marg after independence.

On the reading Road as you proceed from the Talkatora end you encounter several religious, cultural and educational institutions. About 200 m from the roundabout on your left, you encounter the New Delhi Kali Bari inside which is the Bengali Club.Next, there is working women’s hostel run by the Government which came into existence in the 1990s. About 100 m down you come across the Buddha Temple and the Laxmi Narayan Temple or Birla Mandir.

Adjoining Birla Temple is the Harcourt Butler School.

Next to Butler School is the Hindu Maha Sabha building.

About 100 m down, there was a very old building on which was written “The South India Club and Sathyamurthy Auditorium'. This was a clubhouse of the South Indians who were in large number in New Delhi, many of them occupying high positions in the Government Offices. The club remained shut in the 1960 and 1970s. Suddenly it came to life in the 1980s. The South India Club no longer exists.

After this club came a large school complex which housed three schools, the DTEA School (run by the Tamils), the NP Boys School (run by New Delhi Municipality) and Raisina School (run by the Bengalis). There is a common gate in front of Peshwa Road for all the three schools. The Raisina School had excellent teachers particularly the science and mathematics, in the 1960s and 1970s, borne out by the fact that at least two of its alumni received the Bhatnagar award, the prestigious award given to the scientists by the Government of India.

The DTEA School has shifted to Pusa Road near Karol Bagh. Beyond this school complex, there is an Arya Samaj Temple which is followed by Mandir Marg Police Station. Next, there is the girls’ convent school named after St. Thomas. At the end of the Reading Road, there was a Harijan colony where Mahatma Gandhi used to live and conduct the morning prayers whenever he was in Delhi, during the late 1930s and early 1940s. The place had jhuggis (slum houses) before independence and there was no paved road. So it was di􀁽cult for everyone to come to the morning prayer meeting during the rains. Someone suggested to Gandhi that he can use his influence to get pathway paved. But Mahatma came up with a solution which was unique. He announced that everybody coming to the prayer meeting should bring a piece of brick from the next day while coming for the prayer meeting. The pathway was raised and became free of waterlogging by brick pieces brought by everyone, in no time. Now the area is transformed. There is a paved way that leads to the Balmiki Temple and the Mahatma’s living rooms. The harijan bast has also been shifted elsewhere.