The lane in Sitabuldi is too narrow and too crowded even to imagine anything out-of-the-ordinary. Take a walk down its crooked path lined by non-descript houses, and you will not realise that this little place -- the like of which can be found anywhere -- once hosted quite a few personalities that later made not just headlines but also history. One such personality was Mr. P.V. Narasimha Rao who later became India’s Prime Minister (and whose birth anniversary the nation just celebrated). As a young man, he spent a few years in Nagpur studying in college, and lived in a house in this particular lane -- the Soni Lane (Galli). “Those years gave me a lot of warmth”, Mr. Narasimha Rao later recalled even as he sat in his Parliament House office. To be able to attend college in Nagpur, he had left his cosy, semi-urban living back in what later came to be known as Andhra Pradesh. Having found a perch in the Soni Lane, Mr. Narasimha Rao picked up interest in Marathi, one of the many languages he could speak and read and write. Walk down the slope from the Bhunda Mahadev Temple for about a 100 meters and take the first left turn.

 

That’s where the Soni Lane begins. The lane turns right and then left and takes you on a rather ill-defined path but basks in an atmosphere that is yet not affected by the urban ills. Just a whispering distance away flows the terribly busy Wardha Road fly-over with all urban sound and air pollution. In the Soni Lane just off it, things are still cool. Old buildings have given way to haphazardly made new ones. But nobody seems to mind this incongruous mix of structures. Such a place hosted the young Mr. P.V. Narasimha Rao who was destined to become India’s Prime Minister in tough times. It was in this lane that the young man returned every evening after college, or meeting friends, or taking in the political winds that were sweeping the country in those days. Of course, accost anybody in the narrow lane and ask, and most probably he is not in a position to recall which house hosted Mr. Narasimha Rao. A few years later, Mr. Narasimha Rao started making name for himself. His busy political career took him away from Nagpur -- to Hyderabad and thence New Delhi. No matter all that, Mr. Narasimha Rao’s Nagpur connection never faded not just from his memory but also from his personal contacts and friendships.

 

Twists in politics brought him to Ramtek to get elected as Member of Parliament. In those years, he would come to Nagpur on way to Ramtek every now and then, often mentioning his years of stay in the Soni Lane. And on that fateful night when Tamil militants eliminated former Prime Minister Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, Mr. Narasimha Rao was in Nagpur, resting at the residence of his old friend and political leader Mr. N.K.P. Salve. It was from Nagpur that Mr. Narasimha Rao few to New Delhi -- finally to become Prime Minister. But even in those historic days, Mr. Narasimha Rao did not forget his days in the Soni Lane. The Soni Lane was a fortuitous place destined to host not just Mr. P.V. Narasimha Rao as a young man, but also hosted many others of eminence.

 

One of the houses also hosted Mr. J.N. Dixit who later became India’s Foreign Secretary. Quite a few other persons of eminence spent some years in the Soni Lane. Mr. Vidyadhar Vaidya -- who later became Director of Intelligence Bureau -- also has his roots there. Mr. Ram Khandekar, who subsequently became a close aide of Mr. Narasimha Rao, too, had his family in the Soni Lane. (Mr. Khandekar passed away in ripe old age in Nagpur just a few days ago.) The Soni Lane also boasts of having hosted families such as Patwardhan, Vazalwar, Pandit, Vaidya, Khandekar, Joshi ... and many more. From each of those homes came celebrated personalities that lighted up Nagpur’s public life. The Soni Lane exists even today, though having undergone a lot of change. Despite that, it still holds an old-world charm that sensitive minds cannot miss. n