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Monday, Feb 18, 2008
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The last ride at Appu Ghar

Manisha Jha

Nostalgia reigns high for past and present employees

— Photo: PTI

NOW A MEMORY: Children enjoying inside the Appu Ghar amusement park in New Delhi on Sunday.

NEW DELHI: Figuring prominently in the pleasant memories of an entire generation, the much-loved amusement park, Appu Ghar, threw its gates open one last time for hordes of Delhiites on Sunday.

A sizeable weekend holiday crowd made its way to the park to immortalise the venue in their memories before it is handed over to the Supreme Court and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. While some busied themselves in clicking pictures, for others it was an occasion to acquaint their children with the place they frequented in the times gone by.

Timings extended

In view of the large crowd, the management extended the ticket counter timings till 6-30 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. and the park timing itself was extended from 7 to 8 p.m.

According to Ravinder Singh, who has been working at Appu Ghar’s ticket counter for the past 23 years, over 5,000 tickets were sold on Sunday against 1,500 tickets on normal days.

Nostalgia reigned high for several of Appu Ghar’s past and present employees including travel and tour operator Sushil Khare. “I met my wife for the first time in Appu Ghar where I worked from 1984 to 1998. Today many employees who belonged to my batch came together with their spouses to reminisce about the days gone by,” said Mr. Khare.

“Among the many things I remember about the place is the shooting of the Hindi film ‘Chandni’ here in the 80s when I got a chance to interact with Rishi Kapoor and Sridevi.”

Meanwhile, for many visitors such as Anju Tyagi Sunday was the last chance to visit Appu Ghar with her children and family. “After I came to know that Appu Ghar is closing down, I felt very sad and decided to bring my children here so that they could enjoy the charms of the place for one last time. Though several other amusement parks have come up in Gurgaon, Rohini and Noida, no place can match Appu Ghar considering its central location and easy accessibility.”

As for the 250-odd employees who would be displaced with the closing down of the amusement park, it was an emotional farewell as well.

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