The town of Bedlam

“IN THE beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth” is the opening statement of the Bible.

- RAVI GOVENDER

(Genesis 1:1). And needless to say, anything our Creator makes, is perfect and works well.But Almighty Father who art in heaven, no disrespect meant, I implore you — what on earth went wrong with Verulam?

I broached this subject in May last year and spoke about the history of the town, and its trajectory through the decades. Until now when we have our own little tombstone. The irony is that if we see a horse galloping through the streets of Verulam, it will not surprise us. The town still has the patina of an old village. Marvellous memories and the antique look of a faded past.

Dear residents of Bedlam, oops, Verulam, I am not in any way running your wonderful town down. If you recall my previous column, I absolutely love the town as I spent much of my formative years there, and had, and still have some amazing acquaintances residing there. The first mayor of Verulam, YS Chinsamy, was a distant relative of mine. Some would argue about calling him by that title as it is not factually accurate. Okay, for the purists: Chinsamy led the Verulam Indian Town Board in the 1970s when the area was busy with residential and industrial development. When the town achieved borough status, he was appointed first mayor of the Verulam Borough Council.