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Archive for the ‘society’ Category

70s-80s : Ballbottom, Maxis, HMT Watches, Fiat…etc.

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

Below text I got from my US based friend named, Nilesh Trivedi. It contains very nostalgia factors of 70s-80s.

Here’s a reality check for those of us who grew up in the 70’s & 80’s in India !
70s-80s : Ballbottom, Maxis, HMT Watches, Fiat...etc.
1. Though you may not publicly own to this, at the age of 5-8 years,
you were very proud of your first “Bellbottom” or your first “Maxi”
2. Phantom & Mandrake were your only true heroes. You can also nod
your heads to names like Chandamama, Champak, Lot-Pot, Nandan. The
brainy ones read “Competition Success Review”.
3. You took pride in turning to the back page of your latest Amar
Chitra Katha and ticking off yet another title. How many ever you
ticked, you still had many to go.
4. Your “Camlin” geometry box & Flora pencil was your prized possession.
5. The only “Holidays” you took were to go to your grandparents’ or
your cousins’ houses.
6. Ice-cream meant only - either an orange stick, a vanilla softy in a cone or at most - a Choco Bar if you lived in a swanky town.
70s-80s : Ballbottom, Maxis, HMT Watches, Fiat...etc.
7. Your first family car ( and the only one) was a Fiat. Or an ambassador. This often had to be pushed by the entire family to get going.
8. The glass windows in the back seats used to get stuck at the
two-thirds down level and used to irk the shit out of you! The window went down only if your puny arm could manage the tacky rotary handle to pull it down. Locking the door was easy. You just whacked the other tacky,non-rotary handle downwards.
9. Your mom had stitched the weirdest lace curtains for all the
windows of the car. They were tied in the middle and if your dad was the comfort-oriented kind, you had a magnificent small fan upfront, below which screwed to the board was the cassette player.
70s-80s : Ballbottom, Maxis, HMT Watches, Fiat...etc.10. Your parents were proud owners of HMT watches. You “earned” yours after 8th or the 10th standard exams.
11. You have been to “Jumbo Circus” ; have held your breath while the pretty young thing in the glittery skirt did acrobatics, quite enjoyed the elephants hitting football, the motorcyclist vrooming in the “Mautka Gola” and it was politically okay to laugh your guts out at dwarfs hitting each others bottoms!
12. You have atleast once heard “Hawa Mahal” on the radio.
13. If you had a TV, it was normal to expect the neighborhood to
gather around to watch the Chitrahaar or the Sunday movie. If you
didn’t have a TV, you just went to a house that did. It mattered
little if you knew the owners or not.
70s-80s : Ballbottom, Maxis, HMT Watches, Fiat...etc.
14. Sometimes the owners of these TVs got very creative and got a bi or even a tri-coloured anti-glare screen which they attached with two side clips onto their Weston TVs. That confused the hell out of you!
15. Black & White TVs weren’t so bad after all because cricket was
played in whites.
16. You thought your Dad rocked because you got your own ( the
family’s; not your own own!) colour TV when the Asian Games started. Everyone else got the same idea as well and ever since, no one came over to your house and you didn’t go to anyone else’s.,
17. You dreaded the death of any political leader because of the
mourning they would announce on the T V. After all how much “Shashtriya Sangeet” can a kid take? Salma Sultana also didn’t smile during the mourning.
18. You knew that “Indira Gandhi” was somebody really powerful and
terribly important. And that’s all you needed to know.
19. The only “Gadgets” in the house were the TV, the Fridge and the Mixie..
20. All the gadgets had to be duly covered with a crochet covers and sometimes even with ingenious, custom-fit plastic covers…
21. Movies meant Amitabh Bachchan. Before the start of the movie you always had to watch the obligatory “newsreel”.
22. You thought you were so rocking because you knew almost all the
songs of Abba and BoneyM
23. You had a turntable “stereo” and a collection of LP Records.. Your hormones went crazy when you bought “Disco Deewane” by Naziya Hassan & Zoheb Hassan.
24. You couldn’t contain your happiness when you suddenly had
knowledge of Grammy awards and Tina Turner, Cyndi Lauper & OMG even
Michael Jackson became familiar names.
25.. School teachers, your parents and even your neighbours could whack you and it was all okay.
26.. Photograph taking was a big thing.. You were lucky if your family owned a camera. A reel of 36 exposures was valuable hence it justified the half hour preparation & “setting” & the “posing” for each picture. Therefore, you have at least one family picture where everyone is holding their breath and standing at attention!

Suchitra Krishnamurthy too says this…

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Hey, I found support for my views at noisy celebrations
or ceremonies in our country.

Read this :
http://www.suchitra.com/2009/06/the-5-am-wake-up-call/

Celebrations even though death!

Friday, September 25th, 2009

On last Tuesday (22nd Sept.) evening, one of my relative staying in Vastrapur, Ahmedabad passed away. He was took for funeral at 8.30 pm. When we came back after last rituals, we were shocked to see celebrations of Garba were going on with loud music playing through loud speakers! Have we become so much insensitive that we forget one death in our society?

Please note that society is not too big and Garba were being played exactly opposite that block where death happened!

I remember one case of my life. It was of my childhood. In 1982-83 we were returning to our home at Ranavav, Dis. Porbandar in autorikshaw. Music was being played in rikshaw. As there was death of one old lady, staying exactly opposite our home, music was stopped as soon as we entered in gally where our home was located.

Really time has much changed! Today’s people believe in one mantra -Jalsa Kar Bapu Jalsa Kar.

Take pity on deaf ears!

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Navratri is on in full swing. Even after whole day’s hard work, men and women are taking part in group dancing - one of a kind festival- with great enthusiasm.

But one should also give a thought about noise Navratri is creating. Ok. It is democracy. You want to enjoy. No opposition. No problem. But why should your celebration (majaa) become punishment (sajaa) for others? Aren’t you concern for those who don’t want to take part in celebration, for those who have B.P. problems or for those who can’t bear loud voice for one or two health reasons. There are many people who gets headache often after passing their 30s. There are many who even can’t bear somebody talking in high pitch. (Remember Sudhir- Mangal one of seven brothers in ‘Satte Pe Satta’ movie, always talking in high pitch?) What about them?

Let’s give some relaxation. If you want to enjoy with noise, ok, enjoy. But can Navratri celebration be limited to just 12 am so that all those who want nice sleep, get it? Notwithstanding Supreme court or police’s order (in case of Gujarat) to limit celebration upto 10 or 12 am, celebrations are going on up to 2-3 am without any restrictions.

There will be Diwali celebration after 23-24 days. And nowadays, Diwali celebration or any wedding function or any celebration - be it of victory in election or victory in cricket match- is not complete without firing crackers and that too noisy crackers. Insensitive people who fires crackers on road will not also consider vehicles passing thereby and our roads are not that much big to pass safely while crackers are fired.

Many Gujaratis will consider me as enemy of celebration, but no I am not against celebration. And I am not just opposing Navratri’s loud celebration, I oppose noise at every possible occurrence- be it listening music at home or in office with great volume or be it praying in mosque or in religious processions which are very frequent or be it at temple or be it party or be it at wedding functions. Why do we use to listen music with great volume? Are we deaf? That must be case, I think. What can be done with them?

Just take pity on them! Nothing else.

Festivals should lead you to satvikta (goodness) and not towards tamasikta (demon like deeds).

Congress’s austerity drive: good but not enough

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

Call them stunts, call them election strategy, Congress’s austerity measures must be appreciated. They were really essential in present economic scenario. Yes, you can say they are delayed, because economic slowdown was there since some times and now drought has worsened the situation.

But many Mantrijees and MPs are not happy over it and so are some of English journalists.  While Mantrijees can not oppose these directly as these are initiated by Congress high command, they have left option to just whisper here and there. But I wonder why BJP-the party that was strongly believing in simplicity and now has totally adopted five star culture has not declared support to this. It seems role reversal of BJP and Congress. Congress is turning towards Austerity-simplicity and Aam Aadmi while BJP is just rising emotional issues but not thinking of common people.

Even Janta Dal (U) leader Sharad Yadav has questioned about these suddenly measures. Sharadjee should know about Common people’s difficulties for getting two time meals. Milk price is risen every two or three months. Prices of sugar, pulses and food grain are sky high. I would like to ask Congress that why it doesn’t put pan on Satta (trading) on such essential commodities of which prices are being hiked day by day due to Satta.

Having said this, I will go further ahead to suggest that CEOs and Executives who get handsome amount should cut their salary, not too much, just by 2 percent. Avoid press conference in five or three star hotel. Cut stationary cost. For middle class, it could do simply that save power, water and petrol as much as possible. Try to reduce or avoid taking lunch or dinner in hotels/restaurants. Don’t waste food. These seem to be trivial steps but they can be proved life savings majors for many persons and families.

After all, Ganga runs from up to down. I mean to say lower class is always get inspired by upper class.

Newsweek says that US is slowly converting to Hindu Nation!

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

It is strange that in India, it has become fashion to show off oneself as intellectual or secular, one has to ridicule hindus, the organisations working for it. Ok. No problem. Let them show off.

But good news coming from US, well known magazine of US ‘News week’ has published an article that christians of US are slowly becoming like Hindus.

Read full article here : http://www.newsweek.com/id/212155