DO YOU KOW IR REMEMBER? III

 CONTINUED FROM -II 

 

Madras- sorry Chennai had the Printing Houses of “The Hindu”, “The Mail” and other leading Tamil weeklies – “KALKI”, “ANANDA VIKATAN” and later “KUMUDAM”.

Hospitals, Doctors and Diseases were less frequent. Doctors had their own compounders who could formulate medicines based on the Doctor’s prescription. Large scale buying of branded products for medication started in the1970s and later. Safe home-remedies from trusted makers were available. All of them were kept in house for use.

Physical injuries were treated with “CIBOL” a product from Madurai. The global pharmaceutical firm CIBA objected to the name as availing of their popularity. But Cibol was well known to people for quite sometime before. It now stays aloft as SAIBOL.

APC was widely employed for early cure of temperature. There was a well known CAQ, based on Cinnamon, Ammonia and Quinine. It was a prestigious product. The Grayish- blue carton carried the statement “There is only one CAQ and SPENCER makes it”

Another house hold item was WATERBURY’S COMPOUND. It was more a preventive than a curative. Cod liver oil and Shark liver oil were used to provide compensatory nutrition to children. Tonsil ailment was common in children. It was taken as common.

Another common item was R. S. PATHY medicine which was nothing but eucalyptus oil.

Some years ago a new acquaintance of mine requested me to visit his house. When I sought to know the location of the place at Koodal nagar, Madurai, he said   “Sir, it is very easy; mine is the only house in the whole area with 2 R.S.PATHY trees in front”. The maker’s name was identified / synonymous with eucalyptus. How simple it was. Quite a few things run through the mind. But, what can not be seen now is more captivating. Education was that much simple in terms of financial inputs. Still it was not manageable at the then levels of income. A vast majority had to stop studies after SSLC in pursuit of employment. Higher studies were not given to every one even if academically meritorious. A matriculate of those days was quite employable with the skills of letter drafting and basic arithmetic working. Many made it to top rungs by sheer exposure-based learning. To-day with the highest attainments on paper, people are not fit to take up responsibility nor are they comfortable. The cost of education alone was low, not the quality. Teacher jobs were not lucrative. Those with burning desire to teach took to that life. No doubt good quality was rampant.  Lecturers and Professors stood up to their designations by lecturing and professing.

Now of course the designation “Professor” has been brought under restriction in collegiate service. But, people clamour [have glamour?] for it.

To ply on cycles, a valid municipal licence was to be displayed on the cycle. Violation of this was seriously dealt with by snatching the cycle and dumping it in a heap in the municipal territory. Locating one’s cycle in the heap was as tedious as buying a cycle those days. No parent would run in support of the child for retrieving the snatched item. Wrath of the parent would be more than the snatch itself. Life was less expensive but intensive in rules and regulations. Two persons riding a cycle [Popular as doubles] was an offence. School children enjoyed violating it and would be made to regret, standing for police mercy. Here too parents would not interfere. It was taken as inculcating discipline. Pocket money was not a routine. Parents preferred to provide items procured / prepared and did not encourage children keeping money even in small denominations. It may be debatable, but it infused a respect for money as a rare commodity and frugal attitudes.

Motor Cycles were the earliest form of 2 wheelers. India had two of them; the legendary Bullet [Enfield] and Jawa [Yezdi from Ideal Jawa]. Mopeds came by early 1970 or so. The first stable entries were ‘Vicky’ and the modest SUVEGA. Later several others have come about.      Now,on to cars.

Names of some imported cars that we now hear were already on our roads till the 1960s where upon Indian products were encouraged through prohibitive import duty on products from outside. Not much is now heard of PLYMOUTH, CHRYSLER and  

STUDEBAKERwhich were gentle-floating items of cars.  Among the medium-sized was LANDMASTER [now called AMBASSADOR].

                                                                    The smaller versions were MORRIS MINOR and FIAT. Later came the STANDARD10  and HERALD. All were Petrol versions. Cars and Telephones were few and far between. In many places, phone numbers were just 2 or 3 digits, indicative of the frequency of phone connections. I recall the early phone number of The Madura College, Madurai was 2454 in the 1970s. Now, almost every person has a cell phone, a with a 10–digit identity.          

Before fatigue grips us, let me wind up with entertainment items. Of course movies were the dominant sources. There was no TV. Even cricket was enjoyed by listening to the running commentary in Radio. Quite a few names I recall in this connection. Vizzy, Vijay Merchant, Dicky Rutnagar, Anand Setalwad , Pearson Swarita , Ananda Rao to name a few. On News edition- Melvyn D’ Mello, V.N. Chakrapani and Lotika Ratnam were inspiring. Boys and girls glued themselves to Radio Ceylon which gave the lead to the technology of advertising. All Indian movies “reached” the minds of audience through Radio Ceylon long before they were screened for viewing. How can anyone forget the modulation of Mayil vahanan and his presence of mind besides the fluency in Tamil. He was a pioneer by every reckoning. He would open the programme with a neat announcement phrased “Ilangai Oliparappu Koottuthabana Varththaga Sevai” – Vanakkom. Radio Ceylon could design ever so many forms of popularizing movies which were yet to be seen. That the radio could be an enjoyable medium was clearly established by Radio Ceylon and to my knowledge none has surpassed them in elegance.

I never visualized of sharing so much. One can have many other related items / events.

May be God gives me another occasion and to you a better stuff                           K.Raman