Simpler Times

Well yes I have been thinking and talking about my childhood a lot. No wonder anything I can write about with complete ease these days is about those times.

Every generation complains that times were better when they were young and they weren’t as mollycoddled as the kids of today. I rant too, from time to time. More out of sheer wonder than any perverse desrire to mock. Our parents/teachers/relatives never bothered too much about what we were doing. Even when we got into a mishap, it wasn’t the end of the end of the world. Every generation says this and I do too, especially looking at the stress parents of my age go through these days where their kids are concerned. Nothing wrong about it of course, times are tougher and every precaution needs to be taken (cue sheer wonder again).

But I look at the fairly bizarre things I did and the reaction of most folks around and I end up cracking up. Let me give you two examples.

Ended up drinking a whole bottle of Dettol antiseptic once. Don’t even remember whether it was a bottle or it was a few sips. By the reaction of my grand mom it could have been a whole case. Apparently she called my Dad for advice and he asked her not to worry, the worst that could happen was a bad stomach ache (yeah my dad had and still has a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant, that made him the medical expert in our house)!

Running around in class one day, trying to high jump over a desk (I was under 5 ft and the desks around 200 ft and the fact that I thought I could vault a desk was bizarre in itself), tripped, hit my head and promptly passed out. What would happen now over something like this? Emergency room, panicked teachers, students screaming? I woke up 10 mins later; I had been unceremoniously dumped in the last row of the class room. My teacher asks me as to how I was? Whether I was ok? Being from a family that never let me bunk school, I seized the day and said I want to go home NOW. Had to wait 2 more hours so that my cousin could come and pick me up though!

What does this prove? Nothing!!!! Like I said these were probably simpler times when we were assumed to be hardier and it was expected that we would get into trouble and no amount of panicking is going to change that. Don't think it was because of lack of caring but in the pre internet/cable tv days there were no medical dramas, nor were there forwards on what happened to the friend of a neighbours 6th cousin thrice removed. Am guessing that probably they thought they had gone through worse in their day.

But my folks used to panic when I wasn’t around though. When I was late from school or stayed over at a friends place for too long the panic would start. In that way all generations are the same I guess, only the levels of panic and distress would differ. Of course counter argument is that kids these days are more into “organized activities” as opposed to being let to their own devices I guess, but that’s another rant.

Childhood sounds

Walking out of the office the other day I heard a kitten mewling away. Normal occurrence I guess but it suddenly took me back 25 years. We lived in this rambling old house which happened rather than planned. This combined with a large garden meant that the house was always filled with various forms of wildlife. From ants to flies to the occasional crow and of course cats. We just couldn’t keep them away and my grand mom’s excessive fondness of all the cats meant that we had an army of them around all the time. They also established themselves in the various nooks this rambling house provided and the cats yowling away during mating season provided constant fodder to my nightmares, fun.

Got me thinking of course of other sounds I grew accustomed to.

Being from madras of course meant that the day started fairly early for us. The birds chirping away in the morning going at the mangoes was a constant.

For some reason all the houses used to have their radios on full blast, you could hear the synchronous intonation of “vande mataram” and keep track when you walked down the road. This was of course immediately followed by the venkatesa suprabhatham (yup lived in an area that was infested with tambrams). The hymns used to wake up the lord had the added effect of rudely getting me up many a day. Oddly enough in the odd chance that I come upon random strains of the same these days it has the immediate effect of calming me down.

The thud of mangoes falling from the tree.

Even earlier when I was fairly little we used to have a bunch of cows right next door. Never heard too much from them though strangely enough. But the guy who used to work there used to make quite a racket.

Milk cookers….the racket of hundreds of households going about getting their morning cuppa. Followed closely by the pressure cookers going off.

On my way to pick up milk in the morning (my one chore. Rub it in to the family even now) the little tea shops that used to open up really early in the morning, blaring tam music.

Oh the little temple in the street, used to have a festival every year. They made sure that everyone in the vicinity knew about it and more important dint forget it. The music and “devotional songs” used to be on pretty much from before you woke up and went on much after you turned in.

Fairly non standard sounds where I live right now. No wonder the mewling of that kitten took me right back. Am looking forward to encounter the other sounds too.

Overused misquoted classical quotes...

Rage rage rage against the dying of this blog.....