MEMORIES

When you were not born, we were adults and when we were kids—Football, Cricket and Gilli Danda were still there but only for boys -Cheppanchippai was for very young kids when the girl would be on par with the boys-- Yeh jo hai jindagi was never heard of as there was neither TV nor the hindi universality-- there was no time to think about the jindagi crawling with the pace of a snail.

TV! why that was a science fiction-- even radio in no house—It was luxury. Murphy, PYE and Philips were popular brands. We had a Columbia hand wound gramophone and a stack of 78 RPM records. Had to change the pin after every record got played. It was a magic to listen in the rarest homes with the doors closed to hear the broadcasting Anurodher Aasar( On Request) on Sundays and Mahalaya by Birendra Krishna Bhadra.

About the the train at Malgudidays like-- coming once a day chucking with the smoke of the coal-- with the gora sab driver--- a greatest man on earth superceding the police and the tongawala with his horse and the buggy—

We had not to go out for the sceneries by train - -- we lived in the sceneries-

Durga Puja was for New Clothes, Sweets and Freefom from books..

There was an old paisa 192 for a rupee- the tiny old paisa some times with a hole in it- which could buy a fistful of limllets!

It was a teachers prerogative to beat our hands with the cane specially manufactured for the purpose though it was supposed to be a ruler why the kidsbooks never existed--- as also the notebooks till the 8th standard---the slate was the medium -- meant to be broken and bought for5 old paisa after a strong slap on the back or a pinch of the ear lobule which had got accustomed to the routine—Comics and cartoons were distant dream.

Some times Tom and Jerry entertained us at the start of Bengali Movie, but I never saw the end as main movie would start… what a miss…

Why the first -- the rains always meant to get drenched, the umbrellas were a luxury the only fone was the tic tac you heard in the railway masters room -- going to the friends was just slamming on them any moment oh my gennext!-- those were the days when you were yet unborn-- but one thing is certain-- we were duller than you were as your gen next to you-- all that matters

Always is the childhood of the sweet homes, where the parents do not compromise the peace for the sake of comforts material, advertised aplenty all around by the howling media aping the west -- and the rogue politician mixing up the populism to his pocket-- in turn the utopia converting to a mass ghetto-- each to his own-- by hook or crook--- the child growing up in his heaven or hell -- you name it ,the mother caring more for the family than for herself-- the value system has changed - even- the values have got a price tag on their face in the super malls---of life today- oh friend what do you predict for your grand kids?

When I would not be a witness to your letter ……