CHILDHOOD TIMES

"CHILDHOOD  TIMES"

Early in the morning a young newspaper-man used to cycle into our house. Covering the long arch of the red gravel driveway he would drop a rolled up newspaper in the verandah. In the stillness of dawn I would be waiting to hear the  'clang' of the heavy iron gate as it was thrown open and the crunching of gravel under his bicycle tyres as he sailed over the driveway. The moment the newspaper hit the verandah floor I would be out there to grab ít and read the last page comic strip of Mandrake the magician. If I missed the chance I would not get the paper until the afternoon on return from school !

The old newspapers came to us kids, handy for making paper boats, aeroplanes, football etc. Newspapers were then priced at two annas or even less.

Rupee had great purchasing power. One rupee would get you over 200grams of fresh CDF, Polson or Keventers butter, or four standard size loaves of bread (dabal roti), or a kilo of good quality rice. Best quality sweets were rupees four a kilo. So was the best quality pure ghee - no issues with cholesterol then. Ghee was THE tonic, a must for sound health.

Magazines were four annas to eight anna apiece (a rupee was equal to sixteen annas). Readers' Digest cost one rupee, had a lot more pages and brilliant articles and without advertisements !

Most of the houses had large compounds and very few security concerns. More often than not, upper half of the doors had glass panes and the rooms had skylights ('roshandan' in hindi). So nobody needed electric light during day time.

Our house had a walled courtyard in the back with a big chabutara. A "Chabutara" is a  raised  circular brick-and-cement platform in the open. At the peak of summer when the walls in the rooms radiated heat we  slept on chabutara in Light 'niwar-cots' under  mosquitto nets. If there was suddenly  a thunderstorm at night we would, bleary-eyed, rush to the verandah with our bed rolls!

It became cool outside as the night progressed. The small hours of morning were divine out there with birds chirping, fragrant breeze and melting darkness !

To us kids, adults seemed to be having a roaring time. They were not required to go to school or do any homework. There were no examinations to face. They could see any film, eat anything, go anywhere they pleased - no permission required for that! We envied their life ! We wanted to grow up fast!

Schools always reopened, after summer vacation, early in july. That was the time for new text books. I loved the fresh strong smell of my new books ! The school desks had inbuilt brass ink-wells at the upper right corner. Very few school boys had fountain pens .

'Snakes-and- ladder', 'Ludo' and 'Carrom were popular indoor games with children. We were normally outdoors in the afternoon playing games.
One of the popular games during my childhood days was "marbles" - boys would play marbles a lot under the trees in the heat. Spinning tops were also pôpular, in various shapes, sizes and colours. Hoop rolling was also popular among children. A large hoop (usual a bicycle tyre or rim) is rolled along the ground, generally by means of a stick wielded by the player. Most of us owned a Catapult too (sling shot - GULEL in North India)

THINGS HAVE CHANGED !!