Voh kaagaz ki kashti, voh baarish ka paani......

Yeh daulat bhi le lo,
Yeh shoharat bhi le lo,
Bhale cheen lo mujhse meri jawani,
Magar mujhko lautaa do bachpan ka saawan,
Voh kaagaz ki kashti,
Voh baarish ka paani....

Jagjit Singh is our family's favourite ghazal singer. All of us love his songs and keep hearing them often. They are melodious as well as easy to learn and sing and have very meaningful lyrics. Doesn't use too many instruments which irritate us when we are not in mood.

Whenever we hear this song of his, we think that it is really very true about the 'bachpan ki yaadein' - childhood days.

In my home, we were three sisters and two brothers. Very ordinary middle class family. But we were very close to each other, esp. me, my sister and a brother. We used to go to our school - more than 2 kms. away - by walk. The school was quite a good school in our locality. We were quite happy in the school also. Our parents also never compelled us to study all the time, most parents were busy taking care of the house with so many kids, in those days, may have been the reason!

I am talking about the late sixties and early seventies. No TV, but the radio was important in every house. All of us would sit in front of the radio to hear our favourite programmes, like Binaca Geet Maala, Jaimaala etc. We used to bet about which song will come as no.1 song in the coming week, in Binaca Geet Maala. Kishore Kumar, Mohammad Rafi, Lata and Asha were gods for us!

I am from Udupi, Karnataka. We left that place and came to settle here, in Madras (Chennai now!) in mid sixties. When I was in Udupi, we used to hear Hindi film songs, more than Kannada film songs. So we are familiar with Hindi songs than Kannada songs. This continues even today. After learning Tamil, we started liking Tamil film songs also.

So now, back to the radio! I remember enjoying the Hindi and Tamil movie dialogues - full movie dialogue can be heard in the radio, 9.15 pm. Tamil serials in just sounds/audio. In the morning, bhoole bisre geet, sangeeth sarita (even now, I hear this programme in a small transistor in my kitchen!), Triveni in Vividh Bharathi station. In our family get togethers and weddings, we have a session of 'Anthaakshari' always and all my cousins sing mostly old Hindi songs. Occassionally 'nimbuda nimbuda', 'cholie ke peech kya hai' also pops up! Mostly the next generation joins us for these songs. And I am astounded when the next generation sings old Hindi film songs than Tamil or Kannada songs. Maybe all are exposed to Hindi film songs than the Kannada and Tamil songs!

The radio is nearly gone now, though it lifted its head slightly when the FM broadcast had started. Still , we hear them mostly, while travelling in the car. Come back home and back to TV!

Life was so simple. We had ample time for playing with our brothers and sisters, cousins or chatting with uncles and aunts. We used to visit our relatives' place often, esp. in summer holidays, it was a must. Nowadays, it is summer camps and TV for a family of one or two children.

Birthday means Paayasa and that too with jaggery! I love paayasa with jaggery, even now! I was preparing cakes at home or buy and celebrate my sons' birthdays in the later years! Samosaas and fried rice etc. also were there, though. Now, it is pizza for the next generation! We were inviting their close friends and our family friends also for the birthday celebrations. Now, restaurant visits for celebrations of any kind.

My father was a fan of Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor and Shivaji Ganesan was his favourite. He used to send us to 'his' favourite actor's movies. He accompanied us very rarely. The cost of the tickets were 54p, 81p, Re.1.50p. etc. So funny to think about them now! Sometimes some of our cousins also were joining us. Whenever we see those movies in the TV now, we wonder how we were able to enjoy/tolerate them. But we remember how happy we were for just the fun of going out together and enjoying.

Next came the TV - 1981. This is after I got married. Our first TV was a black & white ECTV. We were in Bangalore then and our house had the first TV in that locality. Kannada actor/god(!)'s 'Shankar Guru' was the first movie. We had a huge living room and it was full of local people! My husband sat in the veranda and watched the movie! Next day's movie was Raj Kumar's 'Krishna Deva Raya'! One scene is there in that movie, where Raja Krishna Deva Raya visits Thirupathi Srinivasa temple. I saw some of our neighbours doing namaskaara/pranams, in front of the TV! Slowly TV became common in every houshold.

The 9 p.m. serials became very famous. Only one channel - Doordarshan - was there and we had to watch whatever they showed in that channel. So, like all the TV viewers of those days, we became addicted to Hum Log, which came twice a week. Chutki, Badki, Lalloo were always there in the family discussion. Then 'Buniyaad', 'Ados pados' and so many others invaded our house. I remember that all the 9-9.30p.m. serials on week days were good and so we were not moving out of the house on those days. Saturday and Sunday evenings were movie days. We were going out on those days! Now, we are bored of crying serials and silly comedies. So now we are addicted to music - reality shows. Even in talent search shows, old 'sa re ga ma', anchored by Sonu Nigam was the best, till date. No dressing up by the participants, arguments by the judges, dramatisation of the show was there. The quality of the participants is good, no doubt about it. But Ganjendra Singh also had to adjust with the latest trends, I think.

Grrrrrrrrrrr, I can hear the snoring sound of you people..........let me put a stop for now!!!!!!

Like 'thinking loud', I am reading my own blog now! Funny! Is it too long? Sorry, friends!!