By Col Sudhir Rana (Retd)
I belong to a generation that was born after India got independence. I was born in the year when Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay successfully climbed the highest mountain on Earth and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II took place. It was the year when Soviet Union tested the first Hydrogen bomb and Joseph Stalin died. It was also the year when James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA. You can include my birth as another event in this calendar of significant events.
My childhood was spend in the Nehruvian socialist era, where everything was licenced from cycle to radio. India was fed cattle feed wheat of USA, children roamed half naked and only a lucky few had access to two decent meals a day. Very few citizens had cars or motor bikes and one had to wait for years to get them after booking. Kerosene lamps were used for street lights and you could watch the man with ladder and kerosene can in evening coming to light those lamps. Cinema and radio were the only means of entertainment. Occasionally mobile movie vans of the Information Department visited towns and villages for free shows. Popular sports used to be gulli danda, running after rubber tyre, kite flying, kabaddi and wrestling. Riding a bicycle of an uncle was an adventure.
We used to have writing instruments like pen made from reeds and carried ink bottles to school. We used wooden slates that were coated with ‘multani mitti’ or some such stuff and we wrote on it with the reed pen dipped in black ink. English work was done by holders with a G nib. Pens were not allowed in junior classes and middle school children often had their uniforms stained with ink smudge from leaking pens. Ball points were looked down upon and not allowed in home work or in writing examinations. The teaching standards were generally good in government schools. Examinations used to be over by April end and May-June were reserved for summer vacations. Children were not burdened with homework. The time was used for fun, frolic and visits to grandparents or relatives. There you met more cousins and had lots of fun activities, good food, storytelling and visits to temples or places like museums, zoo and planetarium, etc.
For treatment we had primary health centres and government hospitals which provided decent treatment without heavy financial burden on an average patient. You also had family doctors’ clinics for those who preferred private treatment.
There were few roads and inadequate power supply. Only a few houses used to boast of a fridge or telephone, outstation/ international calls were made from post offices and were very expensive. Letters and telegrams were common means of communication. We travelled in rickety buses or in trains with wooden benches as seats. In villages one moved on foot, bullock or camel carts and horseback. One stayed at relatives’ or friends’ places as staying in hotels was looked down upon. In any case, hotels were very few.
The ladies of the house had a very busy schedule, cooking consumed half their day, washing clothes and upkeep of house was, both, a time consuming and back breaking job. They stitched, sewed and cleaned. They had to fetch water from, wells, ponds, work on domestic chakki to grind wheat and churn curd. They had a tough life without any rest.
The only source of entertainment for them was marriage or other family functions, where they could gossip and relax a bit.
There was no shame in borrowing sugar, pickle, etc., from neighbours. As a matter of fact this was another way to socialise and sometimes to pick a quarrel too. The children could go to any neighbourhood house and were fed. Men would spend their evenings gossiping or listening to radios. The newspapers were more honest and avoided yellow journalism. If something was printed in a newspaper, it was considered to be truth.
Things were made to last a lifetime. Our parents used to purchase a cycle, ceiling fan, alarm clock or radio for a lifetime. Unlike present times, items were made to last long.
The children were raised with strict discipline and love. However they did not have liberty to be irresponsible. All uncles, aunts and even neighbours could correct you or tweak your ears. Our teachers could discipline us without the fear of a reprisal from irate parents. There was no molly coddling. As a result, small troubles never bothered us. We were made tough to face the world.
To conclude, our childhood was austere but fullfilling. We were fed, clothed, educated, toughened but not indulged. We had little but had more fun. We had siblings, cousins and friends. Overall we had a good time.
