Title - Those were the days
Author - N.S.Ravi
Genre - Non Fiction
Publications - Frog Books
ISBN - 978-93-52013-05-0
This book is surely one of its kind. Unlike other non-fiction, this book would very much appeal to you as a reader because the author has captured the real essence of our past. I was born in 1980 and hence I could relate most of the contents being mentioned in the book, if not all.
The author has literally covered all the day to day aspects which we have used and that seen a drastic change over a period of time which ranges from Buses, Rickshaws, Autos, Bicycles, Scooters, Cars, Post, Telephones, Mobiles, Teachers, Schools, Pens, Pencils, Ball Pens, Radios, Televisions, Music Systems. Calculators, Typewriters, Magazines, Comics, Novels, DL among lot of other thing.
I still remember getting my first landline connection with the recommendation letter from the then M.P. and also could recollect going to school in rickshaw. As clearly mentioned by the author, those days the name of the school did not matter much but the distance. My school was hardly few hundred metres away from my residence and we treated taking tuition as something which is meant only for average/poor students.
I could also remember getting the first mobile phone for my dad. It use to cost Rs.16 per minute for an outgoing call and Rs.8 per minute for an incoming call. It was still considered a great rate those days because it was initially pegged at Rs.64 and Rs.32 which was later brought down to Rs.32 and Rs.16 for outgoing and incoming calls. The only thing author did miss was the mention of the PAGER. I would have given it a miss as well as this technology was there only for 2 years to a greater extent before it was taken away by the mobile phones.
How I would forget mentioning about my first ever expensive pen - Parker which I bought it saving from my pocket money that was fr the frst time given to me when I went to college. It was just Rs.100 per month back then and the first ever Parker Pen I got was priced at Rs.225. I still preserve the bill and the pen till date and yes, I started collecting pens from then which has now grown to enormous and envious collection ranging from all leading brands like Parker, Sheaffer, Pierre Cardin, Mont Blanc, Tommy Hilfiger, Waterman, Lamy to name a few ranging from few hundreds to few thousands of rupees worth.
Author did mention about the guides. As a kid, we were also prescribed a book called Konar which almost had a near monopoly for Tamil Textbooks. I would say Konar, in fact had much better explanation than the real textbooks were available those days.
I was also overwhelmed about the mention of the letter in the book because as a kid, I too had lot of penpals from various countries and it was during the early 2000, I did still write letters and use to get letters from abroad literally every day. I still preserve those letters and how will I not mention about my stamp collection which started as a habit when I was 10 years old and though I did part away with huge collection when I was in late 20's, I still manage to hold a good collection.
Gone are the days when we use to watch movie only once in a day. Similarly the programs like Chitrahaar and DD news can never be forgotten, My first television was a black and white TV with doors to close and open followed by a color TV by Bharat and later on shifted to Videocon for few years and presently with Sony. I still remember renting VCP/VCR during the annual holidays as my uncle ran a video cassette hiring shop and it use to be fun.
My dad had Lambretta for few years before shifting his loyalty to Kinetic Honda which served for almost a decade before we settled with Honda Activa i. We also had a Premier Fiat which was used be elite those days.
Coming to magazines, I use to read Gokulam(English and Tamil), Champak, Chandamama, Balamitra, Ambulimama, Poonthalir
After reading the book, I realised as to how much patient we were in adopting to modern technology without having to complain about any inconveniences back in those days as we were programmed to live with it and I so wish to see the present generation to live up with the same kind of patience which would lead them to greater heights.
An awesome read. I basked on my past and would like to thank the author for helping me go past rejoicing my childhood and the beautiful memories associated with it.
I would end up saying that this book will be a great read for those who were born after 1960 but not limiting to the present generation who would surely want to take a glimpse at what exactly had happened a few decades ago making the present day, a most advanced and a sophisticated one.
The book is available on Amazon
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