Memories of Childhood – 1

Couple of months back I visited Delhi in connection with the marriage of a friend. During the functions related to the marriage I met some friends from college whom I had not seen since college ended three and half years back. That get-together got us going about various people and incidents from college, batch mates were remembered, professors were talked about and so on.

Sitting at the airport, waiting for the return flight to Mumbai, on a bone chilling Delhi morning, I was remembering all the talks and laughs of the past few days. I must have been smiling like a fool at that time because many a people looked at me with strange faces while passing by.

All this evoked a strong sense of nostalgia and sitting in the flight, waiting to reach Mumbai and get to office on time, I started thinking about my childhood. Looking out from the window it felt that all those memories were passing in front of me, riding on those white cottony clouds. My childhood was tantalisingly close to me and it looked like I would be able to touch myself, from an era gone by, I just needed to stretch my hand.

Mujhko yakeen hai sach kahti thi, jo bhi ammi kahti thi,

Jab mere bachpan ke din the, chand me pariyan rahti thi .

Today when I look back and think, it all seems to belong altogether to a different era. It feels unbelievable to me that I am come so far from all that. Running on train tracks with friends with everyone trying to outrun each other, standing on somebody’s shoulders to pluck Bel (a fruit) from the trees, standing under the Jamun tree with open hands to catch the falling Jamuns when a friend shook the branches after climbing atop the tree, running through the crop fields, bending for a second and plucking the radishes and carrots, travelling on the roof of buses, running full throttle on a railway platform to catch a moving train; plucking potatoes from fields and cooking them under wood, the list is endless. I can’t even imagine that there was a time when along with friends I used to jump on the ground from high walls whereas today I am acrophobic. Every single memory of those times evoke a strong sense of nostalgia.

Those were the days when I had to wear nickers to go to school which barely reached my knees. While growing up I used to feel shy to wear those pants in a co-ed classroom. I used to ask my mother, “In films girls always wear smaller clothes than boys then why do I need to wear smaller clothes than girls to go to school” (girls had to wear skirts which reached below their knees). And not strangely, my mother never had an answer to that question.

I have planned to write about my childhood memories in several parts, in small posts. As of now I plan to write about the TV serials of the days, movies, travels, other amenities like 2 wheelers and phones and life as a whole. I will not try to be philosophical or gyaani, will be writing just about the memories.

Those were the days of Chitrahar, Ramayan, He-man and Rangoli etc. I still remember that in those pre-cable tv days, my parents always woke me up early on Sunday mornings. Why? Rangoli was telecast at 7 am. Then there was that programme on Guru Granth Sahib teachings, Gao Saachi Baani. Then He-Man, the Master of Universe and Ramayana. If I am not mistaken and my memory serves me right, Ramayana had a re-run on Sunday evenings also. After Ramayana ended, Sunday mornings were taken up by Shyam Benegal’s Bharat Ek Khoj where Roshan Seth who played Nehru, used to come on screen and teach us about our history. Irrfan Khan and Salim Gouse are couple of actors whom I remember from the serial who played a plethora of historical characters every week, in a new story. There also was a desi science fiction series named Sigma which was telecast on Sunday evening in the late 80’s (I have been unable to find any mention of it anywhere on internet though, but have confirmed about the same with friends). Sunday afternoons had those half an hour Spic Macay classic concerts for Spirit of Unity or something like that. Then 12 pm was for Charlie Chaplin and at 1 am we were treated to a regional language film. Spiderman at 3:30 pm and Hindi films at 4 pm completed the Sunday entertainment quota. Saturday nights were for Streethawk where everything about the protagonist was black, literally, dress, bike, helmet, shoes, gloves everything. He vroomed on his bike and my child eyes used to fill up with excitement and astonishment. And how can I miss Malgudi days, tanana tananana tanana tananana, that signature tune of the serial

Mere dil ke kone me ek bachcha rahta hai,

Bado ki dekh kar duniya bada hone se darta hai.

If you are reading this you may feel that I have unnecessary stretched my reminiscences about my childhood with respect to those TV shows on Doordarshan. But please understand it is intentional. I am sure that almost all of you who are reading this and are above 25 have been entertained by these shows at one point of time or other. I have detailed those memories here because while writing about them I relived them again and it felt wonderful.

There are a number of shows which I have not talked about such as Rajani, Hum Log, Fatichar, Jasoos Karamchand, Katha Sagar, Mujrim Hazir, Mungerilal ke haseen sapne….and many more. I hope to write about them too soon, time permitting.

P.S. Nawazuddin Siddiqui, that amazing actor from Kahani, Peepli Live, Gangs of Wasseypur and Talash, was a watchman in a housing society in Shahdara in east Delhi. So the next time when you see your watchman, don’t ignore him, treat him well and remember his face. You never know when you might see him on the big screen.

Au Revoir