71 Glorious Years

15^th Aug 1947, A red letter day in the history of India. The day when India broke the shackles of enslavement.  The day when India became independent. 71 years have passed and in these 71 years, India has seen significant changes taking place in all spheres of life.

Radio Olive has selected such amazing things that were once the part of our lives.

• Carbon Paper – Remember Carbon copies? How our palms would turn black after using the carbon paper? We have moved from Carbon papers to Xerox machines but that black palms, black prints will always be etched in our memories.

• The Weddig Cards – How easy and economical it has become nowadays to type or download a wedding invitation? Gone are the days when we used to print glittering, colourful cards that included all the family members names, designs, some chants from the Holy books. Many of us might have saved a few copies from their wedding days as a keepsafe.

• The Mixie – We are in the blenders, juicers, Fryers era. Once we had mixies at home to be used only to grind spice paste, or to make “Idli Dosa” Batter. Mixies with strange shapes and colours.

• The HMT watch – Known as the first Timekeepers of India. HMT Wrist watches dominated the Indian market in the 70s and 80s. People wore it with pride and they had to book a model month in advance. Check with your parents. Am sure one of them would have possessed an HMT piece.

• The Godrej Almirah – Do you remember that creaky sound that tore our eardrums? The Almirahs that took the maximum space in a wedding hall filled with wedding gifts. Godrej Almirah entered the Indian market in 1923 & soon became the part of every household. Its catalogue described its features as: Thief Resistant, Vermin proof, handsome & cheap. Wooden stylish cabinets have overtaken these almirahs but these old-fashioned, noisy Almirahs were the best & safest.

• Champak Magazine – Hmmm..I miss these magazines so much. I was a regular reader of champak. With the colourful pages, cute cartoon characters, entertaining stories, puzzles and games, champak led us to a beautiful world. If you have grown up in the 80s, you would have definitely read at least one champak in your life.

• The VIP Suitcase – We have carried clothes, books, shoes, sweets, decorative pieces, files and what not in these hard suitcases. These suitcases have made our travelling lighter and our things safe. Today we carry stylish leather bags but no luggage can replace VIP Suitcase.

• Doordarshan – Doordarshan shook the country in 1975 with the unique logo and the signature tune. The logo was designed by Devashis Bhattacharya, a NID student. His design, which is a human eye and the yin and yang signs around it was selected from the 14 designs submitted to the then Prime Minister, Mrs Indira Gandhi. The tune was composed by Pt. Ravi Shankar along with Shehnai Artiste Ustad Ali Ahmad Hussain Khan.

• Ambassador Cars – A symbol of status for those who possessed this vehicle. A choice of the Government Officials, the power vehicle. Hindustan Motors started the production of Ambassador cars in 1957. The production was stopped in 2014 and Ambassador brand was sold to Peugeot in 2017.

• The inland Letters – Postman….Postman! We have waited eagerly for the postman to come with those sky-blue coloured inland letters. Our faces gleamed with happiness when an inland letter was handed to us. Communication has become so fast and fashionable. It takes only a few seconds to share an important news to the world. But the smell of those handwritten inland letters still lingers on our minds.

• Maruti 800 – The common man’s vehicle. Every middle-class family yearned to have one. Sanjay Gandhi’s dream of an economic, indigenous car was turned into reality after his demise by Mrs Indira Gandhi. The keys of the first Maruti car were handed to Mr Harpal Singh in 1983. Maruti 800 is the favourite car of the middle-class families to date.

• Single Screen Movie Tickets – Once upon a time, we only had one screen theatres, where we stood in a long queue hours before the show time. If you reached late to book the tickets, the “Housefull” board would show up. And if you wanted to watch the movie badly, tickets could be bought in black at double the original rate. Paper tickets have now become paperless tickets, the Single screen turned into multi-screen theatres but nothing can beat those pink colour cheap tickets, slightly soggy popcorn and those glamour fewer theatres.