My Memoria Miscellany - Times have changed

This time, time off from politics and other dreary subjects. A glimpse from personal memory

My memoria miscellany

Times have changed

Amba Charan Vashishth

Times have changed. Certainly and very much.

I remember vividly when I was studying in a college, about sixty kilometres away from my town, if I had to carry with me a bedding and a tin trunk (attaché cases and modern bags had not yet arrived on the scene) and hired a coolie, it was all right. If I had only one of the two items and I had with me a coolie carrying it, my acquaintances and relatives would chide me, “What’s wrong with you, young man? Don’t you take food?” Meaning that if I was having full meals, why did I have not the energy to carry my baggage myself?

But now, if I carry a 10-kilogram load in my hands, people don’t say it in my face but pointing towards me do murder to their friends, “A silly miser, doesn’t hire a coolie or an automobile to carry this heavy weight home!”

When in school, after examination in March every year, together we all friends visited the Jawalamukhi temple during Navratras, just 11 Kilometer away or Baisakhi fair a few days afterwards celebrated at a distance of about 12 kilometers. Own vehicles or taxis were almost unknown then. We would not even board a bus. We all preferred to walk on foot – resting wherever we liked, exchanging our anecdotes, impressions of our teachers and sharing the food each of us carried with him from home at any place looked nice to us and where we could get clean, potable water.

But when I narrate these experiences to the present generation of our teens, they take it as a tale, interesting to narrate but difficult to believe. They may not say so on our face, but I am sure, they do take us as fools, who had no other source of enjoyment or entertainment, except whiling away our time like that, besides putting ourselves to tire ourselves that much.

To an extent, they are right also. There was no other source of enjoyment in those times. Radio was there, but a rare luxury only, not many could afford or thought it necessary to ‘waste’ money for it. It was not a necessity then.

For sports, we had only the native, rustic games. Of these, at present you can see only the old-timers kabaddi and gulli-dandaa, at times in the village.

Walking preferred

Those days if one had to travel a distance of 4-5 kilometers; one would prefer to walk on foot. “I would have covered more than a kilometer by the time the bus would arrive”, people would say to another if he asked him to wait for the bus expected any time. And even if the bus arrived, many would still not board it. “I would prefer to save the fare and with it drink half a kilogram of milk. That would give me strength and stamina”, he would say.

Those days’ baarats (marriage processions to the bride’s place) would only be on foot. Our beddings and bags were carried to the place on mules. We enjoyed the travel, dressed in our very best according to the standards of that time. We would rest at some places. Tea was not common then. We only had a glass of milk at some place. We reached the bride’s place fresh and cheerful, without the slightest sign of fatigue. We would stay at the bride’s place next day also – and in still earlier times, for one day more – and return the next day. It was an enjoyable experience. We would continue to recall the journey and experience for many days and months to come.

These are now just matters of memory, looking unbelievable and unrealistic in the present times.
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