ELECTIONS '98
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Turn back the clock

Why does the past appear so enchanting to certain people and less colourful and interesting to others? Dev Anand, for instance, does not relish walking down memory lane despite the fact that all his better films belonged to the past. "The past is done, the present is going, and I am focused on the future," he told me many times.

I wondered at this attitude particularly as none of Dev Anand's current films had clicked at the box office. But it is difficult to get information from him on the shooting of Guide (one of his best films) or the musical successes of the earlier Navketan films. To some unkind critics, Dev Anand was a 'has been,' but talking to him one is quite astonished at his enthusiasm for the future. It is like talking to a small boy who is all excited about future adventures in space.

But then, Dev Anand is an exception rather than the rule. Most elderly people do like to talk about their past and compare it favourably with the present. I include film comedians in this group. Some decades back when AVM Studios released their Tamil film Vazhkai (Life), one of the major character actors K Sarangapani had the stock sentence which brought the house down. 'Anda kalathile naan college le padikarapo...' (In those days, when I was a college student...). He referred to all his wonderful achievements (real or imaginary) during his student days and the dialogue was a hit with the movie audiences.

The sentence appealed more to grown-ups. Young people are more forward looking and most of them seldom have the time or patience to listen to nostalgia talk from their parents or elders. I have seen rude college-going sons and daughters, literally asking their parents to stop blabbering when they go on and on about their past. "You are boring us. Who is interested in all this Ramayana?" they ask and the sensitive elders have to keep quiet.

This is quite uncharitable. Though I am a near-senior citizen who has reached the stage of walking down a long memory lane, I am still all ears to listen to accounts which took place when I was very young. I enjoy talking to Bombay cricket historian and writer Vasant Raiji. He can reel off anecdotes about Bradman, Hobbs, Trumper, Ranji and other greats of the game who were before my time. How can such information ever be boring? Raiji's account of the exploits of C K Nayudu at the Bombay Gymkhana during the 1930s is worth walking miles to listen.

So is the case with other seniors in their mid-seventies and above, as they describe their days in Bombay in the 1930s and 1940s. The city was clean, not crowded and so cheap to live. Senior citizens had to manage with monthly salaries of less than Rs 100. But they did have good, clean accommodation and plenty of nutritious food. Transport did not cost much and they could save enough money to send their folks back home. I would just close my eyes and visualise such a Bombay. Oh, why was I not born some 30 years earlier!

I was also an avid listener when my father narrated the experiences of his youth when he began life as a junior government employee. He earned around Rs 60 a month, but that was more than enough to run a home which consisted of a wife, a daughter and an old aunt. Some of the facts he mentioned were quite unbelievable.

A bag of rice for Rs 8, a decent home for just Rs 7 as rent, entire month's milk supply for less than Rs 10, monthly vegetable bill was never more than Rs 5... and so on. Of course, salaries were low, but were adequate to live in comfort.

Another factor which whets my appetite for nostalgia is the basic simplicity of life in the past... People were more honest. Some days back, I sat and listened for nearly three hours as 87-year-old V G Kanetkar narrated his experiences in the Indian police under the British rule. It was a fascinating account. The British were our masters, but there was hardly any discrimination among the Indian and British police or offensive remarks about the Indian leaders including Gandhiji.

I could have listened to his account for several more hours, but had other engagements. Today, we are witnessing amazing innovations in science and technology which has made our lives easier and more comfortable. But we seem to have gone backwards in certain basic principles of life -- honesty, personal courage, compassion, human understanding. I know the British were guilty of mass murder at Jallianwalla Bagh and other atrocities. But they did leave behind an enduring administrative system, incomparable railway network and the English language. Travelling down memory lane with these aged civil servants, I learnt how much discipline, honesty, fairness and non-interference in routine affairs mattered in those days.

Take any aspect of the good, old days. Watching film clips of the sporting events of the past, one is surprised at the lack of jumping around and hugging that has become the hallmark of today's sport. English off spinner Jim Laker, as he took one Australian wicket after another in his memorable 19-wicket haul during a Test match in the 1956 Ashes series, just rolled up his sleeves after every over and went on bowling. And after the match was over, left the ground within half an hour for a country match!

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