I am missing those good old days

I am missing those good old days

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On line purchase and home delivery is the latest fad going round but for me it is the return of the old practice with a difference and that is ordering on line. Take for example the on line grocery delivery thing like Big Basket, supply vegetables next day. During those good old days of 50s Chetri would come to our house everyday carrying fresh vegetable in his basket on his head.

Raymond advertises get your dress stitched to your measurement. Nothing new about it,those days it was one step further. Our household tailor Kaminibabu would come to the house, take our measurement, carry the cloth and finally will come back with our shirt pant stitched to our measurement. That was during our early school days. Later on I would shift my allegiance to Gunga Tailor in Shankar Market. Yes he was deaf and dumb but a first class tailor. During my IIT days tight narrow pant was in style (it is back in style now), so I will purchase pant cloth of my choice and head for Arora Tailors owned by Gunga in Shankar Market,New Delhi. We used to talk in sign language, I could explain him where I want it to be tight and which place should be loose. Two hip pockets, one inner pocket to tuck in money so that pick pockets can’t reach it. Yes for pants I would head for him and for shirt I would try in Gole Market.

Come to think of it even shoes I would get made to my choice and thus I shifted my loyalty from Bata to a cobbler in Ballimaran,Chandni Chowk. Once I had this shoe with air hole as upper got made by that cobbler. It was a hit in IIT.

Those days we would decide what we will eat, drink and which song we like unlike present days. Now there are food experts on TV advising what to eat, then there are n number of musical shows confusing people about good music. The songs played in the radio was our source and if our friend Ratan could play that song in his mouth organ then we all would start liking the song. More or less if anyone would sing any song then that was our song.I remember after I joined as Trainee in IOC,Gauhati once along with internal audit team I was heading for Cherapunji in 1966. There was this guy Kumar Choudhury in the audit team who had this battery operated tape recorder. During the journey he was playing some Hindi songs which we have never heard but I loved those songs instantly. He informed those are from yet to be released movie and he could get the songs from the music director himself. The music director was R D Burman and the film was Teesri Manzil. Yes that is how it was then, very first listening I got hooked to those songs unlike now when the producers pour their songs from every possible known sources to reach our ear drum.

Same is the story with food choice. For us during those school days if someone is giving party then it will be Chole puri in Bhagwan Das restaurant, Gole Market. Later on we graduated to Standard Coffee House in Connaught Place where we will have espresso coffee with hot dog. After joining IIT I got hooked to Moghlai Paratha, life was that simple no Tara Dalal or Jigs Kalra or Sanjeev Kapoor to guide us and no mumbo jumbo about Italian,Greek,Mexican,Lebonese etc. Straight food…dal,roti,subzi….no stomach problem…thank God I am still hooked to my old taste.

I am not guided by any of these so called experts, I choose my own without any guidance, if a dish looks complicated then I don’t try but then slowly the restaurants have stopped serving my kind of food. In Nainital this year we wanted to have chole bhature and found that those shops are selling chomein..slowly chowmein, momo  etc are replacing the typical street foods of the regions..

That is the reason why I miss those old days when decision making was simple and within the reach of common people…

More than any movie we would wait eagerly for those Ramlila days, when the Ramlila group would come in our neighbourhood..there we discovered that the role of Sita was enacted by a bidi smoking man..….our wait was not Ramlila exactly but for those plays like Sultana Daku,Puran Bhakat, Bhakt Prahlad etc which would be enacted on alternate days of Ramlila on a stage in one of the squares in Gole Market. There was entry ticket which was costing 25 paise then. It was a princely sum then but we never worried about that as our friend Subhash would produce counterfeit tickets for us. Subhash is now a part of a street play group in Delhi .

……oh those good old days!!!!