Sunday, July 15, 2007

The Passerby

I generally refrain from posting about my childhood days. I have a feeling that it might make me feel bad that they’ll never return and I’ll be left brooding over how great life used to be in those days. Yet, I guess I should do this exercise sometime lest all those memories themselves sweep by with the waves of time and age. So here’s a list of some of those things from childhood that I could’ve spent a lifetime on…

My pet: My dog, Hero. We named him after Hero, the horse in the Phantom series. He was nothing short of a roaring cub when I first saw him. He stayed with us for over 10 years and was simply the best looking living being that ever walked on this planet. Ferocious like a wolf at times and as gentle as a rabbit at times, he made coming back home from school that much more special. If I made a list of all the things of my childhood that I’d want back in my life today, Hero would top the list by a mile. You had to be blind to not admire Hero!

Cricket: Galli cricket, to be precise. I used to play a lot of matches in tenth standard in flannels in lush outfields. I was reasonably good and made it to the trials of the under-16 U.P. state selection as well but my best memories of winning are from the matches we used to play in the lanes in front of our house.

Television: TaleSpin and the underdog of a pilot called Baloo, always fighting bad engines, a demanding boss and some wicked people in every episode. I used to identify with Baloo simply because Baloo’s favorite pastime when not flying would be to aimlessly laze around in his room.

Video Games: Contra, Road Fighter and the incomparable Mario, especially the latter. I might’ve become India’s answer to Albert Einstein if I’d spend those countless hours on science and research but what the heck!Getting to the princess was worth every second.

Hunger: There was something about Parle-G when I was growing up. It was a part of a daily snack routine. Once at 11 in the morning and the other pack at 5 in the evening. The other accompaniment to Parle-G used to be this particular brand of rusk biscuits called Madhurima Rusk.

Thirst: Those days, a bottle of Limca or Fanta would be consumed only on special occasions, like someone’s birthday or maybe once a week after the Sunday matches. The common favorite to beat the heat used to be something called a Chuski or the lip-smacking Kulfi.

Movies: Our acceptability of Hindi movies used to be far higher in school days. Believe it or not, watching movies like Waqt Hamara Hain, Aaj Ja Shehanshah, Fateh , Tirangaa and Tadipaar used to give us a kick.

Cycling: Racing on our cycles used to be another cracker of a pastime. The other variants of this would be slow cycling, letting go off your hands off the handles or trying to skid the back tyre of the cycle by braking suddenly and leaving a mark in the ground. The last of the lot used to be most fun!

Women: Let’s face it; impressing women had a different meaning those days. It used to mean a lot special. You also thought your chances with a particular girl were better if you got a few 3-pointers in a basketball game or scored above 30 and hit a couple of boundaries in a cricket match.

Computers: It used to be so hard to get hold of one when I was growing up. I don’t remember a single occasion when I was in a computer lab in school and I didn’t have to share a system.

Physics and Literature: An unlikely set but my favorite subjects in those days. Whitman, Tennyson, Shelley, O’ Henry, Shakespeare, Maugham, Greene used to be names that would mesmerize us. Our group was so impressed with O’Henry’s “After Twenty Years” , that we actually have a pact to meet at a particular restaurant in Ghaziabad in 2017! Newton, on the other hand seemed to have a role in every conceivable principle of Physics. It’d be rather safe, in case you were in doubt, in an exam as to why a particular force acted in a particular way to respectfully leave your answer as: “This occurs because of Newton’s law of motion.”

Sometimes when I look back at my childhood, it’s amazing how much life’s changed. Those days, one of our common grudges used to be “When’re we going to grow up?” and these days, our oft repeated grudge is “Why did we’ve to grow up?”

It’s a funny life...

15 comments:

spiderman! said...

indeed ! it is a funny life. Those were the days..really !

Anonymous said...

You are the only person I have met till now who has seen Tadipaar ... Man what was the movie about .. some princess (in India !!!) in modern day gets stalker and Mithun helps her out ... ????? :D

IssacMJ said...

@Spidey: Sigh!

@Ashok: Tadipaar was quite successful,I guess. I should've also mentioned how Mithunda used to be our original favorite in those days... :-)

Anonymous said...

Knew most of them...so I went..."oh I know this one.... Oh i know this one too;))"...but somehow ur blog isnt as charming /well planned as it used to be!

Anonymous said...

When you talked about the Talespin, I am reminded of one evil character Don Karnaas! In one of the episodes he invited his guests with a letter "you are absolutely free to come at your convienience but you must ensure it that your convenience is 7:30 sharp"
I always liked the devil gang and I used to see Hindi version and the voiceover was impeccable.

Anonymous said...

I think Jungle Book might have been left out of the list by mistake!!!

Anonymous said...

@Ashok,
Me too have seen Tadipaar.One of the best Movies from Mithun.One of the Songs of this movie remains my most fav till date: "Bikhri Zulfon ko sajaaney ki Izaazat de do..."

IssacMJ said...

@ Anon 1: I just hope what you said applies only to my blog.Or rather, I assure you... ;-)

@Anon 2: My memory doesn't serve me well on Don Karnass but couldn't agree with you more on the voiceover bit. Sher Khan, for instance was menacingly domineering!

@Anon 3: Jungle Book had too many followers. I guess I used to root for the underdog since childhood.:-)

@Anon 4 : Great! We'd a Bermudan Cricket Fan club ,some time back and now Tadipaar is the in-thing here. Is this blog turning elite or what?:-D

Anonymous said...

@issac, Anon 1 is not me.Anon2,3,4 are myself only. Don karnas was the don, lived on an island armed with the kind of ammunitions that US Forces can think of only in dream or lab.He could target the whole world very well except for inflicting injury where it should hurt most-Baloo's magical airplane.As far as I remember it was wolf king.

By the wy I guess Sher Khan was in Jungle book and not in Talespin.It was nana patekar's voice.

Anonymous said...

Bermudan cricket club was a huge hit I guess.As for Tadipaar...hmmm.If you do not remember the song type in Google- Tadippar Mithun Song... and you should be surprised we are not that elite... First result is the online song link and you can see people have requested them to upload the song!!! By the way have you seen Goondaa of Mithundaa!!!

IssacMJ said...

@Anon: Umm...Not quite.Actually Sher Khan in Jungle Book just turned out to be more popular. A description of Sher Khan in Talespin is given here. :-)

Diptakirti Chaudhuri said...

Tadipaar... if Mahesh Bhatt knew so many people have watched, loved and remembered the film, he would have probably not retired.
Pooja Bhatt and Mithun singing 'saiinya saiinya saiinya saiinya' is what I lived for...

Anonymous said...

KYA HUA KUCHH LIKH NAHIN RAHA HAI TUM! NO NEW POST!!

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Kartik Kannan said...

Loved the post Isaac... especially these lines "You also thought your chances with a particular girl were better if you got a few 3-pointers in a basketball game or scored above 30 and hit a couple of boundaries in a cricket match.
"