Life in 1960s and 1970s

[hehehewalrus]

Hope some elderly forumhubbers will talk about their growing up days in the 60s and 70s :)

[nirosha sen]

Elderly?????? :evil: :twisted: :evil:

[gaddeswarup]

I too would like to hear. I remember a bit from 40s and 50's but very little from 60s and 70s. By that time, I was bitten by the mathematics bug and mainly remember mathematics books I stidied or the mathematicians I met and the papers I wrote. I vaguely remember a speech by Annadurai (62-64, Madras), D.P.Roychowdary's sculpture near the Marina beach, Kennedy's death, agitations against the imposition of Hindi mainly from Tamilnadu etc but the rest until 90's is hazy. The 40s and 50s are more vivid; Independence and the various processions and songs, seeing Nehru and JP in Andgra. people riding on train tops to attend a speech by Nehru in Guntur, start of the friction between USA and India, John Foster Dulles ("If you are not with us, you are against us"), five year plans, Bhakra Nangal, Gandhi's death, visiting Madras around 1950 and watching wrestling matches (Dara singh, King Kong,..), book shops in Mount Road, Australian cricket team with Benaud, Harvey .. playing in Madras, etc. I hope some younger people will write about 60s and 70s.
Swarup

[lordstanher]

Wow! Astonished to find this thread as I'm always int'd to know abt the 1960s & '70s myself! :D
I'm very much into the '60s & '70s for sum reason & sumtimes even wish I was living in those times! :wink: :lol:
Infact I (seriously!) sport a '70s hairstyle (w/ side-burns etc. :wink: ), often wear '70s style clothes (long collared shirts, bell-cut pants etc.!) and even like '60s cars like Standard Herald (responsible for my 'Stan her' ID :wink: ) & bikes.....
I also watch mainly '70s bollywood movies & now trying to collect 'antiques' dating from the '60s & '70s......much to my mother's discomfort! :lol: Planning to buy a 1971 HMV record player from sumone here! :D
So I'd be very keen to learn more abt these 2 decades from sum so-called elderly hubbers! :wink:
Do feel free to share ur memories/experiences......and yes, also let me know if u've ne items (viz. radios) from tat era to sell....... :wink: :D

[Nerd]

No *elderly* hubbers around huh...

common NOV, Badri, Thiru.. :lol:

[NOV]

I hope some younger people will write about 60s and 70s.Swarup

[NOV]

My perspective will be purely Malaysian, and I doubt it will hold your interest....

[NM]

Doesn't matter. NOV. We ..younger malaysians, would love to hear it from ---er malaysians... :D :D ..for eg, did you go for the bell-bottom, hippie hairstyles, etc???

I remember when I was small, mom tailor-made bell-bottoms and 'kaakka-kai' blouses for me..... :lol: :lol: :lol: that was in 70's....and i've seen photos of my cousins in weird hairstyles and moustaches.... :) :shock: of course, they don't show me those phtoos anymore and I bet their wives have not seen them too!! :lol:

Now..how did Bad thambi fit into this 60's and 70's ..?? :shock: :shock:

[NOV]

yes, bell bottoms were the order of the day. :lol:
I used to go for my classes in Form Six in purple, red, pink long pants!
Dont forget that flowered shirts were hip too!

while long hair was the the in thing, parents refused to cooperate so we had to make do with long sideburns and afro styled hair do's.
The Alleycats still havent outgrown them... :rotfl:

[hehehewalrus]

Looks like people are a bit shy to talk about those days for fear of being understood as too old.

I used to enjoy thumbing through my parents' photo albums, lot and lot of black and white photos..my father's college time pics travelling on NCC tours, some quaint old trains, lot of pictures of my mother and her friends....the natural surroundings, roads, everything looked very "uncrowded' with nobody around in sight.

Some major features of those pics:
1. Almost every male had a moustache

2. The only type of specs was the black rimmed thick specs - Ladies always had Oval specs

3. Ladies were mostly in sleeveless blouses. There is an English friend of my mum standing in front of her London home in a sleeveless blouse and saree!

4. Nobody ever smiled in any photograph whether it is posing or getting a prize

5. The sad part is that even as late as late 70s and early 80s, they used to leave long hair on little boys and comb them into 2 plaits. I was a victim of that though I would be merrily grinning in the photo :(

6. There used to be an aluminium box which was the most common school bag used by guys.

7. The best things are the letters and greeting cards to your parents from their friends - They would be well scripted with beautiful running handwriting, mostly English and some few paragraphs of Tamil...I still mention them to my parents' friends and they would immediately take a fond trip of nostalgia.....

[Shekhar]

70s bring back school days nostalgia. That childhood was very very different from childhood of today.
We had no TV. Even radios were luxury. Even we hardly listened to it simply because we were never allowed by our parents to touch it.
But we had great after school evenings, playing games which todays children do not even know.
I had no comics, no chocolcates, no icecreams, no coke and pepsi!!! An obese child was rarest of rarities unlike today.
We were afraid of our parents terribly. I never stood before my father. Teachers used to cane us, but they always taught us great values. They had great passion for teaching and took enormous pride in being teachers. Unfortunately today, the teaching is also an other job, nothing more.
I could go on and on ....

[Sanguine Sridhar]

Scoring 60% was huge thing at that time right? But now-a days 90% is not enough :shock:

[Shekhar]

Oh yea!! A first class ie., 60% was exceptional . Not even 5% of the students would be in that bracket. Infact I was a gold medalist in preuniversity course (= 12th std), and I had scored 72% !!! To day I wouldn't even get an admission to a decent degree college!!

[Sanguine Sridhar]

How do u rate Shekar..Quality of students has increased or Quality of Syllabus has decresed?

[tvsankar]

Beckam,
Rendum illai. Ippo syllabus insist panranga.As it is a write panninal marks podaranga.Marks la liberalaisation vandhu iruku.For name sake .
Population adhigam agi iruku.Adhanal Govt kashta padaradhu.Samalika mudiyalai.
Miga neenda early days patri en amma solli kettu irukaen.Appo ellam rice kae kashtam market lae.AFter our freedom i think.
Appo job opportunity um miga miga kuraivu.
Andha madhiri ippo Govt kashta padaradhu job opportunity lae. I think.
With Love,
Usha Sankar.

[S.Balaji]

Hello friends,

During those days, getting into a college or a school was not that difficult compared to what we are undergoing today. The reason is - POPULATION .
As Sekar pointed out , 60% was a big thing those days. I agree with Beckham as well - even 90 % is enough .

I also faced tough challenge when I completed my Plus 2 in P.S.High School in 1982 and was running around with all the colleges - Viveka / Jains / Loyola - ultimately settled down with Viveka - B.com

Thanks a lot - Walrus , for opening another interesting thread.

Keep it up mate !!

Soon I will share my yester years.

[Sanguine Sridhar]

I wonder about parents now-a days... I have seen some parents were very much happy by seeing their kids singing songs/serial ads/telling serial names.I wont say anything wrong in it.Fresh brains are wasted in these kind of ugly stuffs...My cousin's daughter was saying all the serial names with the correct time slot...i swear shez just 3 yrs old...Shez singing all songs ..right from randakka randakka (which is normal) to Unakana irrupeyen (quite abnormal for a 3 yr kid)...And one of my relative amazed that his son is always before computer...(His age is 2) ...i asked him...what he is doing..."Well he is playing games..right from morning till evening 7..." You know with lot of pride he says "His fav game is Blood Strain"...So today parents (Yesteryear kids) are not also good..infact they are very much careless

[S.Balaji]

Beckham,

Today's parents have fresh challenges - to make both ends meet, both hubby and wife have to work - obviously for better saving and living conditions but their main focus will be how to address their children's future.
What you had highlighted about your relative may be one or two odd ones

Men of yesteryears had few problems. Thats why you would have seen in a family - minimum of 4 or 5 . Besides 2 or 3 might have left for heaven also !! for want of proper medication .
With a small salary, they could manage their bottomline well.

Today' everything has changed- I mean the living style. What were considered as luxury has become a necessity now.
I mean- AC , fridge , grinder , Car etc etc were big things those 60s and 70s but now have become a household items.

[Sanguine Sridhar]

Hmm Balaji i don want to argue, its not a rare case but it happens all over tamil nadu.

[S.Balaji]

Beckham]

yes yes, you are right. I am equating Mumbai life with TN.

Here in Mumbai ,the younger lot are playful , spend heavily on pocket money but realise their goals and are career oriented .

But I must admit, the guys here in Mumbai enjoy their life in toto.

[lordstanher]

Some major features of those pics:
1. Almost every male had a moustache

I thot tat was mainly in the South.......it is even today! :lol:
And yes, needless to say almost every male had thick pair of sideburns, of varying lengths- depending on the choice of the guy!



2. The only type of specs was the black rimmed thick specs - Ladies always had Oval specs

Yep, my mom had those kind of specs- black oval framed- for years! Until like 15 yrs ago! :D


3. Ladies were mostly in sleeveless blouses.

Hmm........well, my mom tells me tat was the trend mostly in the north......she said they were rather conservative abt those here in the South (except maybe for the higher class women).......funny thing is they still r conservative abt sleeveless blouses in the south even today altho they don't mind the low-cut/low-back ones tat r popular today among all classes.......!
My mom also told me there were these "boat-cut" blouses in the '70s.....not exactly low-cut but cut like a boat at the top.......very popular esp. in early '70s movies......
Btw, how come u missed out the large-ish gold earrings tat ladies used to wear in those days?? :wink:
Not to mention the large 'nest-like' buns they made from their hair (again mostly the high-class ladies) & also fancy Sarees w/ large, flower patterns (sumtimes even gaudy) on them! :D


5. The sad part is that even as late as late 70s and early 80s, they used to leave long hair on little boys and comb them into 2 plaits. I was a victim of that though I would be merrily grinning in the photo :(

I had them too when I was 2-2.5 yrs old! :twisted:
So one day when my sis took me to her school (a girls' one), her classmates/friends admired her "sister" all day.......she was really exasperated convincing everyone at the end of the day tat I was her brother! :lol:


6. There used to be an aluminium box which was the most common school bag used by guys.

And I thot girls as well.....? I rem. a few students still using these boxes even around 1987, in my early days of school (UKG/1st standard).......they were subsequently banned in our school a few years later.......prob. bcos they can be really noisy & thus cause disturbance.....?

[hehehewalrus]

Stanher,
For "Certain" things, you have very sharp observation powers which are beyond the scope of lesser mortals ;) :lol:



Btw, how come u missed out the large-ish gold earrings tat ladies used to wear in those days?? :wink:

it is still prevailing in good old kerala.



they were subsequently banned in our school a few years later.......prob. bcos they can be really noisy & thus cause disturbance.....

I remember my bro having one in my kindergarten days...we used to play in school keeping all our bags in the school temple and would come running to pick our bags and take the last bus which stops just for 2-3 minutes. The bus driver and conductor were both rude guys. Once we came running and top speed, got the bags and were sprinting to the bus, when my bro's box fell open and all the books spilled out..somehow the driver stopped and gave us a scolding for that :(

[S.Balaji]

Hello Walrus,

Seems you are a pucca - AUTOGRAPH guy !!!.

Gnabagam Varudhey , Gnabagam Varudhey !!!!!!!!!

I am just going to observe what others are posting in this forum.

Great postings are already being seen here.

All the best guys

[ssanjinika]

Stanher,
For "Certain" things, you have very sharp observation powers which are beyond the scope of lesser mortals ;) :lol:



Btw, how come u missed out the large-ish gold earrings tat ladies used to wear in those days?? :wink:

it is still prevailing in good old kerala.

Both you guys need an update on todays fashion...Large gold earings are back in fashion..check out the various ads out for the innumerable jewllery stores in TN.

[ssanjinika]

The things I remember about the early 80s(was too lil to remember any of the 70s :) ) are 2 plaits,aluminium boxes,color TV-had a black and white for a long time and I can still remember the exitement of getting our first color tv.
Mudal mudal-a theater-la partha thamiz padam (my dear kuttychatan). :D

[S.Balaji]

My School days , late 70s, I think Doorshan came to Chennai in 1975 Pongal time I think. We all saw Chepauk test where Vishy scored 97 not out.

We recollect , Vayalum Vaazvum programme which used to appear almost every day at 7 pm .
The title music for Vayalum Vaazvum was composed by our IR only which he used it in Naanay naanaa yaro thana - Azagay unnai aaraadhikiren movie !!

Two big brands - EC tv and Vijay TV . There was also Dyanora TV. I wonder whether they exist now !!

For Oliyum Oliyum , there will be a mad rush .

Again in Munottam , we used to anxiously wait for the movie for the next movie but most of the times, the Host will disappoint us !!
Finally we will come to know on Saturday morning through Dinathanthi and mostly it will be a DUBBA movie !!! dull and boring one.

[Thiru]

No *elderly* hubbers around huh...

common NOV, Badri, Thiru.. :lol:

60s-70s ?? I didnt even know to count 60 or 70 till the 80's.. :)

[hehehewalrus]

Mudal mudal-a theater-la partha thamiz padam (my dear kuttychatan). :D

I remember this one. My parents didnt allow my siblings to go to the theater though it was a class trip with teachers.

One of my friends told me it was a Pei Padam and scared me.



Two big brands - EC tv and Vijay TV . There was also Dyanora TV. I wonder whether they exist now !!
Some brands I remember are Keltron, Uptron, Dyanora, Solidaire, Onida, ECTV, BPL, Crown, Konark, Tesla, Weston, Telerama, Nelco, Optonica, Sony Orson.

Dyanora is now Thomson. I think Solidaire is Sharpe. The Solidaire showrooms are major sources of getting cricket match updates while shopping.

[Thiru]

anyone remember the Cat 1000 ad??

[Thiru]

h3w, add Sears elcot to your list.. That TV was the best TV in my opinion.. We got it in 1982 or something like that it was working fine till 2004, without changing the picture tube once.. The only thing we had to change was the channel knob or we had to use a cutting-plier..

[tvsankar]

The only thing we had to change was the channel knob or we had to use a cutting-plier..
True!!!!! :lol:
upto 92, we used the tv in that manner!!!!
later 70s dhan ennoda school days!!
Book readings!!!
ennudiaya school days nalae niraiya books padichadhu dhan ninaivu varudhu.
"Muthu Comics" and "Vedhalam"

Muthu comics - naan irundhadhu andha time elllam village a irundhalum, thurs day anniki muthu comics correcta vandhudum.
some of the stories in my mind
Story Hero
Manjal nadhi marmam Laurance and David
the story about the river themes i think.
Jony in London
Jony in Bairut
then, Bhagyam Ramasami stores about Appu thatha and Seetha paati.
Appusamai yum africa azhagium - nalla comedy story

friends,. ungaloda icon la irukum location la irukum country ai pakkum podhu en ninaivul varuvadhu naan paditha indha storyil vandha country dhan!!! :lol:
Balaji, Uganda nu patha udan en ninaivul vandha indha appusamwiayum africa azagium dhan :lol: indha stroy padicha appuram dhan Africa lessonae padichaen .Ana asaiya because of the story :lol:
Usha SAnkar.

[Sanguine Sridhar]

TV.. We had dyanora :D before 15 yrs..You know there will be a knob kind of thing to change the channels(arnd 6 channels)..Within 3 yrs or so knob came out..as Thiru said we used cutting-plier :lol: ..We even watched Vayalum Vaazhvum at that time... :lol: :lol: ..But there was heavy craze for Oliyum Oliyum and Sunday evening cinema.After that our Dyanora tv got worst..when we switched on lot of waves came initially..and then it changed to quite dark pictures :lol: My dad got vexed and he bought BPL Colour TV..to be fair its working perfectly even now :D :D ... Everybody in our street came and watched our new tv.. :shock: :D .....

[hehehewalrus]

Looks like Dyano(sau)ra has captured the market hands down :clap:

Enga veetlayum it was Dyanora CT 212 model(1986). Romba kashta pattu kenji koothaadi vanga vechadhu after the higher sec exams of all my siblings got over :)

It had 12 channels which were light to touch and were in the form of thin strips and a little door for tuning it. Later on I used to feel lazy and forcefully throw a paper ball on the channel panel to change.

Another thing you all have forgotten - GREAT HEADACHE - manually turning the antenna to catch the signal. One person will shout from the terrace and another will stand down and see the improvement in picture quality through the window.

After the picture tube went after 11 years, we used to watch in black and white for a month as the screen was full of random colors.

My first memory is the whole neighborhood gathering to watch UGC(this is mid eighties) as if it is some superhit MGR Padam.

[Sanguine Sridhar]

Antenna :)) exactly my dad was expert in changing the directions of the antenna..talking about the magazines...I luv to read "Poonthalir" I dunno whether it still coming or not :D ..Gokulam was my yet another fav.

[hehehewalrus]

Poonthalir was a SHAMEFUL copy of Tinkle. I bet they never took permission to create Vettaikaaran Vembu, Suppandi, etc :(

[S.Balaji]

We saw more of Bicycles and Fiats and Ambassadors !!!

Fiat was once a status symbol !!!

Baby Austin was also there !!

We used to have ice creams in cups and Kucchiiii !!

until Aavin entered and we started getting Kone icecreams and hot milk

In Mylapore in the late 70s - Bombay Halwa house was opened and we started getting Mumbai type food . Before that only - Idlis / Bondas / vadas etc etc from Shanti Vihar - Mylapore !!

In movies you can see the Hero and the Villian in big Girudhaas !!!

The Bellbottom was the most influential one in the late 70s. One should see Thengai Seenivasan in that Rajini movie where he played a villian !! . Kamal used to have big bell bottom pants with big belts !!! in Aadu puli aatam and Sattam en kayil

We had single channel only earlier and when the doorshan moved to multi channel we found it very difficult to modify our TV . It was EC tv.

The memories goes onnnnnnnnnnnnn

[S.Balaji]

Antenna :)) exactly my dad was expert in changing the directions of the antenna..talking about the magazines...I luv to read "Poonthalir" I dunno whether it still coming or not :D ..Gokulam was my yet another fav.

Dear Beckham,

When you mentioned about Gokulam, I recollected about :

1. Ambuli mama
2. Muthu comics
3. Mandrake and Lothar
4. Phantom stories ( ohhh I am in Africa now and cannot see him !!! )

In All India Radio - Mr. Koothabiran was there telling short stories for Children

[S.Balaji]

Looks like Dyano(sau)ra has captured the market hands down :clap:

Enga veetlayum it was Dyanora CT 212 model(1986). Romba kashta pattu kenji koothaadi vanga vechadhu after the higher sec exams of all my siblings got over :)

It had 12 channels which were light to touch and were in the form of thin strips and a little door for tuning it. Later on I used to feel lazy and forcefully throw a paper ball on the channel panel to change.

Another thing you all have forgotten - GREAT HEADACHE - manually turning the antenna to catch the signal. One person will shout from the terrace and another will stand down and see the improvement in picture quality through the window.

After the picture tube went after 11 years, we used to watch in black and white for a month as the screen was full of random colors.

My first memory is the whole neighborhood gathering to watch UGC(this is mid eighties) as if it is some superhit MGR Padam.


Hey Walrus,

I am not able to control my laughter . You have high sense of humour. Yes we also had the fun of somebody shouting from top of the house enquiring - Enna picture therigiradhaa !!

In the early 80s, we were getting a bit of Rupavahini , the Srilankan tamil channel and believe me if our TV had vai, it would have cried !!!. The kind of trigerring we had with our TV would have made the Manufacturer shed tears.
The funiest part was - all the ads will come well and once the film starts, it will be chaos and rain rain only !!

[S.Balaji]

Walrus,

One can never forget - THANDANGALLUKKU VARUNDHUGIROM in Doordharshan . There will be a standard slide which will appear and at times, I have seen the fingers of the guy who was holding that slide !!

Also , Vayalum Vaazvum

[hehehewalrus]

S.Balaji and friends,
Have you all forgotten the "Sorry for the break" message on Doordarshan which has the cartoon of a mouse biting the wire? :lol:

[S.Balaji]

S.Balaji and friends,
Have you all forgotten the "Sorry for the break" message on Doordarshan which has the cartoon of a mouse biting the wire? :lol:

Walrus,

Yes yes , of course, besides that cartoon, there will be another message - MIN THANDAGALUKKU VARUNDHUGIROM - Here some lady will be with petromax light !! :lol:

In doordharshan we had :

1. Kanmani poonga
2. Oliyum oliyum
3. Vayalum vaazvum
4. Ethirolee
5. Munottam - I can never forgive that host who will never let us know the picture for the next Sunday until the last moment. Probably he himself did not have that info !!!!

[rajes002]

Life in the 70s growing up in Chennai..... somethings that flash across are:

Red color Pallavan buses.... buses lining Parry's corner.... Route 18 to Saidapet - the one with the highest frequency..... Route 9,10 to T Nagar, Route 11, 11A to TNagar, Route 11E and 11D to KK Nagar.... Route 8 and 8B to Perambur from Parrys corner.

Moore market.... for trinkets... for used books especially.... so many shops... Madras Zoo which used to be close to this place....

Flashy looking Tiruvalluvar buses from Esplanade bus stand... Anna transport corporation buses from esplanade....

Clothes: Synthetic clothes - esp. Terry Cotton very popular.... Cotton clothes had to be washed and allowed to shrink before tailoring! Bell Bottoms.... with large rounded collars on shirts..... Hawai slippers for casual and "Jubilee" slippers from Bata for special occasions... shoes: North Star from Bata.....

Exhibitions at Island grounds....

Doordarshan Chennai: Kanmani Poonga, Wonder Baloon from bombay, Wonder Lamp from Chennai, Vayalum Vazhvum, Mudiyor Kalvi with Ma. Nannan, Munnotam for previews, Tuesdays 7:30 PM for tamil drama, Fridays for Oliyum Oliyum, Sunday evenings for Tamil movie, Saturday evenings for HIndi movies, What is the good word from Bombay hosted by Sabira Merchant, 'Goodies' show on Fridays, 'Here is Lucy' and 'I love Lucy', Shobana Ravi for tamil news, Shashi Menon and Ramakrishnan for English news.... DD address was "Adams Road"...

Relatively empty suburban metre guage EMUs....

Pongal time - Cricket matches in Chepauk....

Cricket matches followed with great interest on radios/transistors.... and many people moving around like zombies with transistors fixed to their ears and incessant request from neighbors for the score..... Gavaskar, Vishvanath.... ruling the roost... Kim Hughes et al from Australia.... in '78 or so...

Landmarks: LIC - landmark in Chennai and invariantly featured in all tamil movies when some country bumpkin visits Chennai and gawks with open mouth at the sight of the 14 storey building.... also remember the fire accident at LIC that occured sometime in late 70's that turned many glass panes dark. Also remember the fire at Spencer's plaza..... Anna flyover.... Parson complex being put up after razing Gemini studios. Movies showing the Kannagi statue and the statue of the laborers at the Marina beach front... Marina beach, Elliots Beach....

Movies: Aging Sivaji with a huge paunch.... trying to pass of a college going teenager..... Ilayaraja ruling the roost in the late 70's. Safire, Emerald, Blue Diamond, Sathyam, Santham, Santhi, Alankar, Anand, Little Anand, Pilot, Casino, Midland, Krishnaveni (T Nagar), now what was the one next to Casino... forgot that one....... and ones that was close to my house were Broadway, Odeon... they were popular once upon a time.... also Rajkumari in TNagar... and Sun theater (hope I got it right).... close to the Anna Flyover... before they were torn down... also Washington theater in Mount Road (hope I got that right)

Politics: MGR changing the political landscape with his charisma.... Indira Gandhi with her emergency measures being humiliated... followed by the tamasha of the Janata party expt..... Congress (I) with the cow and calf symbol at the elections - instead of the hand symbol which was used later. Political meetings that used to go till late in the evenings at street corners... Karunanidhi and his gang.... being humiliated at the hustings in the late 70's.... and kids singing... "kattu kattu kambarakattu.... karunanidhiye olichi kattu".... MGR songs blaring from street corners.....

All these 30 years back!! But the most memorable was a childhood without any TV or video games.... a footloose and fancy free childhood filled up a lot of physical activity.... cricket, kings, marbles, tops, badminton alongwith indoor games... cards, trade, chess, luddo, snake and ladders.... so many arguments - careless banter with friends while sitting on the parapet walls on the streets... and friendly cricket matches at nearby cricket grounds with neighborhood teams. Not much peer pressure to score high marks etc.... eagerly looking forward to holidays.... so that we could visit native place and interact with extended family.... cousins, second cousins... third cousins... et al :-)

[S.Balaji]

then, Bhagyam Ramasami stores about Appu thatha and Seetha paati.
Appusamai yum africa azhagium - nalla comedy story

friends,. ungaloda icon la irukum location la irukum country ai pakkum podhu en ninaivul varuvadhu naan paditha indha storyil vandha country dhan!!! :lol:
Balaji, Uganda nu patha udan en ninaivul vandha indha appusamwiayum africa azagium dhan :lol: indha stroy padicha appuram dhan Africa lessonae padichaen .Ana asaiya because of the story :lol:
Usha SAnkar.

Dear Ushajii,

Believe me , when I PROUDLY announced my sojourn to Uganda all my relatives were just referring to - APPUSAMYUM AFRICA AZAGIUM
dhan !!!. Great pick.
The kind of sense of humour Appuswamy thatha and Seetha paati had ( courtesy Bagyam Ramaswamy ) , it was hilarious comedy.

I have also read :

1. Appuswamy in Aljumain - especially the Sheikh and the Jabbar Character !! Hilarious. Ribs will pain
2. Manavar thalaivar Appuswamy

[S.Balaji]

Coming back to Ambulimama, I believe that Vikramadityan is still not out of the clutches of that Vethalam !!

[S.Balaji]

Life in the 70s growing up in Chennai..... somethings that flash across are:

Red color Pallavan buses.... buses lining Parry's corner.... Route 18 to Saidapet - the one with the highest frequency..... Route 9,10 to T Nagar, Route 11, 11A to TNagar, Route 11E and 11D to KK Nagar.... Route 8 and 8B to Perambur from Parrys corner.

Moore market.... for trinkets... for used books especially.... so many shops... Madras Zoo which used to be close to this place....

Flashy looking Tiruvalluvar buses from Esplanade bus stand... Anna transport corporation buses from esplanade....

Clothes: Synthetic clothes - esp. Terry Cotton very popular.... Cotton clothes had to be washed and allowed to shrink before tailoring! Bell Bottoms.... with large rounded collars on shirts..... Hawai slippers for casual and "Jubilee" slippers from Bata for special occasions... shoes: North Star from Bata.....

Exhibitions at Island grounds....

Doordarshan Chennai: Kanmani Poonga, Wonder Baloon from bombay, Wonder Lamp from Chennai, Vayalum Vazhvum, Mudiyor Kalvi with Ma. Nannan, Munnotam for previews, Tuesdays 7:30 PM for tamil drama, Fridays for Oliyum Oliyum, Sunday evenings for Tamil movie, Saturday evenings for HIndi movies, What is the good word from Bombay hosted by Sabira Merchant, 'Goodies' show on Fridays, 'Here is Lucy' and 'I love Lucy', Shobana Ravi for tamil news, Shashi Menon and Ramakrishnan for English news.... DD address was "Adams Road"...

Relatively empty suburban metre guage EMUs....

Pongal time - Cricket matches in Chepauk....

Cricket matches followed with great interest on radios/transistors.... and many people moving around like zombies with transistors fixed to their ears and incessant request from neighbors for the score..... Gavaskar, Vishvanath.... ruling the roost... Kim Hughes et al from Australia.... in '78 or so...

Landmarks: LIC - landmark in Chennai and invariantly featured in all tamil movies when some country bumpkin visits Chennai and gawks with open mouth at the sight of the 14 storey building.... also remember the fire accident at LIC that occured sometime in late 70's that turned many glass panes dark. Also remember the fire at Spencer's plaza..... Anna flyover.... Parson complex being put up after razing Gemini studios. Movies showing the Kannagi statue and the statue of the laborers at the Marina beach front... Marina beach, Elliots Beach....

Movies: Aging Sivaji with a huge paunch.... trying to pass of a college going teenager..... Ilayaraja ruling the roost in the late 70's. Safire, Emerald, Blue Diamond, Sathyam, Santham, Santhi, Alankar, Anand, Little Anand, Pilot, Casino, Midland, Krishnaveni (T Nagar), now what was the one next to Casino... forgot that one....... and ones that was close to my house were Broadway, Odeon... they were popular once upon a time.... also Rajkumari in TNagar... and Sun theater (hope I got it right).... close to the Anna Flyover... before they were torn down... also Washington theater in Mount Road (hope I got that right)

Politics: MGR changing the political landscape with his charisma.... Indira Gandhi with her emergency measures being humiliated... followed by the tamasha of the Janata party expt..... Congress (I) with the cow and calf symbol at the elections - instead of the hand symbol which was used later. Political meetings that used to go till late in the evenings at street corners... Karunanidhi and his gang.... being humiliated at the hustings in the late 70's.... and kids singing... "kattu kattu kambarakattu.... karunanidhiye olichi kattu".... MGR songs blaring from street corners.....

All these 30 years back!! But the most memorable was a childhood without any TV or video games.... a footloose and fancy free childhood filled up a lot of physical activity.... cricket, kings, marbles, tops, badminton alongwith indoor games... cards, trade, chess, luddo, snake and ladders.... so many arguments - careless banter with friends while sitting on the parapet walls on the streets... and friendly cricket matches at nearby cricket grounds with neighborhood teams. Not much peer pressure to score high marks etc.... eagerly looking forward to holidays.... so that we could visit native place and interact with extended family.... cousins, second cousins... third cousins... et al :-)


Dear Raj,

Great posting. Excellent. You have written everything giving no scope for us !!! especially you mentioned about Nannan !!

Great posting. You have taken me back by 30 years. You had touched all topics including Emergency.

What about our DINATHANTHI ?? Is it in the same form :

1. Karuthu padam in first page. Especially during Deepavali -

Evar than nadigai Padmapriya. Evar Mathaapo koluthugirar !!

and during Pongal - there will be a cartoon showing - Suriyan smiling wryly

2. Chanakiyan sol

3. Aandi pandaram paadugirar - He will sing the latest hit

4. the one and only Sindhubadh . I think its still not over

5. News items like - if there is a special function programme or function, there will be a big list mentioned on the names of Directors/actors / actresses etc etc

I miss them .

[S.Balaji]

Besides, in Dinathanthi, there will be a joke in the first page but we will have to make all out efforts to laugh and find some humour in it. There will be cash prize of Rs. 5 also I think

[tvsankar]

About the games.
Goli gundu my favourite game.Adhil two types of games irukum. Thothu ponavanga kai viralgalai madaki, mannil rub panni game point ku varanam.Kai ellam valikum.Kodumaiyana punishment!!! :lol:


Hide and Seek = sandhoshanama game inru varai!!!!
Especially veedu perusa irundhu vilaiyadinal romba nalla irukum.Niriaya per irukum podhu innum super!!!
Sometime nanga koviluku povom .Enga kovil romba periya kovil.So kovilil hide and seek vilaiyaduvom.Romba thrillinga irukum. Kovil irutil nalla irukum.

Cricket - Yes. Next townuku poi cricket vilaiyadi match la win agi oh periya expereince , En brothers kittae pathu irukaen.

Avanga chinna age groupa irukum podhu, next town pasanga periya set avanga kuda vilaiyadi , mattindu ,bayandhu !!! oh great expereinces!!!!

With Love,
Usha Sankar.

[j.chenkalvarayan]

naan solren antha goli aatam peyar ennanu.

onnu raja tony.kuzhi vetti athukulla koliya pota raja .yaar kittayavathu adi vaangeena tony. correcta.

innoru aatum neenga enna peyar soluvenganu theriyula. naan 'benda-broot'nu solluven.

some of my childhood friends were from a slum very near to where i was living. i'm very grateful to them ,made me bold enough to take on this unforgiving ruthless world .

[S.Balaji]

Hello Ushajii,

When you mentioned about Kovil, I fondly recollect my Kovil days. In Mylapore - Madhava perumal koil and Kapaleeswarar kovil besides Mundakakanniamman koil .
Always crowded giving a festive look.

Our Street Cricket is by the side of Madhavaperumal kovil only and one of our team mates father was the Kovil Bhattachariar !!.
So we had all the influence there and will get Sundal and Pongal besides Thayir saadham regularly . Especially Margazi maadham.
When I touch maargazi maadham, I recollect big big kolams in all colours . Women of yesteryears beautifully dressed up getting up early in the morning and proudly putting their lengthy kolams. Do they exist now ??
Coming back to Perumal koil, at times there will be pallaku sevai inside the temple and we used to lift the swami's pallakku proudly .
Our temple did not have enough water earlier but thanks to the efforts of the trustees , drilling was done and we could see water now.
I went to the same temple 6 months back with all of my old friends and lot of things have changed. This time, our own friend is the temple Bhattachari and he gave us all prasadhams.

On Kapaaleeswarar temple , I can write a big story.

[S.Balaji]

naan solren antha goli aatam peyar ennanu.

onnu raja tony.kuzhi vetti athukulla koliya pota raja .yaar kittayavathu adi vaangeena tony. correcta.

innoru aatum neenga enna peyar soluvenganu theriyula. naan 'benda-broot'nu solluven.

some of my childhood friends were from a slum very near to where i was living. i'm very grateful to them ,made me bold enough to take on this unforgiving ruthless world .

Hello Chenkalvarayan,

Yes , it was raja tony only.

You also must have played Gilli and also Bambaram !!!
We had to play both in the middle of our road where there was heavy traffic always. Our mother used to scream at us to be careful.

Great days

[j.chenkalvarayan]

yes mr balaji gilli ,bambaram, kaathadi(pattum), maanja ithellam ennaku kai vantha kalai.

but i don't belong to that era. i'm just 22. surprising isn't it,the game still goes by the same name.

[tvsankar]

Deaar Chenkalvarayan,
Thanks .That is the name for the game.Yes. Life la namakku ippo edhavadhu dhariyam iruku na. reason indha madhiri games elam image and ego illamal vilaiyadi. tholviyai accept panninadhu dhan!!!!
Balaji,
About Kovil and Kolam.Amam.Enaku therindha oru mami kovil perusuku kolam poduvanga.
Indha margazhi ,masam - bhajan - idhil dhan Thiruvasaganum paasuramum introduce achu andha chinna age il.
With Love,
Usha Sankar.

[S.Balaji]

[tscii:8d22886aa1]Dear Friends,

Those days, all festivals like - Deepavali / pongal / navarathri were all celebrated with joy and happiness.Those days the families were huge and with branches extended , all our dear ones, brothers, cousin brothers , cousin sisters, Father’s and Mother’s brothers and sisters besides our family friends.
Deepavali was a great occasion for us. One week before Deepavali, our father used to take us to Mt. Road, where there was a big Standard fire works show room and buy all kinds of crackers . We almost would have exhausted before the d-day and plead to our father to buy some more. Gracefully, he used to get further crackers for us.
We will wake up early in the morning at 3 Am when our Periappa’s house ( it was a joint family ) will be flooded with relatives and our Periamma used to apply Nalla ennai and put some seeyakkai podi also . After the quick bath, again our periappa and periamma jointly will give us the Deepavali dresses and sweets . Not to forget that MARUNDHU also.

Alas , I don’t see those joyful days now. Now all celebrations have become commercial and mechanical. Small family , small get together, living in a different world,
All the senior members of the family faded away gradually as life moves to a new horizon.

Navarathri was all joy and pleasure. Going along with mother and cousins to various houses and seeing new dolls and having SUNDALS every day was great fun.

Pongal - great occasion, we will be going to Island grounds for exhibition – sutrulaa varthaga porutkatchee. All missing


[/tscii:8d22886aa1]

[S.Balaji]

yes mr balaji gilli ,bambaram, kaathadi(pattum), maanja ithellam ennaku kai vantha kalai.

but i don't belong to that era. i'm just 22. surprising isn't it,the game still goes by the same name.

Dear Chenkavarayan,

Where are you in NI ?? .

[Thiru]

revisiting the 80s, h3w do you remember the lineup of Doordarshan serials??

Monday- ??
Tuesday - Nukkad & humlog
Wednesday - Chitrahar
thursday - Amol palekar's Ghar baahar
Friday - Yeh so hai Zindagi
Saturday - Chunauti

There were 4 standard people reading news in Tamil... H. Ramakrishnan, Varadharajan, Shobana Ravi and Senthamizh Arasu.. Later come the others like nirmala suresh, Balasubramaniam, lokeshwari etc..
In English it was Minu, Gitanjali Iyer, Pankaj menon & a singh (forgot his name)..

[S.Balaji]

revisiting the 80s, h3w do you remember the lineup of Doordarshan serials??

Monday- ??
Tuesday - Nukkad & humlog
Wednesday - Chitrahar
thursday - Amol palekar's Ghar baahar
Friday - Yeh so hai Zindagi
Saturday - Chunauti

There were 4 standard people reading news in Tamil... H. Ramakrishnan, Varadharajan, Shobana Ravi and Senthamizh Arasu.. Later come the others like nirmala suresh, Balasubramaniam, lokeshwari etc..
In English it was Minu, Gitanjali Iyer, Pankaj menon & a singh (forgot his name)..

Hello Thiru,

Dont forget - Thamizanban !! tamil news and pattimandram ( i met him in one hotel 6 months back and he has not changed much !!

What about FATHIMA BABUUUUUU !!! She is still around !!

In Jaya TV news , I could still hear the voice of SAROJ NARAYANSWAMY !!! some time back.

In network , I vaguely remember - Intizaar ( some serial - same Nukkad group in a railway station ?? )

[S.Balaji]

Hello Thiru,

I also vaguely remember some serial - Circus or something WHERE SHAHRUKH KHAN WILL BE SON OF THE OWNER OF THE CIRCUS AND STORY GOES ETC ETC. I could see the entire Nukkad group here also.

Can you pl get the name of that serial ??

[Thiru]

balaji,
Thanks for bringing up Thamizhanban... Fathima babu was a late entry (I guess in the 90s) to Doordarshan... I'm sure h3w will solve our question on the TV serial

[ssanjinika]

The serial name is Circus only Balaji.
It stared Shah Rukh and Renuka Shahane in lead roles .Also had Ashutosh Gowriakar
Shah Rukh also acted in another serial called Fauji..though I havent seen any episodes of that.

[S.Balaji]

The serial name is Circus only Balaji.
It stared Shah Rukh and Renuka Shahane in lead roles .Also had Ashutosh Gowriakar
Shah Rukh also acted in another serial called Fauji..though I havent seen any episodes of that.

Yes yes yes, its Circus only. THanks for that .

Yes, fauji was a serial related to war front and SHK will play a soldier .

[ssanjinika]

Ahh...those uncomplicated days....
Days of playing Monkey and Country...
Of playing Shuttle and Coco...
Does anyone remember something called pepsi cola(think thats what it was called)?It was frozen cola in a long tube like plastic bag.

[S.Balaji]

Hello Thiru,

Any recap on Radio programmes of 60s and 70s ??

SOmething comes to my mind immediately :

1. Ungal viruppam
2. Kalai seidhigal
3. Carnatic songs
4. All India radio - Chennai vaanoli nilayam , Vividh barathiyin varthaga oliparappuu etc etc


Sorry, unable to go beyond this . Age is catching up !!

[hehehewalrus]

Is it ok to discuss 80s and even 90s stuff? The real 60s people will escape then :)

[S.Balaji]

Ahh...those uncomplicated days....
Days of playing Monkey and Country...
Of playing Shuttle and Coco...
Does anyone remember something called pepsi cola(think thats what it was called)?It was frozen cola in a long tube like plastic bag.

Pepsi Cola - You are referring to the small plastic tube equal to the size of our index finger. Yes yes, it will have different colours. We used to have fanta / goldspot flavour during SUmmer. THey were sold opposite to our School !!. Its was mini alternative for Kucchi icecream !
Also Mangaa badhaiiiiii ( it will resemble a Dinosaur ?? ! )

[S.Balaji]

Is it ok to discuss 80s and even 90s stuff? The real 60s people will escape then :)

Hey Walrus,

Welcome back !. You are the karta of this looooooong thread and you had disappeared ?? I think I should give you a pattam - Authority on 60s and 70s like Sharadhajee - who is an Authority on old films

My suggestion will be to stick on up to 85 probably and not beyond that. THe real 60s will be out as you said if we stretch if further.

[ssanjinika]

Is it ok to discuss 80s and even 90s stuff? The real 60s people will escape then :)

hehe..what todo??Dont know anything much abt the early 70s and 60s coz wasnt living then.But since I still wantto take part inthe discussion Im putting in my 2cents worth regarding the 80s :lol:

[Anoushka]

revisiting the 80s, h3w do you remember the lineup of Doordarshan serials??

Monday- ??
Tuesday - Nukkad & humlog
Wednesday - Chitrahar
thursday - Amol palekar's Ghar baahar
Friday - Yeh so hai Zindagi
Saturday - Chunauti

There were 4 standard people reading news in Tamil... H. Ramakrishnan, Varadharajan, Shobana Ravi and Senthamizh Arasu.. Later come the others like nirmala suresh, Balasubramaniam, lokeshwari etc..
In English it was Minu, Gitanjali Iyer, Pankaj menon & a singh (forgot his name)..

Sandhya Rajagopalanai vittuteengale Thiru...
`
Rini Simon enna aananga?

And wasn't chunauti in 80's? Subah was one, and ofcourse serials like
Intezar (Fridays), Manoranjan, Yatra, Hone Anhonee, Life Line, Fauji, etc... were around that time!

[Thiru]

Thanks for reminding those Anou...

'The world this week' by Prannoy Roy and 'Sports quiz' by Narattom puri were good but my favourite was 'quiz time' by Siddartha basu in the mid 80s... It was one of the programmes I would never miss on TV... Later Basu had another one called 'Discover India'.... I was watching the quiz show on Zee TV during my college days (I forgot the name.. some bournvita quiz contest ??) and I was thinking to myself that Siddartha basu was way ahead of his times when he did 'quiz time'..

[Anoushka]

[tscii:29067adaa9]mmm... 70's -lah naan kutti papa :)

Marakamudiathavai.....

Kumudham-la Aaru vidhyasangal!

Radio-la Tamizh and Hindi songs... I still remember the "Pirandhanaal indru pirandhanaal..." wishes and wishes from ammamma, appappa, etc! I might even find some cassette with some old recording of a song or drama from radio!

Our Lamby scooter, Herald (for ages I used to think that it was a foreign car) car, Dyanora Black and white TV stayed on till 80's and even 90's!

In addition to those programs that were mentioned previously there used to be Subbu Arumugham's Villu paatu, Kollangudi Karupayi's folk songs, And if I am write Veeni Balakrishnan's (not sure about the name, ... some one please confirm) programs.

I remember my Dad appearing in TV a couple of times in his "Chinna Chinna Repair" program, he was turned down for reading English News because he was not convent educated!

Jenifer Arul in Wonder Balloon! Haven't seen her in ages....

Around the world in 80 days, Lucy series....

I remember my neighbour's daughters asking my Mom to keep Oliyum Oliyum in full volume so that they can hear it! :D

The cycle rickshaw trips to school with kids screaming and shouting at the begining of each year! :lol:

Me coming home every second day wondering what punishment I will get that day for losing a pencil, rubber, water bottle, tiffin box, water bottle cover, earings, etc, etc...

Pakkathu veetula pattani sundal vaangi saapitu ammakita adi vaanginathu :(

Appa, amma (and even my brother and mine)'s black and white photos...

Every weekend in Marina beach or Elliot's beach... Long drives on the lamby to Mahaballipuram and sometimes to Thirukazhukundram! Never had a problem running up the hill to see the "kazhugu" having lunch! Does the eagle still come to have lunch?

Trade Fair during each Pongal...

Nanganallur and Thillai Ganga nagar area friends (We moved out of there in the 80's)!

Fever endral kanji saapida solllum Dr.Tamilvanan & Dr.Sakunthala - but we loved them because they never gave us injections!

Our first tape recorder, my first Boney-M cassette..

Trips to Bombay on the train each summer to spend the vacation in our Grandparent's house (both my grandparents lived there then, none of them are alive now :( ) Mummy still tells us how she used to get us out in Mantralaya station and give us a quick bath!

Marudhani on the hand during all holidays!

Cricket, bambaram, GOli, pattam, etc whenever we found time.

Walking past the "Sudugadu" everyday and wondering if ghosts really existed.

Kantelala's onion pakkodas (Near the railway crossing) is it still there? Trying to run across the railway track without looking around and getting scolded each time!

Balloon shooting in Marina beach, milagai bajji from a shop in front of the old Adayar bakery, pastries from Adayar bakery, Bilal hotel biriyani, seeing Sholay with my chittapa and cousin in Bombay and shouting in the theatre "Ennai adikatha, ennai othaikata" and my uncle and cousin vowing never to take me for any movies after that!

Endro oru naal appa classmate Kumaran uncle kooda moodu pani paarthutu, hotel blue diamond-il dinner saapitu mazhai-il nanindhu veetuku vantha nyabagam!

Ennai oru vayadhil schooluku anupuvathai thadutha “naidu amma” enaku naalu vayadhagum bothu iranthu ponathu....

Antha naidu amma veetu kinatru suvaril utkanrthu thayir saatham saapitathu...

Dinam dinam saapidamal lunch box appadiye veetuku kondu vanthathu... amma athu patri ketal ethavathu oru kathai solvathu… atharku adi vaniganthu... adi vanguvathai thappika kunithu tharayil thalai idithu atharku Tamizhvanan Dr. veetuku poi moondru stitches potathu....

Ippadiye list rumba perusaga povathal, I will stop it here :)[/tscii:29067adaa9]

[hehehewalrus]

Hi Bala sir,
i know little about the 60s and 70s. i only mention from hearsay..and some stories told by my parents.

My mother used to say that in late 50s, she met the brightest guy in her class tending the cows. Apparently his dad had pulled him out of school since it was more profitable to rear cattle than study. Such was the attitude those days.

my mother used to mention her classmates in her school weeping and fasting during the day that Nehru died.

People used to have feverish debates in her hostel over MGR-Sivaji. There were lot of poetically talented students and often the Sivaji fans won the debates.

[Anoushka]

Thanks for reminding those Anou...

'The world this week' by Prannoy Roy and 'Sports quiz' by Narattom puri were good but my favourite was 'quiz time' by Siddartha basu in the mid 80s... It was one of the programmes I would never miss on TV... Later Basu had another one called 'Discover India'.... I was watching the quiz show on Zee TV during my college days (I forgot the name.. some bournvita quiz contest ??) and I was thinking to myself that Siddartha basu was way ahead of his times when he did 'quiz time'..

Thiru, you are right! Siddarth Basu was way ahead of his times! There was also a Science Quiz around 10:00 in the night, once a week! Again that was in the 80's during Narottam Puri's Sports Quiz days! Another late night serial was Yes Minister!

Quiz Time was the best, then as you said there was Discover India and also Alpha Quiz or something like that - during weekends.... Once I reached college I stopped watching TV so I lost touch :(

[hehehewalrus]

I will recap those days later.

Jennifer Arul moved to Star News as Chennai Correspondent. I dont know whether she is still with NDTV..Probably NDTV has broken off with Star now, I am not sure

[S.Balaji]

[quote="Anoushka
Sandhya Rajagopalanai vittuteengale Thiru...
`
Rini Simon enna aananga?


Dear Anoushka,

Yes, Sandhya Rajagopalan was one of them !!

I think she has switched over to Jaya TV

[Thiru]

i remember our vcr rental days.. For 12 hours the VCR rental used to be 30 rupees or so.. A Video rental was 8 Rs and we used to watch 4 movies continously to utilise the 12 hours or vcr rental.. Then came our family friend sabapathy uncle, who rented his VCR for 20 rupees :)

[tvsankar]

Dear Thiru and Balaji,
Waghlae ki dhuniyaa
Tu Tu mein mein
Miruga nayani
Mahabharat
Hony un HOny
What about Hindi Chithrahaar?
With Love,
Usha Sankar.
Hi HHW,
Nanum en ammavai kettu solraen about 60s and 70s :lol:
Usha Sankar.

[S.Balaji]

Thanks for reminding those Anou...

'The world this week' by Prannoy Roy and 'Sports quiz' by Narattom puri were good but my favourite was 'quiz time' by Siddartha basu in the mid 80s... It was one of the programmes I would never miss on TV... Later Basu had another one called 'Discover India'.... I was watching the quiz show on Zee TV during my college days (I forgot the name.. some bournvita quiz contest ??) and I was thinking to myself that Siddartha basu was way ahead of his times when he did 'quiz time'..

Thiru, you are right! Siddarth Basu was way ahead of his times! There was also a Science Quiz around 10:00 in the night, once a week! Again that was in the 80's during Narottam Puri's Sports Quiz days! Another late night serial was Yes Minister!

Quiz Time was the best, then as you said there was Discover India and also Alpha Quiz or something like that - during weekends.... Once I reached college I stopped watching TV so I lost touch :(

Anoushka,

Who was the co-host with Siddhartha Basu ? She used to have a customary smile always and will start with - QUIZ MASTER'S DECISION IS FINAL !!!

[S.Balaji]

I will recap those days later.

Jennifer Arul moved to Star News as Chennai Correspondent. I dont know whether she is still with NDTV..Probably NDTV has broken off with Star now, I am not sure

Jennifer is with NDTV now.

For your info, Rajdeep Sardesai is out from NDTV .

[rajes002]

Was Siddhartha Basu's partner - 'Vandana Shiva' by any chance? or was she in another quiz show? BTW - Sabira Merchant's 'What is the good word' used to be really good.... I used to love "Goodies"... show... anybody remember this one?

It was "Magic Lamp" and not "Wonder Lamp" as I put it earlier....

DD Madras in the 70's did not have many commercials unfortunately....

I remember the english magazines and comics though: Illustrated weekly, Mirror, Caravan, Amar Chitra Katha, Madrake, Lothar, Bahadur etc in Indrajal comics.

English kids novels: Enid Blyton- Famous Five, Secret Seven, Fatty and gang, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Alfred Hitchcock..... it was a thrill to read these mystery novels...

Chennai in the 70's had its own charm...not much water problem for one, relatively less crowded public transport, less pollution.... and add to it the sense of camaraderie present amongst chennaivasis.... especially neighbors in street... and their kids. I used to know all the kids in my street as well as the neighboring ones!!

[joe]

One of my childwood memories here
http://cdjm.blogspot.com/2005/07/mgr.html

[Shekhar]

In my town, they used to screen english movies only on thursdays. I saw some great westerns then. Clint Eastwood, Yul Brinner were our great heroes. It's a different thing we hardly understood the english dialogues then!! :D :D
Later on... girls were great mystery!! I had never spoken to any girl class mate till I entered graduation!! :) :)

[S.Balaji]

Some more memories of 60s and 70s :

Doordharshan :

Sauraba - Kannada nigaichee
Kalakairali - Malayala nigaichee

Gopalee / Narayanaswamy / Sampath Kumar - Used to appear in Edhiroli and Munottam

Dull and boring dramas . I remember Heron Ramasamy , Devi Lalitha , Heron appearing as ALexander , some dramas of Manohar also , S.V.Sekar's Vanna kolangal , V.S.Raghavan's some thriller drama , some ARS programmes also

RADIO :

Horlicks - Suchitra Shankar Raju SUjatha - the famour Horlicks family
Britannia quiz contest

The evergreen - Life boy advt / liril ads

Every Independence day / Republic day - Olichitiram - it will be either - Veera pandia kattaboman or Kappalotia thamizan

Others :

Launch of Satellite

Rakesh Sharma in space - Indira proudly asking how do you feel and Rakesh responding by - Sare jahan se achha Hindustan Hamaara

Steam Engine - From Villupuram onwards . The engine Karee will spread up to the 10th compartment

Black and white movies of KB , KSG etc

Coke was dumped by Jeorge Fernandez in 1977and desi drinks like - THumps up , Double 77

End of Legends - Rajaji, Kamarajar, Annadurai , Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Periyaar.
The radio commentary will be touching and emotional during those days

Cinema :

Birth of SHivaji Rao Gaikwad in Apoorva Raagangal as a very low profile actor who rose to become a Super star and is still acting - Chandramukee

Legends - BR / IR / bagyaraj / Mahendran / Balu Mahendra / Ashok Kumar / Nivas
Sarita / Sridevi / Sripriya / Jayapradha

The memory goes on ............

[a.ratchasi]

Later on... girls were great mystery!! I had never spoken to any girl class mate till I entered graduation!! :) :)

No wonder! :rotfl:
:wink:

[S.Balaji]

Coming to Dramas in Doordharshan, I missed out Shanmuga Sundaram , G.Sreenivasan etc etc

[S.Balaji]

Dear Friends,

I am not sure how many hubbers in this elite forum have seen A KAI RIKSHAW ??? I have seen that and I also remember one birthday of my father when my Thatha ( who was 90 years at that time ) came home from the next street in Mylapore to bless my father .
I have also seen elderly people pulling kai rickshaw.

I think it was Kaliagnar who abolished this and brought in cycle rickshaws.


Again on bicycles - I remember Phillips - a leading brand.

Also remember Venkat raghavan appearing for an Ad for Phillips - appeared in either Vikatan or Kumudham

ALso, Farokh Engineer appearing for Brylcream ads. - Not sure whether it exists now !!!

Also remember Salim Duraani hitting sixes at will in the 1972 series of England in India under Tony Lewis .
In one test match after Vishy scoring a century, Tony Greig will lift him and keep him on his laps !!!.
There was also a picture released to celebrate - Victory story covering the entire series.

One has to see that picture to have a glimpse of our former greats

Can anybody remember that,. Is it possible to get DVD or VCD ??

Fond memories.

[blahblah]

Later on... girls were great mystery!! I had never spoken to any girl class mate till I entered graduation!! :) :)

No wonder! :rotfl:
:wink:

What is happening to Shekhar? :D Always inviting blonks these days! :D And see who is continuously on the trail! :cry:

[NM]

blahblah......
i was wondering what u were doing here.......does this event remind you of the cross-thread chasing that happened early this year???? :lol: :lol: and, did I make the rite' decision regarding my successor?? :lol:

[NM]

In my town, they used to screen english movies only on thursdays. I saw some great westerns then. Clint Eastwood, Yul Brinner were our great heroes. It's a different thing we hardly understood the english dialogues then!! :D :D
Later on... girls were great mystery!! I had never spoken to any girl class mate till I entered graduation!! :) :)I don't understand........did clint and yul make u to be wary of gals?? :roll: :shock: :P

[S.Balaji]

Also during those years :

1. Pencil - Natraj pencil - Red and black
2. Pens - Ink pens - My housemaid used to wonder whats wrong with my pen as she had to wipe out the ink on my shirt pocket .
3. Geometry box - natraj brand I think


There was also TAS rathnam podeeee. Popular brand .

ARR seeval

One can never forget - Gopal Palpodi - India, Elangai, Malaysia, SIngapore agiya naadugalil makkalin peraadhavaru petradhu !!!

There was also LG perungaayam

Are these brands still exist ??

[Sanguine Sridhar]

I used Natraj Geometry box... :D :D ,Natraj pencil (red/black) ...Talking abt Adv i still remember this song for colgate siriya packet (This adv when grp of kids with a master goes for trekking/camp)

"Colgatin sirya packet
Colgatin siriya packet
Moodi vaipom
Thirnadhu edupom
Ennakkum kodu ennakkum kodu
Enakkum kodu ingey kodu
Ithanai packet-il ethanai per
Colgate varum athanai per
Colgatin siriya packet"

:D :D

I also remember Solidare adv,Citra the super cooler

[S.Balaji]

Beckham,

I also remember - Yezdi and Bullet - Both were very popular those days. Especially Bullet in villages . That doop doop sound of Bullet was a big thing for us.

On Pakku - Roja paaku was popular.

Sarees - Nalli . Amazing the Brand is still doing well .

Jewellery - Vummidy Bangaru shops

Cookers - TTK . Still there

Mixie - Sumeet

Wet grinder - Vellin

[Sanguine Sridhar]

Mixie i think Meenu mixie was famous those days...

[S.Balaji]

Mixie i think Meenu mixie was famous those days...

Dear Beckham

Yes you are correct. Meen mixie was popular

Also there was a terrible Moped called - SUVEGA. Probably that was the first version two wheelers !!!!

[Sanguine Sridhar]

Hmm yeah you are correct...Luna..one more bike with the name "Ex..." i forgot the name...was also famous....

There was one program called "Edhiroli" - Nallathambi was the popular VJ at that time :lol:

[S.Balaji]

Hmm yeah you are correct...Luna..one more bike with the name "Ex..." i forgot the name...was also famous....

There was one program called "Edhiroli" - Nallathambi was the popular VJ at that time :lol:

Beckham,

Are you referring to - Explorer ??

Bajaj Cub was popular

Bajaj Chetak also

Yamaha is still around.

Not sure whether - TVS releases like - XL / XT / Champ ..... whether they belong to 80s or 90s

[dev]

I guess there was a scooter by name lambrada ...
& do anyone of you remember a serial abt life in Japan that used to be telecasted in doordarshan sometime around 9.30pm once a week...The story used to centre around a little Japanese girl... I don't remember the name of the serial...

[ssanjinika]

I guess there was a scooter by name lambrada ...
& do anyone of you remember a serial abt life in Japan that used to be telecasted in doordarshan sometime around 9.30pm once a week...The story used to centre around a little Japanese girl... I don't remember the name of the serial...

That was Oshin :).
I remember that serial soo well.My best friends dad used to call me Oshin coz I am short and have slightly slanted eyes though I dont have any connection to Japan :lol:

[Anoushka]

I guess there was a scooter by name lambrada ...
& do anyone of you remember a serial abt life in Japan that used to be telecasted in doordarshan sometime around 9.30pm once a week...The story used to centre around a little Japanese girl... I don't remember the name of the serial...

Dev, the scooter was Lambretta! In short lamby :)

[Thiru]

Few bikes of the 70s and 80s..

Dart - Made famous by Rishi kapoor in bobby (We used to own one)
Luna
Yezdi
Enfield Mini bullet
Rajdoot
Swega or suvega (not sure)...
Hero Majestic


Bajaj Chetak
LML Vespa
Lambretta

[S.Balaji]

On Consumer items :

1. Toothpaste - Colgate / Binaca / Vicco vajradhanthi - still exist

2. Soaps - Chandrika / Lux / Mysore Sandal

3. Oil - Wipro - Now a software giant !!

4. For children - Woodwords gripe water . That ad also - Enga ammavum adhu than kopaanga !

5. Fridge - Godrej

[Anoushka]

Also during those years :

1. Pencil - Natraj pencil - Red and black
2. Pens - Ink pens - My housemaid used to wonder whats wrong with my pen as she had to wipe out the ink on my shirt pocket .
3. Geometry box - natraj brand I think


There was also TAS rathnam podeeee. Popular brand .

ARR seeval

One can never forget - Gopal Palpodi - India, Elangai, Malaysia, SIngapore agiya naadugalil makkalin peraadhavaru petradhu !!!

There was also LG perungaayam

Are these brands still exist ??

Camlin was another stationery brand - geometry box, paint box, gum, ink, etc

Vico Vajradanti was another tooth powder - Don't know if the ads have changed... the old man biting a walnut :)

A few more things to add...

The black and white documentry in theatres before movies started!

The documentries on TV like "Skin in the bin", "Chanda Ek, Sooraj Ek, Taare anek...", etc...

Dollar biscuit ads on Radio " Appa Appa kadaiku poriya, amaam kannu unaku enna venum sollu..."

Rettai Vaal rengudu of Ananda Vikatan...


Anoushka,

Who was the co-host with Siddhartha Basu ? She used to have a customary smile always and will start with - QUIZ MASTER'S DECISION IS FINAL !!!

One was Kavitha Agarwal and the other was Vandana.




English kids novels: Enid Blyton- Famous Five, Secret Seven, Fatty and gang, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Alfred Hitchcock..... it was a thrill to read these mystery novels...



Yaarume Noddy Tales padikalaya :(

[S.Balaji]

[quote="Anoushka"][
Camlin was another stationery brand - geometry box, paint box, gum, ink, etc

Vico Vajradanti was another tooth powder - Don't know if the ads have changed... the old man biting a walnut :)

A few more things to add...

The black and white documentry in theatres before movies started!

The documentries on TV like "Skin in the bin", "Chanda Ek, Sooraj Ek, Taare anek...", etc...

Dollar biscuit ads on Radio " Appa Appa kadaiku poriya, amaam kannu unaku enna venum sollu..."

Rettai Vaal rengudu of Ananda Vikatan...

Anoushka,

Thanks .

On ads : 1 more - Endha ponnu pears thechi kulikiraloo ava azaga aayiduvaa - Pears soap !

You mentioned about Rettai vaal rangudu in - AV

There was - Sirrippu thirudan Singaravelu !

Veetu broker punyakodee

All Madan specials . Now Madan conducts a programme in Vijay TV - Madan's thirai paarvai

Yes, Dollar biscuit was a popular ad.

Also there was LR Swamy - Veedugal vaanga virkaa

You all will remember the voice of -A.K.SOUNDER - His voice will appear in Horlicks Kudumbam
He also gave voice for Karathey Mani in - Vidiyum varai kaathiru- thriller of bagyaraj

[lordstanher]

Sorry took so late in reverting (tks to our unreliable net connec.! :twisted: )......pity I missed out all these interesting discussions on a topic tat I very much like! :(
Neways.......


Stanher,
For "Certain" things, you have very sharp observation powers which are beyond the scope of lesser mortals ;) :lol:

Hmm........well, tk u for tat assessment, Walrus! :D
I guess I hav such sharp observn. "powers" in this regard since I'm so much into the '60s/70s (& even '80s altho I'm reasonably familiar w/ those times) & I tend to hav an eye for detail in nething I'm int'd in....... :wink:


it is still prevailing in good old kerala.

Yup, I've noticed tat......altho it doesn't seem as popular nationwide (yet!) as it used to be then! :D

Oh, and yea one more thing abt people's attires in the '70s- nearly all men of tat time wore their shirts w/ 1/2 the buttons open, from the top onwards! :wink: :lol:
Of course my dad was a prim exception- he never even wore his shirts w/ just the first (below collar) one open, as most men tend to even today........he thot it quite lewd, even for men! :D
Also most college-going girls in those days wore Sarees all the time- even as young as 17-18/degree onwards........in fact my mum told me when she did her MBBS at Madras Med. college in the '60s, Saree was actually a mandatory dress code there for girl students (Salwar Kameez, which is a common dress code now, was then an exemption only for Muslim/Sikh girls)......she says even 1/2 Sarees/Pavadai were not allowed in teh college then ('wonder y as its similar to Saree neways & easier to wear!)
As for now, I think the current dress code there wud be Salwar Kameez.....? :)

[S.Balaji]

Also there was a hindi serial - Rajani - wherein Rajini ( Priya Tendulkar ) used to take law in her own hand and will fight for justice. It was very popular those days.

Alas, Priya Tendulkar is no more now.

[S.Balaji]

Heron Ramaswamy's - Thirumalai Naayakkar was played in Doordharshan

I remember his favourite style -

Edhu thirumalai souriraja Ayuru gaaaruuuuu vin aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanai !!!

[lordstanher]

Mixie i think Meenu mixie was famous those days...

Dear Beckham
Yes you are correct. Meen mixie was popular

Also there was a terrible Moped called - SUVEGA. Probably that was the first version two wheelers !!!!

Hmm.........never heard of Meenu mixie b4...... :? :D
Am familiar w/ "Ralli-mix", my mom had one from the late '70s.......twas a cream & blue cased one w/ 4 white switches.......stopped working sum years later & sat for years atop the kitchen storage loft b4 my parents scrapped it!
We also had a white fridge, "Leonard Bluestar" bought sumwhere in the late '70s (which, my parents said, evoked much envy as a fridge was a luxury in those days! :D ).........
Btw, I once read in a mag. tat most household goods viz. mixie/fridge etc. in those days were called "white goods" as they were avail. mostly in white....ne-one who's heard of this phrase?.........
I've heard of the Suvega (& also Vicky? a luna from the '60s).....but not sure if I've ever seen them.......

[S.Balaji]

About fans :

1. Usha
2. Orient

Do they exist now ??

[lordstanher]

Ahh...those uncomplicated days....
Days of playing Monkey and Country...
Of playing Shuttle and Coco...
Does anyone remember something called pepsi cola(think thats what it was called)?It was frozen cola in a long tube like plastic bag.

Pepsi Cola - You are referring to the small plastic tube equal to the size of our index finger. Yes yes, it will have different colours. We used to have fanta / goldspot flavour during SUmmer. THey were sold opposite to our School !!. Its was mini alternative for Kucchi icecream !
Also Mangaa badhaiiiiii ( it will resemble a Dinosaur ?? ! )

Ne of u rem. this soft drink called Campa-cola?? Was abt the same colour as Coke & I rem. it existing til the late '80s........(used to hav this ad jingle "Campa-cola is the world" or sumthin?).........didn't prove to be successful comp'd to other Desi makes like Thums-up/Limca/Goldspot/Maaza etc......! :D

[lordstanher]

About fans :

1. Usha
2. Orient

Do they exist now ??

I thot Orient still exists- there's even a model in PSPO w/ a 'classic' look.......not sure abt Usha but I think it still exists.......
Btw, do ne of u rem. there were these fans called "G.E.C." & "Cool Home" in the '60s & '70s....

[S.Balaji]

yes yes, I remember Campa cola.

I also remember George Fernandez driving out Coke in 1977 ?

Also the entry of Thums up and double 7

[Thiru]

Gold Spot - The zing thing
Campa cola
Sprint
Thumbs up
Limca
Kali mark - Trio, Solo, Bovonto (3 flavors) :lol: & Frutang

[lordstanher]

I also remember George Fernandez driving out Coke in 1977 ?

Um......I thot tat was the work of Morarji Desai (who was the then PM).....?? :?
And yea, I think I rem. y Campa-cola went out of biz.......there were reports of it containing BVO (Blominated? Veg. Oil)......around 1990 if I recall rite! :D

[S.Balaji]

I also remember George Fernandez driving out Coke in 1977 ?

Um......I thot tat was the work of Morarji Desai (who was the then PM).....?? :?
And yea, I think I rem. y Campa-cola went out of biz.......there were reports of it containing BVO (Blominated? Veg. Oil)......around 1990 if I recall rite! :D

Yes yes George was instrumental .

Morarji Desai was the PM .

[S.Balaji]

Gold Spot - The zing thing
Campa cola
Sprint
Thumbs up
Limca
Kali mark - Trio, Solo, Bovonto (3 flavors) :lol: & Frutang

Double 7 i marandhuteengala Mr. Thiru !!

[S.Balaji]

Can somebody list the watches ?? and gadigaarams ??

[S.Balaji]

Radio sets :

1. Murphy
2. Phillips
3. Bush

[ssanjinika]

yes yes, I remember Campa cola.


I even remember that they had this contest where you had to collect the caps of the bottle and when you collected 100 or so you would get a price..was too small to remember the rest of them :)

[lordstanher]

[tscii]Our Lamby scooter, Herald (for ages I used to think that it was a foreign car) car, Dyanora Black and white TV stayed on till 80's and even 90's!

Wowwwwww!!! :shock: :D I was thinkin of asking if ne of u/ur parents had Lambys or Heralds in those times!! Glad sumone mentioned it already!! :D
I really like Lamby (a.k.a. Lambretta 150) scooters & I jus luuuuuuuuuuuv Standard Heralds (no need to tell u now wat the 'Stan her' in my ID means! :wink: ).......they r my all-time fav. cars & I keep watching ne '60s/70s movies where they appear.......even bought a VCD of "Kathalikka Neramillai" jus to see tat maroon Herald (MSW 6959) the actresses drive in the film! :wink:
These cars were popular in films then- esp. the 2-door ones 'cos they had a detachable roof jus fitted w/ nuts & bolts, which cud be taken off at random to make the car look like open-top/cabrio........also the reason y they were also used for "janavasam" processions in weddings until recently......!
Btw, was ur Herald a 2-door one?? And um, no offence but I really envy u! :D How I wish my dad had a Herald and/or a Lamby when I was a kid..........!
Nevertheless, I jus bought a 1985 Vijai Super (Indian clone of Lamby).......and yes, it runs....quite well! One thing I realised tho is how heavy these scooters can be.... *oof*!
Also planning to buy a nice '62 2-door Herald from Hyd......! :D
And yes, Herald intially was a foreign car, a British car named Triumph Herald........twas assembled by Standard Motors, Madras as 'Standard Herald' & later manuf. fully taken over by them......they also made the Standard 2000 car in the '80s, a total failure!
Oh, and we first had a B/W Dynora TV as well! :D My dad must've been one o the 1st middle-class ppl. in Hyd. to buy a TV (around 1976-77)......& tat I think was the 1st (& only?) brand available then!
It even came w/ a decolum panelled wooden box w/ sliding shutters! :D We had the box for a long time (even tho we gave away the TV to sumone years ago).......until my mom recently donated it to our maid-servant who was keen on it!
Neways, always nice to hear abt yesteryears' cars/scooters from sumone! :D

[lordstanher]

Can somebody list the watches ?? and gadigaarams ??

Um.....watches I think HMT?? All watches were metal cased ones w/ click-on metal straps in those days unless I'm wrong! :wink:
Gadiyarams.......I rem. seeing an old one at a shop once, named "Seikosha"......I believe it was later renamed as Seiko, as its called today......?

[hehehewalrus]

In 1986 first half, there was this Big Fun contest where every bubblegum has a picture of a disney cartoon character. Some of them will have a star in it and you have to collect 100 of them with a *.

In later half, the picture turned to cricketers and they in turn will have some runs on it or a wicket on it. You have to collect 100 runs and 20 wickets. After wasting lots of money in getting to this collection(cost of one big fun = 30 paise, the rascals slowly moved it to 50ps :) ), my mother took me to a stationary store owned by her friend, who gave me a copy of the free book itself! It was a totally useless book, more like a painting/coloring book, and the info about cricket was pathetic, since at home we already had several sports books and for all costlier sports books, my dad had a friend who owned a sports book stall and allowed us to borrow books for free and return.

Since then I stopped going for these gimmicks.

[Thiru]

Collecting money for Helpage India was a common practice in all schools at that time.. If you collect 5 Rs, you get a badge.. If you collect 10 Rs, you get a souvenir and for 25 Rs you get a mini cricket bat signed by the indian cricket players.. I remember those days of going to each house and collecting money for this...

[hehehewalrus]

My father had this Seiko watch which his boss(who in turn got that from his bro in singapore) gifted to him for his wedding in the 70s. It never left his hand whether it worked or not. I used to get speechless when he dutifully and confidently wore it even while going to catch a train, with the watch showing some outrageous time! Whenever he mentioned the time in the late 90s, I would always confirm with an alternative clock :)

[lordstanher]

Bajaj Chetak
LML Vespa
Lambretta

There were also:
Vespa 150 (1960s onwards)
Bajaj 150 (based on the former & forerunner of Bajaj scooters)
Bajaj Super

Another scooter called Priya, based on the Bajaj 150......was quite successful tho......

Lambretta also came in another model called Lamby 150, the last model of tat brand in India.

Succeeded by:

Vijai Super (based on the Lambretta, a.k.a. Vijai Deluxe, Vijai Falcon(?), Allwyn Pushpak......!)

There was yet another one called Lamby Polo 150, made much later (circa late '80s?) but not successful, rec'd a lot of bad publicity......I saw just one of these!

[lordstanher]

My father had this Seiko watch which his boss(who in turn got that from his bro in singapore) gifted to him for his wedding in the 70s.

Hmm........interesting coincidence! :D Even my father was gifted a Seiko watch at his wedding in 1969 by his father-in-law (no idea whom he got it from! :wink:)........it stopped working many yrs later....but he refused to part w/ it.......I rem. it one day fell down & the glass cracked......got misplaced after tat & I never saw it again.....

[hehehewalrus]

But one thing to be admitted, Big Fun was quite tasty. The first bubblegum I got was the 20 paise one, with black spots on the wrapper. It was called the "NP Bubblegum" and in short, it was a rectangular piece of red stone, from which producing a bubble was impossible unless your teeth were made of grinder-stone material. In 1983 there was a contest for collecting 30 wrappers and we kept an eagle eye on the roads and school campuses to porukkufy the wrapper. The reward for the pains was a Phantom book, unfortunately it was Part 2 of a 3 part series.

While visiting my cousin in the halfyearly hols 2 yrs later, I got to read the complete series and it made sense only then.

The best bubble friendly bubblegum was Fixy Foxy, the bubble output was every few seconds!

Big Fun was really tasty, I dont know what they added but I am sure their profits went sky-high after they got all the city kids interested in the contest.

[hehehewalrus]

Looking back at all the contests, purchases, etc. it is amazing how much we stupid kids got ripped off by the marketeers and their silly offers. Now I understand why my father never let me eat chocolates and insisted on eating meals at fixed times.

I was never good at scooter names, there was this neighbor of ours whose scooter with the number plate 2654 would be parked at the entrance of our colony. When I was working with the Dell Inspiron 2650 model, it would often remind me of that scooter.

[lordstanher]

We saw more of Bicycles and Fiats and Ambassadors !!!

Fiat was once a status symbol !!!

Baby Austin was also there !!

Huh??!! How come u missed out mentioning the much luvd (as well as loathed) Standard Herald??!!:shock: :twisted: :lol:
It was also very much there at the time rite??!! :wink:
Twas one of the most popular 'masses' cars back then........esp. the 2-door models......! :D
There were also older cars around, like Morris Minors, Standard 10 etc.......
And yes Fiat was indeed a status symbol then! My father had badly wanted the 'Premier President', the first "new" Fiat of the '70s.......but Fiats were then affordable only by the high-income earners (viz. Doctors, Professors, Judges etc.) & Biz. ppl....
Ambys Iam told, were the most expensive of the lot! :lol:


We used to have ice creams in cups and Kucchiiii !! until Aavin entered and we started getting Kone icecreams and hot milk

Um.......wat abt the coloured Ice-candy on kucchis?? I saw those in a '70s Telugu film once......:D


In movies you can see the Hero and the Villian in big Girudhaas !!!

Um......wat r Girudhaas, wigs?? :?

[Querida]

wow what a really good topic hehehewalrus...feel bad that i missed all this b/c of comp probs but happy to read everyone's else's post...though 60's 70's i wasn't even thought of....the times are still kept alive by my amma and her memories...the one thing that i envied and still envy is the fun and happiness everyone had with their extended families...all those cousins and uncles and being atleast one relative's favourite...not to mention the fun to be had on holidays....especially grandparents...how i so wanted to have grandparents and their stories and expereiences to brighten my upbringing....even now i feel strangely detached from all this...but i'm glad this kind of feeling has been revived within ethnic centered communities here....but even i have missed out on that....i do agree with beckham these days parents seem to be proud that their little ones are so keen on being so adult-like....even if the child is singing quite a racy song or dancing to such a number...

I love old blackandwhite photos and the styles of yesteryears...my appa and his fro (and those sideburns which still are present) and bell bottoms with his patterend shirts....everyone always looked really smart...especially i've noticed nowadays from movies to music to fashion it's all rewind but w/o the originality it seems uninspirational...

[ssanjinika]

Lordie...
Girudhaas are sideburns :lol:
They were very much in vogue along with bell bottoms and tight shirts apparant in the old black & white photographs..
Shucks!! In under 30 years we have seen so many changes ,boggles the mind to imagine how many more changes we would see during our lifetime.Ofcourse its changes that keeps things from getting boring :) but you pine for a world that was more simpler & innocent.

[Thiru]

I would say Girudhaas and Bell bottoms were much better than punk hairstyle and baggy pants :)

[hehehewalrus]

last week we saw Inru Poi Naalai Va at home. Watching Bhakyaraj's 3 friends in that late 70s make up was hilarious

[Querida]

I agree wholeheartedly Thiru....I love the patterns and fabrics and just the smartness...i won't go into to decency because well tank tops are a no no but backless saree blouses are ok :roll: but anyways anything better than baggy pants so low that they are in danger of falling and not to mention blinding others :lol: nose, navel, eyebrow, tongue and God knows where else piercings...huge floppy t-shirts and bandanas....though men shaving their heads rather than sporting the little hair they have is quite nice...i won't even go into women's fashion... :?

[tvsankar]

Hi all,
What about the drinking items?
En ninaivil vandhavai
1.viva

2. Regovita ( Enaku idhu dhan pidikum orange in color)

3. HOrlicks ( Orae oru horlicks dhan appo One time idhuku romba demand agi thindadinom. ) horlicks is prescribed for fever. :lol: OH what about bread - Modern bread.
ONe add on radio - mummy mummy modern bread protein nirainajadhu and something going on.

4. Bournvita

5. Protinex

With Love,
Usha Sankar.

[ssanjinika]

Does anyone remember these ads
Gold spot the zing thing

Another one for a TV I think (forgot which) it goes like
We want we want true color
We want we want clear sound.
something like that

[hehehewalrus]

sanjinika
thats for the old dinosaur, solidaire.

continuation:
we know what we want
we all want....solidaire

the beginning is like

Solidaire for sports,
solidaire for sunday movies....(and then ur part starts)

[Thiru]

sanjinika, I was listening to Maadhu-cheenu drama recently and heard the Gold spot zing thing ad.. It will go something like 'he's crazy about xxxxx, you bet, gold spot the zing thing'...

The TV ad you mentioned was Solidaire CAT 1000..

[hehehewalrus]

Looks like everyone is now completely stoned on the nostalgia drug. I will be leaving hub soon so I will now inhale a huge pack and also inject a few others hopefully before the police dept(projects) comes and busts our cocaine party!

Magazines: I had written about most of the English magazines 4 months ago in the "Print media in india" thread. Dont have much recollection of the Tamil magazines, there used to be some mags like Thughlak, Tharaasu, Saavi lying around. This was before Ju.Vi became the standard name for popular/controversial reading.

I specially remember the 6 difference page in Kumudam as it was the only page my parents would let me see in that magazine! The answers would be found specifically on page 66 or 68.

The other memory of Kumudam is when I was an innocent jobless 3 or 4 year old and a heap of dozen Kumudams lay in a heap. Since only the centerspread(sometimes featuring a "hero" like SV Sekar or Sudhakar or Bhakyaraj with a skimpy heroine in arm, and othertimes the pics were much worse!) was in color, I arranged some 15-20 issues with the glorious centerspreads wide open! :lol: My dad came after a while and picked up the mags and locked it up. I think my parents sent all old issues of Kumudam and Illustrated Weekly to the raddiwallah after this :lol2:

Kids books:

Another favorite of kids were the Rani Comics War issues. Generally my brother would go through the comic page by page and tell the story to his friends and me crowding around him. He used to be the first to read Tintin or any other comics and lazy fellows like me preferred to watch the pic and listen to his narration. The funny thing of course was that all the characters had names like Potter, MacPherson, Nicholas etc and the dialogues would be in tamil.

As kids, the best bet was to find a rich kid(or an "only child") in your colony, whose parents gave him membership to kid libraries or got all the new toys. We were lucky to find a chap who subscribed to every library but never read a book! We got him to bring a bunch of Star Comics(superman/batman), Disney Comics, Archies, Indrajal Comics etc. finish them off and return to him in the evening for the next package.

BTW, I have some Phantom/indrajal/asterix comics in PDF, any takers please pm me.

Amar Chitra Katha started in September 1980 I think. The periodicity was fortnightly. Tinkle came up later. Before Amar Chitra Katha came, the hottest one was Children's World. CW was a really good one editored by Ramakrishnan of the Children's Book House, Delhi. It was running since early 70s with the popular Penfriends Club on the last page. Who can forget the witty writings of Perky(a letter to you)? It was the best humorous piece I ever read before reading Ramesh Mahadevan's stuff. There was another good series by Lavanya Srinivasan in CW which came in 1990. Other than that, most articles were a bit serious.

Champak was another but was filled with crappy stories of Lambu Hyena planning to eat some Champa Rabbit with the help of Chandurang Jackal! But I liked it though and I now wonder how I could tolerate it. Cheeku Rabbit and Chanchu Rat were the comic strips.

Tinkle came up later, its 100th issue was a memorable one. Issue 100 came up in Late 1986, so you can go back and calculate its first issue @24 issues per year. The 100th issue was very good - all the Tinkle characters gather for a party. It was a blockbuster and I still recall some of the events of that "special cover story" - here too Chamataka and Doob Doob are planning to catch Keechu/Meechu and at the divinely-appointed moment, Shikari Shambu misfired a bullet which hits a coconut which in turn thuds into Chamataka and so it goes.....

Basically Tinkle v Children's World can be labelled as a Bombay vs Delhi fight between CBT and IBH(India Book House). After CW's sales were affected, most of the writers like Shevlin Sebastian, Subhadra Sengupta moved to freelancing. Shevlin went to Sportsworld.

Target was another great mag high on humour. The first page had the funniest cartoons ever. Then there was another cartoon called Gardhab Das, the Donkey. It was also good fun. However by 1992, Target became very much a teens mag and started some racy stories unfit for kids.

By 1988, a tamil version called Poonthalir had come up. This was a blatant shameless and word by word copy of Tinkle!! Shikari Shambu became Vaettaikaaran Vembu and there were other horrible conversions.

Consumer goods:

I remember Britannia Milk Bikis priced between Rs 2.20 and 2.40 in the mid eighties. The cheapest was Ampro which cost Re.1. Men may come and men may go, Parle G lives on for ever - it was priced Rs.4 in India 2 years back and I still bought it last month for $1 from some indian store, they still have the same child model and taste!! :clap:

Among chocolates, there used to be a 10 paise "biteable" Nutrine toffee which was the standard offering on birthdays. It was cuboidal in shape with a green wrapper. Then there was another cheap toffee in a transparent wrapper which is perfectly spherical, orange in color and imparts a thick orange color to the tongue. Cadbury's was the first to introduce the Eclairs at the starting price of 35 paise. Parle's copied them later by 1985 I think. Cadburys had no other products to stay in the competition besides Eclairs/Gems and Parrys overcame them very quickly. Parrys Eclairs came after that at the same price, similar wrapper and outsold Cadbury. By 1990, Parrys brought in Lacto King.

In the EARLY 1980s, you can get wrapperless toffees for as little as 1 paisa - when kids gather to play and the collective budget is 25 paise or so, the best option was to buy 25 one paisa toffees and distribute :(

How could people forget Kissan squash, Trinka and Rasna - the Rasna model Ankita Jhaveri sitting on the floor sipping a glass of Rasna in pics? I am sure her nice kid haircut became a hit in households in addition to the drink she endorsed!

[Talking of haircuts, those days no guy dared to go for the stylish center parting while combing the hair as our parents and teachers were very strict. In that respect, my mother admired Leander Paes very much for his "yennai pottu ner eduthu seevina" hairstyle, which became the best yardstick for "adakkam + ozhukkam". As for hairpins and rubber bands, there were new models called "disco rubberbands" and "disco hairpins" which differed from the old models with nylon instead of rubber and a fresh coating to the pin respectively. Ribbons went out of vogue by nineties]

Among Cycles, Raleigh was the leader, holding market share since the 50s. Till mid-eighties, there were really no competition from Atlas/BSA and the likes. BSA SLR came up in early-to-mid 83 and that too was a youth model. Its "carrier" seat at the back was no match for the robust carrier seat that Raleigh brand possessed! The Raleigh seat was perfect for carrying anything, right from spouse to the water kodams that are commonly brought home from the thanni lorries. Oh yes, the thanni lorries and thanni vandies were another feature those days - kids would be playing, some lorry would stop, excited kids would start shouting "Thanni Loooorrryyyyyyyyy" at the top of their voices and in a matter of seconds, women would come running out of their houses holding three or even four kodams in one go! The scene would be chaotic for the next half hour as everyone would be running helter-skelter in all directions and the sad part being the water would spill on to the road where we played cricket and the game would be stopped for a couple of hours.

The cycle hawkers were a special generation indeed. Starting from early in the morning with the milkman, the way he pushed the heavy cycle and then briskly and skilfully jumped and sat on the seat was a sight to behold! Of course, 90% of the milkmen liberally added bountiful quantities of water! Packet Paal came in the early eighties.

The other hawkers would be the ubiquitous Kadala Pori sellers and the Paathiram sellers. Kadala Pori was a regular item during summer afternoons, while we impatiently wait for the sun to go down so that we could run out and play. The way the Paathiram sellers tied up their wares was fantastic, it was as if they were carrying an entire house on their cycle! They would skilfully retrieve a vessel from the middle of the bundle without upsetting the rest and place it back delicately. I used to stare in disbelief at such exhibitions of skill.

Hero Pens came up around 1981-82, so too the Luxor Hi-Tec Microtip Pilot pen. Maybe they came earlier to Madras. Hero was the best but costly. Naturally it gave a lot of pride to the owners. Camlin pens were always good though and cheaper. Hero escalated to Rs.25 by the turn of the 90s. The mark of the original hero from the fake was the "330" mark on the Gold cap instead of the "332". It was always a good idea to order an original from some family friend in Hong Kong or Singapore(alongwith pestering them for stamps and exchanging them with other kids). I disliked Hero for the simple reason it was impossible to fill the pen to capacity - one squeeze would only half-fill the pen and you have to refill it every 2 or 3 days. I really doubt if kids use fountain pens these days.

Camlin Geometry Box was an inevitable feature, whenever you open a new one, there would be a coupon inside for the Camel Painting competition. Camlin never sold its parts separately and it was impossible for kids to keep the parts intact. It was priced around Rs 7.60 in early eighties and it moved close to Rs. 20 by the end of eighties. Losing a part meant buying the whole box which was a strict no-no for parents! By late 80s, unscrupulous traders would sell compasses and protractors separately for Rs.5 each.

My favorite eraser was the pencil rubber which was white with a green crown and had a letter inscribed on its face! It was an excellent one. I hated the milky white Natraj and Pelican brands as they were costly and ate up a lot of rubber. I remember my first experience in class X when I drew the first diagram on my Botany Record upside down and immediately lost 75% of the new eraser(sorry, I forgot rubber has a differnt meaning :))

Talking of china products, how can we forget the Made in China Pencil, which was the first to introduce an eraser at the top? I hope the red and black striped Natraj and the Flora Pencil with beautiful pink flowers on a white background still exist, for us to buy in bulk from India and give to our kids here! There also used to Made in China sharpening blades, 2 inches long and housed in a sleeve. They were mighty sharp and would cut your fingers ferociously producing heavy bleeding!

Over to TV programs and ads now.

[hehehewalrus]

Games:

Before that, it would be incomplete to mention the pastimes of kids in home and schools. Pets were not that common, as a dog would be a big investment for a parent, hence such requests were not entertained. Fish was a reasonable investment. I remember noticing an aquarium in my mother's lab one day and played with it, she asked if i wanted a couple and we bought some 3 or 4 in a bottle. Dad came that evening and there was a little argument between him and mum as to why she got the poor fish in that cramped up bottle. Finally he mellowed and next day being Saturday, came home with a nice aquarium, fishfood, fish net and a verbal tutorial on fish rearing from the malayalee shopkeeper. Unfortunately they all died within a year in different circumstances. Later on, I got a puppy and overcame my fear of dogs totally. I befriended several street dogs in the neighborhood too and used to fearlessly approach any dog in india. Unfortunately I am totally scared of american dogs, they are too huge and I also fear they probably wont understand my indian accent!

There were lot of guys in class who enjoyed fish rearing and dog raising.

And then how did we pass the time in class? Most was spent playing book cricket, which was a stupid game anyway. Safety pin cricket was another. Name-place-animal-thing was one extremely lousy game, i think its definitely the lousiest game ever invented. What about that raja-rani-mandhiri game? It begins with the raja having to guess the mandhiri, mandhiri the police, and police finally the thirudan. Being the thirudan many a time, I would secretly give a wrong signal to the mandhiri and gleefully transfer my thirudan status! Then there would be a lot of "changing the place" and nayam-adichufying after gathering in some desk. Of course this is possible only if the class leader is a guy.

The fights between boys and girls in class were sickening. Girls were generally thirundhaadha jenmangal who acted like kol-mootifying was the reason for their existence. They also had this peculiar habit of feeling jealous of anyone who progressed, be it in marks or being the leader or other activities. Boys were much more tolerant and open-minded, whether it is in the exam hall or in other questionable activities. Of course, after we got to college, we all respected each other and laughed about past events.

One other game was when we get new books after school reopens after summer hols. Some guys would shout "Eighty six" to their friend in the opposite corner of the class. He would respond "Thirty four" and burst into laughter. If you check page 86 or page 34 of the Bio book, there would be a pic of some gorilla or chimp.

Radio:
Some of the newsreaders of early 80s I remember are Rajaram, Sivaraman, Saroj Narayanaswamy, Sargunan, John Sundar, Rainy Simon, Vijay Daniels. John Sundar had a slow gentle voice. I was really surprised how they let him read the news, which demands a quick reading speed. Vijay Daniels was the best example of English Thaalaatu paatu!! It was more like he was singing an oppaari instead of reading the news. If you eat thayir saadham and lie down on a Sunday afternoon with Vijay Daniels reading the 2:00 PM news, I bet you wont be awake to hear "Before we end the news, here are the main points again", or even "This is All India radio, giving you the news" which comes in the middle.

Then I am not sure if age is playing tricks on me, but in AIR, they sometimes used to announce in tamil, "if someone threatens you by saying ----(some threatening statement like 'i will break ur hands and legs, i will throttle your neck'etc)---", you should reply by saying "---(fitting and fearless reply)---"!!! I am NOT JOKING, I swear I have heard announcements like this. Will the radio regulars please confirm?

Okay, TV contines later...

[Querida]

According to Hehehewalrus:
Girls were generally thirundhaadha jenmangal who acted like kol-mootifying was the reason for their existence. :lol:

anyways please continue...

[dev]

HHHW,

:clap: Pls continue...It's really intersting... & that comment abt girls was too good...:wink: :lol:

& if I remember it right,there was a toothpaste called 'Signal'...A red & green striped one... & why hasn't anyone written abt 'thaen mittai' & kadalai urundai?...

[Thiru]

Talking of Natraj Pencils and Commercials, anyone remember the ad...

'Idhu thaan aatathin kadaisi pandhu... natraj adithan sixer'... :lol: :lol:

[rajes002]

He3Walrus... great posting....

Someone mentioned noddy comics.... yes... noddy was also on my list along with Secret Seven, Famous Five, Five Find-outers, The three investigators, Sherlock Holmes etc.

How about "biggles"? Anybody read these ones? Later on I graduated to Agatha christie, Wodehouse (Bertie Wooster and Jeeves were my favorite).

Talking about ads: Anybody remember the late 70's ad with the lines:- "Dippy dee Dippy dee Dippy dum dum" ad? It used to show a cartoon with a western (american) guy riding a horse with a lassoe. I think this ad used to be for some drink!

[lordstanher]

Lordie...
Girudhaas are sideburns :lol:

Ohh......tks for filling me in on tat! :lol: I thot tats the name for wigs 'cos Mr. Balaji mentioned the villains (only) in the cinemas having Girudhaas.......when actually heroes (& even character actors) had them......& o course so did "real-life" men! :D
My dad's Girudhaas were rather huge, grown past his ear-lobes!.....from wat I see in our old '70s photos. He continued to hav them even after tat, until his death....altho he kept them a bit smaller after the '70s.......!
I've grown them too, complete w/ a typical '70s long-ish hairstyle......but 'don't fancy growing them as big- I feel they might scare even me! :wink: :lol:


They were very much in vogue along with bell bottoms and tight shirts apparant in the old black & white photographs..

Um........speakin of photos, ne-one got ne idea when colour photo cameras first came out in India??
My guess is the late '70s 'cos we've got sum colour photos of our ex-house at hyd. when it was being constructed in 1978......so I guessed tats when colour photos were first avail.?........but then, the camera my dad had used cud've also been an imported one, as he'd 1st travelled abroad to Europe around tat time.......!


Ofcourse its changes that keeps things from getting boring :) but you pine for a world that was more simpler & innocent.

Tats of course true........one reason prob. y many ppl. also long for their childhood. :D

[lordstanher]

I would say Girudhaas and Bell bottoms were much better than punk hairstyle and baggy pants :)

I 2nd ur opinion! :thumbsup: ........esp. since I sport girudhas & wear long-collared shirts/bell-bottoms (now called boot-cuts) myself! :wink: :D
Neways, the current-day "boot-cut" pants may've been intro'd as a revival of the '70s style but they r worn a bit too long for the person wearing them & they 'crumple' down at the feet, which gives them a rather baggy look! I feel the original BB pants of the '70s were much more refined in their 'bell' shape! :D
Also I found tat many '70s pants were not worn w/ belts......even if the shirt was tucked in.......for eg. I noticed Amitabh B in many of his '70s movies where he wears the shirt tucked in but no belt on the pants......not even ne 'rings/loops' on the pant, thru which the belt goes! I guess they were just accessories in those days, as opposed to now.......?

[lordstanher]

I agree wholeheartedly Thiru....I love the patterns and fabrics and just the smartness...i won't go into to decency because well tank tops are a no no but backless saree blouses are ok :roll:

Hmm.......well, to each their own! :D IMHO they might go well for parties etc. but wud look rather unwelcome in a working/professional environment.....? 'think tats y the strict old Principal of my ex-school introduced a rule of all the staff in the school having to wear coats while in the school premises a few yrs ago......(they r even colour-coded......beige/brown coats for teachers, lite blue ones for the ayahs/attendants- and a "Surf-washed" white one for the Princ herself, to be fair! :lol2:).......
But on 2nd thot, I think such blouses r not as bad if comp'd to the current low-hip baggy pants u mentioned (known as hipsters)........had the indignation of seeing too many of those even on girls in Singapore.......and I do agree w/ u tat they r capable of blinding others!! :shock: :lol:


nose, navel, eyebrow, tongue and God knows where else piercings

Um....again from wat I saw in S'pore, even forehead, upper ear & chin piercing! Many of those local Tam. youth in the Little India area had them! 'thot they looked scary! :lol:

[S.Balaji]

Hi all,
What about the drinking items?
En ninaivil vandhavai
1.viva

2. Regovita ( Enaku idhu dhan pidikum orange in color)

3. HOrlicks ( Orae oru horlicks dhan appo One time idhuku romba demand agi thindadinom. ) horlicks is prescribed for fever. :lol: OH what about bread - Modern bread.
ONe add on radio - mummy mummy modern bread protein nirainajadhu and something going on.

4. Bournvita

5. Protinex

With Love,
Usha Sankar.

Yenna Malarum ninaivugalaaa ?? !!

Oru provision listiyae koduthu viteegalay !!

Bournvita was finetuned to become BOOST later I think

What about Farex for kids ??

Ofcourse, Woodwards gripe water

[S.Balaji]

I would say Girudhaas and Bell bottoms were much better than punk hairstyle and baggy pants :)

I 2nd ur opinion! :thumbsup: ........esp. since I sport girudhas & wear long-collared shirts/bell-bottoms (now called boot-cuts) myself! :wink: :D
Neways, the current-day "boot-cut" pants may've been intro'd as a revival of the '70s style but they r worn a bit too long for the person wearing them & they 'crumple' down at the feet, which gives them a rather baggy look! I feel the original BB pants of the '70s were much more refined in their 'bell' shape! :D
Also I found tat many '70s pants were not worn w/ belts......even if the shirt was tucked in.......for eg. I noticed Amitabh B in many of his '70s movies where he wears the shirt tucked in but no belt on the pants......not even ne 'rings/loops' on the pant, thru which the belt goes! I guess they were just accessories in those days, as opposed to now.......?

Dear Stan,

GOod morning !!. Before I could start my day and explain about GIrudhas , you have already got more than 5 postings on this !!
Well, wish to bring some quick memories of GIrudhas from movies :

1. Manohar
2. Nambiar
3.Even your Amitabh also !!
4. Did you see - Pammal K Sambandham - Kamal's

Classic examples they are. !!

[S.Balaji]

Talking about ads: Anybody remember the late 70's ad with the lines:- "Dippy dee Dippy dee Dippy dum dum" ad? It used to show a cartoon with a western (american) guy riding a horse with a lassoe. I think this ad used to be for some drink!


yes yes I remember that ad . It was quite funny thing.

[S.Balaji]

Some famous movies from outside :

1. Sholay
2. yadonki baarat
3. Bobby
4. Mcnas Gold - Gregory peck and Omar sherif . Gregory passed away some time back
5. Chitchor and Chot see bhath - Amol palekar's
6. Aradhana
7. Aap ki kasam
8. kati patang
9. Dirty dozen
10. Five men army
11. Great Escape

etc etc

[lordstanher]

Amar Chitra Katha started in September 1980 I think. The periodicity was fortnightly. Tinkle came up later.

I rem. reading the editor "Uncle" Pai mentioning in one issue tat Tinkle came up in November 1980 (forgot the exact date).......I used to read Tinkle regularly........(not too fond of the Amar Chitra Katha storeis tho- my sis liked them more & now even buys them for her American nephews when she visits India!)


Champak was another but was filled with crappy stories of Lambu Hyena planning to eat some Champa Rabbit with the help of Chandurang Jackal!

:lol: :lol: Yea most stories in Champak were like tat but sum were also good moral "proverb-based" ones........I started reading it from 1987 when we moved to Rajasthan from hyd........I recall it was available @ Rs.3 at tat time!
Incidentally, its founder editor, late Vishwa Nath was also the founder of Womens' era......


Cheeku Rabbit and Chanchu Rat were the comic strips.

Yup, also Raju & the Squirrel (I forgot its name altho I rem. it says "cheem cheem" at the end of every story! )

Also was Gokulam avail. in the '70s/80s.....??


the Rasna model Ankita Jhaveri sitting on the floor sipping a glass of Rasna in pics? I am sure her nice kid haircut became a hit in households in addition to the drink she endorsed!

Um.......is she the kid who always said "I luv u Rasna"...?? :D

Also 'rem. the dancing girl in the original Nirma powder ad of the '80s, whom my parents called as the "dancing papa" when I first saw the ad in 1987 on our dyno(saur)a TV! :D
Also still like the song "Washing powder Nirma......."!


Among Cycles, Raleigh was the leader, holding market share since the 50s. Till mid-eighties, there were really no competition from Atlas/BSA and the likes.

Um........I thot it was called Rallys or sumthing? Neways, mus be diff. pronounciation........I was told tat BSA & even Hercules (my granpa had one in the '40s here at Vizag!) were there from the '40s onwards.......


Camlin Geometry Box was an inevitable feature, whenever you open a new one, there would be a coupon inside for the Camel Painting competition.

I rem. there was an old tarnished Camlin box lying in our attic for a long time, bought by my sister in the early '80s........she'd even etched a 'warning' on the underside- "look look look, don't steal my box, stealing is a shame....." not really rhyming but conveyed the point! :D


There also used to Made in China sharpening blades, 2 inches long and housed in a sleeve. They were mighty sharp and would cut your fingers ferociously producing heavy bleeding!

Yup, I had a couple of those when I was at school.......circa 10-12 yrs ago! I bought them quite a few times as they were stolen each time by a jealous classmate (even tho they were worth only Rs.3.50 or so!)

[tvsankar]

Balaji,
Ippavum Bournvita iruku. En son ku adhu dhan pidikum :lol:

Radio vil oli chitram varum.Sunday i think. madhyanam 2 to 4 i think.
Iru kodugal, punnagai , arangatram ellam ellam radio la chinna vayasil kettadhu dhan .
Early mor la integration kaga song vepppanga.
Mor la ezhundhukaradhuku radio vai on panniduvanga. Vera vazhiyae illai.Samatha ezhundhuduvom.
some of the songs were
1.Gokulathil oru naal Raadhai
2.Pullangulazh kodutha moongilagalae
3.Spb oda song theiryalai

1.Yesu nadhar pesinal avar enna pesuvar

2. Nallaar sollai nam ketpom nalamai vaazha vazhi vagupom

1. Iraivanidam kai yendhungal avan ilai enru solvadhu ilai
Unmaiyana sweet memories.En brothers ellar kudavum irundhaen. Ippo ovvorutharum ovvoru countrylae !!!!
With Love,
Usha Sankar.

[lordstanher]

Some famous movies from outside :

1. Sholay
2. yadonki baarat
3. Bobby
4. Mcnas Gold - Gregory peck and Omar sherif . Gregory passed away some time back
5. Chitchor and Choti see bhath - Amol palekar's
6. Aradhana
7. Aap ki kasam
8. kati patang
9. Dirty dozen
10. Five men army
11. Great Escape

etc etc

Um....wat abt Saturday Night Fever (1977)?? :D Tat, I believe, is considered the turning point of '70s Disco......! Was it shown in India at tat time?

[S.Balaji]

Balaji,
Ippavum Bournvita iruku. En son ku adhu dhan pidikum :lol:

Radio vil oli chitram varum.Sunday i think. madhyanam 2 to 4 i think.
Iru kodugal, punnagai , arangatram ellam ellam radio la chinna vayasil kettadhu dhan .
Early mor la integration kaga song vepppanga.
Mor la ezhundhukaradhuku radio vai on panniduvanga. Vera vazhiyae illai.Samatha ezhundhuduvom.
some of the songs were
1.Gokulathil oru naal Raadhai
2.Pullangulazh kodutha moongilagalae
3.Spb oda song theiryalai

Ushaji,

Add :

1. Unnai solladha naal illai / Ullam urugudhaiyaa / muruga endru azaikavaa / karpanai endraalum karchilai endraalum - All from TMS
2. Chinaathaa enga maariyaathaa !! / Karpura naayagiyae kanaga valee / All magamayee songs - From LRE
3. Vinayaganay velvinayay verarukka valaaan - Sirgazhi
4. Bhagavan saranam bagavathi sharaman / pallikattu sabarimalaiku - Veeramani
5. Krishnaganam songs - MSV

All used to be the morning ones in the 70s and 80s.

Not to forget , MSS - Bajagovindam and followed by Bavayaami raghuramam and followed by VIshu sahasranaamam.



1.Yesu nadhar pesinal avar enna pesuvar

2. Nallaar sollai nam ketpom nalamai vaazha vazhi vagupom

1. Iraivanidam kai yendhungal avan ilai enru solvadhu ilai
Unmaiyana sweet memories.En brothers ellar kudavum irundhaen. Ippo ovvorutharum ovvoru countrylae !!!!
With Love,
Usha Sankar.

[S.Balaji]

[quote="lordstanher
Um....wat abt Saturday Night Fever (1977)?? :D Tat, I believe, is considered the turning point of '70s Disco......! Was it shown in India at tat time?[/quote]

Stan,

Saturday night fever set a new trend in music those days.You are right. was a bethoven Composition

By the way , when did Jackson launch his albums ?? Just beat it. Is it in the late 80s ?


Enna - Boney M and Abba vay marandhuteengalaaaa !!

[lordstanher]

By the way , when did Jackson launch his albums ?? Just beat it. Is it in the late 80s ?

Yes twas around tat time- my sis liked his music (& so do I!) a lot! :D
Unless I'm mistaken beat it was b4 MJ underwent platisc surgery to change his complexion?........following which he came up w/ "I'm Bad...."


Enna - Boney M and Abba vay marandhuteengalaaaa !!

Ille, naan onnu-marakalai! :wink: :D I liked Boney M too, tks to my mother, who used to listen to their songs very often.......I esp. like the tune of the song "No woman no cry"......!
And yea, speaking of music........'wonder how I cud forget to ask so far abt Elvis Presley- the 'King' or Rock n Roll!! :D
How popular was he in India?? Ne-one who listened to his ne of his msuic (from the '50s- '70s)??

[S.Balaji]

Stan,

Elvis was not that popular those days because of Hindi music dominating that time. I mean RDB and LP

Elvis is now popular !!

I think Jackson's surgery was after the launch of Beat it .

[S.Balaji]

Coming to Schooling :

1. Slate and balappam !!!!!!!!!

I think 99% of 60s and 70s would have faced that

2. Uniforms - Cocky and white

Going to scout , creating tents and having tea / coffee / some small food prepared by group head

All fun

Also Konar thamil urai

[tvsankar]

In Bangalore radio station we heard the songs of Bony M and abba

1.One way ticket

2. Raa Raa rasputhin

3.Brown girl in the wing
Hurrah Hurrah its jolly holiday ( lyric\s seriya theriyalai)


With LOve,
Usha Sankar.

[S.Balaji]

In Bangalore radio station we heard the songs of Bony M and abba

1.One way ticket

2. Raa Raa rasputhin

3.Brown girl in the wing
Hurrah Hurrah its jolly holiday ( lyric\s seriya theriyalai)


With LOve,
Usha Sankar.

Also, the song - " I have been cheated by you since I dont know how. So I made up my mind lets come to end "
It was very popular which prompted some hindi guy to copy for Rishikapoor - Milgayaa

Also, Sonnny I love you -----

[S.Balaji]

Coming back to School days,

The erasing rubber earlier we had was single coloured - probably white .

THere was a launch of news series with 2 colours - i think white with green etc etc and also had some fragrant flavour to it.

It was a big thing for us . Often used to check whether the fragrance is still there or not ??!!

[S.Balaji]

[quote="lordstanher
Um....wat abt Saturday Night Fever (1977)?? :D Tat, I believe, is considered the turning point of '70s Disco......! Was it shown in India at tat time?[/quote]

Stan,

I thought you will mention - BOMBAY TO GOA !! Your Amitab and Aruna Irani ??

There was another movie - West world ...... Eul Burner etc etc which was released in Satyam / santham / subham - one of these theaters.
I was forced to see this movie as we could not get tickets for Sholay !!

[S.Balaji]

On flooring :

We could see either Kadappa kullll or redoxide

Mosaic tiles were something special in the late 70s.

No ceramic, no granite , no marble ........


All kadappa kull and redoxide only all the way.

[S.Balaji]

Coming back to cars.....


Somebody mentioned about Janavasam cars..... open cars.......

The poor driver will have to maintain the speed of 10kms PH all the way. 25 persons will be in front and another 25 will be on back.
The Groom , well dressed up with Blazer ?? and with garland surrounded by all Vaandduuus fighting with each other to get close to Maapillai for photos.
Hot gas lights being carried by helpers to show the Groom .

All the fun missing now .

[S.Balaji]

On news papers :

Anybody knew about - SUDHESA MITHIRAN. This faded in the 70s . Has got a big history behind........

The great Subramnia Bharathi was writing articles before Independence......... Such a long history........

ofcourse- Dinathanthi is still there.

Also Hindu and Express.

I understand, Deccan chronicle has been launched in Chennai recently.

[ssanjinika]

Anyone remember the 10kasu Orange muttai??
It used to come in a white stripped wrapper and I used to love those.
Then it was coffe bite...(with the coffee toffee ad)

I remember in UKG for my B'day my mom gave me a huge box of those muttais to distribute in school.For some reason (bcoz I didnt like my UKG teacher or something like that) My friend and I skipped class sat beneath the tree and ate the entire box !!! Boy was I sick after that :lol: :lol:
Things improved the next year when I changed schools :).

[S.Balaji]

[quote="ssanjinika"]Anyone remember the 10kasu Orange muttai??
It used to come in a white stripped wrapper and I used to love those.

Sanjinikaaaaa !!!

On target !!!. yes, the flavour will be like fanta ??



Then it was coffe bite...(with the coffee toffee ad)

yes, from Parrys'


Not to forget - Kamarkat as well !!. Will need strong teeth to break .

[ssanjinika]

Well...I am not sure when color photos actually came to India.
My parents got married in 1976 and all their wedding pictures are black and white.Dont remember any color photos.So they must have come only after that.
BTW on those lines could someone clarify this doubt of mine?
Color photos / Black & white photos - does it depend on the film role or the chemicals the film is washed in?

[lordstanher]

In Bangalore radio station we heard the songs of Bony M and abba
3.Brown girl in the wing


Um....tat song was Brown girl in the ring.......(tra la la la la)...... :wink: :D
There was also another famous song of Abba- Money money money......sweet as honey....in a rich man's world!
(note: many ppl. hav apparently taken this song too seriously! :wink: :lol: )

Oh, and yea.....ne of u rem. tat lusty song of Disco Lady (luv to luv u baby......) :D tat was from the '70s too.......we had a cassette but my mum never liked to play tat song.......so maybe it was bought by my sister! :wink: :lol:

[Thiru]

Famous candys & choclates during the 80s..

Ravalgon
Nutrine
Cadbury's eclairs (This was an expensive one at that time)
melody (melody kaao ad)
Amul milk choclate
Campco (There was a very good commercial when children who have their back turned to the camera turn around for each alphabet and the last kid is immersed in finishing the choclate and doesnt turn back).

Those days parents dont let the TV running all the time because of electricity charges.. My sis used to have a fight with my dad on turning on the TV for the commercials before the sunday evening movie.. Washing powder Nirma with the girl dancing around was always the sponsor for the sunday evening movie... If we hear the Nirma music, we know that the movie is about to start...

[lordstanher]

Sorry I'd overlooked this previous comment of urs:


Saturday night fever set a new trend in music those days.You are right. was a bethoven Composition

Um....Beethoven??!! :shock: But it was the Bee Gees who'd composed music for this film.......they even sang most of the songs themselves.......its only in one scene in the movie (where the niteclub is shown) tat a symphony of Beethoven's was briefly played..... :D

[lordstanher]

Stan,

I thought you will mention - BOMBAY TO GOA !! Your Amitab and Aruna Irani ??

Um......yea I do know abt Bombay to Goa (saw it recently on TV!) but was it tat famous?? :? I mean, Amitabh's turning point in his career was Zanjeer (1973).....where he 1st reset his image as the "angry young man" as oppsoed to the mediocre actor tat he was considered b4 tat....... :D
I'd earlier mentioned Amitabh's noteworthy '70s movies in the Indian films thread.......and btw, if u notice, in most of his action movies his name is Vijay! :D I kinda like tat name (meaning victory)....decided to keep tat name for my son if I hav one.......also hav a scooter w/ tat name now! :wink:
Oh, yea once again on attires- do u rem. tat Amitabh wore his blue 'dock coolie' shirt w/ a knot tied at the front in the film Deewar (1975), bcos they stitched it too long- even for him! And turns out tat instantly became a fashion stment for youth in tat period! :D
And yea Balaji, u'd mentioned Choti si baat (amol palekar) but also worth adding in the 'low budget' category r Golmaal & Pati-Patni aur Woh (both from the late '70s) :wink: :D

[S.Balaji]

[
quote="lordstanher"]Sorry I'd overlooked this previous comment of urs:


Saturday night fever set a new trend in music those days.You are right. was a bethoven Composition

Um....Beethoven??!! :shock: But it was the Bee Gees who'd composed music for this film.......they even sang most of the songs themselves.......its only in one scene in the movie (where the niteclub is shown) tat a symphony of Beethoven's was briefly played..... :D[/quote]

Stan,

I stand corrected. You are right. It was a scene and yeh .. symphony of Bee.....

Besides, we also had beetles........

Also, that Osibisa group from Africaaaa... one guy singing ....... Raghupathy raghava raja raam also.............

[lordstanher]

Coming back to cars.....
Somebody mentioned about Janavasam cars..... open cars.......

Yes tat was me! I was jus surprised tat u hadn't mentioned Heralds in ur list of cars tat were seen then....... :wink:
They were very popular for janavasams from the '70s onwards when they started becoming 'old'.......even seen a few pics. of my aunt (dad's sister)'s wedding at hyd. in 1977.....the groom was seated in an open-top Herald (which I'm sure was painted red even tho they r B/W photos!).......
Rich ppl. however, hired the bigger old American cars viz. Impalas etc.......I used to see them at Hyd........now their place is taken over by Contessas!


The poor driver will have to maintain the speed of 10kms PH all the way. 25 persons will be in front and another 25 will be on back.

Not to mention ppl. (esp. children) nonchalantly lighting/bursting crackers in the path of the car! w/ apparently little concern abt the danger involved!


The Groom , well dressed up with Blazer ?? and with garland surrounded by all Vaandduuus fighting with each other to get close to Maapillai for photos. Hot gas lights being carried by helpers to show the Groom .

Yup........not to mention various children climbing all over the place to take a ride in the car or just be photo'd! :lol:

[S.Balaji]

[ Washing powder Nirma with the girl dancing around was always the sponsor for the sunday evening movie... If we hear the Nirma music, we know that the movie is about to start...[/quote]

Subsequently the small girl was replaced by Azhar's wife !!
Sangeetha Bijlaniiiii

Also, for Surf ...... some lady by name ---------- Lalithajiii used to argue and get it .......

[S.Balaji]

[
Um......yea I do know abt Bombay to Goa (saw it recently on TV!) but was it tat famous?? :? I mean, Amitabh's turning point in his career was Zanjeer (1973).....where he 1st reset his image as the "angry young man" as oppsoed to the mediocre actor tat he was considered b4 tat....... :D

Correct. Zanjeer was Turning point for him.




Oh, yea once again on attires- do u rem. tat Amitabh wore his blue 'dock coolie' shirt w/ a knot tied at the front in the film Deewar (1975), bcos they stitched it too long- even for him! And turns out tat instantly became a fashion stment for youth in tat period! :D

Absolutely.



And yea Balaji, u'd mentioned Choti si baat (amol palekar) but also worth adding in the 'low budget' category r Golmaal & Pati-Patni aur Woh (both from the late '70s) :wink: :D

yes. I love that song ... Kishore's ....... Jaanay vaalaaaaa pal... in Golmal I think.....
THillu mullu was a Golmal remake.

[lordstanher]

On flooring :

We could see either Kadappa kullll or redoxide
Mosaic tiles were something special in the late 70s.

Yea my father did get those tiles put for the flooring in our ex-house when he built in 1978.......even those were from kadappa he said.......
But then even my mother's mama's house in Madras (built in 1965) has mosaic tiles....... :?
Yes I also liked the red oxide used esp. on steps/verandah "thinnais" of old houses! Badly wanted my father to put them for our staircase.....oh, well he sold the house neways! :D
But IMHO u can never find tat authentic look in the newer houses today.......!

[lordstanher]

yes. I love that song ... Kishore's ....... Jaanay vaalaaaaa pal... in Golmal I think.....
THillu mullu was a Golmal remake.

Yes the song was Aane wala pal..jaane wala hai......but my fav. scene in tat movie was where he & the heroine escape from her father in tat blue Herald car (even tho it looked rather tatty)! :wink: :lol:
Um.....did thillu mullu hav Rajnikant in it btw?? :?
And did it also hav a Herald in it?? :wink:

[Anoushka]

Great posting H3W :)




Btw, was ur Herald a 2-door one??



Yes Lord, it was a 2 door one :) We later on got an "old fiat" and a few other cars after that but till date if we fight for the window seat my Mom tells us "I think I should get the herald car back again and dump you guys in the back seat :)"




It even came w/ a decolum panelled wooden box w/ sliding shutters!



Our TV had one of those too!


On fans, The (Usha) fan in my Gran's house has been working without any problems for the past 30+ years :)

Thiru,

I remember the Natraj pencil ad... I used to find it funny then!


And Helpage India... how can one forget that! My Dad used to get sick of us coming up with these forms and he himself used to fill it up and that was the end of the story! We never had to go asking other people for money :)


Amul Milk chocoalte had six flavours - Dad used to work in Kochin and we lived in Madras for a short while, he used to come home every second weekend and he used to get us all different flavours of Amul milk chocolate for us :)


I am not sure if any one remembers the Tango ad that used to be shown in bombay doordarshan...

It went something like

The same dull faces, the same old food, the same old homework, the same old news
There is something special to an ordinary day... a tango in your hand a smile on your face and someday this world is a much better place.. Tango tango tango There is something special to an ordinary day.

We used to have Spencer's mango as a kid... never liked Goldspot anyway! But I remember I used to collect the cartoon characters that were printed on the inside of the gold spot caps.

Anyone remember there was a rumour saying if you found three (1 Rs or 5 Rs) coin with HMT on it, you could get a HMT watch free!

There was another rumour... something to do with Maruthi car reg nos, don't exactly remember the details, but remember collecting the reg nos anyway!

Was a big Mordern bread (salt) and AMUL butter fan in my childhood days, when I went to Coimbatore and realised they had no Amul butter I was highly disappointed!

Mixie - My mom had a Devidayal till a couple of years ago and it was still working fine when she decided to give it away and get a new one!

Talking about magazine, I remember reading the Russian Children's magazine Misha... one of my cousins used to get it for his children and I would go and dutifully borrow it off him!

Balaji,

The song in Golmaal is "Aaane wala pal jaane wala hai... ho sake to isme zindagi bita do..."

[S.Balaji]

[Um.....did thillu mullu hav Rajnikant in it btw?? :?
And did it also hav a Herald in it?? :wink:


Yes. Thillu mullu was Rajini's ... Directed by KB....

Not sure whether Herald was used in that movie.

[Thiru]

[Um.....did thillu mullu hav Rajnikant in it btw?? :?
And did it also hav a Herald in it?? :wink:


Yes. Thillu mullu was Rajini's ... Directed by KB....

Not sure whether Herald was used in that movie.

Herald was used in that movie in the last scene when Thengai Srinivasan chases Rajini..

[lordstanher]

Yes Lord, it was a 2 door one :) We later on got an "old fiat" and a few other cars after that but till date if we fight for the window seat my Mom tells us "I think I should get the herald car back again and dump you guys in the back seat :)"

:lol: :lol:
Yea I did hav a feeling tat parents who had 2-door Heralds found them as sum kind of way of punishing their kids if they misbehaved, esp. as u mention, fighting for the window seat, which wud make no diff. in a 2-dr Herald as both the rear side windows in tat car wud be sealed, not poss' to open! :D
Now tat I'm planning to buy one, I daresay in future my wife wud tell the same thing to my kid/s whenever they acted cranky?! :wink: :lol:
Aside, I believe ladies wearing a Saree wud find it really diff. to climb in/out of the back of 2-dr Heralds.......my mom, from her own experiences in friends' cars in the '70s, says it felt much like a rabbit entering/exiting its burrow! :lol:
And yes, also used to see lots of those "old" fiat 1100s w/ the backward-opening front doors until a few yrs ago! :D My history teacher at my ex-school had one (her father-in-law's actually) but saw it very rarely......my friend in Pune just acquired one too, a 1-owner car from 1960!

Oh, and another query- was ur scooter Lambretta 150 or just "Lamby" 150 ?? The latter was intro'd in the late '60s/early '70s & was the last model of tat range.......later succeeded by the Vijai Super range (just bought one of those, still learning how to ride a scooter.....havn't had a fall (yet?) :wink: )........


The song in Golmaal is "Aaane wala pal jaane wala hai... ho sake to isme zindagi bita do..."

Yup, tats indeed the one! :)

[lordstanher]

Herald was used in that movie in the last scene when Thengai Srinivasan chases Rajini..

Wowww!! sounds like a pucca copy of Golmaal! :wink: :lol:
Btw, it was Rajni driving the Herald?
Neways, tks for the info. Thiru! Now set to buy a VCD of tat movie as well! :wink: :D

[S.Balaji]

Herald was used in that movie in the last scene when Thengai Srinivasan chases Rajini..

Wowww!! sounds like a pucca copy of Golmaal! :wink: :lol:
Btw, it was Rajni driving the Herald?
Neways, tks for the info. Thiru! Now set to buy a VCD of tat movie as well! :wink: :D

Stan,

Thengai was at his best in that movie. Also Sowcar did well.

Songs were popular. MSV .... one special song .... Raagangal padhinaaruu uruvaana varalaaaruu.......... SPB.

[hehehewalrus]

can u guys pls avoid one-liners/quoting fullsize posts and respond to 3-4 posts in one shot pls? will sure reduce the scrolling.

[Thiru]

Herald was used in that movie in the last scene when Thengai Srinivasan chases Rajini..

Wowww!! sounds like a pucca copy of Golmaal! :wink: :lol:
Btw, it was Rajni driving the Herald?
Neways, tks for the info. Thiru! Now set to buy a VCD of tat movie as well! :wink: :D

Yes.. Thillu mullu was a scene by scene remake of golmaal (ofcourse with the rights)... Thengai will be driving the Herald and Rajini will be driving a luna...

[ssanjinika]

The Herald...the dear old faithful Herald..
I remember we had this cream and black Herald for a long time and once there were floods in chennai.I think it was Nov 1984..and before the actual floods we had gone to a marrige somewhere and were returning home through greenways road.Being just a child then I dont think I realised that the water level on that road had risen until the car stalled.After that I remember being extremely scared and crying that we were going to drown :lol: .But of course our faithful car managed to hold on till we reached home :).

Does anyone remember the cars in the movie Kadhalikka neram illai ?
Theres one plymouth which played an imp role..wonder what the other cars are.

[S.Balaji]

Schooling....


We used BRYL ink ......... Was quite a popular brand those days. Also NURIT or something....... Dont remember.

[S.Balaji]

The Herald...the dear old faithful Herald..
I remember we had this cream and black Herald for a long time and once there were floods in chennai.I think it was Nov 1984..and before the actual floods we had gone to a marrige somewhere and were returning home through greenways road.Being just a child then I dont think I realised that the water level on that road had risen until the car stalled.After that I remember being extremely scared and crying that we were going to drown :lol: .But of course our faithful car managed to hold on till we reached home :).

Sanjinika,

Floods ..... It was Nov 1985 , a day before Deepavali... . That Adyar river was overflowing nearby Kottupuram area .
I remember MGR moving out of Ramavaram gardens house... as the river !! was passing behind his house.




Does anyone remember the cars in the movie Kadhalikka neram illai ?
Theres one plymouth which played an imp role..wonder what the other cars are.

Plymouth.... I think Muthuraman used it in that movie.

[hehehewalrus]

(recap of comics and food items)

I am not sure if Ankita Jhaveri is the one who says "I love you Rasna" because actually there was a pair of twins! Yep, Alka Jhaveri and Ankita Jhaveri, who both acted in Rasna ads.

Along with Farex, there was also Anikspray meant for kids. I remember my father getting Farex for our small puppy :smile2: How he enjoyed it!

The Dippy dee Dippy dee ad was for Dipys Syrup

Bournvita and Boost are of course different. Bournvita has a more chocolatey flavour. Boost and Maltova are from Jagatjit Food Products. Maltova of course had srikkanth as brand promoter. Although my parents tried Horlicks, Bournvita, Maltova, Complan, Ragi Malt, Boost for me, I prefer to eat them raw and instead drink good old tea/coffee. Hated milk and these drinks like anything, used to mix them with sugar and water and eat them raw. I wont show my kids how coffee/tea looks like :smile2:

regd comics, Noddy was a great piece by Enid Blyton. I only listened to the stories when small, but after growing up, suddenly had a crush and started reading them. The golliwogs were later edited in 1995 to reduce the racism in Enid Blyton's books. There were several wonderful wonderful books by Enid Blyton. Anyone recollects Mark and Mandy, Tim and Topsy series? There was a very cute girl in my school, she was my junior, I used to wonder if she was Topsy! I was in I std and she in UKG and unfortunately left the school after that year.

Noddy set
http://www.navrang.com/index.php?Page=Products&ID=1910

This is how Mark and Mandy look like:
http://cgi.ebay.ie/MARK-AND-MANDY-IN-SNOWLAND-A-Rylee-Bunny-Book-Rare_W0QQitemZ6970634240QQcategoryZ90576QQssPageNa meZWD4VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting

Topsy and Tim:
http://www.tvtoys.co.uk/all/character/TOPSY+AND+TIM.html

I must somehow buy them again from ebay after i make more money!

Never got to read the Secret Seven series just one of them. But got enough of Famous Five, it was quite an enjoyable one. Enid Blyton was an incredible, I used to read her books even in my late teens and early 20s!

[hehehewalrus]

dev,
yep i loved the Signal toothpaste very much, i was fascinated by the stripes and used to wonder why the paste doesnt get colorful once inside the mouth! It had an excellent tangy flavour and was very successful in increasing the brushing time for kids, which of course involves some consumption too :)

Rajes002,
Were you part of some library? The Three Investigators was never an easy-to-find series unless you were part of a really good lib.
The complete works of Sherlock Holmes is available online.

[S.Balaji]

Walrus..


Rasna add.... it was Anita Jhaveri only .

[S.Balaji]

I must mention about RAT TRAPS.... Eli poreee !!!!

Those days we had primitive traps .. there will be a small goondu with small small iron rods... ( kambees !! ) and one can see the poor rat with tail outside and the balance body inside....

over a period of time rats were so smart that whatever techinique applied , they were able to outsmart. We also remember using Masal vadai !!! to capture the most notorious rat !!!

Sad on certain occasions, even squirrel used to get trapped ...

The place we lived in Velachery.... once there was a huge open space and we used to go up to the far end to release the rat....so that it will not find the route back home !!!

[hehehewalrus]

Ads and quiz shows

For a country of millions for whom life is a ratrace, survival of the fittest being a key phrase since the early days, it is amazing how little thought went into the packaging of food stuff. The kuchi icecream they sold would decorate your shirt within a few licks. If you had parents who forbad you from buying the roadside Kani Ice, God save you should you break the rules, because there's no way you can eat and not get discovered- the ice would melt in a jiffy and settle itself all over your dress. It was only in early 1988 that pepsi came up as a more convenient alternative. But then who cared, the memorable sound of an icecream horn was always sweet music to our ears!

To start with, we have the Panjamritham stick which was a truncated cylinder in shape for Rs.25. Never enjoyed the taste of it. The best bet was the 50 ps Badam and the rose colored RoseMilk - they were really fundooooooooooo!!! How delicious it was! We enjoyed them at school and at home, used to take a stainless steel tumbler, buy the ice and run home...then pound it inside the tumbler and eat it slowly - it was such a delicious experience. :tongueout: :tongueout: :tongueout: Cream ice sold for Rs.1 but it fell off the stick very fast. Chocobar was the costliest at Rs 2.50 or so.

Pepsi came out in early 1988 and saved a lot of washing for our mothers. During that time, my class teacher had prohibited icecreams for our class and anyone found approaching the ice vendor would be punished in class the next day. One clever chap protested once and explained what he had consumed was pepsi and not the typical icestick. "Pepsi = Ice" exclaimed the teacher and administered the customary thrashing with the wooden scale.
What pains we endured in waiting for all the teachers and classgirls to leave for home, before we could go out and buy ice!

Talking about washing, Lalithaji's Surf came up in 1983. It was actually a big war between Hindustan Lever's Surf and Nirma(Godrej?). Alyque Padamsee wrote in his autobiography that HLL's biggest challenge was that an equivalent quantity of Nirma sold at half the price of Surf. Initially it was Nirma all the way. Finally the trick lay in convincing the public that CHEAP DOESNT MEAN GOOD, and to add more punch, showcased Lalitha as a shrewd calculating housewife who bullies and bargains with the tomato seller and in the end delivers the message about not getting lured by cheap prices. The ad was a runaway success.

Amul had a fantastic set of chocolates, Amul Bitter, Amul Badam, Amul Crisp...and a series of ads based on the different themes.

Moving to TV ads, I always felt that the folks who worked at DD and AIR were massively henpecked, going by the number of husband-wife interactions we had. Right from radio, we had the ARR sugandhu paaku ad, where the wife says "Enakku romba pidichirukunga" and so on...Some clever guys in class used to spoof the ad in different ways changing the conversation as much as they pleased.

Then there was this Lipton tea ad where this guy gets tea from his wife and goes to a car rally. The fun part was that he keeps asking his wife "Nalla irukku..stronga?" all throughout the ad. His doubt never ceased...Eternal Sandhegamurthy, enna oru loose- thanamaana kelvi, thaan kudicha tea thanakke stronga-nu theriyalayaam!

The best ad of all of course was the Idhayam Nallennai ad. The lady of the house is in a pissed-off mood, and the chap peers out of his newspaper in such a wimpish way and asks "Idhayathula...appadi enna vishesham?" as if he is a young aerospace engineer asking a doubt from Abul Kalaam, and the hot-headed lady gives such a stinging lecture like "kaaram illa, cholesterol illai...." - it was almost as if she would march to the guy, snatch the paper and give a nice slap for not promptly buying Idhayam Nallenai *sigh*

There was one good ad though - very cutely done by a small kid, who asks her dad "office-la girlfriend irukka?" and something like that, and the dad gives a nice explanation and samaalification, both dad, mum and kid acted very nicely in that ad, very appropriately acted out without the message being too loud.

There was one Vigil Ad with Vengsarkar and his wife/kid, The theme song was a copy of "Ek Pyaar ka nagma hai" the old hindi hit.

SEARS ELCOT had Gavaskar in the ad.

TV serials later....

[ssanjinika]

Loved Enid Blyton stories.I think read them well into myteens.So many series were facinating .Always wondered if the makers of Toy story movies kind of got the idea from Enid Blyton books..there are a lot of her books where toys come to life(Amelia Jane is another one)
The Circus series,River series and St Clare series were among my favs.Do you remember Enchanted tree series?Its a series of 3 books and is about magical woods which has a tree The tree is inhibited by strange creatures and has a new land on top of it every week.Its great and totally magical.After marriage I remember we had gone to a book store where these books were on sale and all the 3 together cost under 50 rupees.Ofcourse I had to have it.I must say my husband was pretty amused :D.

Wasnt there also a toothpaste named Forhans??Vaguely remember a vetti ad.One of the few ads which hasnt changed much over the time is the Vicco ad.Infact I think none of the Vicco ads changed much(paste,powder and face cream).The actors in those ads probably have children in that age now :lol:

[hehehewalrus]

Quiz Shows:

I remember Sid Basu's Quiz Time running in 1985-86. it was a national level quiz on a collegiate level. Quiz Time was followed by a serial AIR HOSTESS. This was followed by CONTACT, a quiz hosted by Ronnie Scroonwala for school kids. AFter that came Discover India Quiz which was hosted by Jayant Kripalani. So these three occupied 1986 to early 1987.

Basu's hostesses for Kavitha Agarwal, Radha Seth and Vandana Mohan respectively.

All these three took the Sunday 9 PM spot while Sabeera Merchant's "Whats the good word?" was every alternate thursday 10:20 PM. Narottam Puri's Sports Quiz would be one Thursday 9:50PM of each month.

Sid disappeared for some time after Quiz Time. Bhaskar Bhattacharjee came up with Alpha Plus on Sundays 1130 AM. This started in July 1987. Alpha Plus was meant for school kids, actually 11th/12th kids.

Basu returned with Quiz Time in 1988. Then in early 1989, he came up with SAARC Quiz, featuring guys from the 7 nations. There was one decent Bangladeshi, the rest were all duds.

In 89 he wrote a book, the "India Quiz" Book priced at Rs.65 which was high at that time.

[hehehewalrus]

Oh I loved the St.Clare series!! I didnt like What Katy did, What Katy did Next, what katy did at school. But St.Clare was fabulous!!! :lol2: :lol2: They were fully of tomboys, the Pat and Isabel twins - I guess this is the only girly novel which the young fellows enjoyed thoroughly. The best part is you will always learn a few pranks that even the backbencher boys wont teach you - Pat and Isabel show a lot of "criminal brain" :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: Hats off to the St.Clare series! I liked them 1000 times better than Nancy Drew.

Anyone read Nancy Drew File series? ;)

[ssanjinika]

Anyone read Nancy Drew File series? ;)

I agree with you on the St Clare series.I digged them.Cant think of a better time than sitting on the balcony having a snack and watching the afternoon sun/rain(it did rain in chennai back then).I think i'll look for these books when i goto India this time...would love to read them to my kids :).

Nancy Drew sucked big time !!! Though it was soooooooo famous.Mine was a really short Nancy Drew phase.Couldnt take too much of the Case files and quickly switched to Agatha Christie and Earl Stanly Gardner.

[hehehewalrus]

Nancy Drew Case Files were on the racier side, featuring some sultry escapades with guys other than Ned Nickerson. Anyway it was tons better than reading the usual Nancy, Bess, George overcoming thugs and burglars with mere karate kicks! Parents beware, dont get misled by the Nancy Drew brand name, it was another name for Mills and boon! :lol2:

Hardy Boys was miles ahead - almost every chapter has a suspenseful ending. I really loved them very much. I first got them from a library when I was 11 - It was "The Shattered Helmet - #81" and lost it after reading some 70 exciting pages. I hunted for it the next 2 years and finally got hold of it to finish reading the rest.

I never got around to reading Agatha Christie, Calvin-Hobbes and Wodehouse. But I really love Garfield and Dilbert!!

[hehehewalrus]

By early 90s, Chennai DD used to have a sponsor for the 730 as well as 840 news. There were all kinds of weird and unknown sponsors whose names would come up just behind the running time. One particular occasion had the sponsors as Cinni Fans, Tullu Pumps and Booty Mixie, more like a story from Champak!

alright, now for a recap of programs from 1986. Yeh Jo hai Zindagi finished around Feb 1986. Nukkad started around that time. The roster for prime time serials(Mon-Sun) would be Nukkad, Buniyaad sponsored by Godrej, Chote Bade, Ek Kahani, Katha Sagar sponsored by Hindustan Lever, Buniyaad and Quiz Time. After Quiz Time left, Air Hostess came in. It was the story of a middle class dad who brings up 4 successful daughters.

Transmission would start around 6 PM each evening. The other significant progs were Khel Khilari on Tue 615, Saptahiki on Sat 800 PM, Aap Aur Hum just before Chitrahaar on Wed 745, Telefun on Tuesdays and Thursday at 7pm, to name a few. Sat transmission began with Ghar Bahar at 145pm, Fraggle Rock sponsored by Kissan at 200(What a pain to watch the weird creatures with weirder voices - Mokey, Gobo, Wembley....), Didi's comedy show - the nonstop nonsense, Spiderman from 345 to 400 and UGC from 400 to 500. Fraggle Rock was replaced by Chiman Rao for a few weeks. Before Didi's Comedy Show came, there were 5 episodes of Jane Eyre. There was also few episodes of Kabhi Kabhi featuring Annu Kapoor as Ramdheen.

Evenings had Jamie and The Magic Torch at 545, and then a Children's Film at 630pm, always the story of a motherless kid who is bullied by other kids and meets his mother as a celestial being and gets a gift of a magic wand or something - this was in black and white and shot in the 60s to add to the torture.....

Sunday was the best bet and had lots of great programs starting with Gavo Sanchi Bani at 8:15, Yoga at 8:30, Mickey and Donald at 9, Ek Do Teen Char at 930, Famous Five at 10, Cosmos at 1030 which was preceded by Star Trek and succeeded by Sherlock Holmes and subsequently by Old Fox, Sunil Gavaskar Presents at 1100 and for a few weeks Ravi Shastri's Thats Cricket at 1030.

1200pm was for Priya Tendulkar's Rajani(some episodes were a complete pain to watch), 1230 had Choti Bade Baatein(this was a really hilarious and enjoyable serial!!), 100pm had Khazana - stories from around the world. I still remember Khazana's haunting theme song! 2-430 had the regional language feature film. Some of the famous movies telecast were Oru Indhiya Kanavu in 1985, Sankarabaranam in Feb 1986, Ezhavadhu Manithan in Apr 1986, Kappalotiya Thamizhan in Oct 1986 and Raman Ethanai Ramanadi in summer of 1987. Summer of 1986 had Jewel Thief, Yaadon Ki Baraat, Tumse Achcha Koun Hai among the sunday evening movies.

430 to 530 had World of Sport and followed by Vikram Aur Vetal, Arun Govil gaining fame as Vikram much before he could don the grease paint for his more famous portrayal of Ram in Ramayan. This was followed by Dada Dadi Ki Kahani from 600 to 630. Vikram Aur Vetal with the maliciously grinning Vetal and even more grotesque Asuras and magicians and Dada Dadi Ki Kahani featuring the exploits of powerful rakshashas and their nataks spooked the hell out of me and I would run out of the house once the Vikram Aur Vetal theme song starts. What was even more painful was the realisation that I had to endure the evil haha, heehees of ghosts and spirits for an hour and then go and finish homework and prepare for next day's school!

Washing Powder Nirma was the regular sponsor for the 840 pm news. 9 to 905 would be announcements of the current nights progs, followed by English News at 930 and next nights prog announcements at 950. Followed by Focus with MJ Akbar at 950, Roving Eye at 1020 and so on.

A look at some of the programs....Ek Do Teen Char was a runaway hit featuring the exploits of Ajit( Vikas Khanna) , Ramu(Love Baronia), 2 other guys and their dog. The serial made an encore on Sat 330pm in Jan 1989. Later, Mickey and Donald got replaced by Appu Aur Pappu. Appu Aur Pappu was another good serial.

As summer passed into winter, we had programs like Baaton Baaton Mein on Thu 8pm which had an interview with a celebrity each week. Malgudi Days came up on Wed 9PM and was another delightful hit. Malgudi Days is not to be confused with Swami and Friends as the former was a set of individual short stories and the latter is a novel. Here's a good summary of MD http://www.freeessays.tv/a10377.htm

The Hindu carried the story of the forthcoming MD episode every Sunday.

Later that year, Friday 9pm had Shyam Benegal's Yatra, an excellent serial based on the lives and experiences of people who travel in the Indian Railways. Om Puri's Raag Durbari used to feature fridays 950

Swami and Friends started in early 1987. Another super hit. By this time Mickey and Donald gave way to He-Man. We used to have great fun in class mimicking Gringer shaking the paw and growling when He-Man points the sword at him!

Moving to Chennai DD, early 1987 had Here is Crazy on Fridays. By '87 summer, the 730pm serial roster read Paramarthaguru, Tuesday Drama, Pratidhwani, Silandhivalai and Kalyanathukku Kalyanam. Delhi Ganesh appeared several times as the hero in tuesday dramas. Occasionally Sudha used to act in the Tue dramas. Never imagined she would later go for questionable roles in movies later in order to survive! By this time Breakfast TV had started with Pawan Duggal, Lovelyn as among the prominent hosts. There were a few good ones - Ghaploo Aur Banta, Hanso Hanso(Annu Kapoor), A face in the crowd, Shashi Kumar Menon's Money Matters. Ghaploo Aur Banta, how did we ever tolerate this one...Ghaploo was a clumsy fatso while Banta..he was a perfect definition of a good-for-nothing, one could tell that looking at his face itself! Shashi would always wind up Money Matters with "Money matters, same time, same day, next week"!

Back to chennai, Paramarthaguru was replaced by Ladies Hostel, followed by Ambigaiyin Kalyanam. Pratidhwani was replaced by some Vasanth-Ganesh kind of serial, both lawyers and YG Mahendran too featuring as the third lawyer. I think Silandhivalai's last episode featured a story about a writer Mr.Vittal whose story about a silsila-type story comes true with the husband forcing his wife to hang herself. Silandhivalai was followed by Mouli's Flight 172 which went on till April 88, and then by Solladi Sivasakthi. Winter of 88 had fewer good programs. there was one boring Monday serial Dinakar Deepa Dilip, who are essentially 3 detectives who help Inspector Delhi Ganesh catch thieves. FBI staff would definitely hang themselves if they watch these 3 detectives solve crimes. Each episode, Delhi Ganesh the vetti inspector would give a speech at the end praising the 3Ds for catching notorious crooks! Dumb Dumber Dumbest would have been a more suitable name. Then there was another serial Guide Gayathri, where Gayathri is some loosu putting riddles to 3 guys and the one who solves it gets to marry her. Nizhalgal Ravi was one of the suitors. Although there were many aruva kolaaru serials like this, Galatta Kudumbam was a very good one featuring Srividhya and Vikram.

There were a couple of comedies in the Tuesday dramas...there was one involving a guy called Panju Mama who is actually a detective who goes to Ooty to catch a crook called Jambu the Rowdy. Its hard to explain why crooks in serials those days were often given names like circus animals.

By early 1989, Wagle Ki Duniya got into prime time. Anjan Srivastava as Wagle, Radhika his wife and his two sons' Raju and Manoj's exploits were hilarious. The serial ends with an RK Laxman cartoon summarising the story! In one of the episodes, some neighboring ends up buying a huge bundle of curtain cloth and shares some with the Wagle family. In order to save on Diwali clothing, they stitch shirts and pants and sarees with the very same cloth, use the leftovers for sofa upholstery and greet their neighbor his wife and kids on Diwali, all the eight or nine people wearing the same dress! By this time, Intezaar occupied the Friday slot, Honee Anhonee on Thursdays. Hum Hindustani, Jeevan Rekha, Chunauti, Udaan(kiran bedi's story) were all good serials in the 1987-88 period. In 1988-89, there were some good entertainers like Guldasta, Wagle, etc. Sundays had Bodyline, Nadia and an interstate singing competition called Lehar Lehar Sangeet. They were all very watchable ones. Ramayan ran from early 1987 ending in July 1987. Mahabharat started on Oct 2 1988 and went on till April 1990.

1989 was definitely the best phase for serials both Chennai and National Network. Sunday on DD had Mickey back in the slot, Hum Panchi Ek Daal Ke, Space city Sigma, Bharat Ek Khoj, Indradhanush, Aashish, etc. Ashish was a mushy mushy bore, while Indradhanush was definitely ahead of its times - Appu has this great computer called Alpha which sometimes acts as a time machine and once transported his brother to the 1940s. He buys a truckload of groundnuts for Rs.2 and informs the chaps that Nehru would be India's first PM! Indradhanush was way way ahead of its times, kudos to the director! World This Week started in late 1988.

Winter of 89 was very good with serials like Iravil Oru Pagal, Chiththirappaavai, panju pattu peethambaram, and next year had Rail Snegam. 1991 had Evala En Manaivi. I am not sure why Rail Sneham and Ivala En Manaivi are over-rated so much, I thought they were quite stupid and could barely sit through it.

But Chiththirappaavai was a revelation, damn good serial-making by any yardstick and a very good performance from the cast. It really provoked one's interest in tamil literature and short stories. Although the story was based in 1976, the serial was very well taken and fitted the times - Not sure who played Annamalai and Sundari...I think Vinu Chakravarthy played Manickam and Vaishnavi played Anandhi. Each and every episode was good.

Iravil Oru Pagal was a great one with excellent camera work. It was a big hit in our class, we lost count of the number of times we tried to mimic "saleem, Mohammad saleem!". Who was the guy who played Saleem? Did he ever get a chance to act in movies?

This will do for now.

[Shekhar]

I remember Binaca Geet Mala of the then extremely popular "Radio Ceylon" :)

[hehehewalrus]

is ameen sayani still around?

[S.Balaji]

[
quote="Shekhar"]I remember Binaca Geet Mala of the then extremely popular "Radio Ceylon" :)[/quote]

Yes yes, Amir Sayani 's great voice !!

[lordstanher]

The Herald...the dear old faithful Herald..
I remember we had this cream and black Herald for a long time and once there were floods in chennai............But of course our faithful car managed to hold on till we reached home :).

Wow!! :shock: :D Yet another person from an ex Herald-owning family!! 8)
Cream & Black? Hmm.....tats a nice colour combo! But sounds very rare.......I've only seen Cream & Red, Cream/blue & now trying to buy a pristine Cream & Green 2-door one........neways, good to hear sum ppl. who've praise for this quirky yet gorgeous little car! :D
Btw, if I'm not wrong, ur Herald was also a 2-door one rite (going by the colour u mention)??


Does anyone remember the cars in the movie Kadhalikka neram illai?
Theres one plymouth which played an imp role..wonder what the other cars are.

Y, don't u rem. it had a Herald in it as well?? :wink: :D Twas a metallic maroon one (w/ a white stripe on the sides) open-top/cabrio, MSW 6959, driven by the heroines (Kanchana? & Rajasree)......& it played an imp. role as well- there's this song "Unga ponnana kayihal punnagalama uthaviki varalama....." where one of the heroes (Ravichandran?) deflates one of the Herald's tyres & when the girls try to refill it, he pains them thru'out this song........(the very same Herald was used (w/ the no. changed to BML 6959!) in the Hindi remake "Pyar kiye jaa")
Ravichandran drives a ramshackle Baby Austin (which goes & rams the Herald from behind in one scene!)
The green & white '55-56 Plymouth (MDY sumthing) was indeed driven by Muthuraman (when he acts as Ravichandran's father until their plan is foiled)......
And there's also this gorgeous Red 1960 Chevrolet Impala open-top also driven by M'raman in the 1st song of the film (Enna paarvai.....)
And then of course a grey mk1 Amby owned by the girls' father.......
& in one scene a Black '50s Merc. Benz in which M'raman's father travels.......he meets R'chandran's father when the car breaks down outside his house & tats when he gets to know R'chandran's real kground.......
Neways I bought a VCD of KN jus to see all these cars in it- esp. tat gorgeous Herald!! :D 'wonder if all/ne of these cars still exist tho.......?

[S.Balaji]

Walrus,


So you could not resist the temptation of mentioning about 80s also !! and thats why enquired us earlier it seems !!?? Great work mannn . Keep it up.

[S.Balaji]

Electrical fittings ......

Those old switches.... Some will be round .. with black and white combination.... The switch board will be wooden.. with a small door also when there are multiple switches.

It needed heavy pulling to get the switch down and in the process.. the switch board would get opened .... some cockroaches will emerge out of their secret hiding....
besides some big antelopes as well.......

Those days there was not much concealed wiring ... I mean in the late 60s and early 70s.....

[S.Balaji]

On roofing and ceiling in houses :

There will be a big wooden beam and Celing fans will be tied to them. The height of the rooms will be huge.... Today ... in Mumbai we can see two rooms being used for that height.

The roof was so far from the ground that the ceiling fans had to have big rods ... I think we can see such fans still in Govt offices...
Those fans would have taken ages to clean .....

The big tables with the Dept and numbers mentioned in Govt depts. come to my memory........

[S.Balaji]

Also..... Gramaphone records....... Record players........ HMV was number 1 I think.... That faithful dog... logo... Still in memory.

Can somebody come out with recollection ...

I could recollect that big mouthed speaker like a trumphet ???

The records.... will resemble Dosai kal !! :)

[Shekhar]

Oh yea, those gramaphone records !! one song on each side. Even when the edges were broken you could play part song!! :D :D

You go to any theatre, the songs they would play before the film started would invariably start with "Namo Vekatesham, Namo Thirumalesham.." :D

I used to enjoy every film I saw. But now I don't enjoy even 5% of the films. :(

[S.Balaji]

Oh yea, those gramaphone records !! one song on each side. Even when the edges were broken you could play part song!! :D :D

Yes yes. They were so strong !




I used to enjoy every film I saw. But now I don't enjoy even 5% of the films. :(

We used to get restless when the news reel will be shown.... Especially routines like ..... the same voice of . Padmanabhan .. I think....

Biharil vellam.....

after some time..

Biharil varatchi....

I have not come across any news reel beyond these topics.

[lordstanher]

Those old switches.... Some will be round .. with black and white combination.... The switch board will be wooden.. with a small door also when there are multiple switches.

Its amazing as to how the discussions here hav ventured into such details as elec. switches! :lol2:
Yes, those old switches (the 1st "anchor" switches!) & hinged wooden switchboards r still there in my friend's house (built in the '60s by his granpa) at Hyd.! They also hav a '50s GEC fan- still working!
Nearly all of these old switches still work too!.......altho my mom's mama's house at Madras, built in 1965, has the 'piano-key' type switches, which were also available by then.....


It needed heavy pulling to get the switch down and in the process.. the switch board would get opened .... some cockroaches will emerge out of their secret hiding....besides some big antelopes as well.......Those days there was not much concealed wiring ... I mean in the late 60s and early 70s

Um......actually the switchboards were 'locked' by a hook on the side, so can't imagine them opening! :D But wud look dangerous if they did I guess! Um.....wat r these big "antelopes" btw?? :?
Concealed wiring I guess was intro'd in the mid '70s onwards.......atleast in hyd........our ex-house & my dad's old friends' houses built at tat time had it......

[lordstanher]

There will be a big wooden beam and Celing fans will be tied to them.

Yes my mom's father's house in Madras still has them.....I'm told these type of beam-fitted roofs r called Madras terrace.....?


The roof was so far from the ground that the ceiling fans had to have big rods ... I think we can see such fans still in Govt offices...

I think they r still found in courtrooms.......(as seen from films! :D )

[lordstanher]

Balaji, from ur mention of tables, I jus rem'd the details of furniture of the '60s & '70s.......
If u notice, ne furniture on 4 legs at tat time- stools, tables, cots etc. had the legs fitted at an angle, slightly slanting outwards........also the legs wud be 'broad' at the top & narrow/slender at the bottom........& nearly all dining tables at the time were decolum topped!
We had a white-topped one from 1972-73 until 1990.....to seat 4......I used too luv the smooth feel of the decolum! & not once did I see even one of the decolum corners peeling off upwards, as many tables nowadys wud hav!
I wish my father hadn't sold it! :(
Also from my obsvn. atleast, many of such furniture r also known to last even longer than newer ones......such was the workmanship then I guess! :D
Neways, i'm on the lookout for another '70s dining table, altho I'm told they're quite hard to find! :(

[S.Balaji]

It needed heavy pulling to get the switch down and in the process.. the switch board would get opened .... some cockroaches will emerge out of their secret hiding....besides some big antelopes as well.......Those days there was not much concealed wiring ... I mean in the late 60s and early 70s

Um......actually the switchboards were 'locked' by a hook on the side, so can't imagine them opening! :D But wud look dangerous if they did I guess! Um.....wat r these big "antelopes" btw?? :?
Concealed wiring I guess was intro'd in the mid '70s onwards.......atleast in hyd........our ex-house & my dad's old friends' houses built at tat time had it......[/quote]

Stan,

I mean Lizards !! and not antlopes... Sorry. Thanks for pointing out. Probably age in catching up !! :cry:
Though the switchboards were locked by that hook on the side, often they got opened and we had to put small lock also ..

[lordstanher]

I mean Lizards !! and not antlopes... Sorry.

Ohhh.......shud've guessed!! :lol:

Oh, & did u hav those "swan-neck" (as my father wud call them) bulb lights at ur place? They were very common in hyd.....made of steel, w/ a long, nearly 'S' shaped stem for the bulb holder......there were also domes available for those.....

[S.Balaji]

[quote="lordstanher"]Balaji, from ur mention of tables, I jus rem'd the details of furniture of the '60s & '70s.......
If u notice, ne furniture on 4 legs at tat time- stools, tables, cots etc. had the legs fitted at an angle, slightly slanting outwards........also the legs wud be 'broad' at the top & narrow/slender at the bottom........& nearly all dining tables at the time were decolum topped!

Stan..

Precisely ... Those days, the 4 legs will be slanted outwards and the top will be broader... I remember my Amma getting emotional when one table and the sofa set was sold off as it got soaked in 1985 floods in Chennai.

I forgot to mention .. the Burma teak wood used for stair cases ..... very strong.... solid... and the bars inbetween... called gujabelee or something....

yes you are right.. such things are still existing now in ---- GOvt owned insurance companies.,,,
Sales tax and Income tax depts...
AGS office

Also forgot to mention.... there will be a Eversilver water container and a tumbler will be kept on top of it with chain attached to it. All these still exist in Govt offices.

[S.Balaji]

[
Oh, & did u hav those "swan-neck" (as my father wud call them) bulb lights at ur place? They were very common in hyd.....made of steel, w/ a long, nearly 'S' shaped stem for the bulb holder......there were also domes available for those.....[/quote]

We had that as well !!


I think none mentioned about TELEPHONE INSTRUMENT !!!!

The great black instrument..........

Painful to dial all the numbers and we will realise that it will be a wrong one or engaged....

During those days,, they called it as TRUNK CALL.....

WHenever any outstation call comes up, there will be a hue and cry and people will rush in....
The way seniors used to shout over the phone thinking that by talking loudly .. the other guy will receive it better....
We used to wonder .. there was no need for telephone .. we used to tease our uncle that the other person would have directly received your voice .. not through phone

Funny days....

Thanks to Rajiv Gandhi and Sam Pitroda...... now....

[Anoushka]

.........
Oh, and another query- was ur scooter Lambretta 150 or just "Lamby" 150 ?? The latter was intro'd in the late '60s/early '70s & was the last model of tat range..........


Lord,

If I am right it was lambretta 150, now I should ask my Dad about this to confirm! Will let you know on Monday what model it was :)

When we upgraded to Bajaj that was given to my Dad's brother who used it for a good few years before he upgraded as well!

[Anoushka]

.....Later, Mickey and Donald got replaced by Appu Aur Pappu. Appu Aur Pappu was another good serial.....

H3W, Mickey and Donald was 9:00am on Sundays and Appu Aur Pappu was around 12:00 Sundays....

Mickey and Donald was always at breakfast time and Appu Aur Pappu was always after I clean my room and settle down in front of TV again around lunch time :)

And you forgot to mention Different Strokes & UFO :)

[lordstanher]

Lord,
If I am right it was lambretta 150, now I should ask my Dad about this to confirm! Will let you know on Monday what model it was :)

Sure anoushka, no probs.! :D Whenevr its feasible for u to find out......!


When we upgraded to Bajaj that was given to my Dad's brother who used it for a good few years before he upgraded as well!

They were good scooters I'm told, w/ really good pick-up & maneouvrability.......unftly many of these scooters were heavily used & suffered wear & tear..........so few survive in good condition today........
PS- had my 1st accident today on my Vijai Super.......banged it against a footpath while turning into the road.......luckily no major damage, to me or the scooter...except tat I've been shaken up since! I guess the 'L' board I stuck on it is significant now! :D

[lordstanher]

My parents told me tat Different Strokes was telecast on DD(?) in the early '80s (the original English version....the Hindi dubbed version of course on cable TV in the late '90s).....! Tat was surprising to know! :D
Also they said even Star Wars was first telecast around the same time.......said my sis used to watch it then on our B/W Dynora TV!

[gaddeswarup]

It is interesting to compare this thread with a poll in the west:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4747739.stm

"Bob Dylan released Like a Rolling Stone as a single in 1965

Bob Dylan's song Like a Rolling Stone has topped a poll of rock and film stars to find the music, movies, TV shows and books that changed the world.

The 1965 single beat Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel into second place in the survey for Uncut magazine.

Sir Paul McCartney, Noel Gallagher, Robert Downey Jr, Rolling Stone Keith Richards and Lou Reed were among those who gave their opinions.

Rocker Patti Smith said of the winning song: "It got me through adolescence." "
What happenned to Emergency, Vietnam war etc?
Swarup

[hehehewalrus]

H3W, Mickey and Donald was 9:00am on Sundays and Appu Aur Pappu was around 12:00 Sundays....

Mickey and Donald was always at breakfast time and Appu Aur Pappu was always after I clean my room and settle down in front of TV again around lunch time :)



Hi Anoushka, Appu Aur Pappu was absolutely definitely 9 AM, I dont even have the least iota of doubt about it!!!!

1) I think you are confusing Appu Aur Pappu with Indradhanush where the lead character was a boy called Apoorva alias Appu.

2) Mickey and Donald and AppuAurPappu were mutually exclusive in the sense you wont watch them together!! Mickey and Donald used to come in series of 13 episodes hence they had 3 different runs in 1986, 1987 and 1989 respectively.

[rajes002]

Most of the discussion is about 80s in a thread that is titled 60s and 70s!!

He3Walrus... I managed to read 'three investigators' from my school library (which had an extensive collection) as well as Raviraj lending library in Usman Road, T'Nagar. Wonder whether Raviraj exists now!! This used to be around 50 mts to the left of where the Pothy's exist now.... Raviraj had an extensive collection and was pretty famous. But - I know that they lost a lot of books.... that is another story.

Talking about book shops... I used to hunt for used books in a road-side book shop in Luz Corner. There was this old guy... who used to stack books in the middle of the pavement and had an impressive collection... This guy was not that literate in English... but if you mention the name of the book - he would be able to pinpoint the location or the stack in which one might find the book.

Maybe S. Balaji from Mylapore area might recognize this character. I think this shop disappeared sometime in the mid 80's.

Talking about films in 70's in Chennai - I remember - "Benji" - a wonderful movie about a dog, also "Airport 75", "Airport 77" (in Casino), "The Don is Dead" (Casino), "The King elephant" (Gaiety)... and another one if I remember right is "The night raiders" or something like that about guys who use gliders... all kids movies and I watched more - but dont remember all the names!! I think it was in Airport 77 -t hat the flight lands in the sea and almost all the passengers escape - except for the captain.... who tries to initially make an attempt to float to the top,

In the mid to late 70's (most probably 1977 or 1978) - I remember watching this live show called "Magic on Ice" or something like that... it was a show which features skaters on ice!! Sounds surprising right? - ice in Chennai!! yeah - they did have the ice in the skating rink....

[Shekhar]

TV in 70s?!!! I don't remember to have heard of it even!! :?

[S.Balaji]

Talking about book shops... I used to hunt for used books in a road-side book shop in Luz Corner. There was this old guy... who used to stack books in the middle of the pavement and had an impressive collection... This guy was not that literate in English... but if you mention the name of the book - he would be able to pinpoint the location or the stack in which one might find the book.

Maybe S. Balaji from Mylapore area might recognize this character. I think this shop disappeared sometime in the mid 80's.

Rajes..

Yes it was just opposite to Kamadhenu Theatre and in front of Mylapore Sports club ( we used to buy used Tennis balls there for Re.1 !! for our tennis ball cricket ). He had huge and interesting collection ..
I also remember the night postal service van coming and picking up mails from that spot as well.




Talking about films in 70's in Chennai - I remember - "Benji" - a wonderful movie about a dog, also "Airport 75", "Airport 77" (in Casino), "The Don is Dead" (Casino), "The King elephant" (Gaiety)... and another one if I remember right is "The night raiders" or something like that about guys who use gliders... all kids movies and I watched more - but dont remember all the names!! I think it was in Airport 77 -t hat the flight lands in the sea and almost all the passengers escape - except for the captain.... who tries to initially make an attempt to float to the top,

In the mid to late 70's (most probably 1977 or 1978) - I remember watching this live show called "Magic on Ice" or something like that... it was a show which features skaters on ice!! Sounds surprising right? - ice in Chennai!! yeah - they did have the ice in the skating rink....

Yes yes I do remember those ones..

What about .. the mini chinese invasion !!!

1. Enter the dragon
2. Return of the dragon
3. Drunken monk
4. 36th chamber of shaolin

The karate was quite popular thanks to Bruce Lee .... The black belts and brown belts etc etc.... GUys were mad after Brucelees movies......

There were also other movies :

1. Exorcist
2. Omen.... Oh the great Gregory Peck
3. The day of the jackal


Others :

1. Polgergist
2. The incredible melting man
3. Raiders of the lost ark........ ( this was a typical ambulimama movie !! )

[S.Balaji]

Doordharshan serials.......

I remember seeing ... Mungerilal ke haseen sapne

Also some serial of Anu kapoor ... who will be a police guy and Danny will be the prisoner etcetc............ That serial was a good platform for Anu to establish himself in Zee tv later.

[S.Balaji]

Movies....

There was one movie........... Crazy boys of the games.... nice one..... Not sure which year ??

[S.Balaji]

[
PS- had my 1st accident today on my Vijai Super.......banged it against a footpath while turning into the road.......luckily no major damage, to me or the scooter...except tat I've been shaken up since! I guess the 'L' board I stuck on it is significant now! :D

Hey Stan,

Vijay Super ... Is it a product of Scooters India .. from Lucknow ??

i remember those days when my cousin was using.. Lamretta and Bajaj Chetak.... I enjoyed the fun standing in the front side .. I mean the gap where there is foot rest ... and my cousin used to hold me while driving.....

[S.Balaji]

I remember using... 5 paise 10 paise and 15 paise coins !!!

For 5 paise one can travel by PTC bus . from Mylapore to Mt road !!!

I dont know how much is the fair today....

For 50paise we got Masala dosais and for 25 paise we got delicious idliiss. and bondas

All have disappeared now.....

[S.Balaji]

About Chennai Doodharshan crew....

Thiru,

Do you recollect the name.... Hemalatha venkatraman ?/ She was also a news reader those years...

I think Shasikumar along with Ramakrishnan were covering english news and later Sasi moved out to form Asianet..

[Anoushka]

Hi Anoushka, Appu Aur Pappu was absolutely definitely 9 AM, I dont even have the least iota of doubt about it!!!!

1) I think you are confusing Appu Aur Pappu with Indradhanush where the lead character was a boy called Apoorva alias Appu.

2) Mickey and Donald and AppuAurPappu were mutually exclusive in the sense you wont watch them together!! Mickey and Donald used to come in series of 13 episodes hence they had 3 different runs in 1986, 1987 and 1989 respectively.

H3W, maybe Chennai Doordarshan had it on at 9:00 then. I was in Kochi then and that was the time we used to get it at!

Appu Aur Pappu is a serial I cannot forget... The title song was
"Appu aur pappu ki dekho yaari
sabse pyari sabse nyari...
appu aur papuuuuu...
papu aur appuuuuu..."

After this serial became a big hit, someone came up with the wonderful idea of opening an ice cream shop with that name in Kochi.. When I went this year, I couldn't find that shop :(

PS: I never watched Indradanush!

Lord,

I hope you are alright! Drive safely :)

[lordstanher]

TV in 70s?!!! I don't remember to have heard of it even!! :?

Which is y I reckon my parents wud've been among the 1st ppl. to buy a TV- atleast in Hyd.! :lol: I think Dynora was the 1st (& only) brand then......later, apart from Solidaire, there was also one called ECTV, made by ECIL (Elec. corn. of India) at Hyd. I hardly even hear abt it now, not sure if it still exists.......!
Oh yea, one more thing- does the "Casino" theatre at Madras still exist?? My granpa (mum's father) used to go see movies there........

[lordstanher]

Hey Stan,
Vijay Super ... Is it a product of Scooters India .. from Lucknow ??


Yes Balaji, tats the one....... :D but it was originally an Italian Lambretta model, the design having been sold to Scooters India in the '70s after Lambretta wound up in Italy.......as I mentioned earlier- twas also known as Vijai Deluxe/Falcon........also had a twin named Allwyn Pushpak, altho not sure if tat was also made by SI.....
I'm told tat in AP, there used to be big queues to buy this scooter back then! Prob. bcos it was made famous by yesteryears Telugu actor N T Rama Rao, who drives one of these in a song in a '70s Tel. film......! :D
I believe these scooters were made until as late as the early '90s b4 SI wound up as well!
Btw, did u know tat many of these r now being exported from India, bought by lambretta enthusiasts abroad?
Found out from this website: http://www.mbdevelopments.co.uk/lambretta/lambretta_forsale.html

Its sad 'cos if too many of them go out, we'll be losing a part of our history! :(

Incidentally, does ne-one know this scooter called Narmada 150, looks like a combo of the LML Vespa & Chetak in its design! Made in Gujarat.....in the late '80s/early '90s I think? 'actually forgot abt this scooter until I saw one y'day.......

[lordstanher]

Lord,

I hope you are alright! Drive safely :)

Tks Anoushka! :D Managed to get a better grip on it today!

Speaking of TV serials, um.....hasn't ne-one mentioned this Hindi one called "Hum panchi ek daal ke" so far?? :D
It was shown in the late '80s every sunday on DD.......featured the lives of 4 urchin kids (Madhav, Ram, Gopal, Kunti if I'm not wrong) living in an automobile scrapyard.......and I think they even had a pet monkey.......
I wud look forward to watching this serial on sundays mainly to look at all those old vehicles in it! & I do miss it now.......! :wink:

[S.Balaji]

TV in 70s?!!! I don't remember to have heard of it even!! :?

Which is y I reckon my parents wud've been among the 1st ppl. to buy a TV- atleast in Hyd.! :lol: I think Dynora was the 1st (& only) brand then......later, apart from Solidaire, there was also one called ECTV, made by ECIL (Elec. corn. of India) at Hyd. I hardly even hear abt it now, not sure if it still exists.......!
Oh yea, one more thing- does the "Casino" theatre at Madras still exist?? My granpa (mum's father) used to go see movies there........

Stan,

We had EC TV in 1976 ( black and white ofcourse ) with wooden doors ... Dyanora, EC , Telerama were popular brands those days... Later Solidaire became a popular brand.

EC also had a mfg unit in Chennai ..

[Anoushka]

Incidentally, does ne-one know this scooter called Narmada 150, looks like a combo of the LML Vespa & Chetak in its design! Made in Gujarat.....in the late '80s/early '90s I think? 'actually forgot abt this scooter until I saw one y'day.......

Lord,

Our neigbhour had one of those Narmadas. I am not sure if it is early '80s or late '70s though.... I definetly wasn't early '90s if I remember right!

[Anoushka]

Lord,

I do remember Hum panchi ek daal ke :) But that again would be a lunch time program on Sundays and we were more keen on eating than watching TV :)

Also anyone remember Shashi pal who used to do the news for hearing impaired?

H3W,

I remember Kappalotiya tamizhan as the Sunday lunch time movie on Delhi DD because of Sadhana Shrivastav (used to absolutely adore her), pronouncing it as KABALOTTIYA TAMIZAN :)

And if I am right the famous Meendum oru kathal kathai (Ulagam urundai, ladduvum urundai) was another one of those lunch time movies :)

[S.Balaji]

[quote="Anoushka"]
Also anyone remember Shashi pal who used to do the news for hearing impaired?

Anoushka,

Yes, I recollect the news for hearing impaired. I think it will come in the afternoon session on Sundays......
I distinctly recollect her expression on .. somebody is killed or has passed away...

[hehehewalrus]

Anoushka
u brought me out of my retirement with this post but it will be one of the last ones for sure as my retirement begins officially on monday :smile2:


Lord,

I do remember Hum panchi ek daal ke :) But that again would be a lunch time program on Sundays and we were more keen on eating than watching TV :)

Also anyone remember Shashi pal who used to do the news for hearing impaired?

H3W,

I remember Kappalotiya tamizhan as the Sunday lunch time movie on Delhi DD because of Sadhana Shrivastav (used to absolutely adore her), pronouncing it as KABALOTTIYA TAMIZAN :)

And if I am right the famous Meendum oru kathal kathai (Ulagam urundai, ladduvum urundai) was another one of those lunch time movies :)

HPEDK was of course a 11-1130 program as 900 had He Man, 930 had something else and 1000 had Mahabharat, 11 had HPEDK, 1130 had Bharat Ek Khoj, 1200 had a Quiz, 1230 had Indradhanush. Lovely program. I once remember I had to get my parents signature for getting 0/5 in a test(about chemical formulae, I never used to get the valencies right) and I waited after HPEDK to break the news.

News Mag for hearing impaired is from 130 to 200 just before the regional movie.

I distinctly remember Sadhana Srivastav but I am a bit unclear about the face - there were 2 lady announcers in bobcut, one fair and one brownish and sadhana i think was the latter.
(Others newsreaders - Neethi Ravindran, Minu, Rini Khanna, Sukanya balakrishnan, Sangeetha Bedi, Komal GB Singh, Salma Sultana, Manjari Jothi, Raman, Ved Prakash, Tejeshwar Singh, Uday Bir Saran Das, Nirmal Andrews, Bhaskar Bhattacharjee, CM Mathews, Pankaj Mohan, Preet KS Bedi)

I think Kappalotiya Tamizhan was on Oct 2 1986 coz same day we had Gandhi and we sat through 6 hours of movies. My dad was very upset over it and I had a headache as I didnt watch more than 2-3 hours on sunday.

Meendum oru kaathal kadhai was in Feb 1989. There is one great song in it - Adhikaalai Neramey(now removed from coolgoose).

The Monday after we went to school and one of the vaal-payyans from C section came running to our class during the 1030 interval, grabbed a history book, pointed to the picture of Giuseppe Garibaldi from the chapter on italian renaissance and exclaimed "Here is Jujju Thatha".

Here are the long lost twins:

http://www.ascasonline.org/garibaldi.jpg

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/mp/2004/08/30/images/2004083000180101.jpg

[tvsankar]

Hi Balaji,

Nichayam indha vishayathai sollanam.

1. What about the fear of ghosts? They were introduced by my friend in my 2nd std.
Balaji, neenga sonna slate and pencil.Adhil dhan en friend enaku draw panni ghost story niraya solli irukal.

Idhai veetil solli kondadhillai.Anal veetil irukum darkness parthu ghost enru bayandhu poi irukaen.Then en amma kettu en friend sonna ghost story solli, en amma ennai dhariyam seidhal. :lol:
Indha feelings en son kitayum avanudiaya 3rd std la parthaen.
Avanukum en amma madhiri euquiry panni vittu, en amma sonna madhiriyae avanukum dhariyam sonnaen.
Inru varai ethanaiyo type ghost film parkiraen, in all languaes.

Anlalum en friend enaku slate la padam varaindhu sonna ghost story ku bayandha madhiri oru bayam idhu varai varavillai :lol:

With LOve,
Usha Sankar.

[Cinefan]

Talking about book shops... I used to hunt for used books in a road-side book shop in Luz Corner. There was this old guy... who used to stack books in the middle of the pavement and had an impressive collection... This guy was not that literate in English... but if you mention the name of the book - he would be able to pinpoint the location or the stack in which one might find the book.

Maybe S. Balaji from Mylapore area might recognize this character. I think this shop disappeared sometime in the mid 80's.



Hey,that is 'Alwar'-white hair,white beard,wearing only a white veshti.he has not changed since the first time I saw him in the middle eighties.

BTW,his book shop still exists,I saw it when i visited Chennai in November last year.

[Jughead]

Meendum oru kaathal kadhai was in Feb 1989. There is one great song in it - Adhikaalai Neramey(now removed from coolgoose).


How on earth do you remember the month of telecast?

pazhaya diary ellam podi thatti veliye edutheengala enna?

[Lambretta]

Hi all,
I thot y not revive this interesting thread, wich was very active wen new...:D
As we've earlier discussed even vehicles of the '60s & 70s here, do ne of u rem. this scooter called 'Fantabulous', made for a short while in the '60s by Enfield co. (who, as we all know, make the Bullet bike)....?
I was sent pics. today from a friend in hyd. who spotted a dead one ther.....I've seen one in an old movie & even earlier even heard of one here tat was sold for 2k last year.....
It looks sumwat like a Lambretta from the front but the body is rectangular at the sides/rear....& really long....I've heard tat its also an immensely HEAVY machine, the pick-up/mileage being very poor, even for the '60s.....wich is y it failed in the market....