ஞாபகம் வருதே

Last week I happened to come across an article in a webpage, which lamented about some of the gadgets which were our dreams once but have almost become extinct now. Surprisingly , I found that I could relate to a majority of them and here are some .

My earliest memories of a Typewriter was a Smith Corona portable, my dad used to keep pounding on, for his official chores. It never failed to amuse me as he kept on pecking on the keyboard, with carbon papers for multiple copies. Later, when I joined a computer training institute, as the machine time allotted to student was very less, I joined a typewriting Institute to improve my speed to optimize my allotted time. That I now continue to pound with the same two fingers but with better speed is a different story. I now recall the battery of typists in my Bank, who used to type the promotion orders for around 400 people with 6 copies - almost with no overwriting or use of whiteners. Amazing tribe!

I used to visit one of my closest friend more often , just because his drawing room was adorned with a massive box and wait for his brother to return from college. He used to open the box, give a long, winding key and place a disc the size of a elephant foot and it used to play the pleasing favorite song. That was my earliest memories of a Gramophone . I had confirmed opinion that my family could never afford to buy one and so used to make use of this whenever available. Memories of the Juke Box at the Mount Road Buharis and Triplicane Wheat Hotel are still fresh. Now, when I have 500 MP3 songs in the laptop, I am too lazy to switch it on!

My brother purchased a tape recorder with a loan from his office cooperative society and it was a darling for everyone of us. We used to get D60 and D90 blank cassettes from anyone returning from Singapore and have our favorite songs recorded at Rs 20 per cassette and run them until its voice start dragging. The advent of CDs and DVDs just swept this wonderful long term companion off its feet!

One look at him and anyone will identify him as a Salesman, with a small gadget tucked to his broad belt which occasionally beeped with a scrolling message. Everyone used to wonder at the instant messager called 'Pager' and this instrument also acted as a central theme in some Tamil films, until the SMS era came and made a shame of this. Pager with such a short life, vanished , as fast as it came!

When I was in my school, my dad used to run to the nearest provision store to connect to his boss in Calcutta. Those were the times, when we have to book a Trunk Call (Dial 180?) and wait for hours. A telephone at home was considered a luxury and used to be sanctioned after a minimum of 10 years of booking. When I finally made a booking in 1991, I forgot about it and kept going to the neighbors flat for important calls. It was Rajiv Gandhi's policy  that hastened the process and when we got one installed in 1995, the whole house celebrated with a Payasam. Thereafter a dream run which swept away the dial phones with push buttons and with mobile phones, it has become a must item in everyone's handbag. Even now, I wonder at the Indian progress in tele communications many a time, last time when I kept  talking to my friend in California from a bus on the way to Chennai, when it was pouring outside! Mobile gives a great sense of relief and nearness, particularly when my dad was critical and I was on travel. It was very reassuring to exchange updates almost every hour and I never stopped praising the authors of such great inventions, easily the best for the use of common man.

Whatever is best today, preserve it as that could become a prized possession after some decades. Can you visualize possessing these items now:

·         Slate , we used to use in elementary schools;

·         'Balapam' - பல்பம் - used to write on the slate !

·         Thick color pencils with red and blue at either ends;  

·         carbon paper, used for taking multiple copies;

·         One Rupee currency note ;

·         Coins with a hole in the middle (ஓட்டை  காலணா )

·         Maththu- மத்து  - which was used in erstwhile home kitchens for stirring

·         Goli Gundus, we used to play with

·         Gilli, Thandas

·         Top (பம்பரம் )

·         Saandhu- சாந்து - which was replaced by Sticker Bindis

·         Sangu, சங்கு - used to feed infants

·         Araigyan Kayiru - அரைஞாண்  கயிறு  

·         Shoe horn & Shoe trees 

·         Grinding stones - அம்மிக் கல் 

·         Punch cards

·         Floppy Disks

                . . . . . the list is endless

Old is always gold. Now I realize where Cheran gets his inspirations for his movies such as 'Autograph"

A parting shot - My wife who tendered a new one rupee note at a PCO today was instead asked to give a coin,  as the PCO attendant failed to recognise the one rupee note and its current value !!!!