Comparing my son's thread ceremony with mine

Can't help comparing my son's BRATOPANAYAN event (thread wearing ceremony of Brahmins) held a few years back to mine held eons ago on a hot summer afternoon in 1979 and how things have changed ever since. I still retain the fond memories of those cacophonous songs blaring out of HMV gramophone record rotating at 46 RPM in the ceremony held in my native village near Puri. 

Music came blaring from the funnel shaped mike tied half way up a coconut tree, an inherent part of the flora of coastal Puri district in order to expand its reach to the broader audience. The birds 🐦 in the area scared by the high decibel sound took vacation for a day. Gramophone record those days was a major part of the paraphernalia for any ceremony to lend a festive mood to the occasion. Your function is a function of this music, the louder it is more prominent and prestigious is your event. 

The MIKEWALLA or the Gramophone guy would carefully put the pin on the rotating record which does a bit of cracking noise, fart couple of times prrt..prrt..before the music starts erupting. Intermittently he would clean the tip of the pin with the same handkerchief he uses to wipe off his betel stained saliva. At the same time he would be very protective of his music set, shooing away any curious urchin who dares to touch it, forcing them to gape at it from a distance.

Popular songs from Amitabh's hit movie "MUQADDAR KA SIKANDAR" emerged from the mike all the day long as my Brataghara ceremony went on. Being a huge Kishore Kumar fan and it being my special day, I was allowed to have my way. Hence I instructed the operator to play my favorite Kishore hits to keep me in good spirits on a long tiring day while seemingly endless chanting of hymns by the priest continued.

One prominent song playing on that day was a Akshaya Mohanty's funny Odia number :

MO BAPA NKA BAPA NKA BAPA
THILE JANE MANKADA,
E DALA RU SEDALA SEDALA RU E DALA AMARI PURBA PURUSA.

Transliterated from Odia...

"Our's dad's dad's dad was a monkey,
Our ancestors used to swing on branches getting jumpy".

It was followed by another one next in sequence...

"TU DEIGALU DHOKA..
THAANTA JADI LAKHYE TANKA..
E JHIA, TO MUHA TA KARI THANTI BANKA..

(O' Girl, you cheated me,
If I had 1 lakh Rupee,

I could have taught a lesson to thee)

The song was the howling of a HATASA PREMIKA (jilted lover) whose girl friend dumped him for Rs.100,000, a gargantuan amount those days. That year was 1979. Now fast forward to 2022. If a boy sings such a song he will be laughed at as 1 lakh rupees means nothing these days. LAKHPATI (proud owner of 1,00,000 rupees) has lost its significance. World has changed a whole lot since 1979. A LAKHPATI has graduated to a KARODPATI (10 Million Rupees) these days.

Then followed another Akshay Mohanty classic.

HASA TA LAKHE TANKA
CHALI TA ANKA BANKA;

RAGILA NAALI LANKA

RUSILA OOI HUNKA

TA GHARA KU BATAKHARCHA ADHEI TANKA.

(Her smile is worthy of Rupees One lakh
Her manner of walk is zig zag;
Her anger is like red chilli
She being upset is akin to termite hill;
The traveling expense to her home
Is 2 and 1/2 rupees)

These days 2 and half rupees will not take one beyond hundred feet in the cheapest bargain one can get for a rickshaw. A guy has to be exceptionally lucky to find such a girl close by.

WOKT NE KIYA..KYA HASI SITAM

NAA TUM RAHE NAA TUM

HUM RAHE NA HUM...

(Time has done such a wonderful injustice,

Neither you stayed you, nor I stayed mine)