10 Die hard old habits die hard - Part II

 (Continued from the part I of my last blog of 10 die hard old habits which have died).....

6. The 4 Cs of youth of those days, i.e. Cinema, Cigarette, Cycle and Curly hair hanging over ears were the classic tell - tale signs of soneone turning into a "CHHATARA TOKA" (Girl chasing vagabond) and BAZAARI (Free roaming loafer). Good boys were not supposed to watch movies, smoke, go on long bicycle rides and keep long hairs. As an early teenager, I was once chastised by my grandfather for keeping long, wavy hair cascading like waterfall over my earlobes. Many found me cute in that hairstyle and complimented me but not so much my grandfather who saw it as an early sign of stepping into the world of CHHATARA-hood. The long hair gradually became short, but I could never chase girls. Cigarette, popularized by Bollywood actors like Amitabh and Anil Kapoor is no more a fad these days, mainly due to the current generation have turned health conscious.

7. Chocolates or Candies were exclusively meant for the kids. Elders eating chocolates were frowned upon as being childlike. It has been described in the popular Akshay Mohanty Odia song attributed to his daughter, "MU KHAILE ALU CHAP, TU KHAILU LOLLIPOP". Transliterated it means - 

"As I savor my Potato cutlet,

Lollipop is what you just ate". 

An elderly relative of mine used to be very fond of Cadburies Milk Chocolates and Five Star Bars popular those days. But he was too shy to express it in public. He would buy those from a local store, loudly proclaiming to take it for his nephew and neices, but in privacy will devour a good portion of those. 

8. JANHA MAMUN (Chanda Mama), Indrajaal (Phantom, Mandrake, Bahadur) and Amar Chitra Katha (history and mythology) comics were very popular those days with kids, though Chanda Mama was read by all age groups. The favorite of the youth from that generation were cheap detective novels of DASYU (Bandit) Ranjan and Dipak series and tiny SATHI POCKET BOOK novels. Not sure how many of them exist and read by the current iGeneration. 

Another popular stolen and burrowed-to-never-get-returned materials were the popular Weekly Magazines of Sportstar, Sportsworld and Sportsweek, especially during the peak cricket season. The chief target were the colored center spread sheets of popular cricketers those days - Gavaskar and Kapil Dev. Those magazines would soon get raped and soiled, with those cherished center spreads gone missing. In our school library there was virtually a riot to be the first person to tear and grab those.

9. Remember posters and scribbles on walls proudly portraying - "BASANTA ROGA RA PRATHAMA KHABAR PAIN 5000 TANKA PURASKAR" (Rs. 5000 reward for the first information on Small Pox). The Cholera and Small Pox used to be the dreaded disease of those days, more dreaded were the preventive shots (injections) where a needle as thick as DAMPHANA (the Odia term for thick needles used to sew jute sacks) was stabbed to your hand or ass with great force. It would cause severe pain and fever for next several days. Don't think the present generation is so afraid of needles.

10. NUA BARSHA or The New Year's Day was celebrated on 1st January, not on the night of 31st December. As the clock chimed at midnight, most were in deep slumber, well cushioned and cuddled inside their comforters on cold winter nights rather than dancing their way in Bacchanalian jamborees in a faraway hotel or nightclub. A family lunch or dinner would suffice to welcome the New Year, rather than a New Year's Eve celebration.

Those were the days. (CONCLUDED)