There could've been a time....

, , 43 comments
... When
I would only wear a paavadai-dhavani,
Oil my hair everyday and wear flowers,
Draw the kolam in the corridor and
be the lady my mother is proud of...
Spend 10 paise for the bus ticket
and go to college,
and be one of the five girls doing their B.Sc
in a class of 50!
Go to the beach in the lunch break,
have ice creams for Rs 3,
Drool over Amitabh or Gregory Peck,
copy Jaya's hairstyle?
Walk home to save the 10 paise
and listen to music in the turn-table
Pay Re 1 and talk on the phone for hours
Listen to the cricket commentary
in the tiny transistor radio and
cheer wildly for India!
Then crowd around the big radio and
listen to the news, and then
new Tamil music...
until mother calls us all for dinner
with sutta applam, claiming it's special,
and then chase us all off to bed while we,
sisters and cousin sisters, giggle throughout...
Wow, wouldn't living in the 70s have been fun? (Even sans the things we can't survive without today?)

43 comments:

Aravind said...

actually, indha facilities, gadgets ellam illamaley life would hv been good and peaceful those days!

Kausikram Krishnasayee said...

may be our momz are classmates...

Ananya S P said...

Yeah it would have been nice if we had lived in the 70's. Life would have been more simple and fun and more meaningful.

Asha said...

This reminds me of how I badly wanted to see my friend get married the typical indian way... sigh, not exactly disappointed but these days, they don't even adorn fresh flowers, everything's artificial.

Anonymous said...

when i think about the seventies, the things tat pop in my mind are the outrageous bell-bottom pants, tight shirts worn with buttons open to show the chest, handlebar moustaches and of course the slow decline of the flower power movement as well as the hippies ..... not really a great decade when u think about the fashion .... *grin*

i prefer the orties and early fifties .... the early techni-colour movies with the politically correct gentleman heroes and the feisty yet ladylike heroines .... eg grace kelly and james stewart .... a decade of simpler times and simpler tastes ... always wondered how it would have been to grow up in tat decade ....

anyway the eighties were not too bad ..... great kamal and rajini movies and singapore was a lot different then ... wonderful decade .... starting to get nostalgic ..... hmmm, no point in waxing over time gone ....

Anonymous said...

anyway how has ur holiday been .... did any fun stuff other than the usual tourist thing like goig to the beach or the zoo or to the local funfair *yawn* .... juz saying it makes me feel bored ....

saw ur other post .... had no idea u were into tennis .... sooo u are juz an armchair critic but do u actually know how to play ??? *grin*

Anu said...

reminds me of amma's narrations! :)

Vani Viswanathan said...

shobana,
hi! thanks for commenting :)
fan of my paratha experience post? err, someday soon i'll update with my good cooking skills! :P

aravind,
true! but how willing are we to give up on all this?

Vani Viswanathan said...

mark,
hahaha..possible! let me know her name ;)

anusha,
yes! the more meaningful part, makes a lot of sense!

Vani Viswanathan said...

asha,
hmm.. don't think that has caught on much with the people! hope u attend a good wedding in india soon, though! :)

welcome back dante,
clothes in films are bad in every generation! :D
holidays've been decent fun! nothing much to see in ahmedabad, but visited most of them! and stupid place doesn't have a beach!(obviously, but yeah...)
tennis, hmm... would love to play
! never got a chance, though... but follow it keenly! will play sometime to see how i fare! :)

Inder said...

70s... the gypsy era!! the whole world was going 'hare rama hare krishna' then. haha..

Sandhya Ramachandran said...

brilliant "Musings" :) But i wish i wer born in the Victorian era! You see i've an inborn tendency to faint! ;)

Subramanian Ramachandran said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Subramanian Ramachandran said...

Veni wrotes thus....

...When
I would only wear a Jeans
Bleach my hair everyday and wear bells,
Stick a sticker kolam in the corridor,
be the lady my boy friend is proud of
Spend 50 rupees for the auto
and go to Satyam theatre,
and be one of the 20 girls doing their B.E,
in a class of 50!
Go to the pub in the lunch break
have beer for Rs 40
Drool over Surya or Arya
copy Sania's nose ring?
Come by lift (in Boyfriend's bike) to save the 50 Rupees
and listen to music in the I-pod
Dont pay anything and talk in the CUG mobile,
Watch the football match in a flat T.V
and cheer wildly for Brazil,
Then crowd around the ibnlive.com site,
and read the news and then
download new Tamil Mp3
until mother sends an email calling us for a dinner
with pizza and burger
and then chase us all of to bed while we
chat and orkut with all the friends in online
Wow....Wouldnt living in the 2000's will be a pun

radiantbear said...

Do u watch the That 70's show?? I love it.

Vani Viswanathan said...

anu,
haha, inspired, of course! :)

inder,
that's just what fascinates me!!

Vani Viswanathan said...

sandhya,
that's so typical of ya, haha... i know of the fascinations Victorian era holds for you! :)

Subras,
Whoa! Haha..

nanyaar?,
Nope! Plan to start watching it real soon :)

SATYA said...

hey vani...
really nice to read ur intro....
i am really amazed that in this fashionable world,really hard to find a paavadi-dhavani in any office....its a typical life to enjoy new music, read newspapers, discuss gossips with friends,checking out malls and shops for new dresses,going to beach and as u said radio mirchi sema bore machi or namma city now-a-days to entertain us....nice ...small things also count a lot...what more???
thats all floks....
.until then a big bye
satya

~phobiac~ said...

Vani ! 70-a ?!?.. I like prefer the B.C.s !!...summa jolly-a suththikittu irukkalaamla !! :-)

Harish said...

I'm glad I didnt live in the 70s!! I'd be squirming in embarrassment looking at my snaps! those ppl back then were crazy!

Vani Viswanathan said...

satya,
welcome here!

phobiac,
err... that's too way back for me! that's why i chose the 70s, coz excepting the computer, we have almost everything else! :)

harish,
hehe.. wait till ur kid sees ur college pics... ;)

Bijesh said...

will there be a time when people will look back at the 2000's (the present) and wish they belonged there? Personally, I don't think that's even close to possible.

SATYA said...

thanx a lot.....vani....
have a great week ahead at ur college....bye
satyam

Vani Viswanathan said...

biju,
It's impossible! We're living in a horrible era!

satyam,
Welcome, again, and thanks!

P said...

Beautifully written! Got me all nostalagic!

Harish said...

I have heard this 10 paise stuff from my mom and i found it very comical.70's rocked eh? btw...I have to thank you for one thing. Its been a year since i have been tormenting people by blogging and you were the first person to approve me of my insanity. yup...you were the first one to post a comment in my blog. Will never forget it.

Harish said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Ramya Shankar said...

Errrr... its wogay !!
We never are content with what we have !

Priya Sivan said...

visiting for the first time thro someone else's link. Nice post. Made me nostalgic. It was Amitabh and RK there while Kamal and Rajni rocked here in the 70s movies :)

Subramanian Ramachandran said...

There could've been a time
...When
Vani would post every successive days,
Reply the comments every moment
be the blogger the blog world is proud of

But still....
wouldn't blogging from home be fun

even sans the frequency of posts that you are posting these days

Unknown said...

Came here thro harish's blog.

Nice post. 1970s la ellam no terrorism, no pollution (compared to now)....

aana 10 paise ticket ninaich sirippu dhaan varudhu! :)

Anonymous said...

i am juz picking up tennis too .... actually it was a choice between either squash or tennis and since my friend who plays tennis promised to teach me the basics, i decided to go for tennis .... i still suck at it thou .... i got the worst hand eye co-ordination ..... happy to say tat i haven't managed to sustain any life threatening injuries in the pursuit of becoming the next McEnroe .... *grin*

p.s. if u ever decide to pick up the sport, come on by yio chu kang tennis courts .... looking for a newbie whom i can actually win and then promptly boast about it to everybody ....

Vani Viswanathan said...

perspective inc.,
Thank you! And welcome here :)

Harish,
Yayy, congratulations!!! :) Keep it going!!!

Ramya,
Hehe, yeah, but what's in life if you don't ask for more? :D

Vani Viswanathan said...

shpriya,
Welcome, and thanks! :)
Oh yeah, Kamal and Rajini would've rocked big time here!

RS,
Haha... I wasn't busy at all during the vacation, just got busy now because I'm packing my bags! And there, when you don't have much else sources of entertainment, it's only blogdom you can turn to! :)

Vani Viswanathan said...

Karthik B.S.,
Welcome!
As for the 10 paise ticket, I remember this time when I gave a 10 paise coin in the bus and the conductor gave me a weird look. How unfair is that? :P

Dante,
Yio Chu Kang to play tennis?!?! Crazy! I'd rather stick to playing around my block in the hostel, if at all I try! :)

>>>looking for a newbie whom i can actually win and then promptly boast about it to everybody ....
Adapaavi!

Anonymous said...

Hey,been reading your blog quite regularly for awhile now,very fresh,madras filter coffee flavour-i Must say!:)

Loved this one,write in true blue ChennaiGal style..

And assuming it was you,who commented on my blog-thanks a ton!

-hamsini from hamdamn.livejournal.com

Unknown said...

come on guys.. present time though has a lot of downs, is certainly much better than the 70s. I am fortunate that I am born now.. How come everyone is unanimously approving Vani?

Subramanian Ramachandran said...

Have a nice journey back to Work Vani

Tata from India !!!

Welcome back to Singapore !!!

Ramanujam said...

every gen has it's own charm....
70's joint families would have been great...
our's is not a horrible era!
def u l feel for it may be 30 yrs later...

Anonymous said...

//Yio Chu Kang to play tennis?!?! Crazy! I'd rather stick to playing around my block in the hostel, if at all I try! :)

soo in other words, you are not going to try playing ... *grin* ... i know of all the "lazy" excuses since i happened to have used most of them already ... well u could always try playing it on the x-box ... almost like the real thing except no requirement to actually sweat or move any of ur muscles apart from your thumbs and fingers on the joypad ....

and now i have to search for another poor soul with even worse hand-eye co-ordination than me whom i can beat in tennis ..... *wink*

p.s sooo when are u coming back ??? before national day ??? hope u dun mind me asking .... juz curiuous ....

Vani Viswanathan said...

Hamsini,
Hallo! Yes, it was me who commented in your blog.

Mahesh,
Of course, agreed that this time does have a lot we should be grateful for.. but the possibility of living a simpler life entices me more!

Vani Viswanathan said...

RS,
Thanks! I reached yesterday :)

Ramanujam,
Feel for it 30 years later? Yes, maybe for it'll remind me of my younger days... I don't know if I'll think back for any other reason!

Dante,
Yeah, I'm back!!

Sat said...

Hey dropping by after a long time...know what; did most of it in 90s...in fact not very long ago. Just kick out the gizmos n the fast money(if u'd have the balls to do so!)...who knows you might get it back.
I had to pay a fortune to lie on my mom's lap and gaze at the sky; something I would have done free of cost years ago on my terrace...but those annoying mega serials weren't around then to keep my mother busy!
P.S: personally I remember the 70-s more for the hep music...and a even more hep John Travolta; minus 50 pounds (peck would have been awfully old!..though he can only look handsome anytime )