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Those Were The Days, My Friend!

Discussion in 'Cheeniya's Senile Ramblings' started by Cheeniya, Feb 16, 2017.

  1. Nonya

    Nonya Platinum IL'ite

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    Nice... like reading RK Narayan story. :thumbup:
     
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  2. jayasala42

    jayasala42 IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Cheeniya Sir.,

    What a lovely snippet about Madras Memoirs!I was much fascinated.

    Your ramblings about Madras has made me do my ramblings.



    I was born and brought up in a village in a very big joint family and I came to Madras in 1964 after marriage.Our village home had three pyols(thinnais) one below the other, a big koodam ( hall) service areas, open yard etc.For me ,Madaras was a different new world. I had to run the family with a mere Rs 130 which my husband brought as salary.We could not pay more than Rs 30 as rent.



    Triplicane-Thiruvallikeni ondu kudiththanam came as handy.We had a small room of about 120sq.ft and a small kitchen, common bath and toilet.There were 8 tenants.two were Govt servants,two were cooks, one was Sastrigal, and the other three were employed in companies.There were nearly 40 inmates.

    Always noisy, with shoutings of kids.romance, fightings all personal issues came to public stage.It was a beautiful admixture of contests, jealousy mingled with co-operation at crisis.The ondu kudiththana anubhavam in Madras taught me love, affection, sharing amidst so many intolerable things.Bath room and toilets didn't have proper bolts causing tension each time we attended calls of nature.

    Madras taught me how to make a budget within means ,yet provide for Rs10/ as R. D.

    The practical realities which I could not learn in my 20 years,were imprinted on me within 0ne year.

    Things that were missing were not only TV,Fridge,Computer ,A/C,but the privacy and secrecy. In this open secret world were born many professors, Research scholars and IAS officers..

    Now there is no ondu kudiththanam.It has metamorphosed into 'Flat' system.It has privacy, secrecy-but no intimacy, no quarrel.That that man, that that life.Madars has taught the universal truth that change is the unchangeable phenomenon.A big salute to Madras



    Of all other things, Madras has created a dialect of its own called'Madras

    bashai.

    Some of the words

    Ischoolu for school,

    asaaltaa-taken with ease from 'aasaanee' in Hindi

    alekaa--smoothly derived from 'azhagaaga' in Tamil
    eguru-run fast taken from Telugu
    bemaani-who has no ethics derived from Be+Emmani in Hindi,
    kedi-police abbreviation for known delinquent

    kasmaalam-a sanskrit word for hair or dirt

    kenayan-fool derived from malayalam word kenai for 'mad'

    majaa-taken from mazaa in Urdu

    OB adikkarathu-taken from military term'Off Beat0-wasting time

    during leisure hours.

    Gulete-A word denoting Telugu people-reversal of the word Telugu

    Madras-nalla-madras!



    Jayasala 42
     
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  3. iyerviji

    iyerviji Finest Post Winner

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    Thks Nonya glad it was was like RK N's story
    Thks Nonya glad it was
     
  4. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    My dear Viji
    What a wonderful walk through memory lane! We seem to have had almost identical childhood. Both my brother and I were good at studies though I was not as heard working as my brother. He was always first in the class and would get lots of prizes for his high ranks. I took life a bit easy and being seven years younger to him, I was the darling of all. Intensive petting by everyone made me take life easy. Prizes were never in my mind and all I worked for was to pass with decent marks. My father was extremely good in English and my brother too. I was initially an average student in English and my love for the language began with my reading of PG Wodehouse. I soon became a crazy fan of Wodehouse. I read his novels again and again particularly when my mood is down. There is an episode in the Mr. Bean series in which he travels in a train with a single co-passenger. The passenger is reading a book and starts smiling. Soon the smile becomes open laughter which grows in volume every second. Bean can't stand it and tries to shut his ears from the man roaring with laughter without any success. Whenever I see this episode I always think that the book that the man is reading must be a Wodehouse novel. Only he can have that kind of effect on his readers. Please watch this episode here:

    Sri
     
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  5. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear jayasala
    What a lovely remembrance! We too were in a ten tenement house in Triplicane from 1944 to 1956 and we had to shift to another roomier house, I cried buckets. It was immediately after my brother came out successful in his IAS exam. When I joined the SBI as Probationary Officer my total emoluments were Rs.500 per month. Today it is over Rs.40000+ per month for Probationary Officer! Rs.500 was a priestly salary in 1965, the year I joined SBI. We could afford a very decent life but inwardly, I always missed my Triplicane days. I have understood one thing. Poverty and affluence have no bearing on our state of happiness. It is all in the mind. Today I am not one tenth as happy as when I was in the ten-tenement house. I have realised that happiness has to be found inwardly and not from the comforts of life.
    Sri
     
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  6. Nonya

    Nonya Platinum IL'ite

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    I like that. However, it makes no sense to renounce one's worldly possessions, if one ain't got any. A mind contemplating a hefty bank account, may concede to be a wee bit happier, wouldn't it ? One needs to make a respectable lot of money of their own, to be able to see that poverty and affluence have no bearing on one's state of happiness. This is one of those life's lessons where book learning has no impact; one has to do it and learn. Our Panchatantra teaches....
    The man has constant vigor? Dares
    On others' backs to mount?
    Speaks in a self-sufficient tone?
    He has a bank account.
    best wishes for a speedy recovery.

     
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  7. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Dea Nonya
    It is possible that I have not conveyed my thoughts well enough. I have lived a life of extreme poverty in my childhood and presently my worldly needs are well taken care of. But I was far happier in my childhood with a mother who was doting love on me like there was no tomorrow. The shift from poverty to affluence was slow but steady. It involved relentless toil and I had no time for anything but to secure myself for the future. But at the moment, when I am in my mid seventies and I look back on my past grind, I wonder if it is all worth it. Money's place has been taken over by spiritualism. It is true that what lies in the bank gives me a sense of security but when I see that what gives me happiness are a few figures typed on a pass book, I laugh at myself!
    But it has taken me seventy odd years to come to this realization. Probably such realisation comes to every one sooner or later. Lucky are those who get it early in life!
    Sri
     
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  8. jayasala42

    jayasala42 IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Shri Cheeniya Sir,
    Better realisation comes a little bit late and and lasts life long than attaining it early
    and lose it intermittently.
    Jayasala
     
  9. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Very true jayasala
    Sri
     
  10. shyamala1234

    shyamala1234 Platinum IL'ite

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    j
    Dear Cheeniya sir,
    Very thought provoking statement.
    My father is from a very modest background and my father in law also from a similar background. They had reasonably good jobs. Their aim was children should not face the same situation. That is the purpose for them. They never spent much for themselves. So, their aim and ambitions are for the family. Not affluence. Even from us they used to take very reluctantly when some need arises. Money has a different definition for each one. Equation is never the same.
    I thought I diverted from the main topic and expressing in a different way tangentially. I am not very good at expression.
    That is the beauty of your snippets. Makes us think and a lot of work for grey cells. Each reply to feedback has something to think. We missed that all these six months.
    Thank you.
    Syamala
     
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