52. HAPPY SCHOOL DAYS

52. HAPPY SCHOOL DAYS

Such hills could be seen East and South of our place, beyond the town limits and fields. Now tall buildings block the view on all sides!

Days before communal politics

OUR place was predominantly rural. Population was overwhelmingly non-Brahmin. This was reflected in the school too. In a class of 48, only 8 or 10 were Brahmin boys. We were easily noticed. There were boys of all castes and creeds, and we felt nothing odd or strange. Our friends were from all communities.Teachers were also from all communities: Brahmins, Pillais, Chettiars, Naidu, Mudaliar, Christian- Catholic and Protestant, and Muslim.We would not share cooked food with anyone, but would easily share other eatables sold outside the school- groundnut, guava, mango, coconut pieces and other local nuts and fruits. We would often buy a mango and smash it into pieces with stone and share them; when we could not find  clean stone, would  just have a bite each and pass it on! We were so unselfconscious. We had no notion of any differences. These were created by the Dravidian politicians later on. 

In the 1952 general election. the Congress chose a candidate who was not from the locally dominant community, and lost. [ He was not an original Congressman, either.]Since then every political party has only chosen a candidate from the dominant community! Communal divisions have become sharper after the rise of the Dravidian parties. Brahmins, as also the other so called forward communities have been marginalised in all walks of life, and now the others are fighting among themselves- all in the name of Dravidian politics! With each election, new grounds for division are found or invented!

Trips around the town

Four or five furlongs out of the town in any direction, we would cross the motor roads and highway and beyond would be agricultural fields, with crops of the season. It would be corn or groundnut or some gram or paddy in the areas adjacent to the lakes. We would just enter the field and take what we wanted! 

Sorghum was very common.

As a rule, the farmers were generous. If we asked for groundnuts, they would ask us to take as much as we liked and fill our pockets! They would not accept money.We would take what our pockets would hold, and selecting a spot spread some dry straw on the ground, put the nuts on it and set  fire to it.. The nuts would get roasted and since they were fresh, they would be juicy and it would be so sweet. Sometimes, the farmer himself would give us a piece of jaggery to go with it! Only those who had tasted it would know what heavenly stuff it was!

Freshly picked groundnuts. One should taste them raw or roasted to realise how nice they are.

The mango groves were a different matter. The owner would keep a strict watch, with a dog or two. And he would not let us pluck a tender mango, which we particularly liked. So often we had to steal.

Typical mango tree of our area- at times the mango would almost be touching the floor! This variety we called Bangaloora [ Kilimookka in some areas] Those mangoes which had a brownish-orange tint on the skin would be sweet. The green ones would be sour, and could be eaten only with salt and chilli powder.

 We had devised our own strategy. We would be in a group of 3 or 4. While some kept the watchman engaged on one side, one would sneak into the grove from another side and pluck enough mangoes! Mangoes were quite cheap then, but there was especial pleasure in outwitting the watchman and taking it on our own! It took some courage to enter the grove, as there would be huge anthills there and we were afraid big snakes lived inside them!

Only once were we caught - my cousin and I- but that was when we attempted to steal the whole bunch of banana from the tree! The stem proved to be very tough, contrary to expectation, we did not have the proper equipment  to cut it and made so much noise in the process, we were easily caught. The owner had been a classmate of my uncle at school, so the matter was promptly reported home and we were dealt with at home!

Picnics and excursions

Our place was surrounded by beautiful hills, lakes, fields and groves all round. Many boys attended school from those places and would take us to their villages. The school would also organise picnics to some of those places. Only one village was avoided- a place reported to be having a patch of quicksand. 

The school picnics were nice outings.The teachers would take great care, scouting the area in advance. As the region was generally hilly, there would be small snakes and scorpions lurking under the stones. So, we were strictly instructed not to rush into any spot, or overturn or disturb any stone. We would carry the material and cook our own food. But the boys from the village would have enlisted all the elders from the village: they would flood us with tender coconuts, corn, roasted  or boiled groundnut, jaggery, milk, curd, sugarcane, fruits of the season, etc! There would be delicacies like groundnut or til cake, left after extracting oil,   [புண்ணாக்கு] mixed with jaggery, which had to be taken fresh. There would also be a syrup extracted in the process of making jaggery.[ தேன் பாகு] In season, we would witness how jaggery was made from sugarcane juice- which also would be given to us in plenty!

There was a variety of fruit we called "konapuliyangaai or kodukkaappuli." It was not so common and the trees were found only in some areas. It was difficult to pluck them as they were found only in the top branches and the tree was full of thorns.When we got them, we were so happy!. The ripe ones would be delicious. [ கோணபுளியங்காய்/ கொடுக்காப்புளி.] The botanical name is Pithecellobium dulce. It is also called "Madras Thorn" for whatever reason!

The other village boys would also join us. Thus, the entire village would celebrate with us. We would end up eating what the villagers gave, and we would serve them what we had cooked! Thus, it was a grand gala time. The teachers were held in such high esteem that there would always be special gifts for them: a sack of groundnuts, vegetables, etc. Some elderly women would tell the teacher: "சாமி, நல்லா அடிச்சு சொல்லிக்குடு" Sir, don't spare the rod if they don't learn well!

 On the way to one such spot we would pass a village from which hailed a freedom fighter: Theerthagiri Mudaliar. His house was considered a pilgrimage spot. Also, in the lake nearby, a British plane had crashed or force landed during the war! Its debris were spoken of in the villages for many years! Some would reckon the birth of their children from the year of that plane crash!

Many languages in school

Those were the days before the Dravidian poison snake had raised its head. We were taught Tamil, English, Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu at school. Usually, Brahmin boys studied Sanskrit as one part of language. Muslim boys studied Urdu. Those who found Tamil tough ( usually those whose mother tongue it was not - there were many Telugu boys) chose Hindi, beyond compulsory Tamil.

Sanskrit and my trouble

I was in the Sanskrit class with 5 or 6 other boys. B.N.Venkatramana Sastri was our Sanskrit Pandit. He looked his part- appropriately orthodox, in dress and demeanour. 

Typical Sanskrit pundits of those days.

He would insist that each boy should come to class duly wearing the appropriate marks on the forehead- the vertical stripe for the Iyengars, three horizontal lines for the Smarthas and the sandal paste mudra for the Madhva boys. We had one or two of each in every class. Everyone obeyed, till one day I had a brainwave.

students with different marks on the forehead!
TTD News.

 I invented a shortcut. We had no distemper or painting those days. The walls would be simply whitewashed with a solution of lime. It would be done every year. If you touched the wall, the lime powder would stick to your fingers! So I felt it was an easy method to decorate our forehead- rather than wearing the Vibhuti since morning! Just before I entered the Sanskrit class, I would rub three fingers on the wall and with the lime powder, put three horizontal marks on the forehead! Two other Smartha boys followed me. Sastri noticed us and would tell others: ''Look at them! How fresh they are! Why can you not come like that?" One day one of those boys blurted out: "Sir, they are cheating! They are taking the lime powder from the wall.It is not Vibhuti they are wearing!" He then noticed the wall and saw how we had rubbed the wall in many places, making those spots dark! He was angry. On enquiry he learned that I was the author of that mischief. When I entered the class the next day, he took me to the Head Master and related the matter. The Head Master- one Sadashiva Udayar- was a great man. He looked at me- I was already shaking with fear- and then told Sastri, "send him out. Let him go to Tamil class". Thus ended my official Sanskrit studies! 

Hindi Pandit v.Urdu Munshi

When we entered 9th standard, we had another choice of language- we could study specialised Tamil or Sanskrit or Hindi. I chose Hindi, since I had been expelled from the Sanskrit class two years earlier. But Sastri was without a student  from that class and he asked my grandfather to send  me to Sanskrit class, but I refused. So I stuck to Hindi.

This led to some entertaining moments. There were only three students learning Hindi. There were 4 students learning Urdu. These classes were held at the two ends of a big, rectangular classroom. The Hindi Pandit was Velayudham. I forget the Urdu Munshi's name now- he was quite elderly even then.  At one end , the Hindi master would tell us something. Immediately, the Urdu munshi would shout from his end: "Arre Velayudham! Kya bakwas keh rahe ho! " ( O Velayudham, what are you bluffing!) Then a duel would start between them about the origin of the word- whether it was Arabic, Persian, some North Indian dialect like Bhojpuri or Brajbasha, and about its exact meaning. We always liked it because it meant the end of the lessons for the day! We would watch the fun. After arguing for about half an hour, the Munshi would suddenly say: "O Velayudham!  Ab tho bas karo. Chalo chai peeyenge". So they both would troop out to Balan Nair's tea shop at the end of the road. It was thus a hilarious time for us. Practically, there was no teaching for most of the year! But listening to the arguments between the masters, we learned many things outside the books! After the Pongal holidays, the Hindi master would ask us to come to his house daily and he would cover the book, in time for the annual examination. Since we were only three boys learning, the contact with the teacher was intimate- it was almost like Gurukula! Velayudham was a Gounder!

Status change of languages
Urdu replaces Persian	1837
Hindi and Urdu granted equal status	1900
Urdu declared sole national language in Pakistan	1948
Hindi granted separate status and official precedence over Urdu and all other languages in the Republic of India	1950

From Wikipedia.

Madrasa and Madras- mighty confusion!

But Velayudham was a principled man. He had prepared us for the public exam. In the question paper, there would be one essay question which alone carried 35 marks. When I got the paper in hand , I read the question as an essay on "Madras". So, I started writing  the answer. This was a topic we had not prepared for and I had to write extempore. I had to think up Hindi words for many things.Hindi grammar could be tricky so it took time. Velayudham was also a supervisor doing vigilance work. During his rounds he came to our hall too and stopped by me and saw what I was writing. He became angry, stamped his foot on the floor twice, put his finger on the heading "Madras" I had written and after staring hard at me, passed on! I read the question paper again and I felt I was right. I could not understand why he was angry. I completed the paper and came out. He was waiting for me just outside the hall. He  seized me by the shoulder and just slapped me! " You idiot! Three years' work is wasted! Can you not even read the question properly?  What is asked and what have you answered?" he shouted. 

I then opened the question paper again and saw carefully! The question was to write an essay on "MADRASA"  मदरसा  and not Madras मद्रास! Madrasa means school, and it is more Urdu than Hindi! In my myopic hurry, I had misread!  I now realised why he was angry. He told me plainly that I had lost one third of the marks outright and I had to get the pass mark only out of the other two thirds of the paper and he wondered whether I could do it! This was in March, and till the SSLC results came out in June, I was having nightmares! Somehow, I passed with the minimum marks in Hindi! This was the lowest mark I ever got in any subject throughout my school years!

Days when moral standards reigned!

But this incident throws light on the strict moral standards we had those days, 60 years ago! Velayudham was our own teacher, he was on vigilance work, I was one of just three students in the whole school writing Hindi paper. Yet he would not help directly! How things have changed in the same Tamil Nad now! Last year, in the engineering faculty, in one of the govt universities, my relative's daughter's answer sheets were snatched from her as soon as she completed a sheet, and was circulated in the hall by the very vigilance supervisor, so that everyone could copy, and be happy!

If salt shall lose its savour, wherewith shall it be salted?

51. ADVENTURES IN SCHOOL

51. ADVENTURES IN SCHOOL

Front cover of Wordsworth Classics edition, 1993. Shown here for purely educational purposes.

OUR schooldays in the 40s and 50s were quite joyful. We learned through our mother tongue, which was taught quite naturally. The syllabus was not heavy, the lessons were simple, the teachers were very good, there was no system of weekly or monthly tests and ranking. So, we were rather carefree. We had to pass the annual test, that most of us did any way! I remember only one boy- one Mir Mehboob Hussain- who could not pass the I Form (6th standard) for more than 5 years!  ( Churchill had failed in a class three years!) His father had been in the Army during  the I World War and  was highly respected. Those days, schooling was not rigorous,we could bunk as and when we liked, teachers were basically kind and humane, and no one thought of asking the boy to discontinue! Compared to those days, the system is heartless today( and brainless). Our schools are indeed prisons.

There are many stories in English about school life and generally about the life of youngsters. None is of course more universally popular than Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. 

We might not measure up to Tom or Huck, but we did have our share of misadventures and escapades. 

1876 illustration of Tom Sawyer







Owl Natesan!

The year was 1952-53. We were in the first form. Many boys used to come to school from nearby villages, walking up to 5 miles each day. In January, there had been a cyclone and very heavy rains. The teachers were very generous and did not mark attendance. Many boys from the villages could not attend, so formal classes were suspended.. We spent the days singing and telling stories. That is, till one day, this boy Natesan appeared in the class.

He used to walk from his village 3 miles away, crossing 2 lakes and fields on the way, with only a track for walking. The area was full of mango, tamarind, banyan and other big trees. There had been heavy rain in the night with thunder, lightning, and high winds. Some trees had fallen, and  many branches broken. It was still drizzling, and the boy was drenched and shivering. The class teacher gave the long towel on his shoulder [அங்க வஸ்திரம்] to the boy to dry himself. And he enquired of us as to whose house was close by and whether he could run home and bring the boy a pair of shorts ( called 'drawer' in our language) and a shirt so that the boy could  change into dry clothes. One of us stood up and started to go. By then, Natesan had toweled his head and bushy hair, had removed the shirt and was drying his chest with the towel. It was then that the teacher noticed it!

By Athene_noctua(portrait)jpg.Trebol-a derivative work Steminitis. Wikimedia commons.

Those days our drawers were very loose and generous with huge pockets. Even so, Natesan's drawer pocket was bulging! The teacher enquired what it was and Natesan  mumbled something ! Finally, he put his hand into the pocket, and took out a fully grown  owl! The boys shrieked in glee! He explained that as he was walking by a fallen tree, he found the bird   under a heavy branch and he took it out and kept in his pocket! We had not seen a live owl till then, and there were many beliefs about its sound and sight as an omen,   good or bad! Many of us were even afraid of looking at it and touching it, thinking it might peck us with its sharp beak!

Spotted eagle owl. public domain.

[ There is really a story of the famous  bird photographer Eric Hosking losing his eye when a tawny owl attacked him while he was trying to photograph it - this I learned much later when reading books on photography.

This is Sir Eric Hosking in 1948. It is so difficult to get a picture of this great man. This is from www.edp24.co.uk. Copyright position not known. Used here for purely educational purpose.]

 But Natesan became quite cheerful, forgot his shivering in his high spirits,and was stroking the bird. The teacher asked each boy to come near and touch and stroke the bird! That day we lost the fear of the owl. We also realised that it was not ugly or ungainly as we had thought! The teacher asked Natesan why he had put such a big bird in his pocket, and whether it would not hurt it. He simply said: "What to do sir ! If I carried it in hand the village dogs would chase me ! My pocket is big and so  there was no problem!"

By that time, his spare dry dress had come. Natesan became known as Aandhai (Owl) Natesan in the whole school and he became our hero! After all, he could touch, handle and fondle the owl! The biology teacher from the higher classes came, the bird was taken to a retired veterinary doctor, a relative of one of the boys, and after attending to the injury to its wings, Natesan was asked to take it back to the area where he had found it and release it! Some of us went with him. 

Lakshmi with the owl which is Her vehicle!
By Biswarup Ganguly (Own work) CC BY-SA 3.0 Wikimedia Commons. At least those fond of wealth ought not to fear the owl or despise it!

Quail story

My next encounter was with the bird known in Tamil as காடை"kaadai"- a sort of quail (coturnix coromandelica). This is not to be confused with the quail as such, or with its Japanese variety which is now commercially farmed for its meat and money!

This is the common quail, but I doubt this was the one we had bought! The picture of the Indian variety is difficult to get.

Those days, the native variety was found in certain hilly/forest regions surrounding our place. The native hunters would catch them and bring it in huge baskets to the village shandy (market) every Sunday. Each would be sold for 2 annas.

Our English teacher , Kreeda Rama Raju ( very great man and teacher-God Bless his soul ) was very fond of grammar. He felt that there was not enough provision  for it in the syllabus, nor time in the class! He used to tell us that a man not knowing grammar was blind. So he would conduct special classes for grammar every Sunday for three hours in the morning, though it was a regular holiday. The headmaster had permitted him and the use of the black board, but  not the regular class rooms! So we would sit under the shady shelter of the huge tamarind tree in the compound. I had difficulty in reading from the blackboard in the shade, so I would sit in the front row. (Later, it was found to be myopia). Next to me would sit a boy T.Ramaswamy, who lived near us. He lived with his uncle, who was a "sarack master" in a hotel. [சரக்கு மாஸ்டர்]

Sarakku Master!

Do you know what it is? Idly and Dosa are the staple items of snack for Tamilians sold in the hotels/eating houses. They are made of a mixture of rice and urad bean , soaked overnight in water and ground into a batter. Those days, there were no electric grinders, and this was done manually on huge grind stones, with pestle and mortar.

 It was the sarack master who did the grinding, and it was his expert hand and eye that could tell the correct form and consistency of the batter, which would determine the quality of the final product ! He was thus a "master" - expert in his trade, though his job involved miserable physical labour throughout the day, and he was paid low. Politicians today talk as if all Brahmins had been always prosperous, yet this is how people struggled to educate their wards with meager income.

The weekly shandy convened near our school. One day this Ramaswamy got it into his head to buy a Kaadai bird and rear it in a cage. We did not know anything about birds, and had not touched a bird, though I knew something about mynahs. Our parents were orthodox and would not let us keep a bird in a cage at home. And we would not know how to feed it. But Ramaswamy said he would keep the bird in his house, but since he had only one anna, he wanted me to give the other anna so that he could buy the bird. We did not know where to get the cage, so I decided to make one with the materials available. So. on our way to school, we went to the shandy and got the bird. We were actually afraid, thinking the bird might hurt us with its beak, but the hunter told us that the bird was very docile and would not hurt us if we did not trouble it. He told us what to feed it. 

Indian jungle bush quail. But our bird was not like this,either!

We got the bird, but how to carry it? Our drawers again were very big and generous with huge pockets. Ramaswamy put the bird in the pocket. We went to the class quietly and sat as usual. But soon trouble started. We were sitting on the bare floor and the bird must have felt uncomfortable.It started moving in his pocket and to explore with its beak! It would peck at his thigh with its beak, and he would squirm. He would lean to me and hiss something in my ears!  The teacher soon noticed this and asked us to stand up. He enquired what the matter was, why we were disturbing the class. He was a highly respected teacher and I did not want to incur his displeasure. So, I told him about the bird! The whole class broke into  tumultuous laughter- two Brahmin boys bringing a bird to the class, hidden in the pocket!  The master asked Ramaswamy to take out the bird. He took it out of the pocket, but his hands were shivering! Immediately another village boy used to handling birds came  forward and took it from  Ramaswamy , handling it naturally. The boys were all taken up with the bird and the class could not continue! The teacher asked us to go home and release the bird.

Cage for a quail!

We went home, but Ramaswamy was not willing to let the bird go, so I had to build a cage!  I had an idea and thought it was easy. We had at home some tin sheets of the size 18x24". I thought I would put holes along the edges on all sides, insert coconut stems  through the wholes from the coconut broomstick and tie it up at the top, at about a foot! But when I started putting holes with a nail and hammer., I realised how tough it was!  I spent over three hours but it was not a good job. Somehow we put the bird inside and took it to his home. The coconut stems were not strong , the gap between them was not close, and the bird was trying to escape! We covered the cage with a towel and reached his place. As soon as we opened the door, his uncle was standing there. Coming to know that it was a bird, he flew into a rage, and just slapped Ramaswamy with the back of his huge left hand! How did we think of putting a free bird in a cage? Was it not a sin for Brahmins?  Would this flimsy cage stand? How would we protect the bird from cats at night?  Or somebody might steal it for the meat! We rascals should be severely beaten for this!  So saying, he  took the so called cage and putting his strong hands inside, tore the coconut stems apart and released the bird. It was not the age for us to know. Even now I feel so sad. For this bird could live only  in specific environment and I would not know how much it had to fly to get to its place, and whether it could. And this bird was known to fly only short distances.

Something more awaited us in school on Monday. Kreeda Rama Raju was also our class teacher. He moved the period for "moral class" forward from Wednesday to that Monday. In the first hour on that day, he taught us about how as Hindus we should not confine free birds and animals in cages. If we were born as hunters we might do it till we knew better; otherwise, it was a sin for others to confine free birds in a cage. In this connection he told us the story of Bhadrachala Ramdas. He had confined a parrot in a cage for 14 days in his previous birth; so in this birth, he had to spend 14 years in jail! Never again did I think of keeping a bird!

Will teachers give such lessons or relate such stories now- in the secular regime? Rather, they would extol the virtues of the eggs of the bird and its meat! And how much income one may get from raising the birds in a commercial farm!

Mynahs and Manickam

Before this, I had  had an encounter with another bird- mynah. We had many village boys in the class. They were bold, fearless and adventurous. There were two brothers - Singaram and his younger brother Thangavelu in the class. Their father was a mason whom they assisted on holidays. One day, they mentioned that their father was then engaged in work in a new housing colony where many buildings were in various stages of completion. Lot of mynas lived on them. (For the scaffolding, they would leave small gaps in the wall which would be closed only on completion. The mynahs would come and occupy them. They did not build nests.) They said it was so easy to catch them! 

from: www.sciencenews.org

 I had one friend near my house- one Manickam, whose father ran a firewood depot. He was interested in mynahs. So on a holiday the Singaram brothers, Manickam and I  went to that housing colony which was a new area developing beyond our town. Manickam climbed the wall holding on to the gaps in the wall  and put his hand into one of the top gaps, and came out with a mynah! He got another from the next one!  Today, I shudder to think about it. We now know that birds think of nesting only when they are about to lay eggs!  I really do not know whether there were any eggs inside! This disturbs me even today!

By Vimal Ram S (Own Work) CC BY-SA 3.0 Wikimedia commons,

He caught the mynahs but how to feed them? We were told that they lived on grasshoppers,called in Tamil 'budathai' புடத்தை 

So, our next job was to go to the fields beyond in search of grasshoppers! Manickam had an empty match box into which the grasshoppers were  caught and put! I liked the mynah, but did not like catching the grasshopper!  So I did not accompany him on his field visit the next time. After two or three days, he told me that the mynahs had flown away!

Mynah on a flowering tree- Woodblock print by Isoda Koryusai c1775 Public Domain.

50. BICYCLE - THE PERENNIAL FAVOURITE

50. BICYCLE- THE PERENNIAL FAVOURITE

Illustration for Robinhood bicycles in a catalogue printed around 1900 by Geo A.Wolf in Wilmington, USA. From: www.hagley.org.[Hagley Museum and Library.] Used here for purely educational purpose.

Man has invented countless things since the dawn of history. It is doubtful if any of them can match the bicycle in beauty and utility. The greatness of the bicycle is that unlike other machines invented by man, it supplements human effort without supplanting it,is  propelled by human energy without being a burden or danger to the environment. It is easy to assemble and maintain. And until recently it used to be really affordable even to the poor.

From its inception in the late 19th century, the basic model of the bicycle has hardly undergone any change, though lot of technical improvements  have been made. Like in most things, it is the basic model which is the most useful, and is simply elegant.

Early memories

My earliest memory is sitting on a folded towel placed on the frame top tube  on a bicycle , with my uncle riding home after  watching the movie Ram Rajya in Trichy late in the night. Some years later, I sat on the rear carrier as my uncle was pushing the bicycle, while engaged in serious discussions/arguments with my mother as we were returning from watching K.Subramaniam's  film Githa Gandhi. This was in Salem.  The bicycle was a very familiar sight from early days. The postman always came on one, as also the newspaper vendor.

Learning to ride the bicycle

We learned to ride the bicycle when we were about 12 years old. One senior boy in our group had learned it first and he agreed to teach us. Those days we had shops hiring bicycles by the hour- the charges being 2 annas for an hour. We used to hire from one K.S.Mani, whose bikes were marked KSM on the rear mudguard. They would only give us 4 annas per week at home, so we could practise only for about 2 hours a week. But we learned it quite fast, though not without falls, cuts and bruises.Riding was easy, the essence was getting on the seat, controlling the speed and learning to brake, without losing balance! Slow cycling was an event in our school sports!

There was always a stage when we learned to pedal without sitting on the saddle! This was called "monkey pedalling" in Tamil,  குரங்கு பெடல்  and it was a great favourite as  we felt we were really doing some circus act! But it was a necessity for boys who were rather short and who had only a 24" bicycle at home, as in the following illustration! Their legs would not reach the pedal if they sat on the saddle!

monkey pedalling! From: patrikai.com. Note the saddle- it was the one elders preferred those days! The bike has no chain guard, but has additional support for the front fork! 

Different Models

At this stage, we learned  the names of various bikes. There was the Sen-Raleigh group of Calcutta which made four famous brands: Raleigh, Robin Hood, Humber, Rudge. The Raleigh was highly regarded, but Robin Hood caught my fancy.

Beautiful Raleigh bike of the 50s! 
from: www.sheldonbrown.com

These were matched by Hercules, Phillips and BSA brands made by TI Cycles of  Madras. Here, Hercules caught our fancy. Hercules was considered tougher than Raleigh, and KSM would only give us Hercules bikes for practise. He said that they were so tough nothing would happen (to the bike) even if we fell! There were other brands like Atlas and Hind, with some local names like Royal Supreme. Mani's words came true when we hired a Hind bike from someone else one day, and the frame got cut when we fell!

Basic model sturdy Hercules of 1950s!, with full chain guard and rear carrier. Note the stand- it was how it was those days! Note the saddle too- it was the  common one those days.

20" or 22" bike was the favourite of the boys, while elders preferred the 24" height. Two  saddles/ seats were famous then: Brooks and Wittkop.

Brooks seat! but this model seems to be recent.  We had not seen much of this then!

Recent Wittkop saddle. The seats back then were not so comfortable.

Fitting a lamp to the bike was a requirement those days, if we had to use the bike after sun set.Also, the rear mudguard should have a fixture with a piece of red glass (later plastic). I remember Miller lamps were the ones used, with their own dynamo. With it came a rear lamp too.

Miller lamp and its dynamo! Today, these are sold as antiques!

The bike was not complete without a bell. It used to be very simple, but effective. We did not use it much, but we thought it added to the beauty of the bike.  The postman would always sound the bell! Later, we had many fashionable models in bells. There was always the fear of losing  the bell if the bike was parked in public places.

Today, people talk of transfer of technology, manufacturing at different places, etc. The Raleigh people were pioneers in this- they entered into collaboration with local dealers to manufacture their bikes in different countries and this measure is one which really benefited people in Asia and Africa. The Sen-Raleigh factory was set up in India- one of the largest then- in 1952. The Raleigh group later acquired the TI group in England so that most of the bikes manufactured in India then belonged to this group. But their collaboration in China became the largest in the world.

The Flying Pigeon- the most popular vehicle in the world! manufactured in  China, it is based on a 1932 Raleigh and has sold 500 million units.So simple and elegant! 
This picture is from Wikipedia.Creative commons, licence 2. I am unable to cite the reference because of the Chinese letters!

 I had been fond of Robin Hood since schooldays,so  the first bicycle I bought was a Robin Hood! It was complete with a light and dynamo, carrier at the rear, a wire basket at front, half chain guard, etc. Nagpur was then a small place, which one could cover end to end on a bicycle in under half an hour. Bicycle was the common mode of transport, along with cycle rickshaw.

The logo on the Robin Hood bicycle. But mine was an Indian make.

Mix and match!

Raleigh type hub!

I found out that it was a rather light cycle, and it was hard to pedal against the wind. Friends advised me to go in for a Hercules, which was heavier. But its hub was considered rather hard! The problem was solved by having a Raleigh hub fitted to the Hercules wheel and the result was quite nice. The bike was steady, and the ride was smooth!

I was then in Ahmedabad where the traffic was heavier. I used my bike to go to my workplace but one day my neighbour advised me rather strongly against riding a bicyle in that chaotic traffic,reminding me that I was not getting any younger, and I took to public transport, reserving the bike for week end rides.

Export of Indian Bicycles

Export of Indian bicycles used to be in the news occasionally. When I came to Madras I had occasion to discuss it with some executive 
of TI Cycles. They were nice people. He explained to me that they were facing an uphill task. The steel they got for the frame rod had high carbon content and it was not acceptable in world markets. They had to further process the steel to reduce the carbon content which involved heavy power consumption and hence cost. This made export very difficult. There was the additional problem of third country insurance claims, which would be beyond the means of any Indian company. Was not the Govt aware of these things? What did the export promotion bodies do?  He told me plainly that instead of talking to Delhi bureaucrats, one could talk to a buffalo! Those Indian industrialists and entrepreneurs who struggled and survived in the socialist era were really heroes and real freedom fighters! 

Bicycles with gears

I had first seen a bike with gears in the school days, when a teacher, one D.Timotheus had such a bike. It was a rare sight. He would not let anyone come near it. He also practised homeopathy outside  school hours and the bike would be parked in a corner inside the shop. We were very eager to handle it, but he would not let us near it! One day, one of us could lay his hand on it and just meddled with the gear rod, which was fixed to the frame rod!  The teacher  could not identify the boy, but shouted in the class enough, but also explained that the gear should be handled only when the bike was in motion. Valuable lesson! 

But it was not easy to fit a gear to Indian bicycles even in the 70s.That was the time of socialist pattern. Even getting a good cycle tyre was a problem- the Dunlop tyre which was considered good was only available in the black market. The municipality collected a tax on the bicycle and gave a tin token which had to be fitted in the bike with a screw! Riding double was an offence. I still remember a letter to the editor published in the Tamil Daily, "Dinamani". The correspondent had written that the pillion rider could easily get down in case of need, but how could the rider unload a parcel weighing 30 or 40 pounds? What was the sense in permitting loads without limit, when people who weighed much less were prevented from riding pillion? We disregarded the rule most of the time, but had paid the fine when caught!

Bicycle Etiquette

Riding the bike had its own etiquette. We would always get down when we saw a school teacher or a known elderly person. We would always offer to carry any baggage or other things carried by elders, especially  women, whether they were known or not. We would get down when we saw a roadside temple! In the beginning, we would get down even when we sighted a policeman! When we saw an elder or teacher ahead of us, we would slow down, and would never overtake or go past them! Oh, what days they were!

Bicycles- decline and return

Development of the automobile had marginalised the bicycle and today, there are motorised two wheelers even in the villages. The villagers consider it a sign of 'progress' to ditch the bicycle and buy a motorbike. In all the advanced countries, there is a craze for cycling now, both for its health benefits and  beneficial effects on the environment! Cycling is promoted as a leisure activity, and exotic models of bicycles are being introduced. Facilities to hire bicycles are coming up! Naturally enough, the develpoing nations are copying the trend!When I went to Delhi in 1965, I found tracks dedicated to the bicycle, but they all disappeared in the name of progress! It is almost impossible to cycle in Indian cities now due to the automobile mania, but some essential activities/ services are still done with the bicycle. 

Tender coconuts sold on the bicycle, both by the roadside and in the suburbs!

What we as youngsters did informally and routinely and freely, is now sought to be promoted professionally, as a formal activity and for a fee! Yet, so long as the monster of the automobile is not eliminated,, the bicycle cannot regain its lost glory and its place on the road. 

In Copenhagen, cyclists have won against the automobiles! There,1,60,000 bikers cover 1.3 million kilometres each working day. Can it happen in Delhi?  Yes, if the sun rises in the West!
picture from:www.treehugger.com.

infatuatedwithwords

Aug 14, 2014

Bike rides

Bike rides through the neighborhood
Are a very relaxing thing.
Who knew that a task as simple as this
Could make your heart feel light and sing?

From: hellopoetry.com 


NOTE:

There have been many Hindi movies in which songs have been picturised  on heroes/heroines with bikes eg. Anadi, Aas ka Panchi, Paying Guest, Ek Hi Rasta, etc. But there has been no song on the bike as such , as far as I know. In 1948 Vittorio De Sica produced his beautiful neorealistic movie The Bicycle Thief which is still considered a classic. The story revolves round a bicycle !