Sundays in the past
By: K S S Pillai
According to the Bible, Sunday was the day of rest even for God after He got tired of creating this world. His followers, though supposed to observe it as the Lord’s Day of worship and rest, are forced to use it for many more activities now.
Though it would be difficult for the new generation to believe there was a time without mobile phones and televisions, we have passed through that era. Years after the telephone was invented, people had to wait for a long time after registering their names with the only provider of the service–the government of India–to get a landline telephone connection. Other items in short supply included scooters, cooking gas, and several other necessities of daily use.
I remember being a part of a queue of thousands of people aspiring to own a scooter and sleeping in a stadium infested with blood-sucking mosquitoes to register my name, which was to start at ten in the morning.
People’s representatives in the legislative assemblies and central law-making bodies were given special quotas for scooters, telephones, and cooking gas connections as an added incentive. They used their extra power to oblige someone, or to sell it through agents.
It was the period when my friends and I used to look forward to Sunday, our weekly holiday, to meet one another. The only spoilsports were school teachers who gave homework to children with strict instructions to submit it on Monday. Parents would often render a helping hand to their offspring so that all would be free in the evenings.
As rarely any of us had scooters, we used to travel by bus to reach our destination. Some of us had bicycles with a baby seat on the crossbar in the front and lights powered by a dynamo. They were so polished that they looked like brides. It was usual for people to peddle through narrow roads proudly, carrying a family of four.
Since the meeting place was well-known, the host family would be well prepared to receive the guests. As milk was in short supply, it would be stored after boiling well in the absence of refrigerators. If the meetings became lengthy, tea would be served twice.
The meetings provided us with several light moments. One of our group member was bald, and we used to refer to him as ‘Baldie’ when he was not present. Once, while waiting for a bus, the young daughter of one of my friends asked her father loudly, “Papa, who is Baldie?” As the guy in questing was standing next to the girl, her mother dragged her away.
A friend of ours had a foreign-made record player. He used to keep it along with a stalk of records prominently in the sitting room. One day, a boy started playing with it by pressing various buttons. The host was so furious that he tweaked both his ears, away from the eyes of his parents, warning him in a hushed voice never to touch it in future.
All women would meet in the kitchen and lend their hands in preparing different dishes. They would use the occasion to exchange gossip and also to back-bite those who were absent. If there was still time to kill, all would proceed to another friend’s house and remain there till late in the evening.
As the only place where one could see a film was the cinema house, some would get a print of an old popular film that would be screened as a special Sunday show. On such occasions, most of us would buy tickets in advance, and meet there.
Everything has changed now, and people, old and young, spend their time glued to different social media available on their mobile phones. With video calls that connect people residing in faraway corners of the world and sending and receiving messages taking no time, personal visits have become unnecessary. It is natural that people do not welcome any interference from friends or relatives through unwelcome visits.
(The author is a retired professor of English. A regular contributor to ‘The Kashmir Vision’, his articles and short stories have appeared in various national and international publications)
KV News
