Why I would love to live in the 70s?
I was scrolling through my YouTube and found a serial from 90s called Kirdaar by Gulzar Sahab and its music by Jagjeet Singh. I started watching it and found myself at episode fifth too soon. Each episode had a unique story, captured beautifully in around twenty-five minutes and each of it left me wanting for more. It felt that I could sense how the things in 80s and 90s must have been. Ofcourse, it has its own limitations as there is just one perspective. So, I started imagining how it would have been the case with my family members. What they must have thought about love marriages at that time or increase spend on luxury items, or massive change in our clothing, or how people used to listen to music. How overwhelming it must have been to witness the transition from rural to urban India?
किताबों से कभी गुज़रो तो यूँ किरदार मिलते हैं
गए वक़्तों की ड्योढ़ी में खड़े कुछ यार मिलते हैंजिसे हम दिल का वीराना समझकर छोड़ आये थे
वहाँ उजड़े हुए शहरों के कुछ आसार मिलते हैं-गुलज़ार
In the latter half of 1900s, India was undergoing a cultural, technological and social transformation, all at once. The youth (privileged) was moving towards pop-culture: English music, Chinese food, American clothing and French novels. The kitchens were accustoming to English tea and breakfast; the restaurants were adapting to host artists who can play jazz; vendors were starting to keep French perfumes; florists were keeping more of Lily. The wave was everywhere, in big and small cities, in houses of rich and poor, in youth and old.
More people were writing letters and sharing greeting cards on festivals. The new reading habit was becoming a leisure activity and going out at nights, a new trend. We were learning to have couple’s time and privacy. Women were stepping out of their homes and saree was going places. No wonder, they have showcased the ones worn by Indira Gandhi so well in her museum. New professions were emerging as we were moving to lives where hobbies exist and life was not limited to food. More and more people were actually moving up in Maslow’s hierarchy to self-actualisation needs.
Television, telephone and technology were gradually occupying more important roles. The common households were witnessing the stardoms for the first time, family members living outside found a great way to connect, and housewives found some of the burden taken off. A whole-new working class was being created like an assembly line; IITs, IIMs, DU, JU, JNU widened the horizons and industrialisation opened doors to grow companies like TATAs, Maruti, Parle, AMUL. Engineering became a means and American dream, an end. Migration shaped the cities and even countries, the barter between the cities and educated individuals seemed to work well. Spaces became wider and experiments, a common practice. Whatever sphere one looked at, there was a buzz, a hustle-bustle, a gamut of activities taking place, all at once.
Cinema was at its peak to reflect whatever was happening around. Some of the biggest artists who have ever walked on earth were creating their best works: Shyam Benegal, Nargis, Madhubala, Ramanand Sagar, Guru Dutt and many others whose work have kept the past alive. The music industry complemented the cinema with legends like Lata Mangeshkar, Jagjeet Singh, Sudhir Ludhianvi, providing us with music that is going to last till eternity.
Cricket was turning into a religion with players like Dravid, Tendulkar, Kapil Dev and Gavaskar to whom people were looking up to as Gods. They, in return, blessed the country with the first World Cup trophy, what a historical moment it was! You could ask ten boys what they want to become in life and eight of them would have answered cricketer. Broken windows and tube-lights stand true to these words and so those large posters on our age-old almirahs.
In all those years, the country also saw a whole lot of intersections. Sports, cinema and politics were coming together and so was our culture with the West. The latter decades of 1900s seemed nothing but the spring season, with everything blooming around, more colours and a whole lot of youth. If given a choice, would love to rejoice these moments where the world climbed up one more stair. What a time it must be to welcome each day like a new opportunity! A time where productivity and leisure went hand-in-hand. A time when people were eager to change. A time of youth!
