NOSTALGIA

NOSTALGIA -- J.K. SIVAN

Until I was employed at the age of 18, I never had or wore a pant. The first pant I got stitched by a tailor at Kodambakkam took more than two weeks to be delivered to me. There were not ready made pants of any brand, in use then. The tailor was requested secretly to make it a bell bottom pant because my father would not permit me to wear unconventional pant. The normal pant was of same length and breadth from waist to ankle with the ends folded up. The bell bottom pant was different. It was not of same breadth from waist to ankle. It was narrow upto to the knee and then slowly took the shape of a bell. I was crazy and delighted when I wore it to my office. My colleagues envied me.

I had a bottle green colored Hercules bicycle and daily oiled it and had a cycle pump to inflate air into the tubes. I pedalled all the way from Vadapalani /Kodambakkam to Mount Road (Anna salai) to my office in front of New Globe theatre, later changed name as Alankar and now a business complex with many shops and show rooms.

The only fear then was in the form of the police constable on the way. He would stop the cycles with no light. I had an oil lamp attached to my bicycle and carried a match box readily to re- light it whenever necessary, as it frequently went out due to wind blowing it out.. The policemen collected Rs 2 and sometimes allowed me to walk with the cycle by letting out the air in the cycle tubes, as a punishment for riding the cycle without light. I had been caught many times and most of the times t let out with a warning , sometimes having to pay the fine to the policeman.

My first wrist watch was a gift from my elder brother. At the time of his marriage he was presented a new watch and so he gave me his old watch. I was proud to wear a wrist watch to my office. It was an old ''Favreleuba Savre Prema''. After many problems which were attended to by Abdul Sattar on Arcot Road, who used to repair watches, alarm clocks and table time pieces, the next watch I managed to get was from a neighbour in West Avenue Road, Kodambakkam, where we lived then. I was a Henri Sandoz & Fils Roman lettered wrist watch sold to me for Rs 40. I had to shake my left hand frequently to give fresh life to the watch for movement of its tiny hands.

I was disappointed that even after paying such a huge amount of Rs 40 my wrist watch was betraying me. I had to keep winding the button to key it until one day it stopped permanently without any hep from Sattar and ended its movements.

Right from my high school days I had been using ink pens. I remember the names of them, ''Writer, Camlin, Mentmor Diplomat,Gama etc., The pens were called fountain pens.The most sought after was Japan Pilot, with a golden color cap, made in China. inkfillers were used to fill the ink into the tank of the pen.

I remember during my school days I used to carry the small handy Krishnaveni Ink bottle half filled from big size bottle at home. My father exclusively used the Quink for his pen. He used a wooden bodied long pen with a steel nib attached to its tip. It was called steel pen. He will dip the nib in the ink bottle and write comfortably, supported by a blotting paper pad for drying the ink on the paper which he inked with his writings.

The local peope in our village used such long wooden barrelled pens with home made inks instead of the Krishnaveni or Quick products. Such inks were dark brown in color if not black sometimes.