When I was a kid staying at a rented small flat in Ahmedabad, our annual pilgrimage to my home town of Kerala was the biggest event for us. As kids we were looking for long trips. These trips helped us getting the much needed space we were craving day in and day out.
No one owned a car then — except for ONGC employees who bought cars when none of them even had the chance to be behind the wheels in their life. But the then Navratna company gave loans like they were under intramammary pressure and overloaded with cash and the only redemption was to ask their employees to buy whatever hell they wanted unless it involves a lot of money. You know the intramammary pressure right? When the udder (read ONGC) is filled with milk(read money), the intramammary pressure will always be at peak. Ask any buffalo if you doubt me.
Thinking of ONGC, I also remember many of my uncles and aunties getting admitted to big hospitals with minor ailments just because the expenses were taken care in a cashless manner. I never understood this cashless scenario until one of them got his entire teeth replaced with a new pair. When I went to ask about his health, I realised his wife was hospitalised for the same purpose. Yes, you heard me right. Their 8 incisors, 4 canines, 8 premolars, 8 molars and 4 wisdom teeth — yes all the 32 permanent and secondary teeth x 2 = 64 teeth were removed and was sitting home like a 100 year old granny and granna waiting for their new pair to arrive — a month from now. They looked older than their grand parents. When I asked what was the need to remove the teeth for both of them ( I initially thought wife removed it in solidarity with husband) they told me they had problems consuming cold products. Oh, I realised there was a refrigerator too. You guessed it right — bought out of the usual intramammary pressure. After all, there were no London based dentists then selling Sensodyne on TV.
And even if there was a cure to tooth sensitivity, the freebies would just over ride anything sensitive. Because of them I realised much early in my life the importance of preserving the most precious upper part of your body. Having said that, I still forget to brush my teeth at bed.
So their pair of teeth were in perfect condition. But then then the intramammary pressure was so high that they decided to go for a new pair made of some cheap plastic — I presume. After a month, the new ones arrived. From what used to be a good smiling face, they turned out to be robots who were struggling to put their teeth together whenever they opened their mouth. All for free. Thanks to the udder.
Most of them also had cars and my closest school pal — whose parents worked in ONGC but who valued their teeth — was one of them. He taught himself driving a Premier Padmini right when he was sitting next to me in the same bench in the school trying to learn a square plus b square trash. We cursed our Physics cum algebra teacher — an older man — who could not make us understand this basic to us. It was much later we got it when our PM made a speech that India and Canada are like that “2ab” that comes from the formula of (a+b)square.
And since the RTO was at a walking distance from his home, he got a licence as soon as he turned mature. This helped me save the car hiring expense during my marriage. I used his car and he was my driver and Groomsman. I owe to him this and also teaching me how to drive the Bajaj scooter around Kankaria lake. Yes, you guessed it right again. The scooter obviously came from the udder. We circled this lake more than moon orbiting the Earth and a little less than the Earth orbiting the Sun. And when I bought my own Bajaj Super scooter from my own salary — the first thing happened to me was a rocket start — as soon as I released my clutch on gear one. Now if you want to do the same(circling Kankaria Lake), you have to shell out a million since entry of this place is ticketed.
So back to the school days. My father was a transmission supervisor (who went on to become a reporter) in one of the two wire agencies that existed then with a knack of great speed in everything that he did which included typing and reading the punched tape — the perforated paper tape with punched holes used as a form of data storage then. He read it like he was reading a regular typed sheet. The only thing he had no speed was counting his salary since it finished before it got started. Everyone working for newspaper were paid pittance. They worked out of passion for the job. They had no agenda then. The only agenda was to bring two meals home to the family. The owners of the then newspapers ensured their employees can live out of passion only. If these employees had followed Leni Riefenstahl, the famed filmmaker who made Nazi propaganda and achieved great acclaim for her 1934 propaganda film, Triumph of the Will, or their contemporaries today, they would have got a piece of land in Lutyens Delhi or South Bombay.
But living out of a one bed room rented house with bed and kitchen all folded into one, our only solace was to go get out of the house. No matter where it was, we had no choice. But one thing that ensured our year long pain of living such a life was the annual pilgrimage to Kerala every year. The main attraction being the four day trip from Ahmedabad to Chengannur changing two trains. But you bet, we enjoyed every part of the journey. As if the pressure valve of the intramammary pressure tank got released.
This is part 1 of the open memoir that I am penning during my free time.
Read Part II here
To be continued….
