Then and Now
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 9 Oct 2023
Dr. Ravi P. Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media Service
We all know that things and even life changes all the time. What was true a week back or even yesterday, may not be true today. The first was currency of money — yes what was money yesterday may not be understood today. Earlier we had one rupee equaling to 16 annas. Annas, what is that?
You don’t know what is an Anna — an amount of money we could buy a lot of things with. For one rupee (16 annas) we could buy 16 sambosa— eat some and share them with family members or friends. Today we require 16 rupees to buy one — no no no, two sambosas.
Our school had a big playground and teachers would ask students to come to the playground to run races. The boy who would stand 1st or 2nd would get many compliments and sometimes even cake pieces to eat. Today, when we see that ground we feel dazed — no question of winning any race — we can hardly walk from one to the other end of the ground.
Our school would also have cycle races on that ground — students would come to school on their bicycles. Today, hardly any student comes to school on a bicycle — the school is far from student’s homes and it is risky to ride a bicycle on the main roads. There used to be another form of a bicycle race — slow cycle race. What is that? Participants would have to cycle from one end to the other — a distance of about 50 or 60 meters without falling down from their cycles or touching the ground with their feet. The student who remained on his cycle till the end and not touch the ground with his feet, would be the victor of the slow cycle race.
Another change that we see today is the number of people possessing private and personal cars — some big, some small sized. At that time, few people possessed personal cars and those that did became well known in their neighbourhood. Today with cars of different sizes and different brands are figuratively speaking — dime a dozen.
Where we lived in Delhi, the big temple — Birla Mandir was walking distance from our home. We used to pay our respects to the beautiful Hindu deities — Ram, Sita, Hanuman, and some other Gods and Goddesses — Krishna, Radha and Gopis. The Birla Mandir had big grounds with some swings on which we children could swing happily. There used to be a small black statuette of a bear in which children could enter one way and leave from the other direction after spending some minutes inside the bear statuette.
Today, we do pay our loving respects to these Gods and feel blessed by our love for them. Ram is a well known God with his wife Sita and brother Lakshman who inspire us to be good, kind and charitable. They are usually seen with Hanuman who is generally seen along with these Spiritual personalities. On special days, statues of these or other Gods are paraded and people pay their respects along with some monetary offering to the statues.
We have moved away from that small sized home. Today we live in a bigger home but far away from Birla Mandir.
However, there is another small Mandir near our home. We go there every Tuesday, sing some Bhajans(Spiritual songs) and share a small amount of Prasad for eating that is offered by the priest after singing some Bhajans and paying our respects to the Hindu Gods and Goddesses.
We wonder if our love for Gods and spiritual beings has changed over the years. In a way yes, but in a major sense no. We loved our Gods earlier and do so even now and try to become good and virtuous not only to please our Gods but for our own character building.
About a generation back — in the period 1950s to 1960s politics was much simpler and unique than what it is now. The important party was the Congress Party with Jawaharlal Nehru as its head and PM of the country. There were a few smaller parties but they did not enjoy the dominance that Congress did. So important was Congress with Nehru as its head, that the question that was often asked was ‘After Nehru what?’ not after Nehru who?
Today, with so many political parties from the left wing parties to the regional parties and of course the dominant BJP Party, it s difficult to visualise the political environment in those years of Congress majority.
As discussed above, if we see major changes in politics, in our attitude towards various political groupings and related events. Things will continue to evolve and change — especially in politics. They will become even more widespread in daily lives resulting in our changing attitudes towards political personalities like Narendra Modi. Earlier there was the dominant Congress Party today several Congressmen are trying to become important as before, but unable to do so with the dominant BJP Party with Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister since 2014.
Let us see what happens next week or after a year.
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Dr Ravi P Bhatia is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment, an educationist, Gandhian scholar and peace researcher. Retired professor, Delhi University. His new book, A Garland of Ideas—Gandhian, Religious, Educational, Environmental was published recently in Delhi. ravipbhatia@gmail.com
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 9 Oct 2023.
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