Good Old days

A little bit of nostalgia....

To the wonderful kids who were born in India and survived the 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's.
First, we survived being born to mothers, some, whose husbands smoked and/or drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate whatever food was put on the table, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

They were mothers who did not check their blood pressure every few minutes.Then after that trauma, our baby cribs and bassinets were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints. We were put in prams and sent outwith ayahs (maids) to meet other children with ayahs, whilst our parents were busy. We cried, were picked up and cuddled by the ayahs" (maids)and were quiet again.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking or going out on our own. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags. We sat on each other's laps forGod's sake.

Riding in the back of a station wagon on a warm day was always a special treat. We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from abottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We would share a dosa, dip a chapatti into someone else's plate of curry without batting an eyelid. We ate jamsandwiches or pickle on bread and butter, raw mangoes with salt that set our teeth on edge, and drank orange squash with sugar and water in it.We ate at roadside stalls, drank water from tender coconuts, ate everything that was bad for us from mumfalees to Bhel Puri to bhajias and samosas,

but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDEPLAYING! There was never a child - not one single child -who was obese!We would leave home in the morning and play all day during the holidays, we were never ever bored, and we were allowed freedom all day as long as we were back when the street lights came on, or when our parents told us to do so. No one was able to reach us all day by mobilephone or phone. And we were O.K. We would spend hours making paper kites, building things out of scraps with old pram wheels or cycle rims,inventing our own games, playing traditional games called hide and seek,kick the can and rounders, ride old cycles and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes.After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve theproblem.

We swam with an inflated tube which we got from somebody who was replacing their car tyres. We ran barefoot without thinking about it, if we got cut we used iodine on it which made us jump. We did not wash our hands ten times a day. And we were OK. Our parents trusted us to go on picnics with everyone and anyone, a friend of a friend would be OK and we survived.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games atall, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound,no mobile phones, no personal computers, no I-Pods, no internet or internet chat rooms, no TV, full stop.We did not have parents who said things like "what would you like forbreakfast, lunch or dinner". We ate what was put in front of us and bestof all, there was never any leftovers. We polished the lot.

WE HAD FRIENDS, great friends, whose parents we called Uncle and Aunty, and we went outside and found them!We fell out of trees numerous times, got cut, broke bones and teethand there were no compensation claims from these accidents. We ate fruit lying on the ground that we shook down from the tree above. And we neverwashed fruit. We had a bath using a bucket and mug and used Lifebuoysoap. We did not know what conditioners meant.We made up games with sticks and tennis balls. We rode cycles everywhere and someone sat on the carrier or across the bar to school or the pictures not cinema, or you walked to a friend's house and knockedon the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them! Not everyone made it into the teams we wanted to. Those who didn't had tolearn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! The idea of a parentbailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation of ours has produced some of the best risk-takers,problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

Please pass this on to others who have had the luck and good fortuneto grow up as kids in India, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives ostensibly for our own good, who changed what was good into bad and what was bad into worse.

Those were the days my friend !!

a forward from Fr Anil


Are The Good Times Really Over

I wish a buck was still silver and it was back when the country was strong.
Back before Elvis and before the Vietnam war came along.

Before the Beatles and yesterday when a man could still work and still would.
Is the best of the free life behind us now and are the good times really over for good ?

Are we rollin' downhill like a snowball headed for hell?
With no kind of chance for the flag or the liberty bell?

I wish a Ford or a Chevy would still last ten years like they should.
Is the best of the free life behind us now and are the good times really over for good?

I wish Coke was still cola and a joint was a bad place to be.
It was back before Nixon lied to us all on TV.

Before Microwave ovens when a girl could still cook, and still would.
Is the best of the free life behind us now and are the good times really over for good ?

Are we rollin' downhill like a snowball headed for hell?
With no kind of chance for the flag or the liberty bell?

I wish a Ford or a Chevy would still last ten years like they should.
Is the best of the free life behind us now and are the good times really over for good?

Stop rollin' downhill like a snowball headed for hell.
Standup for the flag, and let's all ring the liberty bell.

Let's make a Ford and a Chevy that'll still last ten years like they should...
The best of the free life is still yet to come and the good times ain't really over