OLD LAMPS FOR NEW?

Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot (26 February 1725 – 2 October 1804) was a French inventor. He is known to have built the first working self-propelled mechanical vehicle—arguably the world's first automobile. Car designed in 1770.

Seasons come and go, day turns to night and soon another day dawns upon us.

We all grow old every day of our life. "Old" sounds like a very uncouth word, I wonder if old can sound good in some situations.

Old as in vintage, old as in olden times, old as in olden memories. Memories are usually always very sweet, the reason is because we obliterate those memories which were painful. We do not think of them, do not re live those sad and horrifying memories. We discard them and stow them away in some dark corner of our mind. Therefore people of my time say, "I remember those  days when Milk was Rs. 2 a Kg, and we could see a movie sitting in the balcony, at Rs. 3 a ticket!" One is recounting all those figures nostalgically and wistfully. Never once do we mention that then our salary was hardly Rs. 1000/- per month! Out of this went  rent, petrol, electricity, water,   provisions, salary for maid, dining out and the occasional movie. So much so that towards the end of the month one had to sell radii to the kabadi walla to sustain for a few days more!

I am sure everyone of my time will remember that we usually had no savings. We were hand to mouth, lived with our heads held high and a twinkle in our eyes. There was hope, dreams and consumerism was not very high on our agenda. So much so that when I started working for the State Bank of India there was no such thing as a loan for consumption. It was only for productivity. There were no Consumer Loans even for employees. One therefore had to save to be able to buy a fridge or TV.  Air conditioners were owned by very few people. Cars were quite rare. TV was even rarer. In all these years life style has changed so much and consumerism is supreme today. Salaries are sky rocketing and therefore costs also are high. 

Another "old time" great that we talk of is music. "When melody was King" that's what we say. Most of us want to keep our mind closed. We do not try to appreciate the good music and songs produced even now. We only focus on the crass music of today and condemn  it. Listening to music with an open mind will introduce us to melodious music of today also. Films too have evolved and many more films are being made of which many are note worthy. 

Living in the past needs to be left in the past. We need to move on and appreciate the times in which we  live.

Today our youth think free and live with the desire to decide independently. Girls have more opportunities and freedom. Children dream very big. Children move away from their towns and cities. They re locate to places where they have more opportunity to grow. The world has become a much smaller place. Distances have not reduced but movement has become faster and everyone travels. Telephones and internet connections are extremely common. Thank Sukhram and A Raja for it. There was a time when few people had telephones in their houses. Mobiles were not even heard of. Today even a vegetable vendor and the household maid has a mobile phone. Gone are the days when one had to book a trunk call and wait for the call to fructify. Do the youth of today know that there was something called a PP Call, an Urgent Call or a Lightening call?

Those were the days when there was no Google. Knowledge was therefore restricted to what one learnt.  Today we are all so aware of everything, thanks to so much information on the net. Today pictorial learning is common. Many children have I pads, computers and visual aids to learn.

The older generation takes great pride in stating that their generation produced all those innovations which have made life easier for today's generation. So what is there to be so proud of? Every generation introduces, innovates and finds ways to make life easier for themselves and the next generation.

Terracota soldiers Xian-3rd Century BC

I actually started writing about "old" as in old age. The stage of life which is much dreaded by most people. The thought came to me when I read about the death of Khushwant Singh. People grow old, the body starts aging, and soon the time comes to leave this world. I do wish that death comes stealthily, quietly, unobtrusively. When we come into the world, we come with much fanfare but the departure could be quiet.

Life's journey has to end after seeing many seasons, meeting many people, making a lot of difference in the life of many people. We do leave a mark on all those whom we meet, interact with and move on. Life goes on for the rest of the people. Seasons come and go, day turns to night and soon another day dawns upon the rest of us. 

An actual photograph taken by me.