Recently a visitor came to my parent’s
home from Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh) for holidays to meet her relatives and
friends in Hyderabad.
I saw her in lunch time, while
we were eating. I was surprised that my father shown pictures of his hometown,
on that day I have seen those pictures.
I asked her - Can you please
share me life of people in 1950
So, she has given me only 3
hours time and no break time.
How
do you have lived in year 1950 and India got Independence Day 1947 and Republic
Day 1950 and you were born in 1950?
She smiled and said these
things which are unbelievable and I am listening – Keep reading!
Her name is Kaja Laxmi Kanthamma and my name is Maddali Laxmi Swetha. Both Common names
– Laxmi (Matching – Matching)
/
1. No one are allowed to go to
others caste houses without their permissions though we lived in the same
colony. No caste feelings!
2. Most of the weekends all
pray for Gods – Lord Vishnu, Lord
Siva, Lord Krishna and Lord Venkateswara.
Only in some communities tattoo are there on shoulder side or on
hands with Green colour.
3. On those days, marriage
celebration held for 3 days or 5 days
and some people do 6 days also.
4. All use to wear – handloom saree for women, dhoti for men
or Plain Cotton Linen Kurta Jacket Set.
All should wear – White colour clothes which is must at
night. You can observe it in Vijayawada – Still that traditional they follow.
5. All men bath with Gochi (It’s
a small cloth) and girls go for bath in bathroom
(Only who can afford for toilets only) and rest of them should go to
private place or near to the well.
6. Menses is considered as very
strict on those days – family member who is elder will check the calendar and
observe that which day menses came . If it is on Friday,
Tuesday and Saturday are considered as Money loss.
Now, everyone got awareness
with government advisements – “Menses is good for health”.
7. All God names are kept as baby nameslike Sivaiah, Guruvaiah,
Swetha Amma etc, everyone will have name ending Amma, Babu, iah etc, and even
all names end with Amma and Devi, Swamy.
8. No operations for deliveries
and minimum 6 to 9 and more kids for a
couple. It looks like a joint family.
9. In those days, mothers give milk feeding for 3 to 5 years for kids
which improves brain growth in children. That’s the main reason why on those
days people are very healthy.
10. Every students join in a private school for primary classes
later join in Zilla Parishat schools.
11. Now intermediate education is divided as MPC, BPC, MEC, CEC etc but on
those days it is called as –PUC (Inter
Degree).
12. There are Gram Panchayat in each village, city,
town. When Panchayat members are unable to deal with any problems then they
will inform to police department.
13. More danger thief’s you can see on those days- They
easily broke walls make big holes, etc...... You can also watch those things in
olden days movies in Telugu.
14. Divorce rate is 1 out of 1000 will have divorce given by Delhi
court. On those days all live in join Family.
15. English tablets, Hospitals came to India by British people.
16. Once the elders, start reading books like –
- Bhagavad Gita
- Ramayana
- Mahabharata
- Garuda Puranam
Everyone come to that room and
listen to the beautiful speeches. Also ask doubts. Remember only one in the
family earn money and one person is educated from the entire home.
17. Everyone bath with herbal bath powders which are homemade.
And teething also by traditional home
made products like Neem tree branch sticks.
- Dental problems are there on those days also but no dental awareness.
- Lifebuoy soap is famous on those days.
18. Those who sell Bangles and Sarees
etc, used to come to the homes / houses – You can see olden ads in internet
about coffee, tea, dresses, etc.
Those days word of mouth is popular.
19. Only those days, who like
to do graduation in richest families will go to abroad and rest of all study
only Languages from 4 th class to 10 th classes
only.
To live we want only Telugu language – LSRW
(Learning, Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing)
20. All clothes are given to Dobi
for washing and ironing. No washing machine but for regular clothes are washed
with surf like Wheel Company, Nirma, etc.
21. Floors are cleaned 2 times
a day – Early morning 4 AM before praying time, evening 5 PM before praying
time with fresh water.
- At the time of solar ellipse or lunar ellipse – salt is included in water while cleaning the floors. But on Fridays turmeric powder is added into fresh water.
- Remember, only rich people have tiles and rest of all have soft cement which is look like tiles.
22. Learning Tailoring is must for boys and girls.
We will not depend tailor
23. Child marriage is common at the ages between 10 and 15 years of a
girl age.
24. Saree cost – 13 rupees each,
Costly saree costs – 25 rupees each,
Blouse design cost – 4 annas each
25. Marriage of Bride and Groom
– age difference is minimum 8 or 10
years. In some places in India you will find even 15 to 20 years age gaps
26. All provisions are get by men in the family.
27. Steel plates are not
allowed for eating purpose, only
Ragi, brass, copper, silver, gold plates
are used.
- When any relative comes to the house – only Sliver plate with one gram gold inside are provided for Tiffin, lunch, dinner and even snacks time too.
- On those days there were steel plates also available with different styles separately for men and women.
28. We will find nuclear families in 10 out of 1000
families in those days.
29. In some houses, the elders
in the family were given 200 rupees as pocket
money per year for daughter in laws.
30. In joint family you will find 15
members living in the home. Only one will earn through business.
31. Employee salary could be 1000
rupees now it is equal to 1, 00,000 Rupees. Rupee notes look like a very big
when compared to now a days it is very small.
32. To make Red chili powder of
3 kgs with Old Kitchen Equipment it
will take one day minimum though all girls and boys in the home are joined in
preparing chilli powder..
On those days Corns for legs
and hands are common for everybody in India.
33. No Pipe
Lines are there on those days, It takes one day to get 50 Buckets of water
from well.
Everyone use brass and copper metal
and sliver pots only for drinking purpose – Health awareness is more on those
days.
35. Only elders are given
wooden cots with bed and rest of them sleep in Navar Cots.
To clean all Navar Cots in the home, it takes minimum one month.
36. Food:
2 kgs
rice for Lunch
1 Kg rice
for dinner
Roti, Rajulu,etc
are for breakfast.
More
than 36 rotis or chapathis were made daily for Tiffin or dinner time.
37. Bangles cost:
5 rupees
for regular bangles
10
Ruppes for function wear bangles
38. One has to go to Postal office for any information or Phone call; we have to wait
for hours. Only rich people will have
Landlines.
39. If
you post a letter it will take 15 days to reach the person and you will get
reply to that after 15 days. So, totally it takes 1 month.
40. Traditional games:
Everyone
on those days should play games, chess, etc,
On full
moon days, everyone go to Terrace and
enjoy playing games, singing songs, and music.
Volley Ball, caroms and running race for Men
And
rich people play playing cards with their families
41. Is Smoking injurious to health:
No on
those days men and women smoke there are no health problems – those cigarettes
are made with herbal only.
42. At
night everyone will have Lassi no
curd rice –
Read
this: type
of Lassi
43. Now
everyone is using plastic and steel water bottle and on those days we use Brass
or Copper water bottles only.
44. One small box with full of flowers costs – 25 paisa and Big box with
full of flowers costs – 1 rupee
45. Everyone
take their Navar cots andsleep on road
in front of their houses from 8pm onwards.
46. Traditional singing songs are must for
students.
47. Elections
are kept in form of paper with stamp.
48. In each
Festival, all are allowed to wear, apply Mehindi
deigns to girls hands.
49. In
those days, college are provided only those who are rich?
- Most courses available are BA, B.com, 10 Class, 7th Standard education, Medicine only.
- Those who want to do engineering – they have to go to foreign countries or big universities.
50. Movies:
Cinema ticket – (without chairs and benches) -
25 paise, 50 np – bench, 1 rupee – Chair.
Movie
time -3 hours
51. Only temple tour (for one week):
800 – Traveling
cost, 1000 - food cost, rest room cost – 1500
60
members all are relatives only in the buses.
52. Comedy actors/ actress came for election campaign. But main actors are coming for election purpose.
Now a
day, doing comedy role in movies is not easy task.
53. In
Pooja time, for any Pooja Nomu days and last day – 50 to 100 families were invited to home and provided with
dinner.
54. On
those days Christians are not there after British
left, the Hindus are being converted into Christians.
55. Everyone
is divided into caste or region in each colony wise.
56. Evil eye:
On
those days, everyone wear Liquid Bindi Designs and Kajal eyeliner pencil. And
our hair colour is black and dark brown.
57.
Wearing Bindi according to the their
Family Tree – Surname
Visit
and read this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilaka
58. Everyone
walk to the historic temples on foot for so many miles. In tirupathi, once upon a time you will find walking to the hill to reach the
temple but now it is 25 rupees to reach Tirumala hill of Lord Venkateswara Swamy.
59. In
each temple in India whether it is small or big – you can see the poor people begging for money for
their lively hood.
60. Every
day before lunch, one spoon of rice kept
aside from everyone’s plates and that rice is given to birds.
61. Students
should write and learn using slates
only until 5 classes.
62.
Indira Gandhi gives speech in radio in Hindi and the same converted to Telugu by
translators.
63. For
government jobs we have to apply through employment exchanges only.
64. Early age marriages are common on those
days. Mostly girls age is between 10 to 15
and boy age is around 18.
64. DLC (Medical test) forcibly given to
girls to become menses at 8 years old age only.
65. Terry
cotton,pure cotton and also turkey
cotton towels (Handmade).
All people
in India use this cotton only but silk came to India in 1950 you can see it old
pictures - Quit India Movement time
Saree
was packed in small match box
66.
Home Floor tiles are high expensive only rich people can afford but others use soft cement which look like floor
tiles. Those days, you will find only ground houses and some rich people will have
double storied houses.
67. In
those days,
In 20
houses – 1 will have radio
In 20
houses – 1 will have fan or table fan
In 20
houses – 1 will have servant
68. Tube light came in 1960 until then you
will find normal bulb only
69. In
each area, there will have a dustbin for all wastage eatable food like fruits,
vegetable, etc, are kept aside and used for agriculture.
- Landlords give lands for former's for lease.
- One year contract for or lease which is given by Landlord.
- Even landlords work for 4 hours a day which is equal to worker.
- Those are happy days just like Barter System
- There are no caste feelings all are equal in agriculture.
70. Muslims
and Hindu are best family members.
We
celebrate Holi and Sankranti Festival we give milk sweets to Muslims
And
Muslim celebrate Ramzan Festival they will give us Sheer khurma - Ramadan recipes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTpQbGuJgMk
All are
treated as friends.
We use
to clean our face from right side to left and Muslims clean face from left to
right.
71. In English medium school teachers and sirs are Christians
only like convent etc,
72. Only
Britishers use Nail polish every day
with mixed colours but they don’t show
their hands. Their hands also covered with gloves.
73. Only
Widows and Widowers (he/she) leave hair
and kept their hair front side and head
is covered with saree and dhoti. Their saree, jewellery, dresses etc,
are treated as untouchability.
74. No
astrology on those days. But they will check when woman gets pregnancy and delivery time. Also what
baby was born?
75. Business
timing: on Yama Gunda time no one
will open shops. And some areas in India still follow the same. Full moon day, Half moon Day, No moon day, solar
ellipse, lunar ellipse some shops are closed.
76. On
no Moon Day, No evil-eye things happened. In no moon day, people worship God
and do special Pooja.
77. In one
out of 100 houses you will find TV that too DD National Channel only.
78. No
News awareness 100 out 1000 people
read newspapers, general knowledge books, Novels and film magazines.
79. Tooth powder costs – 25 paise
80. Cow wastage is used for boiling water
for bathing purpose.
81. No
tooth brushes only Neem tree sticks.
From
1980, tooth powder and brushes are available in the market.
No one
have teeth awareness about cavities, etc
82. Everyday everyone apply Castor Oil (Āmudamu in Telugu) for head. Only handmade coconut oil is available. The coconut oil sellers
will come to us and collect Dry Coconuts like barter system.
83. On those days, one expensive watch cost – 100 Rupee, Gold watch cost – 150 Rupees
84. Tribal people used to visit the temples
or come to nearby the homes in festival days – and do Peacock feathers dance,
Monkey dance, frog dance, snake dance, circus elephant, etc. Every home or
every house gives food or money or rice to them.
85. Expensive
sweet box cost with sliver – 5 or 6
rupees.
86. Female
Novel writers are more than men writers. Even in school and birth of the baby name
of the certificate – Mother is name
was written instance of father name.
87. Rangoli colours in festival – Green colour made by tree leaves, turmeric powder, Kumkum Power, White power which made with
rice.
88. Most
of the moral lessons are Ramayana, Mahabharata,
and Bhagavad Gita etc
89. Every
home or house at 6 Pm – everyone clean their houses with turmeric powder to avoid
malaria, etc.
90. No
bikes, No scooters, No TV, No radio, No cell phones. And expensive car in one village you will find 1 family using car.
Horses
are owned by many of people in India.
Note:
I took almost
three month to write to this article about 1950 year in India.
Also I met
her in her grandson marriage…
Read
this article:
My
Journey Trip from Hyderabad – Nellore – Ongole – Hyderabad
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