GHADI BABU!

I just needed to get the strap of a watch adjusted, so I visited a watch repair shop in Connaught Place recently. This was an air conditioned place with absolutely beautiful wall clocks from all the well known brands of clocks and watches from all over the world. A Piaget, an Omega, a Rado, and so many others adorned the walls. Each clock was more beautiful and unique than the other.

The people at the reception were young persons, who attended to me. The person who took my watch in, was an elderly gentleman. While waiting for my work to be done, I looked around the place and noticed that most of the people repairing or servicing the watches were elderly people. 

SHOP IN PAVITRA PAPI

My mind took me back to a very old movie that I had seen, "Pavitra Papi". Balraj Sahni had played the role of a watch repairer. His shop was filled with clocks in a tiny space, with a counter. I do remember so many such shops in all the cities that I lived in. They all looked alike.

I also remembered "Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam" where there was a "ghadi babu" whose job was to keep winding all the clocks in the household.

Who can forget the Salarjung Museum in Hyderabad and its musical clock where everyone gathers every hour to watch the clock perform?

THE CLOCK AT BERNE, SWITZERLAND

Other memorable clocks are in Prague, Berne,The Big Ben and many more historical, magnificent clocks in other cities of Europe, where people gather around the clock every hour to see the performance of the clock. 

THE CLOCK IN PRAGUE

Coming back to my story, I remember long- long ago, I was in the tenth class and most of my classmates did not possess a watch. In those days everyone did not wear a watch. It was considered an expensive item and everyone trusted the clock on the wall. My first watch was a "Camy" handed down to me by my mother. It had a square dial and it was my most precious possession. It was given to me so that I could prepare for my exams, timing myself. After that I did get a new watch but I always had only one watch at a time. I would take very good care of my watch, as did everyone else in those days. My watch was always the winding variety and I always wound it up at exactly the same hour every day. The first scratch on the dial had brought tears to my eyes and had spoilt my entire day.

My father owned an Omega and I was very careful whenever I had to fetch it for him.

It was my dream to own an Omega. For me it was the ultimate sign of having “arrived”.

Long ago in 1973, when I was in England, I worked for about six months there and with my earnings bought a Pye TV and an Omega watch for my husband. It was a beautiful watch with a two colored dial. Rishi Kapoor used to wear the same model of Omega then.

TRILOKI'S OMEGA OF 1973.

Many years passed, I acquired more watches one after the other. They were never too expensive. I always thought that a watch was for utility and needed to tell me the time. I did however buy a watch with different cases and colored straps and would match the strap with the dress that I wore. Then it was a fashion statement. I never thought of a watch as a status symbol. More years passed and when I completed 25 years in the Bank, as a Silver Jubilee gift from the Bank, I bought a black dial delicate looking Titan watch. That was the first time I had two watches at a time. Then a Seiko, a Citizen, a Regency and yet another Seiko, came my way. By now my thinking that a watch was just for telling the time had  changed.

One day while visiting my daughter in London, I noticed that a shop on Oxford Street was closing down and had a total "closing down sale" going on. My eyes opened wide when I saw a few Omega watches too waiting to be sold. I quickly called my husband in India, then called my daughter at work, got approval from both of them and ventured into the shop to buy my first prized possession...an Omega watch! My childhood desire of owning an Omega which had been lying dormant for donkey's years, suddenly got fulfilled!

MY PRIZED POSSESSION

Now I wear it everyday of my life. I have many other watches which I get regularly serviced, but my everyday companion is my Omega.

Well to get back to the watch repair shop! In my memory a watch repair shop was quite a non descript shop, with a show case filled with numerous watches waiting to be repaired by its ageing owner and a shop assistant who always looked eager to learn his job, sorry, craft. This swanky air conditioned shop with the most desirable beautiful wall clocks only had one common factor with those shops of my memory. It was the oldish looking gentlemen repairing the watches.

In this grand shop, I  missed the stately grand father clocks which would go tick-tock, tick-tock in a very soothing way. The pendulum would swing mesmerising me to some extent , and then suddenly the gong would strike the half hour, and break my reverie.

This shop took me down memory lane on a different journey! I loved re-visiting this closed lane!

DO BORDERS DIVIDE?

THE BORDER

Wagah border is the door between two nations which were once one without borders. About 66 years ago, a border was made and land was divided. People were uprooted and houses built with a lot of love, care and money were left behind. People moved to unknown places to settle down after having lost everything and tried to grow new roots in a different soil.

Very few of that generation which faced all that heart break, pain, misery, anguish, remain to tell the story. There are a lot of films made and a lot of stories written on the pain which brought about the partition of a property which created a lot of rift and animosity between people who were once brothers.

DISTANCES

 I travelled to Amritsar to see this border. They say Amritsar and Lahore were twin cities. They both were cultured and beautiful cities at close proximity with each other. Amritsar is relatively a new city built about 500 years ago by Guru Ram Das the 5th Guru of the Sikhs. Lahore on the other hand is known to be at least 2000 years old. It was the capital of the Mughal Empire for some time and Jehangir lived here for a considerable period of time. The famous story of Salim and Anarkali belonged to Lahore. Maharaja Ranjit Singh ruled from here. Lahore was the citadel of learning and its University, Govt College for Men, Foreman  Christian College,  Aitchison College were famous institutions. The tombs of Jehangir and  Noor Jehan are in Lahore. Lahore is famous for its cuisine, culture and juttis. 

Amritsar  is famous for the Golden temple, Durgiana Temple and Jallianwala Bagh. The cuisine of Amritsar and its street food too is legendary.

OUR SIDE OF THE STANDS AT WAGAH

We were in Amritsar to see the Closing ceremony at the Wagah border. There is a gate at the border. The Indian  gate is painted in the tri color. As one approaches Attari one sees the sign boards showing the distance to Lahore. We approach the border from the Swarn Jayanti gate. On this gate facing Pakistan is a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi.

OUR ENTRANCE GATE

On the side of Pakistan they have a portrait of Mohd. Jinnah. There are stands on the side for tourists to sit and witness the ceremony. Our side of the stands were choc a block filled with people. There were children and women running with the Indian flag in their hands from the Swarn Jayanti gate to the Border gate. Loud speakers were blaring out nationalist and patriotic songs mostly from films. There was Chak de India, Himmat watan ki hamse hai, Jai ho, and Yeh desh hai veer jawano ka.  The beat of the music was such that one automatically wanted to dance or clap.

THEIR STAND & PORTRAIT OF JINNA

Soon women from the public stands came down and started dancing the bhangra. Then the music stopped and one could hear the booming voice of a BSF Commander. The command went on as if it would never stop! Soon two men dressed in black with very dark glasses on their eyes marched across and stood near the Border gate. After that two women from the BSF marched to the Border gate and smartly stood there in attention after ceremoniously kicking their right leg high up.

They were followed by men from the BSF who were all more than 6'tall. They all marched smartly, aggressively, showed their attitude, temper, brute force and power. Yes, the closing ceremony was on its way.

  

LAND ACROSS THE BORDER

One is filled with pride watching the men march and kick up so high that it appears as if their toes go higher than their head gear. The marchers from the Pakistan side too  displayed the same mannerisms and antics as ours. The only place where they could not match us was that they did not have women marching to the border.Their stands too were devoid of people, perhaps as it was Ramzaan.

WOMEN CAME DOWN TO DANCE Our people were extremely enthusiastic, emotional and waiving the flag with great gusto. We are indeed very emotional people.

THE FLAGS. The flag was brought down with great precision. Each side made sure that the ceremony was in exact tandem. If looks could kill this was really one such ocassion, where even the blink of an eyelid could show that you were the loser. That actually explained why the dark glasses were worn by two BSF men. There was to be no blinking of eyes as they faced the opponent bang opposite each other. Gestures, looks, kicking of the legs with full force was fully dramatic and identical on both sides.It filled me  with pride and patriotism to watch the ceremony.

PAKISTAN & THEIR SIDE.

At the end of this ceremony, we could go behind and actually see Pakistan from across the barbed fence. The same fields, the same crops, the similar looking people with same color and features were trying to show animosity where perhaps none exists. People all over the world are humans first. They all want to live in peace. Europe is a continent without borders. Anyone can move about freely between countries. There is no hatred, no anger, no fear, no animosity. They seem to want to live in peace and harmony. They seem to want to grow, prosper and be comfortable. Why do we people of the same family want to fight, show aggression, show power? 

OUR BORDER

We celebrate our Independence Day on 15th August and Pakistan celebrates theirs on 14th August.We are two nations created craftily, hastily, by Sir Cyril Radcliffe who was just given one month to divide 175,000 square miles of territory with 88 million people. There was no thought given to the emotions of the people, the land and the territories that were divided. That happened 66 years ago. It is part of our History.

I take this opportunity to wish all of you A Very happy Independence DAY! Jai Hind, Jai Bharat!

At WAGAH.

Baki sab theek thaak hai!

AMRITSAR STATION

My latent desire to go to Amritsar finally fructified and I booked Railway tickets to travel by the Swarn Shatabdi from Delhi to Amritsar. I loved train journeys once upon a time, so was quite looking forward to it. I even told my grand children that they would see the Indian countryside and the towns as we passed them. I also told them that it was a prestigious train and would therefore be quite comfortable and clean. It was quite a disappointment by the looks of it, as the paint was chipping off, and it did not look like what I had imagined it would be. Nevertheless we boarded, my daughter purposely ran to catch the train in DDLJ( Dilwale Dulhaniya le Jayenge) style, as it would never be possible anywhere else in the world, where the doors are shut before the train moves out. Don't want to sound hoity toity, but the fact remains that I have travelled a lot by train in Europe particularly Switzerland, UK, China, and have absolutely great memories of those beautiful, clean, gorgeous trains.

HAPPY WITH THEIR SEATS

The train moved, the tea was served and we were settled comfortably on our seats. We had excellent seat numbers and plenty of leg room. Soon the landscape changed and the fields and small towns went past us. The disappointment of the looks of the train started fading away, when the waiter serving us tea noticed that my grand children would neither drink tea nor coffee, so he brought them extra Marie biscuits, removed their tea tray and said, "Ye le lo beta". This dialogue of his touched my heart somewhere....this is India. This is what is "us", the relationships that we build so easily. Behenji, mataji, auntyji, bhai sahib, beta, these are the general terms used by all and sundry.We are all one big family!

SUMPTUOUS FOOD

The journey after that did not bother me and I took everything else in my stride.

The first stop was Ambala, and the announcement on the Public Address system said, "We welcome only passengers from Ambala......" I was quite amused by this declaration of bias towards passengers from Ambala. The next station was Ludhiana, again only the passengers from Ludhiana were welcomed. I thought it was quite strange and sounded not too good. By the time the third station arrived and the PA system was announcing the Welcome, I listened to The Hindi Welcome too. It said, “Phagwara se chadne wale yaatrion ka hum Hardik Swagat karte Hai." I realized that all this time the lady was actually saying, "We Warmly Welcome passengers from ..... and not "We Only welcome passengers from.....

After having solved this mystery quite successfully, I turned my attention to the passing scenery. Punjab is really a land of plenty. The fields were all green and fully planted. There were paddy fields , and sugar cane was present to a lesser extant. There was a pathway along the canal (nahar) on which people were going about on motor cycles and tractors. I also saw an elderly gentleman walking on the path probably taking his morning walk. It reminded me of my mother- in- law telling me that her father was the Dipty(Deputy) in the Irrigation department and he used to go on his horse for Inspection of the canals. That was the time of the British Raj and they lived in Imnabad which is now in Pakistan. My time traveller mind could find the similarities of a period about ninety years ago with this day. The nahar, the pagdandi(pathway), the same fields, the greenery of a fertile land, the prosperity of the people, everything seemed the same. The houses were few and all were pucca houses, they did not have the village like, rustic looking thatched huts. We crossed quaint little stretches of platform with two boards displaying the name of the station, a railway crossing with cars, tempos, motor cycles, tractors waiting for the train to pass, and a cluster of houses around the station. I felt glad that I had decided to take this train journey. It brought me in touch with My India, the real India. Prosperous, still rustic, still grounded, still surrounded by land, agriculture and crops.
Even though I strained my neck a lot, I simply could not see a Waheeda Rehman romping on the fields singing “Doongi tujhe reshmi rumaal oh banke zara nede aana( Des Pardes style). Could not see Simran( DDLJ style), simply couldn't see those beautiful damsels anywhere. OH! I know, those were all in the fields of the yellow sarson, so I guess if I come when the sarson is flowering and the fields look like a sea of yellow, I will see the damsels singing in filmy style! Eureka!

THE MIGHTY RIVER BEAS

Train journeys are still very romantic.They take us to our destination, and the view from the windows of greenery, prosperity, large rivers, little clusters of villages, power transmitters, electricity and power towers, the chaiwala visible but not entering your compartment, is a good memory.

THE OUTER POST OF AMRITSAR STATION

 One does have to overlook the toilets, the nasty complaining traveller who wants the complaint book as the waiter refused to serve him a cold drink, and the non existent cleanliness of the station.
One thing that I kept thinking about, was the same time of August in the year of 1947. I recalled the journey that a lot of people undertook on the train fleeing from Pakistan or India, leaving their homes, lands, belongings and memories. A lot of them lost their dear ones too. They all travelled on this very route, in very difficult, turbulent, disturbing and tragic circumstances. I know that a lot of water has since flown down the Ganges as well as the Indus, and yet I thought about those who travelled on this very route, and felt a little sad at those memories.

Back to the present day and time and journey, I have to say what most of us Indians usually say, after a full bout of complaints, "Baki sab theek -thaak hai!" (everything else is fine).