Those were the days @ New English School , Bandra

A recent flurry of postings by school batchmates, brought some more facets of life at Govt Colony Bandra in mid 70's to my mind:

• 'Gola' - crushed ice on a prickly stick - devoured in great abundance with perennial requests for coloured toppings. Everything about it was truly unhygienic - yet there was no sign of any gastric trouble.
• 5 paise Orange Kulfi and 10 paise Malai kulfi. News always went around that if we rub salt on them, worms would appear. But who cared!
• The only car that entered school premises was orange Premier Padmini, that of Dr Shashikant Naik. Few years ago, when I met him, I reminded him of that and he said he wasn't happy of his kids using the car. Those were the days!
• Only 711 supermarket in govt colony was - Amrut Stores - at Bus Depot . The word of ' Customer Courtesy' was never in their dictionary. So was the case in later years with Thorat, Meena Bazaar and Jaihind Book Depot. Kherwadi was the ultimate shopping paradise for our moms. We tagged with them happily carrying vegetables in 'Pishvi'. Now 'Pishvi' is back in circulation replacing plastic bags.
• Collecting bus tickets with last digit as 5(or 9 ?)with a hope of getting an award that we never knew nor we ever bothered to know. Yet we carried on shamelessly begging for a bus ticket from alighting passengers.
• Part of our life also went in the queues of Ration, Milk. How novel the idea was to put a stone as our designated rep. When ration shop would about to open, a string of stones would give way to people. There was no fight , no dispute ever.
• Maruti che temple was a religious and spiritual hub and 'Kaka' - a man possessed with a mission was its creator, manager and CEO of the temple. Many of us saw this temple risen from nothing.
• Fridge was a rarity. The only choice was that of Red or Black Madke. Owners of black ones defended that it was the 'coolest one'. When needed to make jelly at home, one could buy ice block @ 5 Paise from Udipi restaurant in stainless kitchen utensil.
• An annual school picnic was a rare opportunity to peep into the outside world. I do remember joining Vajreshwari, Kankavli, Pune- Sinhagad and Mount Abu trips and have very vivid memories of each of those.
• Carrying 'daptar' hanging on the back was for meek guys. Brave ones had aluminium case used often as a weapon of aggression. My mom still use mine for keeping her bank papers !
• First aid in school was 'open top red medicine bottle , dipped inside was a wooden stick with soaked cotton dangling on one side '. Why that bottle was kept in principal’s office was always a mystery. Guys often would carry red knees for days.
• Afternoon program of 'kamgar kalyan' or something like that .. always ended with a song ' me dolkar dolkar...... This went for years and so was some marathi program on radio that had character 'tekade bhaoji'. Life without remote was not all that bad.
• Apart from ‘Thanda Meetha Sosyo’ , I could think of some of the visible brands of that era and now perished Joy Ice cream, Ravalgaon Toffies, Dalda, Wimco match box, Milan Supari ; Binaca , Forhans Toothpastes; Tinopaul Detergent ; Burkley, Bristol cigarettes ; Murphy Radio , Bush transistor; In later years, Televista, Telerad and Standard TV and one more Rajesh Khanna !