Then and Now! Is Life The Same? Can we enjoy both?

Dear Veda Vyasa,

While going to theatres is fun, watching a movie with bajjis, pakkoras, along with family is a greater fun. I too enjoy that but don't eat that much while watching a movie. I am already overweight by more than 10%.

When I came back from US my wife and I watched 'Oh God' in the mini dvd player I brought from there. It does develop a bond with the family. I used to watch a lot of English movies on HBO and Star Movies, with my daughter. That's how I came to understand the dialogues. But even now I prefer sub-titles. I can read faster than I can hear.

Thanks Veda Vyasan for the post. And thanks for re-living those sweet memories.
regards,

Originally Posted by varalotti

Dear Veda Vyasa,

While going to theatres is fun, watching a movie with bajjis, pakkoras, along with family is a greater fun. I too enjoy that but don't eat that much while watching a movie. I am already overweight by more than 10%.

When I came back from US my wife and I watched 'Oh God' in the mini dvd player I brought from there. It does develop a bond with the family. I used to watch a lot of English movies on HBO and Star Movies, with my daughter. That's how I came to understand the dialogues. But even now I prefer sub-titles. I can read faster than I can hear.

Thanks Veda Vyasan for the post. And thanks for re-living those sweet memories.
regards,

Dear Varalotti,

Yes, Thanx for your advice... I agree with you... With too much food, I am overweight... I was in excess by almost 25%... I am trying to bring it down.... With great effort reduce 4-5 kgs... Still long way to go...

I am waiting for saturday to read ur HE 2/3 together... Forcing my self to stay way so that I can avoid the waiting little bit...

Thanx..

Hello Varalotti
This is a nice post. This shows in 30 years there is so much of a change in life and the value of money during that time even one rupee had lot of value but now Rs. 100 too has no much value it is penny now a days. Yes I do agree with you as I am a person who loves to see movies in the theatres watching movies on big screen is great fun. In just small amout we use to enjoy so many things but now you need your pockets to be full to enjoy something. And do you think now a days kids will walk such a long distance?? don't think so. Sometimes I feel these are born with all the luxuries in life.

"இந்த குழந்தையும் நல்ல குழந்தைதான் மண்ணில் பிறக்கையிலே
பின் நல்லவராவதும் தீயவராவதும் அன்னை வளர்ப்பினிலே"
தமிழில் படிக்கும் போது அருமை சார்
நன்றி
விநோறான்

நன்றி, வினோரன். இதோ இன்னும் இரண்டு வரிகள் இனிய தமிழில்

ஆறு கரையில் அடங்கி நடந்திடில் காடு வளம் பெறலாம்
என்றும் நல்ல நெறி கண்டு பிள்ளை நடந்திடில் நாடும் நலம் பெறலாம்


மீண்டும் நன்றி.
வரலொட்டி

Dear Sridhar,

When I came back after a week, I first checked the sub forums ruled by you and Cheeniyasir. Of the three lead posts you had made over that time, this episode on time travel a la Varalotti was most thought provoking.

I am glad that you enjoyed both occasions. And I am glad that you could afford to enjoy both the situations. When I say 'afford', I dont mean just the financial part. I mean the emotional affordability. How often do we hear the elderly generation lamenting that things are not what they were once, things cost more than what they did in 1947. And thus preclude their children from enjoying the simple pleasures of life. ( I am not calling you elderly. BTW, it is high time you turned 29).

My 90 year kollu patti was a gadget freak. Sleek mixies, light Ultra grinders, smart veggie choppers, ice cream machines, Krupps coffee grinder- she would appreciate all these with child like glee. I often wondered as to why she loved them and used them so easily. She used to say that in her generation, ladies used to grind for huge families on a gargantuan stone. Cook on smoky firewood, draw water from the wells. To her all these gadgets were not just time and labour saving. They were empowering.

Recently, I got into the fad that coconut chutney ground on the stone tastes best as compared to a diluted version ground in a mixie. I got a mini ammi from Mylapore. . I sometimes cook on a tiny coal stove to get the authentic burnt taste on my baingan bartha. I am lucky that I can afford to do these chores the hard way and feel proud. To the modern woman, these traditional ways are ways of staying connected to the roots.

Great gran would have been aghast.

Your friend was partially right. But I feel that we are all born at the right place at the right time. No, I am not referring to your beloved Karma theory here. The universe knows where to place each bit. I also know (dont ask how) that if we had been born a hundred years back, we still would have been at the right place at the right time. We humans are kings in survival and adapting. And we first adapt to our times and the lifestyles then. Do we always have the emotional skills to survive at each period? In current timelines, maybe. In retrospective,yes. And then for the future- we will never know.

Sorry, got rambling like a loony.

affly
Vidya

Dear Vidya,

Welcome back. If my post was thought provoking, ten times more so was your reply.

When we do not lament about "Then and Now" and you remember all those things of the past, you get a beautiful perspective of life. And you also know the scale and the intensity of changes that have happened over time.
While I do not lament I can never help comparing then and now, whether it is good or bad.

Take the case of education. What ever money that was spent for the entire education provided to me CA, ACS B.Com and BGL, I spent for the first two terms for my daughter's nursery class.

But I will have also to admit that studying in today's schools and colleges is a far more pleasant experience. And whatever knowledge and maturity I had while doing my CA, my niece who is in Class 5 has right now.

To see these changing times is like standing by the side of a river and watching it flow by you. At times you feel that you are left behind by the times. At times you feel you are caught in the whirlpool of change and are tossed from here and there, while being taken along with the flow.

Your kollu paatti's enjoyment of the gadgets is quite lovable. Only those who had done the work by the hard way would appreciate the labour saving device that eases their work. I know the worth of a calculator more than the young kid straight from the college, for whom using the device is just a given and for whom it is the only way of doing things.

I would venture to say that your trying to make things the hard way, not only produces tasty food; but is a profound spiritual experience. And it fills you with pride, which no modern gadget can hope to do.

I have almost coined a word "Varalotti's Paradox". It's like this. In those days of smoky firewood cooking, hand-washing, roasting coffee seeds and grinding them manually, when we travelled by carts and long distance was something more than 40 miles, we had a lot of leisure time. People used to sit around and talk for hours.

But now we have gadgets with which we can cook in four minutes flat, we have washing machines, dish washers, cars which park by themselves, computers which do all our mental work, and yet we do not have any leisure time.
So Varalotti's Paradox is "More of labour saving devices always mean less of leisure."

Of the three lead posts you had made over that time, this episode on time travel a la Varalotti was most thought provoking.

This speaks volumes of your opinion about my other two posts. Ok, let me work harder still to improve my writing.

Thanks Vidya for your post, which was in many ways better than the leader post of this thread.

regards,

Dear Sridhar,

Thank you for your kind words. I have always maintained that greats like you and Cheeniyasir bring out the best from others.

'This speaks volumes of your opinion about my other two posts. Ok, let me work harder still to improve my writing.'

Sridhar, grow up! Just read the lines written /keyed in. Dont read in between the lines.

affly
Vidya

Dear Varalotti Sir, Nice writeup on Then and now. When I was in school and college, our parents never use to take us for movies. Only during summer vacations they would take us for a few movies, that too old ones. Very rarely they use to take us for new movies, that too if it is a big hit and if Ananda Vikatan gives a good review about the movie(more than 50 marks). My father was against TV and he use to say the reading habit will go away if we start watching TV. So he just refused to buy TV until i graduated. So used to enjoy the good old movies during summer vacation. Nowadays as Shanthi had mentioned prefer watching movies at home but minus snacks. We watch the movies on thursday nights (friday being holiday) after dinner. And fast forward the songs,fights etc and watch only the good scenes. Would like to watch movies in theatre too. We go once in a while for good english movies. My husband is an ardent lover of movies and will watch every other movie on TV in all languages, even from the middle without knowing the name. I never sit with him for movies, prefer solving sudukos instead.