“It was the drastic month of Karkidakom with heavy rainfall when India celebrated Independence. On the day of independence day celebrations in Thrissur it was raining till noon”. When an 83-year old man recollected his 67-year old memories, I was astonished. Yes he is right. India got independence on August 14 midnight; that means it was the last month as per Malayalam/Indian calendar “Karkidakom” – The season of heavy rainfall. Why I have never thought so? Yes old people still prefer Malayalam calendar to quote anything, instead of using Gregorian calendar.

When this old person told me that he is 83 years old, I became interested in knowing more about those nostalgic days of yesterdays. When he began with this interesting quote, I became interested in knowing more about that golden period. It’s true only a few people are alive now who could recollect those pre-independence period. Though they are not well educated, their thoughts and visions have many new things for new generations to follow.

“A boy of 16 years; that was I when India celebrated freedom. All people were poor and hungry. There was not enough food for all. We friends got a few jackfruits to eat in the morning when one among us got informed that India has got freedom at midnight and there is wide celebration in Thrissur town in the afternoon in the Swaraj round. So we boys decided to go to town to see the procession”. I just thought it is around 8 kilometers to reach main town from his residence. But for lads of yesterdays, 8 or 10 kilometers is not a big distance to walk.

“We started off in the noon and reached Swaraj round in the afternoon. We guys are interested in plucking mangoes and doing silly things while we travel and when we reached town, we witnessed a grand procession in the ‘round’ that lasted till night. Town’s structure is almost same as today, as built by Shaktan Thampuran. Only difference is that it has become crowded now”. He continued, “We returned back at night and next two or three days we spent in full hunger!” What a great way to celebrate Indian independence!!!

I was bit surprised when he said so. Yes it was right, those days in the 1940s and 1950s, though density of population was comparatively less, people didn’t have enough food to eat. They didn’t lead a luxurious life and big joint families lived on a very small income. “Do you know during the days of independence, daily wages was of a worker was 4 Ana and 1.5 Ana was enough to buy one kilogram of rice, more than enough for a medium sized family? But what to do, people used to hard work those days and they never give work outside. They did so to save 4 Ana and for the same reason it was very difficult to find job in those days. That’s why we spent most of our time in hunger and poverty. We lived on fruits, coconut etc, under the grace of landlords.”

What he told is absolutely right. Now, daily wages of a normal worker, mansion worker or carpenter ranges between 700 and 900 rupees or even 1200 in Kerala even in the remote villages. Per capita income of Kerala is highest than any other Indian state. So, it’s very hard to think that such worst days also existed in India. He gave me some amazing calculations on ‘Ana’ and ‘Paise’, which was not easy to digest. “Now things have changed a lot. The land which I bought for 10 rupees in the 1950s I sold it for 75 lakhs most recently. 10 gram gold costs 80 rupees in those days and it has gone beyond 20K. That’s the main change since the dawn of independence”, he concluded. For a moment or two, I went back to those old days of early 1950s, when I was not born.  

Article Posted By : Sandhya Rani  On August 31, 2014lView All Articles

It's a nice idea to have short walks to the past

Article Source :

http://www.veethi.com/articles/indian-independence---from-the-memories-of-an-83-year-old-man-article-3224.htm

Keywords :
memories of independence , 1947 memories