Page 47 - Seniors Today - Vol1 Issue 3
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pop music – although if one were to assume equivalent of the Binaca Geeta Mala but not half
that appreciation of English pop music might as good and it was not exactly a hit parade.
be correlated with familiarity of the English In many ways the Cadbury’s Five Star ad above
language, people speaking English in the is a social mirror of the times. If we think that
country has only increased over the last few attending a western music pop concert on a
decades but I am not sure rock music is any Sunday morning at 10 am is brave, take a look
more popular. So that argument does not hold. I again at the ad. It was the days when advertising
think there is another reason. Hindi pop music folk were not afraid to think creatively on sales
was almost entirely Hindi film music in the ’70s promotions. Wonder if anyone would do that
and it didn’t have an existence of its own as a today? Accept product wrappers in lieu of
genre, except to be associated with Hindi films. tickets? Our household used Binaca toothpaste
For some reason, English pop music had an only so that I could get those little plastic
active morning audience. I remember in the animals that came with the pack. And we ate
’60s, Biddu Appaiah – then known as the Lone A1 bubble gum only because a collection of
Trojan, having broken away from the band the stickers inside the pack would entitle us to
called the Trojans – used to take the stage at the a cricket scrapbook of famous crickets of that
Hotel Astoria in Churchgate for a jam session age. Polly Umrigar, Abbas Ali Baig and ML
that lasted from 11 am to 1 pm. And a daytime Jaisimha, to name a few. Although advertising
discotheque called Bullock Cart at Rampart was later accused of being very English-biased
Row (Kala Ghoda now) was full house for their and talking only to the living rooms of Cumballa
morning jam session, largely occupied by Hill and Peddar Road, and the equivalents of
Elphistonians, Xavierites and students from the Cumballa Hill in other cities, many of the Hindi
other South Mumbai colleges. In many ways it taglines were born long before that accusation.
was still an innocent pastime, because people “Sirf ek Saridon aur Sardard se Aaraam”,
were willing to get high on Coca-Cola and coffee “Lifebuoy hai jahaan, tandurusti hai wahaan”,
rather than beer and spirits. It meant that young “Lux filmi sitaron ka saundarya sabun” were
people were coming there primarily for the slogans that we all grew up with.
music and the atmosphere with Coke and coffee Hinglish, which is increasingly become the
providing the social glue for a get-together. And advertising lingua franca of today, was not yet
of course, perhaps the sheer thrill of missing born. People had not started mixing English
a few lectures at college often referred to as and Hindi freely even in common-speak. It is
‘bunking’ in those days. I sometimes wonder not unusual, though. In the Philippines, people
what it is called now. speak a mixture of Tagalog and English called
Taglish. It only means that people are almost
The English pop scene was also fuelled by equally familiar with both languages when they
HMV which managed to bring a fair range of do that.
English titles into the country. In fact, my first
45 RPM record, ‘I want to hold your hand’ by But the late ’60s and the early ’70s were
The Beatles, gifted to me by my mother, was different and this 5-star ad is only a reflection
bought at an HMV store on Ranade Road quite of the times. We were fewer people, life was less
close to Dadar Station – and Dadar was by no busy and we didn’t have the internet or mobile
means a hub for Western pop music and it still phones to distract us. We still had a hangover
isn’t. Later in 1970, Polydor entered the country from our independence. True we had only two
and that increased our repertoire of Western cars, the Fiat and the Ambassador to travel in,
pop music. Even AIR, that stoic representation and many other restrictions, but I can’t help
of a government radio station, played Western feeling that in many ways we were a happy lot
pop music on a program called Saturday Date that looked to our future with anticipation and
every Saturday evening. This was the English optimism.
SENIORS TODAY | Volume 1 | Issue 3
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