Page 27 - Seniorstoday April 2023 Issue
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entertainment the radio was an integral and fashion advice (“Tear A Maxi Into
part of our lives. No evening was complete Mini In Seconds”).1960s Kolkata was a
without filmi songs on Vividh Bharti and politically turbulent city. There were the
Sundays without the popular western beginnings of the Naxalite movement, an
music programme Musical Bandbox, ongoing insurgency between the radical
where boyfriends and girlfriends would left and the Indian government, labour
send messages to each other through songs strikes and protests by student unions. JS
under the parental radar. But nothing ever was a handbook on what to wear, what to
came close to Radio Ceylon’s iconic and talk about, what to do, and what to listen
universally loved Binaca Geetmala. Amin to. It was fresh, intelligent, funny, and bold.
Sayani’s baritone hooked us and held us The magazine also featured crosswords,
spellbound. It featured ‘what’s trending comic strips and short stories, weekly
this week’. Such was the popularity that horoscopes, sports news and a popular
we wrote lists of songs in case a friend had column called ‘Rear Window’ written by
missed an episode. Jug Suraiya. These were thought pieces
An endless collection of vinyl and “with discussions on Sartre, Nietzsche
cassettes and tape-recorders were necessary and others, but told in Jug’s inimitable
possessions of a music enthusiast back way,” When it was forced to close down,
then and much time was spent on fixing we all mourned the passing of that bright
and untangling our tapes using a pen or and shining moment—the crumbling of a
pencil. There’s just something about being dream.
able to hold an album sleeve and admire the Somewhere between
glorious graphics on them, that made the chatting on a rotary
whole music-listening experience feel more phone with a cord
special. that could only be
stretched so far,
and mobile phones
that could travel to
all corners of the
earth, we grew up.
We grew up in an
But what really defined growing up in age of transition, from hand written letters
the 70’s for me, was Junior Statesman. to texts on the phone. Time paused and
Popularly known as JS. Started by that we thought we were the masters of the
ultimate renaissance man, Desmond Doig, universe. But technology changed all that.
for the “hipster urban youth”. “The air of Now there is no little old lady selling red
frivolity was all-pervasive”, Siddharth ber sprinkled with salt on the street corner.
Bhatia wrote of the magazine. “It seemed as The tamarind on the tree waits forlornly for
if not just the readers but also the writers children to pluck it off. And yet, we exist
were out to have fun.” The magazines were in all these little moments. The memories
full of interviews with popular musicians of “those were the days” sustain and
and actors, reviews of the latest Indian and nourish us as we navigate the labyrinths of
Western albums, posters of celebrities, adulthood.
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #46 | APRIL 2023 27
