Life in Small Towns

I had an opportunity to get to know life in small towns in the 1960s as opposed to life in metros, which followed a lifestyle of their own due to the greater infrastructure and a cosmopolitan populace. Of course, in the last decade or so, small towns have also started aping the metros (which in turn are aping the West) for better or for worse, thanks to the invasion of satellite TVs even in the smallest villages, the difference disappearing rapidly. But this blog is all about 'Malarum Ninaivugal' (Nostalgic Memories) of the '60s and so I shall stick to the topic! While most of the scenario I describe here might be unchanged in some places even now, I am recording these in an attempt to acquaint the next generations who might not have an idea about what makes rural India tick. As they live and work in the metros or abroad they hardly have an opportunity to know all the little details of life in small towns.

There were no supermarkets in the towns. Usually there would be a long main road, which was called 'kadai theru' (street of shops) where the needs of the population would be met with shops of different kinds like textiles, medicine, hardware etc. This street would be part of the four streets that encircled the main temple of the town, (usually a Shiva Temple). All the other streets would be arranged around them. This would be the oldest part of the town. The suburban areas that developed later would be called Colonies or Nagar and sported a building style, which was modern. The number of such colonies was very few in those days and consisted of houses mostly let out to the government employees where our family stayed usually. In really bigger towns like the district headquarters- my mother's native place was one- there might be an additional 'chinna kadai theru' (small street of shops) for the suburban areas, the main street becoming 'Peria kadai theru' (big street) As for groceries, some street corners had a small grocery shop, usually a one-man show where we could shop for all our needs. There were no plastic packs but pulses of small quantities would be weighed (or measured out in volume using 'padi' a measure of approximately one litre-there was also a big 'padi' measuring two litres) out from huge sacks of commodities kept in a row. They were packed in cones made of old newspapers and the shopkeeper would deftly bind it with jute string from a bundle hanging on a peg in the roof of the shop. For greater quantities you could buy the whole sack or take a big bag or sack with you.

Cooking oil would be stocked in huge tins- each tin holding different oils like sesame, groundnut or coconut (the only varieties available then) at the grocers and we had to take glass bottles and baskets along to buy supplies for our household needs. Each middle class household would save the Horlicks jars they bought (usually when somebody was sick, as additional nutrition) for this purpose. There were no plastic pouches or bottles for retail selling of oil. You could see that the kitchens of the middle classes lined with empty jars of either Glaxo milk powder tins or Horlicks bottles to store the kitchen items. This was because all my neighbours who also were from families with transferable jobs found it difficult to lug around too many stell or aluminium tins used for storing things and found it easier to make do with temporary storage vessels in each town. This was before the days of plastic containers, which are so cheap and best for temporary storage.

There would be vendors selling vegetables from a big basket placed on the carrier of bicycles. Sometimes we could hear women selling their home- grown produce from the baskets carried on their heads. Fruits were sold likewise by individual sellers shouting the names in one continuous sing-song phrase at the top of their voices to pull the busy housewives from the back of the houses. If you fail to get the vegetables in the morning you had to go to the one big market in the town from where the street vendors procured their merchandise. If you had to buy from the market around noon all the vegetables would have shriveled in the heat and not at all fresh. (No cold storage). So people finished their shopping for vegetables in the morning or could wait for the temporary Evening Market to bring freshly plucked vegetables for sale.

The Milkman brought the milk in big cans and measured out half litre or one litre to each house on the street. He would jingle the bell on his bicycle in front of each house and we would rush out with a washed vessel to collect the milk from him. Warned by his loud bell at the street corner, most people would be waiting at the gate for him and would be exchanging pleasantries at the start of the day. This was before the ‘white revolution,’ which has made milk cheaper than bottled water and delivered in plastic pouches at the door!