RAJYALAKSHMI RAMAPRASAD and RADIOGRAM
We bought this radiogram in 1965 when we were still unmarried. We got married four years later. The price was 700 rupees. We didn't have the money. So, Rajyalakshmi sold the gold chain she was wearing on the spot and paid for it. After marriage, we moved onto a simple 'cassette tape record player'. Its cost was 600 rupees. We didn't have the money. No jewels to sell, as ours was not a traditionally arranged marriage ! (And, I didn't buy any gold ornament for her during my lifetime so far ! ) So, we bought the 'tape recorder' by paying a monthly instalment of 100 rupees. I was getting a salary of 500 rupees a month (a princely amount in those days ! ). Later on, we switched over to cell phones and iPads gifted by my sister Nirmala.
Now in 2023, this published article in THE HINDU newspaper (reprinted below) titled ‘Tuning into the radiogram’ on our vintage radiogram gives me more pleasure than the hundreds of my published writings including those 28 articles published in a medical journal (The Antiseptic) on ‘Covid’ in 30 months which made a ‘World Record’ in medical journalism.
The reason for my excitement may be that this one relates to my ‘love life of music / muse’ 55 years ago ! To those who know me only as a medical professional, this real story may look like fiction, more so the contents of my blog article titled ‘Our Love Story’ ( https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2017/04/my-love-story-good-old-days_30.html ). The world is full of stress. No time to enjoy music. No time to read this. Read on and get de-stressed ! -- Dr. T. Rama Prasad
THE HINDU -- OPEN PAGE -- May 14, 2023
T. Rama Prasad
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/tuning-into-the-radiogram/article66823991.ece -- E-paper format
( PREMIUM SPECIAL ARTICLE, available exclusively to the subscribers of THE HINDU )
Tuning into the radiogram
A dirge to the big-sized, now-outdated gadget
May 14, 2023 12:38 am | Updated 12:38 am IST Author : T. RAMA PRASAD
For most people of those good old days, radio was the only source of home music in India. The rich had gramophones. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
It was 1965. MBBS was just added to my name and I was receiving 100 rupees as monthly stipend during my internship in Visakhapatnam. She was studying M.Sc. in the same city. We were not yet married. We went window-shopping one day when we were thrilled to see a just introduced two-in-one model. It was a radiogram, a combination of a radio and a gramophone, which plays three types of recorded vinyl gramophone discs (plates). By the standards of those days, it was of a small compact size (size of a medium-sized suitcase), priced at a whopping 700 rupees.
We ventured to go inside and had an impressive demonstration of it. Intoxicated by the music, we looked at each other and walked out as the price was far above our means. Surged by dopamine and serotonin, the happy hormones, infused by the pleasant music, we walked into a nearby jewellery shop, sold the small gold chain she was wearing and bought the HMV Conquest radiogram. We took turns to keep it in each of our hostel rooms. Her problem was to face the questions about the absence of the gold chain when she goes home on the next vacation.
For most people of those good old days, radio was the only source of home music in India. The rich had gramophones. There were no tape-recorders, no TVs, no cellphones and the myriad music devices of the present day.
In those halcyon days of “Ceylon’s Binaca Geetmala”, we, the raucous youth, used to rapturously sway to the Hindi film songs on Wednesdays in our hostel’s radio room, though we did not know a bit of that language.
The songs Achcha To Hum Chalte Hain (Aan Milo Sajna), Bindiya Chamkegi (Do Raaste), Zindagi Ek Safar Hai Suhana (Andaz) and many others from Rajesh Khanna films made a lasting impression.
April 22 was observed as World Record Store Day. In 2016, after a two-and-a-half-decade lull, there was a serious activity to revive manufacture of “33 rpm long-playing records (LPs)” for unknown reasons — perhaps, audiophiles demand fidelity over clarity. That initiative does not seem to have succeeded much.
Long ago, we sang the dirge of all those outdated big-sized gadgets. The youngsters of today would not have seen those disks and gadgets since they are relics of the past. They must be wondering how people lived in those days without the currently available electronic gadgets and other entertainment facilities. By a stroke of serendipity, we still have that prized possession of the 1965 HMV Conquest gadget along with a wooden stand we got made for 30 rupees after getting married half-a-century ago and four years after buying this radiogram.
drtramaprasad@gmail.com www.rama-scribbles.in WhatsApp 98427 20393
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This radiogram was purchased by us for Rs. 700, in 1965. And, this hotel’s room rent per day was Rs. 10, In 1969 when we were married, four years later.
This radiogram gave us a certain “luxury quotient” in those days, and even now. Rajyalakshmi, a shy vocal artist, has abundant music knowledge and an ear for rhythm and melody. She gets energised by music everyday. While she sold her only gold chain to buy the radiogram, ironically, I never bought her a gold jewel during the past half-a-century !!!
If interested to read more of this story, please go to : https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2017/04/my-love-story-good-old-days_30.html
Here is the first paragraph of this blog article :
“One year ago (May 18, 2016), I and my better half (I always wonder why 'she' is not called "worse half" ! ) Rajyalakshmi walked into an ice-cream parlour (Corner House) at Mysore where there were about a hundred bewildering variants of ice-cream-based items ! We relished an item called "TRIOLOGY" (perhaps, adapted from ‘Shiva Trilogy of Nagas of Amish’ !) ice cream made of the trio of Vanilla, Strawberry and Pista with Lychees and Apricots topped with ice cream, jelly, mangopal and strawberry syrup, costing Rs. 180 per cup ! The lowest price for a simple Vanilla ice cream here was Rs. 60. And recently, a new ‘avatar’ has emerged in the name of ‘Tava’ icecream, made like a ‘mini-dosa’ on a ‘freezing‘ pan in Ahmedabad ! We used to pay two rupees for one ice-cream and share it in 1960s !!!”
If interested to know about Rajyalakshmi’s love for the music of SP Balasubrahmanyam, please click on :
https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2017/04/spb.html
THE HINDU & ME
The publication of the above article in THE HINDU newspaper has a different significance to me. My association with THE HINDU is not just the one like 'a writer and a newspaper'. We have an emotional bond over the past half-a-century. The following is the first page of my blog article titled "THE HINDUU newspaper & ME" The article is in : ( https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2017/04/my-in-newspapers_28.html ) .
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THE HINDU newspaper & ME
MY 'SCRIBBLES' in THE HINDU
“I don’t go about shouting,
My writings make the noise.” -- T. Rama Prasad, www.rama-scribbles.in
More than half-a-century ago, I wrote a letter to THE HINDU which was published to my excitement. It caused a shiver of delight in me. I felt as if I won a Booker Prize ! This 'accident' made me an ‘accidental letter writer' ! That little letter in print inspired me to write more. A huge number of my letters were published in many newspapers and magazines. And many articles were also published in THE HINDU and some medical journals.
And today (May 7, 2023), I received a mail from THE HINDU newspaper informing me that my article submitted recently would be published on May 14, 2023 (Sunday, OPEN PAGE). This brought me more happiness than my recent publications in a medical journal (world's first case of Yellow Nail Syndrome with Covid, etc. and a world record of 28 articles in 30 months on the single subject of 'COVID' in a single medical journal * ).
The reason for the happiness may be that this article in THE HINDU is about my personal life, more than 55 years ago, related to a music gadget and a music-loving girl !!!
* for details about the ‘COVID’ articles, please go to the LINK below :
https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2017/04/yellow-nail-syndrome_28.html
Some of my articles published in THE HINDU:
1. How effective is the TB control programme ? (Special Article) -
The Hindu, Vol.100, No.274, p.8, 1977.
2. Five years Plans and TB Control Programme (Special Article) - The Hindu, Vol.101, No. 275
3. HEALTH CHECK-UP: how healthy is it ? - The Hindu, Open Page, Jan. 15,
2012 - ……http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open page/article2801701.ece
4. THE ‘GOOGLE EFFECT’: may be good, may be bad - The Hindu, Open Page, April 22,2012
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( This is the 1st page of my BLOG article titled “THE HINDU newspaper & ME”. To see the full article, please go to :https://drtramaprasad.blogspot.com/2017/04/my-in-newspapers_28.html )
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SLOW TO CHANGE
In 1928, Fritz Pfeumer invented the magnetic tape. Using this technology, in 1933, AEG released the first 'reel-to-reel tape record player' with the brand name 'MAGNETOPHONE'. These 'tapes' showed the door to the gramophone discs. Small Transistor Radios sent the huge 'Valve Radios' to the graveyard. The tapes used to get stuck in our 'RESA' player in the 1970s. Then came the 'digital music'. We were slow to acquire the new gadgets. Anything novel was viewed with suspicion and derision.
Of course, there is good and bad in everything. “But you know what — it is high time we kept down our gavel of snobbery and dismounted our literary high horse. I am weary of all those authors, critics and Luddites who vilify the blue glow on our faces and lament the demise of deep reading, while propagating something called — slow reading.” Yes, you can never enjoy that thrill of playing a gramophone disk with the modern gadgets. And you can never enjoy that leisurely walk through a beautiful garden by rushing through it in a buggy vehicle. That 'LACK OF TIME' killed everything that is 'SLOW & GOOD' in LIFE.
Truth to tell, I had been using a manual typewriter for too long which evoked bewildered dismay. from the tribe of tech-savvy computer geeks. I was such a novice to the systems that I was very reluctant to use the computer. Its language was too alien, and its pitfalls were very daunting to me. In fact, I took to a laptop about as willingly as a cat takes to water !!!
Print-paper format -- THE HINDU, May 14, 2023
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MUSIC IS DIVINE
Yes, music is divine, in any language by any artist -- as fantastic as the fishes in the video below. The background music of the video is from a song in a Hindi film wherein Rajkumar and Vimi acted. The name of the movie is HAM RAAJ. It was very popular in our college days in 1960s. (a neelegagan ke thele dhar theca pyar phale or something like that)
