LIVING IN THE PAST

Many years ago Chennai was still Madras and Perambur used to reverberate to the music of Cliff  Richard and the Beatles.  As yet unknown in Madras save for a few die-hard aficionados,   Jethro Tull sang of England

Happy and I'm smiling,

Walk a mile to drink your water.

Walk a mile to drink its water? That is decidedly inadvisable in Chennai, walk or no walk. Some smart people have founded lucrative businesses providing allegedly "clean and safe" water. There is much that can be said against alcohol but it must be admitted that it is a very good disinfectant. It is not surprising that half of Chennai is pickled in the stuff most of the time. For the convenience of commuters making their weary way back home from work, alcohol is even dispensed in 100 ml sachets. No wonder that Water and Alcohol constitute the two most lucrative businesses in Chennai. Chennai also does roaring business in gold but one can not eat or drink it. The yellow metal also appears to be more abundant that aqua in this city.

In Madras we drew water for our daily needs from wells which every house had, or collected it from our taps which not all houses had. We did not pass it through fancy filters, ultraviolet devices or reverse osmosis plants but drank it straight up - I would have said "on the rocks" but for the fact that cooling water with ice was thought to cause cold, sore-throat, fever, and everything this side of AIDS. Nor did we need to disinfect it with  liberal quantities of alcohol. Today we are sold water allegedly sourced from lofty mountains and holy rivers  and reportedly passed through magical machines and purifying processes. None have been near either source except perhaps inside a plastic bottle. Alternatively, they will sell you purifying equipment so fetchingly promoted by yesteryears Bollywood leading ladies and their daughters.

When I was a student in Madras we used to protest against many things, but water was not one of them. Later, when water scarcity became acute, it was even jokingly said that Madras did not have  a water problem for there was no water; there was just The Problem. There was a war in Viet Nam, which was a very popular subject for protests. It was easier to get young people to rally around this issue than even  increases in college fees. Anything and everything was a just cause for a walk down the streets of Madras raising good natured slogans with a lot of gusto, little conviction and  absolutely no rancour at all. They were all jolly picnics albeit a bit hot and sweaty. They provided the much-needed opportunity to spend time in close proximity to girls without the parents suspecting monkey business. An occasional bus or two was burnt, when stones for pelting were hard to come by. The Madras girls did not burn their bras though. 

Once I used to join in 

every boy and girl was my friend. 

Then an ageing actor with a bad lisp who called himself the "Revolutionary Actor"  took an interest in politics. He had neither  revolutionary nor acting credentials, but somehow had a huge fan following, much like a latter-day super-star whose entire stardom was based on an ability to flip a cigarette from its pack with one hand and catch it with his teeth. His on-screen acts consisted mainly of cavorting with young lasses half his age, singing songs with social messages, lisping his way through unmemorable lines and some linguistic jingoism, not to mention beating up forty baddies in one go without breaking into a sweat. His revolution was to stand the then political wisdom on its head and establish movies as the gateway to political power - a case of Life imitating Art. Now we have sixty revolutions per minute, and in the words of Mr. Anderson of the Tull, 

Now there's revolution, but they don't know 

what they're fighting

Despite all of this, I catch myself wanting to sing

You know I'd love to love you,

And above you there's no other.

But with each passing day it gets that much harder. The Tull, however, provide a way out:

Oh no, we won't give in,

Let's go living in the past.

It seems to me to be the only sensible way to live in Chennai.