Colin Dozey and his wife were not Anglo Indian, they were British of British family and birth, my dad who was sent out from Britain with his parents during WW2 worked for Colin for a few years before moving onto HAL
On Wednesday, July 2, 2008 at 4:59:18 AM UTC+8, radtimes wrote: > my generation > > http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Jun292008/sundayherald2008062875873.asp > > Sunday Herald spans five decades beginning from the swinging 60s to > the present techno era of 2000s. For the Gen Next of the new > millennium heres a quick recap of a history class, while for others > an opportunity to go down memory lane of their wonder years. > > 6/29/08 > > Swinging 60s > > By M Bhaktavatsala: > > I missed much of the fifties as I was away studying in England and I > had left England just as the decade now known as the swinging sixties > commenced with the advent of the Beatles. Returning, I had brought a > number of their songs and found that I need not have bothered at all. > There was a huge proliferation of HMV shops now and they had all the > latest but on LPs. The battle between the cartridges and the > cassettes was to be decisively won by the cassettes and soon they had > invaded the shops. And so were the jukeboxes. The last jukebox I > remember was in the 3 Aces on MG Road which was still referred to as > the South Parade. > > I had just bought my first car, a Standard 8 from the Union Motors > located in the Brigade Road and having done a strenuous eight-month > road trip from England to India in a Second World War Jeep, found > this cute little car as the last word in comfort. Next door to Union > Motors was the Select Hair Cutting Saloon where Srinivasulu kept up > an unending banter as he addressed my head. Rubin Moses on Commercial > Street was the place to go for Shoes where the Moses sisters were in > attendance. The classiest tailor was Syed Bawker next door who was > himself an epitome of style. While measuring for trousers he would > discreetly ask with averted face "Left presentation or right > presentation" and I would say left or right as the mood took me for I > don't know even now what difference it made. There were other tailors > also well known like Alexander and Issac who was one of the few who > owned and drove cars. > > There were few other cars even in the beginning of the sixties but > the most noted was the red Buick the Begum of Liberty Cinema owned. > She had changed the name from Globe to Liberty. At the top of the > road was the New Empire a cheaper hall next to which was the Dozey's > Garage. Dozey and Webb, who was at the other end of the road, were > the most prominent Anglo Indians, both very affable. Dozey was also a > treasure house of anecdotes, holding court at the wall side row of > tables at the Parade Café which saw a constant stream of regulars > from hour to hour. > > India Coffee House was the other place for regulars which remains > much as it was then. Unlike the MTR famous then as it is now and > Vidyarthi Bhavan, where one went strictly to eat these were great > meeting places. One of the regrets when I had left was that I would > not see the beautiful Eurasian women who abounded in this area in the > early fifties. Mercifully, they were still there in the sixties > though in reduced numbers as many were busy relocating mainly to > Australia. Probably because of that uniform hairstyle of the stars of > those days they all looked like Ava Gardener. > > One would never see them on the city side. They went as far as the > West End Hotel where Louis and his wife Oona ruled. > > By the end of the decade, the beauties had almost disappeared > remnants on view at the Metro Bar and the Green's atop the Palai > Central Bank, present Kaveri. In total contrast, just across the > Brigade Road atop Thomas Cook was the Select Book House presided over > by Mr Rao, always in a suit and was a treasure house on books > stocking many old and rare editions. > > The Brigade Road was as colourful as it is now but in a wholly > different sense.It was almost wholly out of limits for the Military > as it was full of fun places like the Old Bull & Bush (Bar), Basco's > (Bar) presided over by a burly owner with two pretty daughters who > arrived in a big Buick in front of which for a long time sat Gun Boat > Jack, the African, ready for any questions on his 'adventurous' life > but actually dishing out adventure in the night at the 'Well of > Death' in the Police Grounds next to the present Cricket Stadium > riding a rickety motor bike round and round the walls of a specially > constructed wooden well! > > Perhaps the most famous meeting and eating place was the Chinese > Restaurant which on the advent of the Indo-Chinese War quickly > morphed into the Continental. The road attended to other needs too > like the Wady& Co for made-to-measure shoes, Beck's Billiard Room, a > Post Office and even Snaize Bros who made coffins! > > Next to the Cash Bazar rechristened, as India Garage was the Daily > Mail, the oldest English newspaper of Bangalore. While Deccan Herald > with 'Over A Cup of Tea' of Pothan Joseph and Prajavani with 'Choo > Bana' of Ramachandra Rao were eagerly looked forward to every day. > The weekends brought the two of the spiciest publications the > Mysindia in English and Kidi in Kannada. The two somehow represented > the Cantonment and the City, one full of what the Jones's and their > wives were up to and the other taking the pants off politicians and > bureaucrats. Kidi Sheshappa was a frequent visitor at the Metro Bar > while Hosali of Mysindia was a Club man. He was a colourful man, deaf > and thus voluble. > > The decade saw the departure of Sir M Vishweshwarayya, who had just a > year earlier been taken in a procession to the Glass House honoured > as a centenarian. > > Bell Bottoms had arrived and quickly departed while sarees were yet > to yield to salwar kameez. Jeans were a distant dream and so was > 'bobbed' hair. Kannada films were rare as the industry was yet to > shift from Madras. Dominant were the Hindi, Tamil and Telugu films. > The character of city consisting of Petas hadn't changed and even > now hasn't. However, it is the old extensions which had distinct > individual character in the 60s like Malleswaram, Basavanagudi, > Chamarajpete that have changed beyond recognition with the beautiful > old houses giving way to flats and commercial buildings. > > Sixties was a decade of change but slow change not a precursor of > later decades with cascading changes. For a long time we drove Fiats > and Ambassadors and flew in Dakotas and Super Constellations. When > the Boeings came identification began to be noted in numbers as one > decade merged into the other without the stamp of identity which a > decade like the 60s had. For those of us who lived through that > decade we would always have it as Frank Sinatra sang 'I have got you > under my skin...' > > Rebellious 70s > > By Vijay Nambisan > > Those who were children at the beginning of the 1970s had perforce > grown up by the decade's end. Even the flower children had no excuse. > Worldwide, the hopes raised in the 60s had been quashed, usually by > the Establishment, but as often as not those carrying the banners > tripped over their own feet. You can say the Establishment killed > both Kennedys (and Martin Luther King, Boris Pasternak and John > Lennon), crushed the Prague Spring, put paid to the 'merry month of > May' 68 in Paris, ended the moon landings programme. But who finished > the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley, or turned the Hell's Angels on > the anti-war protestors, or destroyed the souls of rock'n'roll and > hippiedom with big bucks? > > The 70s were the ugliest decade since the Fascist triumph in the 30s, > perhaps for the very reason that hope was all but dead. In the > glacial depths of the Cold War, both sides competed brutally for the > moral low ground. Allende succumbed to a CIA-sponsored coup in Chile; > Neruda died 12 days later. > > The White House commissioned a wiretap of Democratic Party > headquarters in the Watergate Hotel in Washington, an operation which > led to Richard Nixon's fall. Israel held off the combined armies of > the Arab world for the second time in six years. The Arabs in turn > brought Israel's western backers to their knees by raising oil > prices. The ecology movement started then, in case you've forgotten. > > Skylab crashed to earth. The Soviets exiled Solzhenitsyn and then, > without excuse, annexed Afghanistan an action for which our > grandchildren may still pay. With very good excuse, the Iranians > kicked out the Shah and took a number of American hostages. Jimmy > Carter a saintly man but the wrong man for the job put on Wild > West attire and mounted a ridiculous rescue mission that handed over > the 80s to Reagan and Thatcher. It was the era of dictators, tin-pot > or chrome-plated, backed by either the US or the USSR. > > The victory of one was seen as inevitable; or else an eternally > bipolar world. Suharto tightened his grip on Indonesia. Zia-ul-Haq > hanged Bhutto and did what he liked in Pakistan. Chile, Haiti, Cuba, > Angola, Congo, Afghanistan, the Philippines… a tug-of-war was on > which seemed likely to last all our lives. But in China, an era was > over. Mao and Chou died; an unknown named Deng initiated China's slow > tortuous crawl back to Asian supremacy. > > Strangely, in India, the 70s both began and ended in hope. 1971 saw > the apotheosis of Indira Gandhi. Yet, only three years later, we were > envisaging a future without the Congress. > > I use the word "we" loosely. Barely a teenager, in an industrial > township in the deep south (which witnessed few excesses), I saw the > Emergency as something that tightened our system, and was appalled at > Indira's fall. It was only later, reading, and travelling in the > north, that I recognised the cynical influences behind the Emergency: > the contempt for the people, the contempt for institutions, the > contempt, above all, of the nation. The 70s were the defining decade > for India as a democracy, and we are thankful for them. > > Speaking for my own guild, the 70s were an excellent decade for > journalism. Two half-assed crime reporters on the Washington Post put > together the biggest investigative story of the century as they > unravelled Watergate. Hunter Thompson published his elegy for the > 60s, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, unrivalled yet for its > unrepressed angst. Here, the Congress rout produced a remarkable > change in reporting attitudes. There was the predictable set of > Caesar-stabbing books, most of which are now forgotten. However, the > Indian Express kept its flag flying. India Today and Sunday were > founded. The second is dead, the first is Establishment; but they set > certain standards which we still strive towards. > > Unfortunately, investigative journalism takes as its premise > cynicism: the fact that people are lying. The idealism of the Nehru > years was gone for ever. Cynicism pervaded our society. On campuses > we read Ayn Rand and eyed America with new respect. Or else we read > Harold Robbins, to the same effect. Drugs! Sex! Money! White skin! > > So much else happened… Muhammad Ali was beaten off his pedestal by > something called Spinks. The Munich Olympic Games in 1972 were held > hostage to the Palestinian conflict. The first one-day cricket match > was played, as a filler in a rain-marred Test in 1971. India won the > hockey World Cup in 1975. If only there had been TV then, outside Delhi! > > We watched the big screen, though. Bobby stole our hearts, but then > Amitabh Bachchan smote them as the Angry Young Man. The parallel > cinema also made us think. Tamil films were meaningful and also > blockbusters. Robert de Niro and Dustin Hoffman were fulfilling > similar roles in Hollywood. Altman, Tarkovsky, Bergman gave of their best. > > And meanwhile, JP was dying, Nelson Mandela was thinking lonely > thoughts in his cell, Osama bin Laden was reflecting on his duty to > his faith, and the seeds of a hundred tyrannies were being sown even > as their germicides were being manufactured… > > I did not know it till well into the 80s, but the 70s helped to form me. > > <snip> > > . > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sixties-L" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/sixties-l. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
