Throwback to 70s

I know this is not 1978 and we definitely are not going to travel back in time. But, it was impossible to skip the association of de-monetization of 2016 to what happened in 1978. Things were so poor then, as far as I could remember the talk in town was only about “aayiram rooba nottu sellaadhaame” (1000 rupee note is invalid), which meant people were not even bothered about higher denominations. None of the people we know had a thousand rupee note, and I guess not many of them had even seen one in their life.

I do not know how the city life was then, but in a small town things were very depressing. We were fortunately an industrial town, so lot of trained and untrained labour jobs were there. Railway workshop also ensured inheritance jobs, and so most households had at least one wage earner. Unfortunately then most of those wage earners also had many children, dependents and so the wages were just not enough.

Outside of the labour class, and among the SSLC, college educated ones, jobs were so difficult to get. Most wrote TNPSC, SSC exams, learnt typewriting, shorthand, secretarial courses. I did not have any in my neighbourhood aspiring for an engineering or a medical degree. Far fetched a dream it was. I can never forget the kind of poverty I saw among some in those years.

We had a chawl, I can call it that after having seen Mumbai’s chawls – it was one storey building with around 15-16 tiny apartments with common bathroom and toilets. The owner was a tyrant who kept a close watch on his tenants and it was not easy to wander around there to meet friends. I had couple of friends there, so used to sneak in sometimes when we made sure Venu, (that was the owner’s name) was not around. The chawl had Brahmin, non-Brahmin tenants living together, I don’t think you make caste distinctions when you have no money.

One of the tenants was a small temple Gurukkal (temple priest). That Gurukkal and his wife were nice people, but so poor that their household would remind anyone of Kuchela for the number of kids they had. Some of the kids were around my age. I can’t write this without shedding tears even today – evening by 4.30 when we got back from school, they would come to my house asking if they can collect berries from the manathkkali plant (garden nightshade or huckleberry) that grew in our backyard. Tell me how can those tiny berries fill their hunger. Like the Mahua flowers that is considered a famine food in India, apparently these berries were famine food in China in 15^th century.

Another family in the same chawl, was a Chettiar family. Unlike most Komutti Chettis who were textile and gold traders, this man was a “checking” in one of the largest private bus networks of that area, Bharati Bus Service. I think he had seven kids, I don’t exactly remember his elder kids who were married and lived elsewhere,  but only my friend Bharathi, her elder sister Lakshmi, and her younger brothers, Kodhu and Balaji. Bharati Bus had “deplaned” Chettiar from work, and that man used to every day with the generosity of his colleagues take a free ride to his company headquarters asking for reinstation.

He never got his job back, and his family used to do odd jobs to meet basic needs. They used to get the sticks and the box where the matchsticks have to be arranged before it went to the factory to get the chemical part fixed. Each chart would get them ten paise, and so all in the family would try to work, and make 10 to 20 charts and carry it to the match factory. Then they would stitch leaf plates, again each bundle may get 25 paise or so (that is including the cost of the leaves purchased). I used to sit with them and try to contribute to their collective labour. They had very little to eat, and Bharathi, Kodhu, Balaji and their mother were so skinny. Every time I buy mangoes, have my fill I never forget them. Never forget what it is to buy one neelam or banganapalli and share amongst five, and they may try to give me also a portion if I happened to be around. 

There are many stories like this – appa as a civil lawyer used to get clients who had no money even to pay the court fees stamp to file a case. There was one widow, a flower vendor, and the only fee she ever paid was bringing a bundle of kanakambaram every time she came home. Same was the case with another lady who sold bananas at the railway station. Anytime she saw us at the station she would rush with a few bananas, that was her fees. At least their stories had a happy ending, they won their cases and got whatever little money they were fighting for. There was one Kuppuswamy, one of the “learned” clients, for he used to write letters in English. One day he walked in with a postcard, showing that his daughter has secured medical college admission. None of us had money at that time to send that girl to medical college. Poor girl, she never made it to medical college.

That was also the time super hit movies like Nizhalgal, Palaivana Cholai, Varumayin Niram Sigappu all on the subject of “unemployment” came out. It was not just movies, we saw all that and more in our daily lives.

How often have you seen in cities people buying milk, 100 ml, 50 ml and all? Many families would buy only that much, for a dark tea. There was a grocery in the neighbourhood, the nearest, but I wouldn’t go there when my grandmother sent me for some urgent provisions, because it was always crowded. I didn’t have the skills to negotiate the crowd. What was special about him – people used to come and buy oil and mustard and dal and rice every day – yes they couldn’t even afford to buy weekly or monthly provisions. He was the only one in town who sold oil and sugar and all that in such small quantities, people queued up. Mustard for 10 paise, jeera for 10 paise, 50 ml of oil.

As kids we used to wander around town cautiously, whispering about the posters of Emergency era, the 5-point programme, 20-point programme, family planning ads painted all over town. Sense of fear in the air, despondency, and  bleak future. Still, as kids we used to play whole evening, when some movie that was found suitable for viewing came to the local theatres, went and watched from 50 paise or 90 paise tickets, lived with no thought about future.

Today, I panic when I see old schemes come back, be it P.Chidambaram’s gold control, or Narendra Modi’s de-monetization. Nothing wrong in both schemes – we can’t have a runway import bill on the yellow metal, or terror funding through fake currency. Only hope is that being a stronger economy today, having seen two decades of prosperity we won’t go back to 70s.

Money in circulation has risen sharply, cash component to GDP has gone up to unbelievable 16% or so … therefore need for curbs on black money which runs a parallel economy. Only prayer is that it shouldn’t take away the jobs of a construction worker here, or a whole sale agent there. Unorganized sector shouldn’t suffer, for it is difficult to create jobs for all within organized sector.

De-monetization is good, drive the bad money out of market, curb corruption. But, at the same time look at things that is making tax compliance difficult to achieve across board. It is no secret that the sales tax, customs, income tax are some of the most corrupt sectors. GST is a big hope, so keep the rates reasonable and systems smoother. Don’t be a big brother and threaten citizens “we are watching you” kind of advertisements. Watch over, but give them confidence to pay taxes. 

This is a country which lives on its savings. All those in unorganized sector with no pension, no social security and insurance do fear about their future. Create more government schools instead of taking the easy RTE route that is no match for creating more Kendriya or Navodaya Vidyalas. Run a decent government healthcare system instead of pushing citizens to private medicare and to rely on medical insurance.

Having access to education and healthcare alone would give lot of confidence. When I joined Forbes, two senior people I respected, DR.R.H.Patil and Priyakant Dalal told me, don’t forget we are poor country. While Make in India and big aspirational stories are good, it is social security, health and education that would inspire people to pay taxes honestly. Keep the rates reasonable, for this country saves, takes care of elderly parents, spends on kid’s education. Adhoc surcharges and cess and fluctuating tax rates give no confidence to anyone, leave alone the rich and the industry. Household savings, remittances from hardworking NRIs all have helped this country in times of crisis. Encourage them to stay invested, pay taxes. For no one wants to go back to 70s, live in the kind of fear the Emergency years gave this country. 

P.S. 70s gave us an Illayaraja, that made things bearable (on the lighter side) 

Pic Credit - From the internet