by Sepala Ilangakoon
That world renowned virtuoso, Paul Robeson, in his glorious and resonant bass — baritone voice sang that evergreen negro spiritual which went something like this — "Gone are the days, when my heart was young and gay. Gone are my friends, from the cotton fields away. Gone from this earth to a better land I know. I hear the angel voices calling, Poor old Joe. I’m coming; I’m coming, for my head is bending low. I hear those angel voices calling, Poor old Joe"!

I didn’t know whether I, a septuagenarian, should thank God for keeping me in my ‘Cotton fields’ or whether He would like me to "Hear those angel voices calling." I am now resolved to allow that crucial decision to rest with my Creator. He knows best.

Meanwhile, looking back over the many years, the changes in almost every sphere of life are so stupendous and gigantic, that they are truly mind boggling. Let me take you through some of those ever changing scenes of life.

Transport

Take transport. When I was a kid, I went to school in a buggy cart drawn by my favourite bull, ‘Poosia’. Having been castrated, he was a speedy runner and a winner all the way. For longer journeys, we travelled in the comfort of my Grandmummy’s six cylinder Dodge, with disc wheels and canvas hood. Later, as a boy at College, my father owned a Baby Austin (A real baby!). Eldest brother, Lyn, drove, my father had my kid brother Nihal on his lap in the folding seat in front, while my mother, Merril and I, squeezed ourselves into the tiny back seat. Luggage was tied outside on the luggage carrier. My mother would complain that she would have knee space to stretch her legs, only on her final journey in a hearse!

To reassure my mother, the pater bought a bull nosed Morris eight from Rowlands. It was comparative luxury which we really experienced only in our next change to a new Hillman Minx and later to a Vauxhall Wyvern. No tin pot reconditioned Japanese cars in those years gone by.

In my planting days, I bought a BSA 350 cc from Cargills and after three serious accidents on the sharp bends of the Hapugastenne Estate road, my parents thought enough is enough and bought me a Morris Minor from Rowlands, which served me well. I then graduated into a square engine Vauxhhall Wyvern. This was followed by a Volkswagen Beetle which had just made its appearance at the Earl’s Court Motor Show in London. I bought my first VW at their factory in Wolfsburg, West Germany. When I asked the factory salesman what spare parts I should take with me, he blandly and unhesitatingly assured me "Take four spark plugs!" Sunetra and I toured Europe and we shipped the VW to Colombo from London. It gave us such admirable performance and trouble free service with no need to replace parts, that I bought the next and newer model of the Beetle which also lived up to the VW reputation.

Times had changed and vehicles too. The next car was a streamlined Volkswagen Passat, a worthy VW flag-bearer, followed by a Honda Integra and a Toyota Town Ace van to accommodate the extended family of 11 on holiday trips. When the family numbers were reduced by emigration, we bought a dinky little Toyota Starlet with clutchless automatic gears, which was easy to drive, easy to park and easy on diesel!

Food

Food has seen many vicissitudes over the years. Gone are the days when the Cook-appu would turn out sapid bistakes (beef stakes), roll cutlis (roll cutlets) and minchy, minced meat inside a wall of mashed potato, barbequed snipe and teal shot by us and various other mouth watering dishes which have metamorphosed over the years to flavourless, flat, broiler chickens in assorted recipes. Gone are the days when the toilet cleaner on the estate, Peruma, would take the home-bred local fowl round the corner to decapitate it while we youngsters watched in awe, as the headless fowl in its paroxysms in the throes of death, actually ran headless some twenty zig zag yards before it fell and struggled to die.

Very few mod housewives bother to browse through their mothers’ cookery and recipe books to make those luscious dishes. How much more convenient, the easier and lazy way out, to patronize the nearest fast-food outlet! Food and eating habits have changed substantially. Those were the days when, depending on an individual’s finances, the poor folks’ meals would range from breakfast of bread and the previous night’s gravy, to the rich man’s home made egg hoppers, string hoppers or bacon and eggs washed down with Ceylon tea. The poor man’s lunch would be rice, pol sambol and dry fish curry; the other would have rice, three veg curries, a meat/fish curry, a sambol, a mellun or a salad, followed by fruit. Whereas the elite would have a tiffin of ham sandwiches and asparagus rolls with hot tea, the less affluent would skip the meal altogether. Dinner varied from bread and dhal curry with gravy, to a sumptuous meal of soup, fish course, meat course, dessert and coffee. Mark the difference in quality between rich and poor.

Buriyani

Today, the menu has changed with the advent of fast-foods. While the penniless follow the same food habits as before, the opulent have no time to be preparing meals except where they have trained domestics. Very often the husband and wife both work and the wife, while tending the children, cannot cook as well! So she opts for the very convenient prepared foods — packetted or rigifoam boxed rice and curry for lunch and she replaces the evening meal with a cup of tea. Dinner is the ever popular ‘hotdog’, meat/fish roll, burger etc. or, as a once a week bonus, dining out at the reasonably priced ‘eateries’ scattered all over town. These will serve the thosai, wadays and godamba roti etc. in the Indian Restaurants, or noodles at the Chinese Cafes. And there is the Muslim alternative of buriyani, watalappan and falooda. The quality of food is directly proportionate to the slim or bulging purse!

And homes? Gone are the days of contingents of domestics of both sexes and all ages, sizes and shapes. There were no labour laws to dictate age of employment, nor minimum wages, nor paid holidays. Kindly patrons did very much better with their munificence than the current labour laws provided. However, unscrupulous employers drove their chattels to near slavery!

Availability of large staffs of domestics (gone are the days of ‘servants’!) made it possible to perpetuate mansions like the one I lived in as a child at Matara. But no longer. At Mount Lavinia, as a school boy, we lived at ‘Minadel’, Hotel Road, separated from College by only a barbed wire fence. Four bed rooms and an office room accommodated our family of six, five school boy cousins and outstation aunts and uncles who made ‘Minadel’ their headquarters for all family weddings, funerals etc. For staff we had only Aranolis our handy-man, a kussi amma and a kolla.

Entertainments

Outside entertainments other than the occasional weddings and birthday parties, were limited to the cinema, then called ‘Pictures’. Going to the pictures was a great thrill even in the days of the silent films, until the ‘Talkies’ took over. Popular stars were Laurel & Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, the comedians, Tarzan played by the Olympic champion swimmer, Johnny Weismuller, musicals with Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers, love stories featuring Ramon Novaro, Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. & Jr., Ronald Colman, Jane Russel, Jane Fonda, Elizabeth Taylor, Gregory Peck, horror films starring Boris Karloff, Bella Lugosi, to name a few of the dozens of their ilk. Those were the days of classic actors. Today we are stuck with the music hall favourites, the Michael Jackass types who throw their arms and legs about in acrobatic style and sing in a nasal, effeminate treble voice. Disgusting!

We boys would collect our pocket money and do the ‘bus ride to the Majestic, Regal, Empire or Capitol, where we would sit in the Re 1 seats which were quite respectable when compared with the 50 cents seats, and 25 cents seats in the gallery. Then came the wide screen and later, the curved screen with stereophonic sound. What a tremendous difference from the silent films!

Consider just one of the sports, the most popular one — cricket. Gone are the days when protective gear were measly pads and gloves. Compare with the vast array of expensive accoutrements considered essential today. Thigh guards, box, forearm guards, helmet, visor, wicket keeper’s gloves webbed like a frog’s legs, to take catches in a basket ! Short leg and silly mid off with shinpads under their slacks and other safety devices being introduced every cricket season. Mollycoddled like for girls!

Dress

Dress has also metamorphosed vastly, from blue shorts and white shirts for small boys and, believe it or not, the option of white longs, white shirt and tie, and white coat for Lower 6 and above! We took off our coats only for Physics and Chemistry practicals. Today, the coat and tie are out; Short sleeved white shirts and white slacks are the in thing. Out of school, even smalls wear coloured shirts and black or gray/brown slacks, for evening parties. Ladies would wear saree — ‘Kandyan’ where appropriate, for both day and evening wear. Unisex has taken over and today, gals must wear tight fitting slacks with matching blouses for both day and evening outings. High heels are the rage, even if the wearers stumble until they get au fait with walking on needle heels.

Exercise

When it comes to exercise, gone are the days when the three naturals were the rule — walking, running and physical jerks. Now, jogging has become the fashion and those who can afford the charges, go to the gym which is equipped with all the modern machines — the tread mill, cycling, skiing, rowing machines, cross trainer, etc., all displaying the calories lost, which is a great help.

Houses have also been transformed. Hovels in the slums with no sanitation are the same now as then. At the next level, semi-detached houses with one or two bedrooms, dining/sitting room, kitchen and toilet, improve themselves attractively, with the addition of a verandah, pantry, store room and garage. The luxury houses have all these amenities as well as special effects such as bath/shower cubicle, hot water geyser, bidet, terrace, roof garden, etc. The well trimmed lawns and attractive gardens which were a common and attractive feature, are now sacrificed for the construction of remunerative, even if less attractive flats and high rise buildings of apartments.

Big matches are of a different tenor now. Gone are the days when as school boys we formed a gang and tumbled into the Molamures’ huge, vintage Pipe car, number V 74, with canvas hood down, large, well polished brass carbide lamps and fittings, complete with driver Haramanis who bravely sported the konde hair style! We didn’t mind the jibes "Kopi Karlay Kattiya" meaning the gang of the by gone coffee days! The Pipe was a Belgian make. The original was sunk by the ‘Emden’ which terrorized the sea lanes of the Indian Ocean during World War I. The manufacturers replaced the sunken vehicle with a second Pipe, free of charge. That was the business etiquette of the days of yore. We had plenty of harmless fun sans offence to other road users. Most schoolboys travel to big matches by bus now and the few that use the family car, are generally on their best behaviour as the cops are over alert on big match days!

Weddings

Weddings — then and now? Gone are the days when, in the upper crust of society, wedding receptions were a home centred event which called for weeks, nay, months of groundwork, especially if the wedding was to be according to the Singhala custom of the Magul Poruwa. This centrepiece had to be an ornate structure of intricate handwork, the rococo depending on the purse of the bride’s father!

The refreshments, especially for a night wedding, would include ‘Short eats’, a buffet dinner and a well stocked bar. The number of invited guests also depended on the social standing of the parents, the bride’s parents footing the bill for all disbursements! The exception in some families, was that the liquor was provided by the groom. Today, home weddings are the rare exception. Hotel weddings are ever so much more convenient and the charges are competitive and comprehensive, every detail being arranged by the hotel, including even the santhosam for the Jayamangala girls. Charges depend on the ‘star’ rating of the hotel, going up to the category of ‘Five Star plus’.

How has the subject of communications fared? Gone are the days of Telegrams, Urgent Telegrams and Faxes. E-mails have taken over. Phones? The hand winding, switchboard operator models, the direct dialing phones, to mobile phones, they are all now outdated. The in thing is the pocket size instrument into which you can speak and on the miniature screen of which, you see the face of the speaker at the other end, speaking to you direct on a similar instrument! Not science fiction. Wonders never cease!

Medical front

On the medical front, progress from days of yore to now, has been astounding, sometimes miraculous. DDT eradicated Malaria which had reached epidemic proportions. Its elimination opened the way to large scale reclaiming of the land in the Dry Zone which lay abandoned in impenetrable jungle, from the time of the Singhala kings. The grievous injuries caused to the military during World War 2, could not have been adequately dealt with, and many would have died of incurable wounds, had it not been for the discovery of the antibiotic Penicillin by Alexander Fleming, and other wonder drugs like M & B 693, which made daily dressings unnecessary. When the plaster and bandages were ultimately removed, with the stinking soiled gauze, the wound had cured and new pink growth was visible, to be carefully protected until fully healed. On the macro scale, Dr. Christian Barnhaard the eminent South African surgeon, transplanted a human heart! This marvellous surgical technology led to other malfunctioning parts of the human anatomy also being replaced with organs from matching donors. Frankenstein pales into insignificance!

In eye surgery, the common cataract required an operation which necessitated lying on the back with sand bags on either side of the head to prevent turning, for a week, followed by the patient being turned on the left side for four days and a further four days on the right side before being allowed to sit up. The spectacle lenses to be worn thereafter, were thick, heavy and uncomfortable. Today, cataract therapy has advanced so rapidly, to the extent that a patient is fitted with an implant of contact lenses in the morning and is released from hospital to lunch at home! Miraculous!

Time flies. Gone are the days of what was considered de rigueur. The ‘in things’ have taken over and if one does not keep up with the Joneses, on all fronts, one must bear the ridicule of ones colleagues. Such is life. Face it.

On the subject of ‘Gone are the days’, old age is the common denominator of those that have lost their memory and therefore reminisce. And in regard to this category, some comic wrote —

Hair cream for hair parted, to parted, to departed, is a long journey.
Check on your attire, for you can go anywhere without a wife, but nowhere without your trousers.
Don’t kiss the door and slam the wife, but kissing the wife and not the Secretary, is unpardonable.
Pick up the handkerchief, but never the owner.
Remember her birthday and forget her age.
If you open the door of your car for the wife to get in, the car is new and not the wife.
Share the tooth paste till the dentures arrive; then share the dentures.