New Delhi: Hot chocolate fudge at Nirula’s, Maruti 800 cars on the roads, news presentations of Doordarshan, landlines, and prank calls where one could also find their lovers — it all happened in the 1980s. It was about community. A panel discussion on 28 November at Delhi’s Om Book Shop saw the launch of Seema Sethi’s coffee table book Romancing The 80s: Snapshots From A Cherished Decade and transported the participants back to the 80s Delhi, through anecdotes, songs and letters.
The venue was chock-a-block with an eager audience ready to dip into nostalgia.
Though the decade had its own share of turbulence with the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi followed by anti-Sikh riots and the beginnings of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, there were still other big changes in the lives of Indians. The first Maruti 800 rolled into Indian streets, Kapil Dev won the World Cup, and squadron leader Rakesh Sharma was launched into space.
“I remember driving the Maruti 800 and how the steering wheel was so smooth, especially after ambassador cars. I felt sexy,” said Minu Talwar, former presenter and anchor of Dardarshan, laughing.
At the launch, the panellists talked about their favourite sections and memories associated with it.
Apart from the author, the panel consisted of Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri, editor-in-chief of Om Books International, actor Nasir Abdullah, and Lipika Bhushan, Publicity Consultant, Penguin Random House, along with Tanwar.
Cinema, TV and fan mail
TV too was slowly becoming a must-have source of entertainment. “I remember that MLAs would be late to Parliament and say they were watching the Ramayana or Mahabharata and were delayed. They would be excused,” said Abdullah.
It was the era when watching television was a community experience. If one household had a TV set, people from the whole neighbourhood would gather to watch movies or cricket and news on it. It was also the era of news readers. Long before social media accounts of celebrities, and celebrity culture itself, there was fan mail. Minu Tanwar received hundreds of them every week. “They would just write ‘Minu, Doordasrhan, Parliament Street’ on the postcards. and thought it would most definitely reach me,” said Talwar. She also brought a collection of such postcards and letters to the event, and Chaudhari read excerpts from a few.
From requests to instructions, the fan mail had a lot to say. Talwar’s fans loved both her style of draping sarees with colourful bindis, and her smile, along with her impeccable presentation.
“One wrote how I should wear only red bindi, while another would ask me not to fidget too much on camera,” said Talwar.
There was also an outpouring of love at events that she attended or was an emcee at. She was the 80s equivalent of what the paparazzi calls the ‘national crush’ today. “ I have an uncle, who until he was married, was sure he would marry you,” said Bhushan. Even her sarees used to evoke curiosity, and many would ask her to wear sarees from the region they belonged to.
The channel also used to do a special segment, where letters sent to the individual news readers was read out.
Tanwar also insisted that Doordarshan not use her surname to maintain a sense of universality with her name.
“People assumed I was Marathi or even Bengali. Every community thought I belonged to them, and I wanted to maintain that by not using my surname,” said Tanwar.
It was the era of prominent news anchors like Neethi Ravindran, Salma Sultan, Rini Simon Khanna to Komal GB Singh, and there were separate fan bases for each.
“We would initially just read out news, while looking down, and then came an overhead camera, which meant we would look directly at the camera. That was the moment we transformed from news readers to news presenters,” said Tanwar.
Movies, Nirula’s and telephones
The 80s were also about watching movies, the first day and the first show, even if it meant buying tickets in ‘black’. Bhushan recalled watching the Hollywood film E.T the Extra Terrestrial (1982) on the big screen while Abdullah remembered a disastrous Eid outing that featured the movie Suhaag Raat (1968).
He was a location manager for Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi (1982). He credits the decade of shaping him into an actor and a confident person. He also played the flute to emphasise how there was a craze of watching cinema and listening to the latest song on the radio whenever it would play. He played Piya Tose Naina Lage Re on his flute at the event as a dedication to the decade.
“Women from age 18 to 108 loved this song,” he added.
“The 80s was the bridge between the old and what was to come, from telecom boom to everything else,” he added. It was also the time of ‘prank’ calls, since there was no way to identify the caller. Sethi in fact shared that she ended up meeting her husband through one of the prank calls she had made as a teenager. “We also had code for the number of rings on the phone signifying something specific. One ring would mean it is him, or two would mean he is nearby,” said Sethi.
The event ended with a song by Bhushan. But before that, there was a collective remembrance of Delhi’s special spot from 80s-Nirula’s. It opened its first outlet at Connaught Place in Delhi in 1977. It was the city’s first fast-food restaurant and the must-go-to place for middle-class families, especially for special occasions. “The hot chocolate fudge was reserved for getting very good marks in exams,” shared Chaudhari.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)