Wrists Without Watches!

Wrists without Watches!

The wrist watches do have a hoary history and they arrived here in India along with the Europeans. Till the 1920’s they were decorating the hands of only the elite and later on slowly moved on to the commoners. Owning a wrist watch was then a luxury and they were more often seen as a status symbol.

In the villages the munsifs, the karnams  and the mirasadar families only could think of such a thing and at times people would walk a mile or two to enquire the timings.The villages which had the advantage of having a road or rail link to boast of with were contented with the passing of an odd bus/mail that proclaimed the time. On occasions people had to walk a mile or two to enquire timings so that they can enter the same on the yet to be written horoscopes of their newborns.

The cinemas of yesteryears too captured these mini phenomenons nonchalantly as their heroes would be flaunting a golden chain wristwatch to entice their sweethearts. They were considered as one of the property items passed to the next generations and money lenders were there to lend money after pledging the same. Such items often ended up in the collections of the money lenders as the owners hardly returned to reclaim the same.  They played a major role in sealing up many marriages as wrist watches in the company of golden rings became a ritual and formed part of the varadhaksana(dowry).

The friendly thieves too had a passion for laying their hands on these unfortunate metal pieces. Often they exchanged them for a paltry sum as sporting them would raise doubts in the minds of the locals and news may spread among the neighbourhood resulting in their imminent banishment.

It was not uncommon to come across a person wearing a wrist watch and unable to study the time as most of them would come with the Roman numerals and the owners seeking the help of their courtiers. Women folk were aeons away from these timeless pieces and most often they helped women identify that their males were around the farms and not had gone to the town nearby. Social functions, such as marriages, village temple festivals and panchayats would only warrant wearing and needs no mentioning the people with these watches would be watched by the crowd with envious eyes.  

I remember  my father losing  his wrist watch in an accident near Pattukkottai  involving a bus and a week after the incident a villager travelled more than twenty  miles on his bicycle  to hand over that humble piece.

Though Swiss watches were popular among the elite of the urban, the rural rich started to wear only when their Indian cousin HMT became popular. People who returned from Burma, Malaya, Singapore invariably brought these delicate   mechanical devices to their relations and friends. They became more democratic only when our people started to invade the gulf for work. The wish list of any one would have a wrist watch and Citizen, Ceiko and Rado became a house hold name much later.

At times people would be handing over the priced possession to small boys till they completed bath in the village pond. Occasions were there when strict teachers would be losing the links of their watch chains broken as they dealt with some unruly boys and this sudden development infuriating them further and the incident remaining etched out on the memories of a generation of school goers in the village.

At the home end too if some fathers were found  to be removing them  with angry writ large on their faces and  the kids had to pray for gods, hide behind doors, beneath the tables, climb up the attic or taking shelter behind their  mothers.  The wrist watch would be the top most prize for the village lottery and would be seen decorating the horns of a ferocious bull till it was tamed by a brave youth.

The arrival of plastics and electronics changed the ‘time’ scenario much and today people have literally no time to check up with time.