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When I was 4, in 1947, there was this temple festival in our village. And Father took all of us (including my mom) to the fair and festivity. All I recall now was my first ride on a wooden horse in a merry-go-round. It was a frightening experience and I resisted it till I was shamed and forced.
My mom then described to me her childhood experience of a fun-fair in Rajahmundry, circa 1925. Apparently the star attraction there was what she called: 'byscope'. And she described her exhilarating experience of viewing the Ghats of Kashi...by looking through a peephole in a wooden box.
I never saw a 'byscope'. And just now I Googled for it. And got to know that it is actually a 'bioscope' (pic above). I couldn't quite get its etymology...the online Webster asks me to go to her elder sister:
And the Free Online Dictionary says just:
My friend was generous and I ran at breakneck speed to my home and asked my mom to drop whatever she was doing and have a re-look at the Ghats of Kashi. She demurred and said it was high time for her Puja and she had already seen the Ghats of Kashi in 'byscope'.
I then told her that this is as different from what she had seen in her childhood as a cardboard picture is from the ivory model of the Taj Mahal...we had both in our showcase.
And she came up grumbling and when she looked through the View-master, she was unwilling to let go of the thing and handled it like her newborn baby.
And I promised her that one day I would take her to Kashi to watch the real thing. Which I did in 1984. And perhaps she was a wee disappointed...the country boat on which we perched was rocking and she was scared...
And after she was done with the View-master, I returned it gingerly to my friend and asked him where he got it. And he said his elder brother brought it from Kuwait. Kuwait was new to me and I imagined it as the Land of Gold since I was told that the View-master cost a whopping Rs 1000....in dollars. It was the first time I heard of dollars.
I had a look at the box that came with the View-master and it was described as a Stereoscope...a new addition to my vocabulary.
Much later, when my son was a kid, cheap plastic versions of the View-master were available on the street-shops of Gole Bazaar in Kharagpur...but they were a disappointment since they cost only Rs 15...And pretty soon Kuwait was in the news in what came to be known as the First Gulf War that has several editions later on...willy-nilly.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Pratik writes:
We had the good fortune of seeing bioscopes. The holes were made up of cheap aluminum circular tiffin boxes without the bases but with the lids, and the lids were attached to the main wooden box with jute twines. Kids were suppose to open these lids and peep through the tiffin boxes after paying 10 paisa. One had to wait a little till the other four-five holes were
filled up with heads. On the top there used to be a mechanical
gramophone. The show lasted for two and half to three minutes till the
78 rpm record played. We never saw Kashi in that. We saw Ram-Sita,
Shankar-Parvati, Ganesh and other varieties of Deities.
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My mom then described to me her childhood experience of a fun-fair in Rajahmundry, circa 1925. Apparently the star attraction there was what she called: 'byscope'. And she described her exhilarating experience of viewing the Ghats of Kashi...by looking through a peephole in a wooden box.
I never saw a 'byscope'. And just now I Googled for it. And got to know that it is actually a 'bioscope' (pic above). I couldn't quite get its etymology...the online Webster asks me to go to her elder sister:
To view the definition of bioscope, activate your Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary FREE TRIAL now!
And the Free Online Dictionary says just:
bi·o·scope (b
-sk
p
)
-skp)
n.
An early movie projector.
So it remains a mystery what is 'bio' about this scope.
Anyway, my mom's description of the thing and the light in her eyes as she described the Ghats of Kashi stuck with me.
And after ten years, in 1957, when I was in my School Final Class in Muthukur, my friend, Nageswara Rao took me to his 'room'. He was from a neighboring village and was renting a small room for his 'studies' during the Preparation Holidays of the Big Exam. He promised he would show me something AMAZING.
And he shut the door and took out from his bag a thing he called:
"View-master"
It was made of heavy metal and had two view-holes like binoculars. And he asked me to peep through both the holes and, lo and behold, I had the viewing experience of a lifetime. The celebrated Ghats of Kashi that enthralled my mom came up from nowhere in three dimensions.
The first thing I did was to ask my friend to loan the thing to me for half an hour...for I wanted to show the Ghats of Kashi to my mom in fantastic 3-D.
My friend was generous and I ran at breakneck speed to my home and asked my mom to drop whatever she was doing and have a re-look at the Ghats of Kashi. She demurred and said it was high time for her Puja and she had already seen the Ghats of Kashi in 'byscope'.
I then told her that this is as different from what she had seen in her childhood as a cardboard picture is from the ivory model of the Taj Mahal...we had both in our showcase.
And she came up grumbling and when she looked through the View-master, she was unwilling to let go of the thing and handled it like her newborn baby.
And I promised her that one day I would take her to Kashi to watch the real thing. Which I did in 1984. And perhaps she was a wee disappointed...the country boat on which we perched was rocking and she was scared...
And after she was done with the View-master, I returned it gingerly to my friend and asked him where he got it. And he said his elder brother brought it from Kuwait. Kuwait was new to me and I imagined it as the Land of Gold since I was told that the View-master cost a whopping Rs 1000....in dollars. It was the first time I heard of dollars.
I had a look at the box that came with the View-master and it was described as a Stereoscope...a new addition to my vocabulary.
Much later, when my son was a kid, cheap plastic versions of the View-master were available on the street-shops of Gole Bazaar in Kharagpur...but they were a disappointment since they cost only Rs 15...And pretty soon Kuwait was in the news in what came to be known as the First Gulf War that has several editions later on...willy-nilly.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Pratik writes:
We never had any view-masters for ourselves but I purchased a view-master for my daughter from Shopper's Stop, Begumpet by paying Rs. 200/- some five-six years ago. This one is not bad. I had to purchase extra reels, usually set of three by spending another Rs. 90/-. I am still thrilled with it. Occasionally I look for Cinderella reels which we saw in our neighbour's house thirty five years ago but I am yet to find them!
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1 comment:
There was audio too with the bioscope. The man who used to operate it and change the scenes s of Kashi, Calcutta and what not, used also to sing along, "Kashi Patnam choodara Babu, Ganga Nadini choodara Babu, Calcutta nu choodara Babu, Kaali Maatanu choodara Babu and so on. How I wish I could remember the full song ! May be your mother remembers the complete version !!whole song !
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