Gossip - then and now

There are many things that change with age. One of them is topics of gossip among contemporaries. I recall, back in my salad days when my college mates and I used to gather around for a jaw-jaw session, the subjects usually explored would be the latest on dit on film star romances, test  cricket performances and the odd mannerisms of our teachers. All this, of course, interspersed liberally with ribald jokes. Any talk about music was limited to the latest Hindi film (Bollywood had not been invented then) hit song.

A favourite topic of those days of heightened libido would be the vital statistics of Hollywood screen sirens such as Jayne Mansfield and Gina Lollobrigida as perceived through the décolletage. Cut to the present, and the statistics bandied about among us septuagenarians and octogenarians are usually those of our enlarged prostates and holes in the heart.

Then, there was a lot of mooning over the reigning heartthrob in Indian cinema. Now, the discussion centres on medications for throbbing hearts. I remember, in those days, the breathless chatter among us youngsters would be about the centuries scored by top batsmen. Centuries still do feature in the conversation of us older ones, but they relate to the number of bypass operations conducted by star cardiac surgeons.

In my youth, the palaver with my classmates would often involve such subjects as the tastiest egg preparation, the choice being between scrambled or omelette. Today, this argument about excellence amongst us greybeards centres around which provides the best relief for backaches – yoga or traction.

In the days of youthful appetites, the information most avidly shared would be about the joint that served the best “murg masallam.” Now the only item of ingestion under discussion is the medication that best eases bowel movement.

When we were young scholars, there used to be quite a bit of acidulous criticism bandied about regarding our teachers. Now, in the evening of our lives, the complaints centre around indifferent progeny who don’t seem to find time to spend time with their parents. The breathless adulation is not for the bowler who bagged all the wickets in an innings but the homeopath who seems to have a cure for the dreaded “C” affliction.

Yes, indeed, the contrast between the preoccupations of the green and grey years is pretty stark.