A time for films, fun and friendship

We are childhood friends and studied at Wilson Garden High School. This photo was taken in the 70s, when we were studying in college, which I consider as the golden time of my life. I went to National College, Basavanagudi while my friends studied in Maharani Lakshmi
Ammani College and Mount Carmel College. We all resided in Wilson Gardens (now named
as Hombe Gowda Nagar).

Our favourite places to hang out were Majestic, Basavanagudi and Lalbagh. There was no particular curfew for us, we used to meet any time we felt like and would then roam around Wilson Gardens, holding hands.

That time was the golden era of Hindi film industry and Rajesh Khanna was the superstar. We must have watched about 500 of his movies in a span of three years in college.

We could afford this since tickets were cheap. Even the balcony ticket cost only around Rs 2-3 at that time.

We spent most of our time in Basavanagudi and Lalbagh, eating the tasty masala dosa in Vidyarthi Bhavan. It would cost us only about 50 paisa at that time.

There was no television or internet. The only mode of entertainment for us was the radio.

We used to wait for the popular programme 'Binaca Geetmala', anchored by Ameen Sayaani, where we could hear our favourite Hindi film songs.

We used to play a game called 'Planchet', where we would call spirits to answer our queries. We would hope for the inverted cup to move in reply to our queries. It was an innocent and amazing pastime.

Despite indulging in all these pranks, we successfully completed our graduation.

Now we are all above 60 years of age, happily settled with children.

We have still managed to keep in touch over the years. We have a WhatsApp group where we wish each other and chat on a daily basis. We also make it a point to meet once in a while.

Life's ups and downs haven't affected our friendship and we hope that it continues forever.

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