It all started with the toothpaste.
In anticipation of assured felicity in our mutual choice of life partner, my better half and I were complacent. After all, we were both Tam Brams, both from Delhi – even West Delhi, spoke a lot of Hindi, had several common friends and connections, were born in the same year and hence had undergone largely the same experiences growing up, had similar families (2 siblings each) and one set of parents etc.
However, we hadn’t realized that the world (or at least Delhi – which in our view was a fair representation of the world) was split right in the middle and he occupied one part and I, the other. We began to see it with the toothpaste. When I saw him pick up Colgate from the shelf of a super market, I casually asked him if he had used Colgate while growing up. His equally casual “Yes” had me dismayed. “But we used Forhans!”, I exclaimed.
“So did you get Times of India at home back then?”, I asked, casually. “No, we were always the Hindustan Time types”, he replied. Shocking! What had I got myself into?
See, the thing is most things then were available in only two brands. You would be one or the other – hardly ever a third. This was quite puzzling really. Why only two main brands? Possibly because at first there was just one and as soon as people had some disposable income there came another brand just to give them a cursory choice. And so there were people who used Forhans and the Colgate users were “them”. The people who read HT were also them to the TOI readers, just like the TOI readers were “them” to HT readers.
So milk could be bought from Mother Dairy by buying tokens and inserting them in slots for the milk to be poured into your vessel from a receptacle. But there was also DMS or Delhi Milk Scheme which came in packs. We never bought the packets. Firstly, for some reason they were more expensive. Secondly, they were only available in the morning or something. We were the Mother Dairy types.
Bicycles – at least one of which each family had, to be shared among all sundry children, would be either Hero or Atlas.
Biscuits would be Britannia or Parle. Scooters would be Bajaj or LML Vespa. Motor bikes would be Hero Honda or Yamaha. Some were even Kawasaki Bajaj – I guess the one thing of which there were three. Cola drinks would be either Thums Up or Campa Cola. In school one would write in royal blue ink or blue-black ink. (using leaky fountain pens, I must add.) Bread could be either Britannia or Modern. And all bread was white bread. Cars would be either Ambassadors or Fiats. This was of course, before the Maruti 800 days. After that there was just that car everywhere. Batteries used in electronic appliances would be Nippo or Ever ready.
I am sure there are so many more examples which I cannot recollect. Our life so far has been an interesting discovery of whether we are this or that. Which one are you?
I prefer Statesman and always have. HT is not worth the paper its printed on and TOI is good for everything except what is really important.
For toothpaste, we always used Neem. Before that we actually had to chew the neem sticks.
For fountain pen ink, I did try the green ink from Chelpark because my teacher used it to provide “well done” remarks
.
As far as milk was concerned, we got the milk in glass bottles with silver caps delivered at our doorstep. Not very exciting, except the one time when a dead lizard came out while pouring the milk.
Our telephone company was MTNL, and funnily enough it still is even though there are a multitude of choices.
The one place where we had plenty of choices was tailors. India then, and even today has a tailor tucked away in every nook and cranny. But my father would insist on getting all our clothes stitched at the Madras Tailoring House in Calcutta. Why my father chose a Tamilian tailoring shop is something I have never been able to fathom. It was not even close to our house. But that’s how it was.
We never ate out because there was never too much money for such things. But there were plenty of choices when it came to phuchka sellers. The one next to the drain near the main gate of Belvedere Estate was the best.
Can’t remember anything else. Oh yes, noodles were always Maggi, and still is.
Nice to see you reading my posts. And with such promptness.
Our choices (like of newspaper, milk, toothpaste) seem to reflect the city we lived in. And how come, there is always a drain nearby conveniently located to be described by you in reference to either cleaning streets or eating puchkas? 
How about Hawkins vs Prestige; Dyanora Vs EC TV; Murphy or Phillips Radio; I am sure there are many more which I cannot remember now…
Prakash: Ya – I did miss out Hawkins vs. Prestige. We were the Hawkins type. And we had ECTV (was TV existing in only 2 brands? I doubted that one.)
Colgate
TOI
Mother Dairy
Atlas
Britannia (biscuits)
LML Vespa
Thums Up
Royal blue
Britannia (bread)
Fiat
Ever Ready
How right you are: it was so black and white back then. Easy, no?
You missed one big one, though:
Congress or BJP?
Poupee: I missed that one deliberately. Why bring politics in? And more importantly – as is our wont, it turned out that I was this and P was that.
It was truly easy back then. Too many choices still confuse me.
During Colgate-Forhans time there was no BJP-Coongress option which came much later! Congress was the Hobson’s choice then!
An interesting thought indeed.
Despite several options I too had patronized MTNL for more than half a century!
Derrideans might say that there are always some aspects of the alternative in the one – that binary oppositions are illusory. Back home it was Persil or (something else I forget the name of – maybe Surf?). How startled I was to learn that both were owned by the same multi-national!
Has anyone mentioned Coke or Pepsi?