Ruchira revisits her childhood and recalls the tidbits and confectionaries that she and her generation enjoyed – an exclusive for Different Truths.

I am a child of the late 1960s and spent most of my childhood in New Delhi. Our lives through the 1970s were much simpler and unostentatious than modern-day kids. For instance, we had a minimal range of tidbits and confectionery, which we were entitled to have during the “playing outside” hours every afternoon, not forgetting while shopping with parents or guardians. For instance, we had a limited range of tidbits and confectionaries, which we were entitled to have during the playing outside hours every afternoon, not forgetting while shopping with parents or guardians.

For the sweet-toothed guys, there were heaps of items galore gems: Cadbury’s Gems in motley hues, milk chocolate bars in multiple sizes. There was a maddening craze for 5-Stars. It suited all pockets and tastes. Sweets/lozenges, toffees and Lacto Bon-Bons from Morton’s Parry’s and Parle’s ruled the roost. At that time, Parle’s had designed and marketed an exciting product. It was a ball-shaped hard plastic container, orange in colour, with a leaf green detachable top. The insides would be jampacked with hardboiled sweets. After a few years, these disappeared for good.

How could one forget those delightful little wheels that we called Poppins? Each roll of Poppins comprised a range of fruity flavours – orange, lime, strawberry, grape and what have you! They are hardly visible anywhere nowadays. Do they still exist? I wonder. There were plenty of lollipops with built-in crevices on the top stick. These doubled up as whistles and hence caught the kids’ fancy.

We enjoyed smoking occasionally. Are you shocked? No, don’t be. They were sweet and hard sugary sticks slightly resembling the tobacco-filled ones. They came in brownish maroon paper boxes with the face of the formidable Phantom (fictional comic character) etched across the surface. After smoking, we ended up licking and chewing these.

The chewing bubble gums were kids’ pride but bête noir of every mom. The sudden bursting of those lovely pink sweet gums would startle the adults and irritate them. Regarding chewing gums, I vividly recall, however, chewing to our hearts’ content, self and sibling would stick them in the quirkiest of places instead of discarding these in wastebaskets or bins. Upon their discovery by our mother, pandemonium would ensue. She would chase us around the house, shrieking, cussing, swearing never to repurchase these. She forbade Dadda to do likewise and blah blah.

It was Chiclets since global manufacturers like Wrigley’s had not appeared on the scene. Another popular product was meetha saunf (sugarcoated fennel/ aniseed). Again, these were sold in soft paper boxes etched with the smiling face of a clown. No sooner did the clown open his mouth than the multi-coloured saunf would pour onto our open palms in torrents.

Now, for some spicy stuff. Aam papad (dried mango pulp) was savoured with kala namak (rock salt). Ram laddoos with their sweet-sour-tangy-spicy were hot favourites. These tidbits came dirt cheap. These cost between 50p and a rupee. I had a penchant for the minuscule churan golis/digestive pellets (costing five paise for a pack of six) marketed by a company called Hawaban Harde (a weird name. The company still exists). My disgusted Momma opined that they resembled rat poop, but to the child (that’s me), the taste was mind-blowing!

Picture design by Anumita Roy, Different Truths

Ruchira Adhikari Ghosh

Ruchira Adhikari Ghosh brings a liberal, wide-ranging outlook shaped by extensive travel across India and abroad. Educated at Holy Child School, New Delhi, Sacred Heart Convent, Ludhiana, and Panjab University, Chandigarh, she holds a Master’s in English Literature and a postgraduate diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication. With three decades in media, she writes on travel, books, music, performing arts, women’s issues, and especially food, drawing inspiration from rich life experiences. She is our Features Editor.