GHADIKARAM (CLOCK) Dear friends,
My wife broughtto me the wall clock from the Hall toreplace cells and adjusttime fifteen minutes ahead. It had stopped functioning one hour before. I adjusted the time andhanded over the clock. She herself put back correctly on the holder. I haveseven wall clocks in my home. All purchased by me. Even if onedoes not function we aredisturbed. I had only three wall clocks while at Trivandrum. One of them was/ is the nostalgic clock, whenquartz clocks started to appear, purchased in 1985. Thirty five years overafter purchasing, itfunction smoothly. I keepsufficient number of cells for wall clock to replace the ones becoming non- functioning. While Iwas in Circle office Trivandrum, It was the practice we most senior staffmembers would assemble in one of the staff room after meals for half an hourand there would be all types of talks. One daythe talk turned to requirement of wall clocks in the home. One lady staff was the opinion that only one is required.No need of keeping more cells, if required one should go and see time in theclock. It is a fact no body watch time in wrist watches in the homes. There wereno mobiles during the period. Anotherwas of opinion two one in hall and another in bed room. All others were of opinion whereever we require essentially. Afterother talks, one of the sincere lady staff looked at the clock. Indirectly she was telling, she wasgoing to her seat. Thisposting is about Ghadikaram (Clock) with some nostalgic memories. I hope this maygive an interesting reading. Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan12-5-2021. 1. Ghadikaram InMalayalam clock is called Ghadikaram. A day means it has 24 Hours. Each houris 60 minutes and each minute is 60 seconds. Present day clocks (Ghatikarams) work in thismodel. If at all a clock has two arms showing hour and minute, we are notsatisfied. We wantseconds arm moving. In my boyhood days my father and Grandmother used to say seeing the bright sunlightfalling in Nadumittam(inner courtyard) about the approximate time. Similarlythe shadow from the frontroof was also an approximate calculation of time in the day. Earlymorning time was calculated from the appearance of planet Sukra. There isa yellow colour flower called Nalumani ppo in Kerala. The flowers would blossom at 4 PM every day in the plant. Earlier many homes werehaving it. After some cross pollination or so, moonnu Mani poo (3PM) also started appearing in pink colour. In myboyhood days there was no clock in my home. An alarm time piece was purchased inmy student days. All were seeing time in it. My youngestuncle was a middle school teacher. Hetaught me to know directions and calculating time looking at the Sun’s positionin the horizon. From the dawn till the sun come to mid heaven is for-noon andlater after noon. So I could well know approximate timings. In the night my father used to wake weall for natures call after about 5hours or so after going to sleep, he used to tell timings from seeing theposition of moon/ Venus (Sukran) in the sky. He used to say Perumeen udichhu when it is early morning.Time is told in Malayalam and Tamil as “mani” 2. Clock tower My firstremembrance of big size clock (towerclock) is from the one provided in the N S S College at my home, where I went. Thetower is/was constructed above the Principal’s room in the front of the college.It has/ had clocks on all the four sides. Later I started observing tower clocksand found in Chenganassery NSS College also. These clocks are still there and arms to showtime with hour and minutes. These clocks are hourly striking also. Perhaps internal parts may have replaced. 2.1 Looking time with secretariat tower clock Uncontrollablywhen I pass through statue junction at Trivandrum, my eyes would look at thesecretariat clock, to see the time. I have wondered why I look at tower clockwhen I am having watch in my hand. The same with PMG Office clock also. Ouroffice was at the back of PMG Office and had tower clock. Not visible from theroad clearly. 3. Mechanical clocks During myboyhood days the nearby Pandalam Palaces were having one clock in eachpalace in main hall. We could hear the half hourly and hourly striking whilepassing through the areas. The onlyhouse other than palaces, I have seen clock was in Thekkae variam, where theRama varier was an expert in mechanical clock repair. He was having three orfour clocks. Thekkae variam was in par with palaces on those days. Whenan infant was born, a person would go to the nearest palace, time told was calculated as birthtime, subtracting 3-5 minutes from the time told. 4 Wrist watches Even whenI was about 10 years I have seen some elders wearing wristwatches. At that timeI could see many of the school teachers wearing wristwatches. These mechanicalwatches had to be wound every day (Once in 24 hours). By the time I was inCollege, all lecturers were wearing wristwatches and a few rich students. A wristwatch with a student wasan indicator of his/her family status. These watches indicated time, not date. Mostof the watches had seconds needle also in addition. 5. Bigger clocks While Iwas studying in school, schools had clocks in their entrance. They had about onefoot diameter. Two similar clocks wouldbe with the head master. One with half an hour strike would be displayed in theexamination hall (class rooms re-arranged) during examination. Inaddition the invigilators too used to address the students about the timelapsed. In college too most of the lecture halls had clocks, when the time was aboutto be lapsed it was intimated. Rather than visual indication theseannouncements went deep in to brain. Seeingthe wall clock outside school bell was rung by the peon. On those days in schoolsthere were two bells in the morning 1st bell at 9.45 and 2ndat 9.55 AM for prayer. Classes commenced at 10 AM except on Fridays. Still Irecollect during practical examination, a clock arranged in front of the lab.Candidate could enter at any time before half an hour in to hall afterpractical examination has commenced. Some students used to enter later,studying 10-15 more after examination has commenced. 6. Lecturer Srimati TP Rajalakshmy I hadwritten about this lecturer earlier also, a famous writer in Malayalam during 60-70’s.She was taking subject Heat to us at a time. Heat is a boring topic comparingto other topics of physics. It was a practice to most of us look at the roomclock as the minutes pass through. She used to comment- “only twenty minuteshave passed, why look at clock, another 40 minutes are there for this topic- “I will say remaining time afterevery ten minutes” Do not strain your eyes “ in a sarcastic manner. 7. Watches with date and month Mechanicalwatches with date started appearing by 1980’s. However after every month, wehad to adjust day with these watches. These watches were very convenient to seethe dates and recollect the day. These watches were costlier. I was having a mechanical watch for a longtime which indicated date. We had stop watches in ourtelephone exchange to calculate period of the trunk calls. At one time we had pocket watches. 8. Time piece Timepiece- a mini clock on earlier days with stainless steel frame and having somethinglike iridium arms. In the night we couldsee the time by the illumination of arms and letters. It had about 3” diameterand a stand. The attraction of the time piece over clock was it was smaller,could be kept on studying table, and most important it had a provision to setAlarms also. It helped much to wake children for studies. The timepieces werevery popular and many had time pieces in addition to clocks. Now time piecesare there in most homes having children in going to schools. Though in the mobilephone alarms can be kept, alarm from the timepiece is louder. Irecollect the days carrying small electronic timepiece while going to Jabalpurfrom Chennai, to set alarm for getting down at Ittarsi at 2 AM. 9 Quartz clock and quartz time piece By about1985’s the quartz clock started appearing. It was a big revolution. Originallythe quartz clocks were not stable and costly too. Whenmobiles first appeared it was about 20000-00 rupees. But today basic mobile phone of that quality we can get for just 1000-00 rupees! Somewherein 1985, I purchased a quartz clock with hourly striking. It cost to me about450-00 rupees at that time as told elsewhere in this posting. Today bestquality Quartz clocks are available for about 500-00 rupees maximum. Now quartzclocks come with striking and adjustment, day, date along with time. 10. Quartz watches. Todaymechanical watches are not available in the market. Those collecting watchesmay be having them. Quartz watches ofdifferent models are available ranging from 400-00 rupees to 5000-00 rupeeswith date, day etc. 11. Watch strap and watch chain. Sincewatch is worn in the wrist, it is called wrist watches. Definition told to meby my uncle. Most wear watches in Lefthand, a few % in right hand also. The watch is worn on wrist with chain or strap attached to it. Thechain can be from stainless steel to gold plated and the price ranges from200-00 rupees to 1000 rupees. Some type of strap cost same as watch. 12. Ladies watch Theladies watches are smaller in size. Many of them do not have seconds handle. Isit due to the reason they don’t mind seconds? Now many ladies also wear gent’swatches. 13. Watch, clock and timepiece today Todayevery home has at least three or four clocks. Women folk want in kitchen, inthe guest room (probably to remind the time...) and visible from entrance. There is a view clock should not be kept in the entrance. Tillrecently timepieces had prominence. Now mobile phones having time indicationwith all details have somewhat shadowed it. Mobile phones give better alarm now. Every person has at least two watches. Probably3-4 mobiles. Answering from important persons calling a separate mobile,friends calling another, official calls/ messages etc. another etc. Smart Mobilephones are used by most. 14. Computer, mobile, TV time displays Mostlypersons with computer look at time display in it and just placing mouse on itdetails of day, month and year if they are working with computer/laptop/notebook etc. This inbuiltclock had been a wonder to me when I became familiar to use computer. It helped me to see documents, see correctionsetc in office files. The timedisplay in mobile gives similar details. Alarms set in mobiles are still moreconvenient. Just keep it by the side, it would wake up, announcing time, andremind as a friend like a mini robot. The TVtime display help much to indicate whether food has to be taken to sofa for eating or change over toother programs or news and above all to switch off the TV . This is a posting totally rewritten of onedated 1-10-2010 with updating and additions. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/1623430851.2412661.1620834789100%40mail.yahoo.com.
