STAMPING

 

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

 

04/I/2025

 

New Year was celebrated on 2^nd Jan at the Army Officer’s Institute. In the fauj, we look for occasions to celebrate life. Dates do not matter.

 

Before entering the arena, an NCO requested me to get my hand stamped with a fauji stamp. I felt a little embarrassed, but my daughter informed me that people buy one ticket and rotate the counterfoil to get more friends in.

 

This gesture of stamping took me 35 years back. It was November of 1980 when I had gone through a similar procedure of stamping.

 

Uncle was incharge of the loco shed of NE railway section in Pilibhit, UP. I was with my favourite Aunty ‘Golden’ and ‘Massey’ Uncle.

 

It happened to be my birthday. For this special occasion, Aunty got a new white shirt and trouser stitched for me. Those days ‘bell bottoms’ were in vogue. ‘Mori’, the size of the bell was more than my shoe size.

 

Outside the railway platform near the loco shed, there was a notice board on which posters of new movies were pasted. Those days I was a movie buff. Every Friday, we used to wait for the new releases.

 

The new poster affixed was of “Mr Natwar Lal’ starring Amitabh and Rekha. I took permission from Aunty to watch that movie.

 

My next step was to ask for some money to buy the ticket as I had none left with me. She gave me five rupees. Rs 5 used to be the cost of the balcony ticket, if I recall correctly. Now that she was in a good mood, I asked for an additional two rupees to buy a ‘Coco-Cola’.

 

The movie hall was quite far from the railway Bungalow. One needed a bi-cycle to reach it. I requested one of my uncle's staff, who willingly lent me his cycle.

 

A fight had broken out outside the railway station which led to a traffic Jam. With great difficulty one meandered through the crowd to mount the cycle and move, flaunting my new birthday dress. The show was ‘barah se teen’ (12-3pm).

 

I paddled at breakneck speed. Before I purchased the ticket, the cycle had to be parked in the cycle stand for a sum of 25np.

 

It being the "first day second show", tickets had been sold out. Though tickets were available in “Black” but one could not afford it. I had to see the movie. There had to be a ‘jugaad’.

 

The man who tore tickets at the entrance door gestured to me. He told me that the show is about to start. It is a ‘house full’, but if I am ready to stand and watch the movie, he could allow me for Re 1. If lucky, I might get a seat on a bench ahead of the front row.

 

I pounced on the offer. He told me to open my palm and stamped a seal on it. The purple liquid spread all over, but what the heck. He opened the door and I was in.

 

The hall was full  of bidi and cigarette smoke. As soon as I entered, the movie started. I had just missed some advertisements. I stood close to the side entrance nearest to the screen for a while.

 

As my ‘rods’ adjusted the darkness, one saw a little space on a bench. I inched towards it, to the discomfort of many who hurled choicest abuses for blocking their view.

 

On the first appearance of Mr Natwarlal, the whole hall broke into a cheer and threw coins towards the screen. Some fell in my lap and head which I pocketed. The hooting and jeering grew louder when Rekha danced on “pardesia ye sach hai pia….”. The tinkle of the falling coins accompanied by whistles added to the music.

 

The movie was a super hit. No one left his seat till ‘THE END’ started rolling.

 

When I got out of the hall, I was in for a shock of my life. My new trouser and shirt was stamped and pockmarked with pan stains. The reddish-brown liquid called ‘peek’ was sprinkled all over. Tears rolled down my cheeks.

 

Masi would skin me alive as pan stains are impossible to remove. The excitement of watching the movie vanished as I made my way home. I was stamped from bottom to toe literally.

 

Lady luck was not with me that day. The ‘bell’ of my trouser got caught in the cycle chain and left black greasy ‘teeth marks’ of the sprocket on it. My heart sank again. Aunty laughed at the sight of me. She didn’t wash that dress but promised that she would get another one made soon.

 

The idea of stamping is not new. Probably, today’s night clubs took a clue from this age-old practice. Isn’t it? I wonder!!!!!!!

 

JAI HIND

©® NOEL ELLIS