E.R. RAMACHANDRAN writes: Our grandparents mostly used neem twigs to give a brisk rub-in to their teeth first thing in the morning. This simple device was good enough to keep their teeth clean and sparkling for almost their entire lifetime.
They ate anything from ragi mudde to jowar bhakri and chicken, pullangai unde to dink laadu.
Despite these rigours, their teeth used to be like The Wall—strong, reliable and always ready to tackle what the opposition threw at them all day. Most of our ancestors even capped their sumptuous meal by chewing the juice of a betel nut or doing a small ceremony with betel leaves, sunna and sugandhi betel nut powder.
Teeth, thus nurtured and nourished, lasted years. Tooth ache? There was always a dash of soothing lavang (clove) oil massage to calm the nerves.
They had never heard of a species called the dentist.
Then came charcoal powder, B.V. Pandit’s sweet and pinkish tooth care wonder “Nanjangud hallu pudi” in a 4-inch by 3-inch brown paper bag. You made a small, triangular hole in the corner and inverted it on your palm to pour out only that much quantity for a one-time brushing.
If a bigger heap fell out, you just ate a part of the pudi!
Using the forefinger as a brush, one stroked the power to the left and right of the mouth, brushing the teeth and strenghtening the gums at the same time. Left, right. Left, right, it went on. There were some who went on like this for ages till their mothers shouted at them to ‘stop’ it! A dash of water, rinsing and one was ready for filter coffee.
Still not many knew who or what a dentist was because he/she had yet to appear on the horizon.
Next came the era of toothpaste. Dazzling tubes with colorful caps which squirted white, red, coloured and sometimes stripes of paste! Binaca, Colgate, Kolynos, Forhan’s (“Doctor’s Toothpaste!”) without ‘jhag’ (lather).
The marketing of Binaca was done by Ameen Sayani’s ‘Binaca Geet Mala’, which the whole country heard on radio on Wednesday nights between 8 and 9, irrespective of which toothpowder or paste one used, or whether one brushed the teeth at all.
Dinner used to be after the buglers sounded the song of the week based on the 78 RPM records of Hindi film songs sold in Bombay during the week.
After toothpastes came the marketing blitzkrieg on toothbrush. Hard, medium, soft, conical, comical bristles would take care of your teeth. You could vigorously brush the enamel on your teeth to certain death.
Around that time, some doctors who, for some strange reason called ‘Dentists’ were spotted near the market area.
Soon, with the advent of peppermints, toffees and chocolates, they started multiplying like, well, flies on a sweet. As imported and local fancy chocolates entered the scene with silver and gold wrappers, dentists started opening their swanky shops complete with water jets, spittoons and high speed jets for both water and hot-air.
People casually started dropping words like “I have an appointment with my dentist” in the middle of a conversation. “Excuse me; I have to see my dentist.” The dentist replaced your tooth with a gold, silver, even a diamond tooth like a diamond ear-ring depending on the bulge of your purse.
Models smiling from ear-to-ear for no reason and doctors in front of tooth cutouts started appearing on TV forcing Babloos and Chintus to smile, again, for no reason.
Soon after, electric tooth brushes arrived, enabling busy people to brush their teeth with a whirr, just like they shaved with an electric shaver. You could get a shining sparkling set of teeth not by old fashioned brushing, but by electrolysis which simultaneously made a big hole in your pocket.
You could keep on X-raying your errant tooth till, by the sheer dosage, your tooth could get tuberculosis.
Now like the software scenario, the toothpaste bubble seems to have burst. Leading orthodontists are now saying electrolysis weakens the gums and is dangerous to the heart. Oral scientists and orthopantomographists are saying grandma’s methods like brushing with fingers and using neem twigs are best and it is the best way of taking care of your teeth!
The future, thank god, is going back to the past!
Rahul (in picture) is indeed happy now.
Using the forefinger as a brush, one stroked the power to the left and right of the mouth, brushing the teeth and strenghtening the gums at the same time. Left, right. Left, right, it went on. There were some who went on like this for ages till their mothers shouted at them to ‘stop’ it! A dash of water, rinsing and one was ready for filter coffee.
lovely. something in the air of gokulam & vontikoppal that makes people write stuff like this.
Thanks for the post. It made me recall my childhood days!
I am sure, if Nanjanagudu hallupudi is marketed in small carriable sachets, will be great hit among frequent air travellers.
All the more convenient if it is sold at airports!!
Simply delightful and additionally it gives me comfort when some times out of sheer laziness I just brush my teeth with my bare fingers. I thank God I brush only one time just before going to bed and my teeth are fine. I have refused to bite the argument that whenever you eat sticky stuff or sweet you run to the bath room to brush. I have no qualms about using sharpened match sticks to dislodge those little bits that refuse to dislodge by my soft brush.
I am sure, if Nanjanagudu hallupudi is marketed in small carriable sachets, will be great hit among frequent air travellers.
All the more convenient if it is sold at airports!!
Sorry… forgot to say great post – can’t wait to read your next one!
@ TS , might be ERR cleaned his atta ( attic) :))
Hey! Was Nanjangud Hallu PuDi, a multi-purpose powder which could be used as face powder, to wash hair, bleach etc. and contributed in making its founder’s grandkids beautiful? :P
Your tags suggest that!
If brushing the teeth with Nanjangud hallupudi can do this to esteemed members in the B.V. Pandit family, I would say high time the whole country took to it.
http://images.starpulse.com/pictures/2008/11/13/previews/Kalpana%20Pandit-AGM-011779.jpg
http://netlife.com.vn/Library/Images/59/2007/09/5-9-2007/LakshmiPandit.jpg
Very Nice post.
Colgate created a successful advertisement campaign showing the corrosive effect of indegenous Hallupudi’s on our teeth. This took away the major urban maket share of products like ‘Dabur Lal Dantmanjan’, nanjangud Hallupudi, Gopal Hallupudi and many others. RSS also had a swadeshi campaign in the 80s and 90s which exhorted people to buy Indian toothpaste brands like Promise and Babool.
As you age, you are bound to lose teeth; whether you use neem or meswak twigs or forefinger to clean your teeth. Rest assured, I am not a dentist. And I don’t hold any brief for them.
However, the article is worth reading.
Couldn’t resist posting this. The following lines were reused, repackaged in many a mad-ads competition:
“Bharatha, Sri Lanka, Singaporem Malaysia munthada deshagalalli hecchagi maarata-vaguva hallu puDi, Gopal Hallu puDi.”
(From a vividh bharathi ad – usually heard during Nimma mecchina chitra geethegaLu along with Shanthala silks, Charminar brand sheet gaLu etc)
Kannada Kandha,
Kopal Allupudi is from TN, hence sells among the ex-patriate tamils in malaysia,sri lanka and singapore.
The interesting thing about this ad was the tamilians trying to speak in kannada and thoroughly sc#$%ing it :(
ERR – nice post.
Some folks might also remember Monkey Brand black hallupudi that some of our older cricketers endorsed. People would wonder how teeth could turn white if the toothpowder was black?
Narasimha,
Your comment reminds me of “satish kaar”! For days, I was puzzled by what a news reader on a Tamil television channel was referring to. After a few intelligent guesses and with the help of the accompanying visuals, I figured out that she was referring to the then newly carved out state of Chhattisgarh.
More gems: “Pirapaharan,” “Magatma Kanthi”, “Koenka” …
Narasimha, do you remember the “Santha tilting wet grinder” ad on radio?
I hope our Tamil friends don’t take offence.
not a witty nick…good one!
One was my classmate! our good old drawing master use to call her “sadan pandit”…
No Gravitas,
Yes I do! It was hilarious. I wonder how they expect to sell these products, in karnataka, when they dont hire a good kannada speaking guy/girl to do the ads. Even the SSP Asfoetida guy Pandian has this basic business sense, when he advertises. I actually met this guy in Rajajinagar, and he was speaking good Kannada.
And also another good one Idayam Ollenne!!
***
I actually knew a ayurvedic doctor who had retained all his teeth even at the ripe old age of 80 years. His secret, he brushed his teeth with “finely powdered charcoal”.
***
I also remember the days when I used to peseter my parents to buy only Binaca toothpaste because they gave a free plastic animal toy along with it. :)
Nanjangud Hallu PuDi used to come in two tastes-salt and sweet. The basic ingredeint was paddy husk. It was certainly not black. It was rose/pink.
Nice post ERR,
I must admit we kids ate half of the hallu pudi our ajji had — tasted better than the neem toothpaste that was a staple in our home. If we woke up to find our uncles come in from north Karnataka via the overnight bus, it was all smiles — we got to swipe their ‘Signal’ toothpaste — the red and white stripe one..
It’s much ado about nothing these days with pre brush rinses to spin head brushes to the mouthwashes. If the electrolysis does not affect your heart your dentist’s bill surely will !
Fantastic!
I too remember using Najangud Hallu Pudi once in a while. I think I ate more of it than actually brushing with it.
My teeth are very healthy thank you very much!
@Kannada Kandha
You reminded me of Charminar sheet. I don’t how many remember this.
:- ಏನ್ ರಾಮಣ್ಣ ಇಷ್ಟು ಆಳವಾಗಿ ಯೋಚನೆ ಮಾಡ್ತ್ಹಿದ್ದಿಯ?
:- “ಮನೆಗೆ, ಗೋಡೌನ್ಗೆ ಯಾವ್ ಶೀಟ್ ಹಾಕ್ಸ್ಬೇಕು ಅಂತ ಯೋಚನೆ ಮಾಡ್ತಿದ್ದೀನಿ” .
:- “ಅದಕ್ಕ್ಯಾಕೆ ಯೋಚನೆ ಮಾಡ್ಬೇಕು ಚಾರ್ಮಿನಾರ್ ಶೀಟ್ ಹಾಕ್ಸಿದ್ರೆ ಆಯ್ತು, ನಮ್ ತಾತನ ಕಾಲ್ದಾಗೆ ಕೊಂಡದ್ದು ಈಗ್ಲೂ ಗಟ್-ಮುಟ್ಟಗದೆ ನೋಡು”
:- “ಹೌದ?!?”
@Born_Smart
I can never forget Charminar sheet. Most of our mad-ads used to open with two guys sitting as though they were out and about “kere kade” and going “idhenu Ramanna…”
I am from (old) Dharwad district.After 40 years also I cannot forget these Nanjangood Halpudi,30 No. beedi,Samyukta Karnataka paper, VANDANA progrmme from Dharwad Akashvani, SUDHA Cartoons like Daabu,shooja,Inspector Azad and “Gupta Samaalochane ” in PRAJAMATA.
WTfudge!….What is Electrolysis for teeth?????…THERE IS NOTHING SUCH AS THIS!!!!
And there is nothing such as an Orthopantomographist!
It’s fine to write about the hallu-pudi’s out of nostalgia but the last bit was pure bullscat.
An Orthopantomograph is a Large X-Ray involving all your teeth in 1 X Ray Film….a dentist or radiologist with an OPG Machine will take one. There is NO “profession” as a Orthopantomographist!!!
And further there is no Electrolysis for Teeth….unless you have hairy teeth!!!
There is Tooth Whitening- but it has nothing to do with current, and there is Galvanism – which has to do with the current generated when to filling made of different metals touch during biting. But no Electrolysis.
It’s like saying MRI=Brain-surgery!!!
When the article takes such pains to ‘construct’ interesting facts, the whole article becomes a disappointing read, no matter the basic intention of the article.
Ramu
Superb article.
Good for nostalgia.In between the Nanjangud pudi era and toothpaste age threre was the Tooth powder(white) in a tin box for the elitist (who did not want to be associated with Pudi).Pudi was a great antitode after a binge in camouflaging alchohol smell.
I remember the time when lakshmi pandit won the Miss India crown and had to give it back within days when it was discovered that she was “married”. the same thing had happened to her elder sister kalpana Pandit who won the Miss India crown and had to return it back since she was holding an American passport and was no longer an Indian citizen. who are Kalpana and Lakshmi? the granddaughters of B.V.Pandit.
I stay very close to their house in V.V.Mohalla in Mysore. I used to see Lakshmi run around on her Luna Super. Quite and ordinary and quite girl. No one seemed to think she was Miss India material, back then. Kalpana, by then had left Mysore for greener pastures. Both their parents are doctors. These 2 girls had a cousin sister who was my senior in Mahajana College in JL Puram, by name of Asha – who many will recognize by her non-de-plume – ” CHADDI ASHA”. Of course the “CHAADDI” was courtesy of her penchant for appearing in public in blue shorts, every now and then. Wonder what Asha is upto nowadays !!
Dear ERR, What a co-incidence ! You ‘beat-me-to-it’ remembering the old days – of clening-teeth with Nanjangud hallu Pudi and its taste-in-the-mouth !
Everything you’ve said – starting from grand-mothers and after – happened EXACTLY the same way as you’ve written. Only difference was that I was closer to Nanjangud – meaning, I was in Bangalore from 1939 to 1966 ! Gone are ‘THEM’ days !!
I’d be happy if you cn send me a ‘photo’ of the wrapper of Nanjungud Toothpowder.
I would like to have a picture of the packet
I sent ERR a copy of the N/Hallu Pudi sachet.
B.V.Pandit – the inventor of this was also nicknamed ‘Baai Vaasnay Pandit’ for the initials [hearsay].
I still use this. I also mix it with 4-5 different ayurvedic hallu pudies available in different angadies and my teeth got so much better that many decades of toothpasting actually spoiled them.