At The Edge

Some Heavy Motors and etcetera Advertisements from year 1972 -0- The big hauler Hindustan 7 1/2 tonner truck For extra strength, Extra safty, Extra life, extra power Hindustan Motors Lts. Perkins 6.354v Vehicle diesel engine The most reliable and Inexpensive power unit -Simplons genuine Spare parts Clevite Research has proved COPPER-LEAD to be the right combination material for HEAVY DUTY Applications Bimetal Bearings Limited -0- Check out rest of the Ads in the series here

1972 Ad of REMCO Radio & Electricals Manufacturing CO.LTD. from The Reader’s Digest A slice of ( radio and other) history from this Ad: November 1949: Remco started commercial production of India’s first multi-band radios. In the same year they were the first to manufacture domestic, control, screened and co-axial cables made of PVC. First Indian company to actively enter into collaboration with a Japanese Firm – Toshiba – to make India’s first electrical watt-hour meters in 1952. First to produce water meters of Swiss design in India in 1956. First to make electronic bandswitches for the Communication Industry in 1958. In the same year, they started production of India’s first electrolytic capacitors In 1967, first to build Indian designed lighting arresters, with nonlinear elements made from basic raw material. In year 1972(the year of this Advertisement), they manufactured the first high-fidelity “Cross-Over Sound” radios in India. -0- Two things from th...

Continuing with the theme of Wartime Ads . Adulation for the victorious leader and prayers for peace were not the only response after the war. -0- Jai Jawan Stall Lending a helping hand India Tobacco Company (ITC) March, 1972 An entity like a Tobacco Company was helping people rebuild life and telling the ensuring stories. Other industries, hit by heavy curtailment in imports during the war, were making a call to the nation – Innovate or Perish. The foreign exchange saved (in the one below - a handsome sum of 18 lakhs annually) through innovation was a nice touch to the sharpness of such Ads. A Call to the Nation: Innovate or Perish Jhaveri Thanawala PVT. LTD 1972 -0- Check out rest of the Ads in the series here

“Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war” …Milton A nation united as never before, we stand behind our leader in grappling with the immense tasks ahead. An Ad(Statement) by TATA Engineering and Locomotive CO. LTD. March, 1972 Scanned from The Reader’s Digest -0- Bloodied dust was settling on the eatern front after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 . By the time war ended a new nation was carved out and named Bangladesh. As a side drama we had USS Enterprise in the Bay of Bengal and Russian ships trailing U.S. Task Force 74 in the Indian Ocean Indira Gandhi was our leader at the time. Her government had won its second term on the plank of ‘ Garibi Hatao ’ and now after the war “Indira is India” was the pulse of the victorious nation. On July 2, 1972 Indira Gandhi and Z. A. Bhutto met in Shimla and signed the The Simla Agreement , an agreement that was meant to ensure a lasting peace between India and Pakistan. Having recently turned 19, accompanying her father...

Old Ad for ‘You Said It’ book by R.K. Laxman , the most famous Indian cartoonist from The Reader's Digest March, 1972 -0- At the age of seven, I laid my hand on one of the books from R.K Laxman's You Said It series. The series was a collection of cartoons draw by Laxman and having affable common man lurking in odd corners of each one of the strips, listening. It was the first book I picked up, read and enjoyed. I found it in a dusty glass paned almirah stuffed with all sort of books. The next book I found in that almirah was a biology textbook; a note below a sketch of human skeleton educated me that 206 bones made up the human body. -0- Check out rest of the Ads here

Old Ad of Incremin Tonic March 1972 All kind of stuff was fed to toddlers to make them bigger. -0- Check out rest of the Ads from this series here

Are some people born lucky - and others doomed to failure, sickness and accident? From Here to Happiness! - 0- Everybody could use some happiness especially when it came so cheap. These super books still sell, they are the NewAge. -0- Check out rest of the Ads here

Old Ad for Orient Book Club March, 1972 Some known and unknown writers Price almost Unbelievable They had: Prince - Mulk Raj Anand and also his Death of a Hero Days of Longing - Nirmal Verma Bye-Bye Blackbird - Anita Desai Kanthapura - Raja Rao and also his The Serpent and the Rope A Passage to England - Nirad Chaudhuri and his To Live or Not to Live My Dateless Diary - R.K. Narayan Indira Gandhi - K.A. Abbas Between the lines - Kuldip Nayar A Crisis of Conscience - Rajinder Puri How to Stop Worry and Start Living - Dale Carnegie -0- Check out rest of the Ads from that era here

Mohun's Gold Coin Real Apple Juice March, 1972 Seeing all those colors (and that  oh! so 70s' font ) who would have thought that the lady was sipping just apple juice. -0- Found another Ad of this brand at  Cutting the Chai , the best place to look for Indian Ads. Year 1965 and this one featured a real (white) woman sitting by the poolside wearing a bikini and sipping apple juice -0- Check out rest of the Ads at the Index

I have always been deeply affected by the theater of the absurd because, I believe, it shows the world as it is, in a state of crisis. It shows man having lost his fundamental metaphysical certainty, his relationship to the spiritual, the sensation of meaning – in other words, having lost the ground under his feet. This is a man for whom everything is coming apart, whose world is collapsing, who senses he has irrevocably lost something but is unable to admit this to himself and therefore hides from it. -0- The kind of hope I often think about (especially in hopeless situations) is, I believ, a state of mind, not a state of the world. Either we have hope within us or we don’t. hope is not a prognostication – it’s an orientation of the spirit. Each of us must find real fundamental hope within himself. You can’t delegate that to anyone else. ~ Václav Havel , Czech writer and dramatist. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia (1989-1992) and the first President of the Czec...

Old Ads of Fans manufactured by Rallifan, Bajaj and USHA year, 1972 -0- Check out rest of the Old ads here

Old Ad of Indu photographic paper and Agfa These Ads were published in Indian Edition of The Reader's Digest March, 1972 The Private In 1966 Allied Photographics Limited, and Agfa India Limited merged in India, to form Agfa-Gevaert India Limited, subsequent to the merger of Agfa A.G. (West Germany), and Gevaert N.V. (Belgium) in Europe, to form Agfa-Gevaert. Read more at Allied Photographics The Public Hindustan Photo Films Mfg. Co. Ltd., (HPF) was established as a Govt. of India Enterprise in 1960. Hindustan Photo Films Mfg. Co. Ltd., built at the outskirts of Ooty (Ootacamund) was inaugurated by Mrs. Indra Gandhi, Prime Minister, in January, 1967. The place where industry was built got the name Indu Nagar. Read more at Indian Public Sector -0- Check out rest of the Ads at Index of Indian Print Ads

Old ad for Mysore state Lottery Published in Indian edition of the Reader's Digest, 1972 Karnataka State Lottery was launched in the year 1969 with the state governed Mysore Sales International Limited ( MSIL ) as the Sole Selling Agent for lottery tickets. According to this news report from year 2003: “Prices of these tickets range from Rs 2 to Rs 20. One can win prizes worth Rs 3 to 5 lakh depending upon the schemes.” On 16th April, 1972, luckiest ticket could win you almost the same amount of greens. -0- Check out rest of the Ads here

An Old Ad of Cherry Blossom shoe polish Indian Edition of The Reader's Digest March, 1972 STOP! Are you polishing your shoes often enough? For the Longest life- Brightest shine Polish with CHERRY BLOSSOM Daily New Improved CHERRY BLOSSOM Protects your shoes while it shines them RCI A Reckitt & Colman product For some reason, these things are always new improved . By applying appropriate pressure at the point marked ‘Press Here’, one could open this black box of shoe wax. Opening a tin can of boot polish was one of the first great puzzles that I learnt to solve. A chemist working for Briton brother duo Dan and Charles Mason, who were running the Chiswick Soap Company , invented this product in 1878. The product was launched in 1906, at 1d per tin and was an immediate success. In 1954, Reckitt and Colman were manufacturing this brand of boot polish after they acquired the business. By this time Cherry Blossom had already reached the Indian shores as it was...

Old Ad of Amulspray March, 1972 Bita doubled her birth-weight at 4 months – a real winner! In 1968 Amul (Anand Milk Union Limited) co-operative launched Amulspray milk food for Infants. In 1972, the brand was completing its fourth year since inception and was controversially being promoted as an ideal substitute for mother’s milk. Read the more about important milestones and history of Amul at PRSI (Public Relations Society of India) -0- Check out rest of the Ads at the Index of Vintage Indian Print Ads

The Machiavelli of the mid-20th century will be an advertising man; his Prince , a textbook of the art and science of fooling all the people all the time. - Aldous Huxley -0- Any trace of literariness in an advertisement is fatal to its success. Advetisement writers may not be lyrical, or obscure, or in any way esoteric. They must be universally intelligible. A good advertisement has this in common with drama and oratory, that it must be immediately comprehensible and directly moving. - Aldous Huxley, Essays New and Old -0- Aldous Huxley once tried his hand at writing advertisements. Charles Lamb and Byron also did so. So did Bernard Shaw , Hemingway, Marquand , Sherwood Anderson , and Faulkner – none of them with any degree of success. -0- Recommended read: J G Ballard reviewing Aldous Huxley: An English Intellectual by Nicholas Murray

Ad of Index Battery 1972 Ad of Amco Battery 1972 Ad of Standard Battery 1972 -0- Of course, this device is now used to power up our homes; ' inverter ' deity lies in its pious little corner, meditating taking the name of the godhead - The Baghdad Battery . -0- Check out rest of the Ads here

Sunsilk Agency Lintas From Indian Edition of The Reader's Digest March, 1972 A girl’s most important cosmetic. Sunsilk Shampoo – it builds in beauty. Sunsilk is the only shampoo that works like a cosmetic. It contains a special hair conditioner to build beautiful texture into your hair – leaving it sunny…silky…Sunsilky SunSilk was launched in India in the year 1964 by Hindustan Lever Ltd., the Indian subsidiary of Dutch giant Unilever, the world’s major consumer-products manufacturer. The Shampoo brand was first launched in 1954 in the United Kingdom. This Ad is from the year 1972, SunSilk was competing its 8th year in India. While its sales were declining exponentially in support in the United States and UK, the Band was busy capturing the Indian and other international hold. They had the bright idea of putting cleansing agents and conditioning chemicals together. Who in India could afford a bottle of Shampoo( it’s not counted as cosmetic) and then buy a bottle of Condi...

An old two page Ad of BOAC published in Indian Edition of The Reader's Digest March, 1972 For some people there was only one airline The 747. it’s the most advanced, most exciting aircraft in the world, with more room and more freedom. But even the 747 wouldn’t be same without BOAC service. The kind of service that had given more thought than ever before … The BOAC 747 – from Delhi, every Friday night Tehran, Beirut, Frankfurt and London. Every Sunday morning to Hong Kong, Sydney and Melbourne. Though Bombay from April 6, every Sunday to Zurich and London. BOAC with Air-India & Qantas I would have reproduced the entire text of the Ad but then Ads for airlines are always the same. All that talk about no cabins, instead it having rooms with spacious lounges with walls and ceilings. Two wide aisles and individual overhead lockers (they always promise the biggest we have even seen). The armchair Wide and Deeper , Headrest adjustable yet soft. Stewards and stewardesses...

Old Ad of TWA from Indian Edition of The Reader's Digest Year 1972 TWA’s New Ambassador Service To Europe and The U.S.A. Daily departure from Bombay Only TWA gives you this new twin seat in economy. Offices in Bombay. Calcutta. Delhi. Madras. Ahmedabad. Kathmandu India had no international airline until 1950 when Air India International was formed to operate between Bombay and London via Europe. Our international traffic was mostly to the UK at that time. In 1947, the US Government had negotiated with India and obtained traffic rights between India and the US, enabling two airlines — Pan American Airways and Trans World Airlines (TWA) — to operate into and through India. Read the story of Indian Aviation Industry told by a pilot who joined TWA in Delhi in 1947 -0- Check out rest of the Ads at the Index of Vintage Indian Print Ads

India’s finest CTC tea Brooke Bond TAJ MAHAL Stronger liquor Plus superb taste To give you Total tea This Ad of Taj Mahal Tea featuring Zeenat Aman is from the year 1972. Zeenat Aman's film Hare Rama Hare Krishna had been recently released in the year 1971 making her the most famous Indian hippie and the quintessential Indian sex- symbol. This particular Ad could be older as she looks really young in it. Who would have thought that kohl eyed Zeenat Aman could sell tea wearing a purple suit , big danglers in ear and having a centrally parted two- chowtye ed hair. Wah Zeenat! Wah! -0- Wah! Ustaad Wah! Arre huzoor, wah Taj boliye Wah Taj! catch line was adopted in the late 80s when tabla maestro Zakeer Hussain was employed (or rather his peculiar hair was employed) to promote the hazaron me ek chai . -0- This is the first post from the series on Vintage Indian Print Ads based on Ads I collected from an old edition of The Reader’s Digest Check out rest of the ...

Vintage Indian Print Ads from the 70s that I collected from an old edition of The Reader’s Digest . Also made a little video of some of these Ads : Curious about the AIR tune, get it here List of Ads posted (click to go to the individual pages): Wah Taj! Wah Zeenat! Daily twin seated departure from Bombay Only BOAC for some people Sunsilky Important Cosmetic for Girls Power Up Amulspray made Bita chubbier Polish with Cherry and Blossom Fortune was only a Rupee Away Public and Private photo paper Fanning the Air Power Just Apple Juice Read Happiness: Price Rs.6 Only ! Tonic for Toddlers You Said It for free Say TATA to War More on War Ad That Old Radio fondly called Transistor Heavy Haulers That '70s Man: Suits, Swooning Women and Bond Age Did you give your Frige a paint job? Hindustan, Toilet – Bathroom Silver Prince Tainless Blade MRF best dressed tyre of 1972 Ad Cheeslings Machines, Industries and other Oddities Lalitaji in Surf Det ergent wars...

The cover of The Reader's Digest in its first issue published in February 1922 announced: THIRTY-ONE ARTICLES EACH MONTH FROM LEADING MAGAZINES EACH ARTICLE OF ENDURING VALUE AND INTEREST IN CONDENSED AND COMPACT FORM. The magazine, now published in more than 50 editions in 21 languages across more than 70 countries reaching almost 100 Million people, has since had the same central theme. The image at the top is of the Indian edition of The Reader’s Digest Vol. 100 No. 599 March 1972. In 1972, the magazine, then published in 13 languages, was celebrating its 50th Anniversary. In the same year, the United States Government gave DeWitt and Lila Wallace Medal of Freedom, its highest civilian honor. In his presentation speech President Nixon mentioned that the award was being given to them for their “ towering contribution to that freedom of the mind from which spring all our liberties.” Watergate soon broke water on June 17, 1972 with the arrest of five men for breaking and en...

The Reader’s Digest was founded in 1922 by husband wife duo Lila Acheson Wallace and DeWitt Wallace. During World War I, DeWitt Wallace, having enlisted in the U.S. Army, received shrapnel wounds in France during the Battle of Verdun. He spent four months in a French hospital, recovering from his injuries and passing the time by reading American magazines. According to one account, this was the period of inspiration for Wallace. He realized that some articles had far more enduring appeal than others had and that the impact of most articles could be improved by vigorously condensing them, focusing on essentials. The idea took shape in his mind: Reader’s Digest that offered “An Article a Day of Lasting Interest in Condensed, Permanent Booklet Form.” The idea was finally given a body on 5 th February 1922 with the publication of the first issue. For this first issue all the selecting, condensing, editing, titling, copy reading, etc., was performed by DeWitt and his bride, Lila Acheson W...

Pyaasa (1957) by Guru Dutt . Possibly one of the most remarkable transpositions of poetry on screen. Dutt plays the poet himself and when he says the verses, he actually sings (using the beautiful voice of Mohammad Rafi). It's just out of this world. More than once I've had tears in my eyes listening to the audio tape I bought in Delhi in the late eighties. ~ French filmmaker Olivier Assayas in Sight and Sound magazine on the topic of The Best Music in Film. The question asked of him: What is your favourite film soundtrack music and why do you like it so much? Music of Pyaasa was not his first choice, instead his first choice was: "With not a second of hesitation David Mansfield's music for Heaven's Gate " Besides its music Heaven's Gate (1980) is famous for being the film that sank the studio United Artists. Olivier later in the article comments that “[Music in Pyaasa is] even sadder than the music in Heaven's Gate.” -0- The French d...