If I tell you that there were no fans of
any kind in our house in Pune until late fifties, would you believe me?
Probably not, but it's a fact. Well! Though, it's not exactly true, because I
had found a small contraption that looked like a fan, in my dad’s junk box,
when I was in school. I had cleaned it and when connected to power, it worked. Therefore, I must modify my statement and say
that there were no regular fans in our house till late fifties.
But before I tell you about this thing that
looked like a fan, let me go down memory lane and narrate to you about my first
encounter with a table fan. This happened, when I was in primary school. I was
visiting my grandfather, living in Kalyan. On one evening, he took me all the way to a relative in Mumbai. The relative’s
dwelling was just one room in a Mumbai chawl, but what I was fascinated with
there, was a table fan with a gleaming white chromium plated cage, black
coloured blades and jet black body. The relative proudly told us that it was an
Italian fan with famous brand name” Marelli”, written in shining chromium plated letters,
right at the centre. I was just thrilled with this fan, the little sparks that flew
out, as brushes pressed against the armature and the cool breeze it generated. I
was too young to know that it was an AC/DC fan having an armature. For next few years, my dream then, wasalways
to own a “Marelli” table fan.
Coming back to the strange contraption, I
had found in the junk box, it was a small fan with an AC/DC motor again, with
black rubber blades looked like a ship’s propeller. There was no cage, but the
motor was so low powered that one could stop it by pressing with hands against
the blades. The motor was fixed on a
little black stand. My dad was unable to tell me, from where he had acquired
it. My guess was that he had either brought
it back from his England trip or had picked it up from junk market. Wherever it
came from, I just liked that fan. I cleaned it and gave it a position of
respect on my study table. I used it for number of years, until I left Pune for
further studies. When I came back it was not there and no one knew what had
happened to it.
Meanwhile my grandfather had acquired a
real ceiling fan for our house. It belonged to Late Raghunath Dhondo Karve, the
pioneer of the family planning movement in India. He lived in Mumbai and after
his death, his belongings were brought to Pune and passed on to his relatives. No
one wanted the fan and the hot water geyser, which he had in his house. His two
brothers were not interested at all in such useless pieces of machines. So they
were just, sort of forced, on my grandfather, who for sentimental reasons,
accepted them. He installed the fan above our dining table and the geyser in the bathroom. This
was a huge fan and rotated with a peculiar sound, yet it matched our large
dining hall and made life comfortable for the people, eating on the huge dining
table, during summer months. I still
remember the fan regulator with word ‘RAHIM’ embossed on it.
Like my loved “Marelli” table fan of my
childhood, I came across another beauty of a fan, during the time, when about
twenty or twenty-five of our extended
family members had gone to Mumbai to attend the ceremony, when Prime Minister
of India, Jawaharlal Nehru had come to Mumbai to felicitate Dr. Dhondo Keshav
or Annasaheb Karve, who had completed century of his life and also was awarded Bharat
Ratna. Besides main function in Brabourne stadium, there were many small visits
to some eminent people in Mumbai. One such visit was to the home of an
industrialist of a famous business house. I remember that our group was invited
for lunch, and we sat in a large living room that had pale green walls. The
wide French windows were open and soothing sea breeze made us very comfortable.
Then I saw the ceiling fan. It was spotless white and had only two very long blades. It rotated very slowly and did not hinder the
sea breeze at all. It just moved the air. I absolutely loved the scene and the
fan and cannot forget it. In my entire life so far, I have seen that kind of fan again, that just moved
the air, without creating a blast.
The fans of long-gone eras of Peshavas and
Britishers, were contraptions that similarly only moved the air and did not blow a blast of air, on people
below, like what present fans do. I recently saw one such fan, fixed to the
ceiling of the bedroom of famous Maratha statesman, Nana Fadanvis of Peshava
era, in his ‘Wada’ at Menavali village, near Wai town. This fan was in the form of a large fabric piece
with laced borders on three sides and a stitched casing on the remaining side.
A wooden rod, pushed through this casing, was fixed with brackets to the
ceiling. Two ropes attached to two sides
of fabric, were threaded through wooden pulleys fixed to the ceiling and taken
out of the room. An attendant sitting outside the room, would swing the fabric fan
so air moved inside.
I saw a similar fan, in the officer’s mess of
Bombay Engineering group on Alandi road in Pune, where I had gone to attend a
small party hosted by an acquaintance. This was a much larger version of Nana Fadanvis
fan. There were four large fabric pieces attached to the ceiling and all of
them would move in unison when orderlies standing outside would pull the ropes,
while ‘Gore Saheb Lok’ enjoyed their drinks. The fans are no more in use and
have been replaced with electric ceiling fans. The old fans have been just
retained as a part of the heritage.
In the early sixties my father installed
steel ‘U’ clips in the ceilings of all rooms in our house and indicated that we
were fan ready now. Yet, we had no fans in any of the rooms for number of
years. The first fan that my father bought had a strange brand name. It was called
‘Castle’, for whatever reasons, I do not know. It was a monster with a close
knitted wire cage, through which even a fly won’t pass through. The speed control switch was
rotary type and at bottom. The fan created a blast of air with great sound,
something like what aircrafts produce. I frankly do not know, how my parents
slept soundly with that blower on.
I bought my first ceiling fan after I got
married, that too at the insistence of my better half. I was clear about one thing though. I wanted
to buy a Crompton make fan in any case. Those days, ceiling fans was a rarity
in Pune and shops only had table fans. Only three companies manufactured Ceiling
fans those days in India with brand names, Castle, Usha and Crompton. Looking
at my father’s table fan, castle was certainly ruled out. My uncle in Mumbai
had a Usha fan and he was not very happy with it. Reviews from Mumbai relatives
about Crompton fans were all good. So I decided on a Crompton fan. However, I
encountered my first difficulty then. No one knew where Crompton fans were
available in Pune, as they made only ceiling fans. After great difficulty, I
found that one company on Tilak Road, represented Crompton. I visited them.
They had no fans in stock but had the price list. So I paid them full price as
advance and ordered the fan. They said, it would be delivered to me after two
weeks. However there was some delay and after about three weeks my fan finally
arrived. This company also arranged to install it and finally I had my dream
fan. The fan was true to its reputation and just kept working for decades and
decades before I finally replaced it with modern solid magnet core fan.
During 1980’s I paid a visit to US. One
thing I noticed there, were the ceiling fans installed in homes. These looked
quite different. The motor was of a large size and there were four or five blades,
made not necessarily from aluminium, as is the case in India. There were also
some kind of lights fixed below the fan. I studied the fans there and I found
out that the motors were slow speed motors and having more blades meant that
the volume of air moved, was much larger. The slower speed ensured that there
was no blast of air. Such fans were just
not available in India.
In 2008, we renovated the house, and I
decided to buy new fans. At that time, I found that Crompton had introduced the
slow speed four blade fans with lights in India. I ordered a couple, and they
are still working well in my house after 17 long summers.
The weather pattern in Pune is now changing
very rapidly. Every summer we are seeing new record temperatures being
reached. I just do not know whether fans
would suffice in future to find relief from summer heat. Already I can see air conditioners
everywhere. Future of fans looks uncertain for sure at least in Pune.
19 April 2025
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