Dollar Biscuit

Girl - Appa Appa Kadaikku Poreengala
Man - Aamaam Kannu. Unakku enna venum sollu
Girl - Dollar Biscuit, Dollar Biscuit, Dollar Biscuit venum

Thus went the ad for Dollar Biscuit on Radio. Majority of the people in TamilNadu know this ad. I always loved it. I imagined the girl to be my age and the scene that I envisaged made me envious of that house. When someone leaves the house, it's so easy to ask "Where are you going?" That's what comes naturally. But that's considered inauspicious. You can ask "Where will you return from?" or "Are you going to Work/Shop/hospital?" etc to avoid getting yelled. But that girl is smart enough to restrain herself and not ask her Dad where he was going. She actually asked him "Are you going to the shop?"

I wondered often what would have happened had I been in her situation. I would have asked my Dad "Where are you going?". From the corner of my house, my grand mother would yell "Hey Saturn, why are you asking him just when he is leaving", while looking at my Dad and that would have probably resulted in him retiring to the sofa and picking up his Hindu paper for the day. Knowing my grandmother's stature in our house, that scene wasn't totally impossible.

But the house in that ad was different. The Dad said "Yes I am. What do you want me to bring for you?" How much that impressed me then. And the jungle for Dollar biscuit was the answer to his question.

At an age when I didn't know too many currencies of the world, dollar meant a pendant with God figure embossed on it. I wondered if that biscuit looked similar to one of the dollars I had seen. I have never seen a dollar biscuit much less buy or eat. I think that radio campaign was a huge success for the dollar brand in terms of creating awareness but I wonder how many actually purchased it. I don't even remember stores carrying them. Never saw them. That is such a shame. That brand must have died. But I hope the owner of the brand or the maker of that catchy radio ad are doing well for themselves now. Nostalgia is a "birch".