Friday 23 March 2012

Good Ol..Yester Years…

Hello Guys,
First of all let me wish you a Happy Gudi Padava (one of the New Years) to all my readers....
And with today's topic, I want to become a little nostalgic and take a trip down memory lane at the same time, to cherish and relive the good old memories of our golden childhood.
Although changing times and technology are surely welcome and much required for the advancement of human race, but sometimes in this fast moving world, we fail to reminisce and cherish what we have left behind...so today's blog is a tribute to our childhood, the era of the 80's.....
Remember the times when a pocket money of mere Rs. 50 per month was more than a treat for us, of course then at the end of the month the same used to turn into a magical and humungous figure of Rs. 1500, which could then be used to buy a precious gift either for our loved ones, or a big treat to ourselves....And all this after a sacrifice of not succumbing to the peer pressure of wasting our precious pocket money on treats like finger shaped fryams or the quintessential Indian Popsicle, the 50 paise Pepsi (not the aerated drink from today...) but the slush like liquid, with flavors in orange and mango, and sometimes some green colored liquid, all mixed in ice and sold for a mere 50 paise or at the most 1 rupee.....wow what golden days...
Also remember the outdoor activities and games that we played, lagori, gilli danda (somewhat like Indian baseball), andhali koshimbir (blind man's buff), tipri (hopscotch), hide and seek, various card games....
Who can forget the fun sweet moments, when its the birthday celebration of a friend, then the immediate run to the gift shop to try to get a unique though cheaper gift (everyone most probably ending up with the same kinda gifts either a show piece or a photoframe)....then waiting impatiently for the birthday boy/girl to cut the yellow, green and red topping over the cake, with a pink rose on top.....and everyone singing in different tunes the contemporary happy birthday song....finally lining up on the couch and waiting to get the paper plate hoping for it to be filled with lots of potato wafers, possibly a big slice of cake and praying hard to get two samosas (Indian snack).....thus feasting our hearts out... and relishing the birthday snack with some firang birthday themed song....and if this wasn't enough, if the birthday boy/girl happens to be from a well to do family, then he/she will send you away with a return thank you gift...and make their birthday's memorable to us forever....
If these memories don't fill you up, how about the ones from school, waiting impatiently for the recess, meanwhile the less patient ones, hogging up the tiffins in between the lectures...then in the recess, sitting together with your gang and relishing the food that other mothers have packed for their children, rather than eating your own tiffin....that's the fun of sharing, we had learnt it long ago...how about the time, when someone fell for you, you were somebody's crush, or you fell for someone, you had a crush on someone....and when it was time to tell them how you feel who other to turn to than your best friends-friends-neighbors-dog-walker's-friend...and sending the love note via them, and that too after  being so obvious by signing it as anonymous....how on earth would have that person ever found out it was youuuuu...we were so silly, but yes we did all those crazy stuff just to get a smile or the attention of the person we liked....even if they do not know us...we would follow them, know what they like, where they go for tutions, make flames out of their names and ours....but never have the guts actually to approach them and tell them we liked them...that was innocent love...and crushes...coz that's what crushes are meant for....
Such was our generation...we were the first to last see the Black and White television, the first to welcome Color tv sets, the last to enjoy serials like mogli, He-Man, Giant Robot, Stone Boy, stories of RK Laxman, Tenali Rama, Gotya, dekh bhai dekh, wagle ki duniya, etc and we were the first generation to enjoy English pop channels like channel V, MTV, movies channels like Star Movies, Zee Studio, Zee MGM, Hallmark, Nicklodeon etc....the times when we welcomed Friends, That 70's show, Three's company, Home Improvement, I dream of Jenie, Full House, Wonder Years, etc. etc.....and many more sweet sweet serials which were heart warming shows...that we could connect to as they were based on real life and simplicity, as opposed to the weird K-serials of today, which focus only on family feuds, guns glaring from all ends, totally materialistic, and totally unrealistic with same scene shot multiple times, with loud make up, with totally fake get ups and unrealistic characters, fake stories, ambiance, and worst of all the ranting and piercing non stop music..I can go on and on and on....
Last of all, we were the first to welcome the Dabba Like Computers, with a huge behind, 16 bit, 32 K ram, with minimalistic internet speed, and that too for the affluent, who used to have the privilege of emailing via Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc..and the privilege of connecting to the unknown domain and world outside via Yahoo and MSN Messenger...And we are the first generation to welcome the new form of today's swanky and lightening speed pentium 4's and 5's and intel core processors, with slick and sexy monitors...and furthermore..we welcomed the dawn of Laptops...and Data cards....
But inspite of all this ease and glamour that technology has brought around for us...which we are primarily thankful for, but at the same time, this is when, we realize and miss the simple yet sweet pleasures that the yester years brought us. As opposed to today's fast changing world, where we have come to an age, where we do not feel the urge to enjoy or relish the simple pleasures of life, the young generation of today, before it gets out of school, it is already computer and tech savvy, they happen to know more than us....their world is surrounded by gadgets, Laptops, MP3's, I-Phones, I-Pads, I-Mac's, Play station 3-4, etc...and they can't live without these gadgets, that's when you feel, whatever happened to the good old outdoor games, which were simple and involved real friends, not the ones on facebook, or twitter, who we cannot actually see but surely can connect via our voice on the net....the numbers so ever increasing...yet we feel distant, due to the lack of actual real friendly bonds...that's when we remember our chuddy buddies, who we used to have chai with, share all our dreams with, big plans of future....and making promises of keeping in touch, and being friends forever.....
But today, we couldn't live up to the test of time, but the memories and time spent with these folks will always be engraved in our hearts forever, be it the building friends, our first crush, the time spent at the chaiwala, our favorite teachers, our first stage performance, etc, etc.....and the list is endless.....these memories can never fade away, even if we were not the lucky enough ones to capture it in camera's.....
So guys, I hope you guys too enjoyed this trip down memory lane...and will go dig your closets to fish out some greetings, gifts, etc...preserved in the form of childhood memories...if not...don't worry, just close your eyes..and you will be taken back in time...

Cheers!
Seeta

No comments:

Post a Comment