End of an era

I was listening to “smells like teen spirit” by nirvana 1991, closed my eyes and saw Kurt Cobain mouthing ” hello, hello, hello, how low!” and thats when i went back. Back to a time when people were oblivious to these blogs that you are reading right now. Nor did they worry about their persona they created on social networks.
I went to a time when kids actually came out of their houses and played in the grounds. A time I myself cherish so much more than that I do now.
The 1990s marked the end not only of a century but also a millennium. The decade leading up to the year 2000 saw a lot of change and excitement, with many important events that shaped not only the 1990s but our lives since then. That change happened in every way you can imagine – politically, technologically, and culturally. With the Cold War over, Nelson Mandela free, and the Internet changing the way we work and live, the events of the 1990s provided the perfect bridge between the outrageous 80s and the dawn of the new century.

I remember the quickest way to convey a message was to make a trunk booking and the operator called you back with the connected call. Text messaging was yet to arrive and only text messages I ever got were written on a crumpled piece of paper.
I remember attending a certain lecture by some famous person as I was a kid I don’t really remember his name but he was there to deliver a speech on upcoming careers. This happened in circa 1997.
I remember him talking about how email would replace snail-mail and people wondered why he mocked the postal department so much. I myself was fascinated as to how can I push some buttons and the alphabets would then appear on the screen (!) and was completely blown away when the computer class teacher showed us “Dave” the MS-DOS game… it was simply magic!
Shortly then I remember stacking up those video game cassette chips that we shoved in the Nintendo consoles that were wired into the T.V’s only to turn into super Mario and fight against a tortoise- dragon like figure to save the princess (who apparently was always in a different castle)
Inverters were a long-shot so power cuts meant playing dumb-charades and antakshari!

Our kids might never understand why we say “Stay tuned” or ‘tune into” a specific channel. For touchscreen era is way different than radios and a time where FM was something where you could listen to episodic stories and could call the stations to make them play your song that you could listen to on your Walkman.
Sundays usually start up late these days. Waking up to “ooooh yeah last night was a killer.” Probably a migraine or a hangover or just a faint reminder of the long week at work in front of a computer screen and Sunday is moreover sleep more and order a pizza day.
Now look back and you see being exited to wake up early to watch weekly soaps like F.R.I.E.N.D.S, or for the doodarshan folks it was mahabharat and ramayan and who can forget the Simpsons? They are still there and doing a helluva job! and the youth was swept away by “just mohobbat” on Sony.
Even Kids had their share of fun in the 90’s for Hannah Barbara studios set up an arsenal of shows to keep kids glued to the cubical T.V’s all day long! The Flintstones and scooby-doo to name a few.
Movies like Pretty Woman, American Pie and American Beauty were the only modes of getting on some naughty fun alone time.
The other day I was traveling in the train and happened to see a guy with headphones shoved in to his ipod. How oblivious was he to the boom boxes people carried on their shoulders and elders looked at them with hateful eyes for being noisy. Now it just cracks me up. Forget about CD-Roms I still remember taking a pencil to rewind those damned things called cassettes and they would get all sticky in the monsoons due to humidity, well lets not get carried away!

To meet up with someone actually meant something and its was so much different with skyping them. Fast food restaurants and cafes with cooler themes became second-home for youngsters.

And for the youngsters came MTV. MTV flooded with new artists. Songs that were loved were “O Sanam -Luckly Ali,” “Tanha dil -Shaan,” “made in India-Alisha” and “pari hoon main- suneeta rao to name a few. Cheap posters and postcards of Actors, actresses and Music Sensations were pandemic in stores, those days. Michael Jackson, Madonna, Backstreet Boyz and Venga Boys ruled this particular decade. Adding rap in a song became prevalent during 90s’.

MTV gave birth to new trend and lifestyle among youngsters, mostly school and college kids. Archies and Hallmark Cards back then were selling like a hot piece of cake. The celebrations of Valentines Day became dramatic. Expression of love, buying gifts for the loved one and party culture ended up becoming viral.

People were active back then. I am not all saying that the masses have become lethargic now but all I mean to say is that the modes have changed and so has the mindset and this is exactly what makes the 90’s unique for it was a decade of change. A decade that saw these transitions happen. A decade that saw people change their lifestyles with technology that was slowly but steadily taking them to where we are now.

Things were pretty much different back then. Some of us were busy creating auto books for friends to sign and write. Some of us might still have them and they look so real than the actual facebook profiles. Signing off an Auto-book or known to some as a slam book was one way of keeping personal records of friends in schools and colleges back then. It was pandemic. Everyone in the class used to own an auto-book and every other friend used to write something on it. Undoubtedly, everyone used to write about mundane things they loved most; Films, actors, singers, albums with personal picture intact in every profile.
Archies’ cards, VCRs, Radio FMs and Cassettes were religious aspects of daily life.
I saw people all excited about the Hubble.
Back in the day people gave Kodak smiles for photos and to xerox something meant to make copies.
I never really figured out why people kept saying that whatever happened to princess Diana was so not an accident.
Video Shops in the city were crowded for people wanting to rent the latest movie VCD to see on their brand new VCR’s.
Lovable British buffoon Rowan Atkinson began his first run as the bumbling Mr. Bean, who combined physical slapstick humor with absurdly hilarious situations.
Kids watched the original Ninja Turtles & Power Rangers . . .

The coolest way to say hello was Michaelangelo’s Cowabunga Dude! and joey’s How you doin!
and Macarena was the one song that made you tap your feet.

You remember before we realized all this would eventually disappear and so will some of the things we see and use now. well…. who knows ?

*Sigh* Who would have thought you’d miss the 90’s so much!!!!

The Waterman.