The journey of a 90's kid

Being a 90's kid has a great charm in itself. We grew up watching Shaktimaan , Alif Laila , Bournvita Quiz contest, Mahabharat, Surabhi , Malgudi days , Om Namah Shivay , Jai hanuman, drank Complan wanting to be a Complan boy/girl, had a fairly simple gaming experience with Super Mario, Battle City , Alladin etc. The cartoons that we watched were also innocent like our minds, Duck tales, Silly Symphony, Talespin, Captain Planet,Alladin etc. 

We spoke to our parents in our respective mother tongues as tiny tots and not in English.We didnt know what pizza & burger meant until we reached teenage. We had fairly simple clothes for us in the markets ranging from frocks & skirts for girls & pant - shirt for guys & also jumpsuits for the elite ones :P Most of us didnt nag our parents to wear only this dress with this hair band or shoe coz most of us I believe had only school shoes to wear outside. PS Not because we could not afford other shoes mostly because fancy shoes of our sizes was not easily found in the market :P

The music of that era is also eternally beautiful. I remember my father's happy face when we had bought our first tape recorder. It was giant, almost covered our entire rack in the living room.My mom made a beautiful cover for it in white wool.The 1942 ,a love story's tracks, Akele hum akele tum, Baazigar, Darr, Nadeem Shravan's music had found a inseparable place in a stair case like cassette holder beside the tape recorder.

That was also the time of Real Greeting cards. Real as in paper :P. My mom has a fond collection of a huge bunch of cards & letters which we got from our near & dear ones on new year, birthdays , anniversary or simply just like that. We used to smile & giggle when we used to go through them.

I had the first taste of burger & pizza in Hyderabad during 1997.Rs 10 for a chicken burger from Citizen Bakery near our Apartment where my mom would take me if I did well in school tests or just if she wanted to see me happy. We used to have pizza very rarely on occasions like my parent's anniversary & it was almost luxury :P.  The fond memories of me & my parents roaming on bike through the streets of Hyderabad are so special especially after my father would return home from office tours & we would start. 

I also saw the first computer during that time when my I visited father's colleague's home. The desk top, I was so thrilled to see it. I remember having played Pac man & Minesweeper in it. There was a type writer in our home & we had a TV too, in my mind I had the picture of the computer as a combo of TV & typewriter with a small mouse :P.I used to read happily about ENIAC, EDVAC, Sinclar, Pascal in Computer text book  back then :)

That was also the era of pagers, mobile phones & digital diaries. I remember my father's senior in office carrying a pager & mobile phone when he had visited our place for dinner. The mobile phone was of the size of a small papaya i believe.As a kid I was so thrilled to see it that I demanded my parents to get both of them for me. Kiddish obstinacy. I remember my grandparents gifting me a toy pager & toy mobile phone that said "Trrnn Trnn May I help you" :P when I pressed a particular button.So happy I was that I carried it everywhere with me hoping to show everyone that I too owned a mobile phone.

The first laptop I saw was in 1998 when we visited an acquaintance's home. It was the size of a suit case.The display was a bit hazy i think.Spellbound was all I was when I saw it. I wanted to touch & play around with it but stopped coz I saw the angry eyes of my father embarrassed due to my behavior before them inspite of him stopping me.

When we shifted to Odisha, every evening we had relatives visiting us. Its because there was no addiction of serials , no complexities like today's work life, no social networking sites & no multiplexes or malls, so the best way people thought of spending their leisure time was through visiting their kith & kins.

Then time passed. We got our first computer but my mom didnt weave a wool cover for it this time.My father got a mobile phone but his calls from office on it substantially increased too.Our first laptop came but it was mostly used by my father for MS Office.Our relatives visiting us also decreased as the elder ones had become older & hence reluctant to visit & the younger ones were too busy with their work.

There were also some puckered eye brows when we visited people during the time of their favorite daily soaps.Burger & pizza had become a staple diet. The social networking sites had arrived & writing a Happy Birthday on someone's wall was much more simpler than sending greeting cards & letters.

The things which had caught my  delight in the 90's were all there in my home in 2000's yet I think somehow the element of wonder had faded away with time. We have latest apps from our Smartphones that can help us call people for free yet its so strange that the number of people we want to call & talk for hours are reducing day by day.

I am an adult now, a happy one coz technology has made my life so easy & smooth. Yet the old world charm of the 90's keeps luring me to go for a time travel :P Hope the 90's kid in all of us stay alive & be the same always.