Generation Shift Through My Eyes

Am getting older and when I see back, all I have done was completing my education, getting married, struggling for career and did nothing else. But when I look back again, I realized that I have seen a complete generation shift or rather a couple of generations during my growth and settlement.

When I recollect various incidents and lifestyles in the past three decades, I realize that some things have changed so drastically that the current generation would only listen to my words in awe, just like I used to listen to my parents or grandparents. Oh my God..am I so old ??  :(

My childhood was completely devoid of technology. No phone, no computer, no video games, no color TV, no dish / cable TV connection. Most of those who grew in 80's would relate when I say this. Only form of major entertainment was radio with a couple of stations which made our days and holidays with all those dramas, song programmes like binaca geetmala, man chahe geet, vividhbharathi, ceylon etc. The anchors of those programs were almost rockstars and celebrities those days. Radio of those days was completely different and milder than current radio mirchi "idi chaal hot guru" types.

Tape recorder was another good source of entertainment because thats the only devise which plays what we like, where we can play cassettes. I remember recording every good song played in radio into my own blank cassettes. The first cassette which I bought with my pocket money was Aashiqui (much later - 1989) and all other cassettes before that were not my kind :D. Walkman was a posh-er way of showing off the taste in music.

Black and white TV entered the scene close by and the TV we had, had a wooden door to shut when switched off. Wow. It had a knob to tune any of the 12 availbale channels, but I never understood what a channel was because the only channel the whole world (for me) saw was DD-1 which we used to follow religiously. There was an antenna on the terrace which we had to turn around and adjust whenever the picture quality diminished :)

Cable TV came into picture much later in early 90's and thus started a revolution of multiple channel color TV's and then bigger TV's, plasmas, flatrons, LCDs and other hi funda technologies. Number of channels increased, quality of the content increased (and diminished in some cases). But now we live in a completely different TV world.

Another facet which the current generation may not even know is a concept of inland letters (blue colored  letters) :). Thats the best and only mode of communications till telephones and internet took the world by storm. Uncles, aunts, cousins, friends used to write me letters and I was on cloud nine whenever I got a letter addressed to me :) It would be surprising for others to know that I used to write and receive these inland letters till final year of engineering (2001) as I didn't have a cellphone.

I also witnessed the era of telegrams. We got some telegrams when some urgent message had to be transmitted. Since it costs much, terse shortcut words were used very similar to the current sms lingo.

Roads were full of bicycles and scooters-for the well off people. Cars were a rarity and even if one is seen, that was either Maruti 800 or Birla Ambassador. Premier Padmini was be a costlier alternative. This was because in pre-1991, Indian economy was not liberated and no foreign carmaker was allowed to market its models in India.

Early 90's saw an emergence of telecommunication sector and telephones, STD / ISD booths were prevalent and flourished until early 2000's when cellphones were introduced.

The most commonly known softdrinks were Goldspot, Citra which are no longer available. But Maaza, Thumsup, Limca are still available. Coca Cola and Pepsi didn't arrive while I liked Thumsup a lot and my mom used to hate it as it looks like alcohol. Lehar Pepsi which came as a competitor to Thumsup became Pepsi. Coca Cola which was banned in India earlier returned and there started a cola-war endorsed by stars. Pizzas, burgers were non-existent when mirchi bajji, paani poori and ice cream were the only junk food available.

There were no multiplexes. Maheshwari theatre in Hyderabad (Kacheguda Cross Rds) was the only theatre with an escalator and we would travel hours to play around that. Every theater had a mirchi bajji bandi (mobile stall) outside the main gate which was busier than stock exchange during the intermission of a movie. Popcorn and softdrinks as a movie snacks came in much later.

Computer was supposed to be the device which only high end offices use and a computer needed a complete air conditioned room with a condition that shoes be left outside. The first time when I heard that a computer was bought by my friend, I kind of felt weird as computers, lathe machines were supposed to be in offices :) Some other guys used to boast that they had a computer at home when their parents bought them a handheld video game :)) Later on playing video games was cool and if you had high scores in Mario or Contra, you are a hero of the school.

Many more such anecdotes flooding across the memory lane :)

I don't know if the current generation kids still feel proud to hold a pen after 4 years of using pencils in school; if they still construct a house made of book-covers after the final exams; if they still play sword fight with broom sticks; if they still play marbles and marampeet; if they still ask two wheelers for lift to reach home faster; if they still play eyes press, lock and key; if they still say shame shame puppy shame if anybody unknowingly exposes their private parts :); if they still collect sportstar cards which they get with a bubble gum; if they still rent bicycles on hourly basis to learn riding; if they......goes on.. Nostalgic

Those were the days which will never come back. Those were the experiences which will be locked in memories and blogs like these but the current and next generations can never experience. But thats life.

• Tape recorder gave way to walkman to iPod
• Inland letters and post cards gave way to emails
• Telegrams gave way to telephones to cellphones to smartphones
• Rotary dialing telephones gave way to push button landline phones
• Computers gave way to laptops to smartphone again
• 12 channel BW TV gave way to 300 channel color TV to LCD to LED to Internet TV
• 35 mm and 70 mm theaters gave way to multiplexes;
• Mario gave way to Wii, PS, XBOX and what not
• Hard photo album gave way to webshots to picasa, flickr, orkut to facebook
• Cassettes gave way to CDs to DVDs to Blue ray disks
• Books gave way to internet; Libraries gave way to Google & wikipedia.
• Bank passbook gave way to ATM card and to web / phone / mobile banking

......and again, thats life. Every decade would be a new generation and this change goes on. Those who don't change with time will be struck in history and remain in oblivion and those who don't remember the history will remain ignorant of the development, progress made and the experiences which would add value to life.

I tried and will try my best to race with the time. Thanks to my older friends, I grew wiser, but thanks to my younger friends, I grew more knowledgeable and more street-smart. The more I interact with people younger to me, the more I know about the newer rules of life they change. Sometimes teenage kids around me make me feel archaic and obselete by their flamboyance and flair in whatever they do, but I promise, am here to stay. I'm observing you, learning from you and will get there very soon :)