The Beautiful 90s

“India Shining” and ”Technology at its best” hit the headlines periodically to distract us from 2G/CWG and Gurujis but all said and done, I think the technological improvements, the era of internet and social networking and the mall shopping hullaballoo has taken away some moments of our “lives” that are worth living. I am not saying technology is not important, of course it is. How else would I be expressing myself on this platform today! I am not a big fan of 60s and 70s either when people had to struggle to go to primary school. I consider myself lucky to be born in the 80s to enjoy my childhood in the 90s.
I must say 90s had an extraordinary charm, warmth, enthusiasm and excitement which is missing now and I am sure would have been missing earlier too. I can make this comment based on the picture of life then I have got from my parents and other elder people I have spoken to. Partly we can say liberalization brought some comforts and improved the pace of progress from the 80s to make us happy. Thanks to PVN and MMS for that! We had best of both the worlds during my childhood where we had not moved too far away from the humanness that exists when we are not crowded with machines. At the same time we had the comforts of modern India. Now when I sit to think how our lives have changed in the past 15 years, it is exponential. When I think of it some make me smile, some bring a tear and some make me say “WTH”.
If we consider a 24 hour window and keep a count of number of people we meet and talk to and the number of machines we see, what do you think would rank higher? The computers, the cars and bikes, the TV, the phone, the tablets and what not. We see people more on TV, Websites and pictures than in real.
There was a time when we used to have enough time to talk with family, friends, teachers, relatives. Thanks to the power cuts which made us sit idle and talk , play antakshari or even come out to the streets and socialize with neighbors. Now the UPS has taken away that too! For instance I don’t even know who stays behind the shut doors in my apartment complex. The 24 hours hasn’t changed over the years. It is we who have! Our priorities have!
There was a time when we knew what was for lunch at neighbor’s place. Now we are happy if we could cook lunch at our own home. Fresh vegetable vendors on streets are replaced by frozen ones in the fridge. Fresh hot tasty lunch is replaced by reheated dinner. Thanks to the purchasing power to own a fridge and a microwave as a necessity that was luxury at some point.
The thought of going to a movie or an amusement park would bring so much excitement in my school days. Now going to malls and movies is a weekend routine and anything in abundance loses its value. Rather I don’t remember when was the last time I was excited about something. Nothing is rare for us to wait eagerly for. Even cricket matches occur every week now.
There was a time when festivals meant good food, new clothes and lot of people. Now they are just “Holidays” to relax from the 24X7 running around. Sometimes they are even shifted to make them “Long weekends”.
There was a time when we received letters from relatives and cards from friends and phone calls on birthdays. But now, letters have turned into emails stores on some web servers. Cards have turned into facebook wall wishes and phone calls into template smses. No longer do you have to remember a friend’s birthday to wish. Even if you do, you would not be noticed among 1000s of people who might have automated it.
There was a time when we took snaps, made an album and shared them with family and friends in person pointing who is who, describing the location and telling stories behind the snaps. Now we can click them on and on till we exhaust the memory card and dump them on a hard drive. We do upload on facebook or picasa and let people make sense of it.
Small moments in life like having an ice cream, sharing a joke or an anecdote, playing with friends, chatting over tea and snacks, an evening walk that needs planning now happened so effortlessly those days that I did not know the value then. Now when I think of it spending hours in the traffic, I do feel something is missing in life. We make advertisements out of the missing moments to make business. We have definitely made progress. Just that our soul is left behind.
PS: Somethings never change. We still spend a lot on weddings :D