The magic of 90s

It was the era of Madonna and Michael Jackson. But it was also the era of Madhuri and Anil Kapoor, of scrap books and video games and hard cover albums and audio cassettes. Marked by humility and innocence, the 90s are remembered for everything that was simple, at times incredibly silly yet dreamily real!

It was the time when I had to get though uncle and aunty to talk to a Pooja about studies. That is why I had personally spoken to moms and dads of all my close friends. Whole of my childhood went in the suburbs around Mumbai and girly trips to fashion street and linking road gave us the best bargains. Back in 1997, I remember having queued to taste the burger when Mc Donald’s first came to my city. Music was worth a purchase rather than free download and Planet M was frequented for its updated music collection. I also remember having struggled to listen to free music at a planet M kiosk on a high-footfall weekend. Malls were sheer novelty and meeting up with friends happened more at their homes. Sets of cousins took turns to play Super Mario and Battle City. Children played lagori and langadi and pillar-pillar was a fanciful game! The feeling of extended family was strong and every middle aged person was easily your uncle or aunt! Career discussions happened more at friend’s places than at counselling centres. Rasna was as popular as coke (or maybe more) and renting videos at Rs 50 for 4 hours and at Rs 100 for a day had its own charm. Cricket wasn’t too regular and India v/s Pakistan meant 50 + 50 overs of unbridled action. Big trophy matches happened once in 2 years and hence got its due share of anticipating audience. Glucose biscuits were staple evening snack and Ruffles Lays was a crazy packet of attraction!

I miss being at the mercy of the radio stations to listen to my favourite song. English music was restricted to a few hours through the day and that too on nothing else but Rainbow. Thanks to the two-in-one, I could record songs played on FM onto a cassette and when 10 songs on side A&B were completed, I had my very own music collection. Then I spent some more time in creating the cassette cover on a chart paper with newspaper and magazine cuttings. I remember taking efforts in replicating the fonts of Dil Se and Gupt on such a pirated audio cassette! Life then wasn’t as easy as mp3skull.com or hungama.com. Walk-man was the trendiest gadget. Nothing was readymade, customized or custom made. A lot of everything was handmade and effectively soul-made!

The Chintu Comic strip from Loksatta

I remember saving money for buying picture postcards. Rs 5 for a big poster and Rs 2 for a small one! SRK came at a premium after Kuch kuch hota hai. 10 postcards came for a discount! I remember pasting them all on a notebook and designing the cover page with sketch pens. As far as I can recollect, almost every one of my age had a favourite and everyone’s favourite reflected in their scrap books. I remember collecting bits of commentary and photos and recording world cups and Bollywood in scrap books

The 90s was a time when Bollywood was still humble. Delhi’s Pragati Maidan, Mysore’s Vrindavan gardens, Mumbai’s Lokhandwala complex, Asiatic library and Marine drive were commonplace for movie shoots. Film city ensured a fair number of celebrity turn out every day and DDLJ provided the attraction of scenic Europe. It was a time when advance booking was necessary to get a balcony seat, all cinema houses were yet to have air conditioning and watching Hum aapke hain kaun was as compulsory as homework! The styles of the actors were imitated locally within no time of a movie release. I remember GAP t-shirts and COSCO basket balls and I remember 4 different groups dancing to Koi mil gaya in a choreographed sequence for a society function

Event photographs had to be developed and duplicated so as to be shared in hard copies. Almost every family would have the instant Poloroid photo clicked on the sands of our tourist beaches! Sundays meant watching international travel shows on Star Plus and Ramayan & Mahabharat on Zee TV. Going to restaurants was restricted to official promotions or birthdays. Shopping had a tremendous significance on Diwali for every person of every caste and creed. Food exchanges between neighbours happened at an enviable frequency. Shifting jobs and homes wasn’t very easy. A certain umbilical cord tied the people together in colonies or in societies and perhaps these are the very people who sense claustrophobia in a plush green open township because somewhere they feel that the cord is broken

Life today has reduced to a click of a button. A lot has changed in the last 10 years and decades from now will continue to bring revolutionary changes in lives of simple people around the world to reduce the efforts taken to live. But the best part is that I can still hold onto the magic of the 90s and pace towards the 2020, smiling with gratitude that I would eternally hold towards those timeless times!

A list of favorites captured in a slam book 

A Sony walk man 

I want red shoes to go with that belt!

 The other day I read a very interesting quote – “Be glad that you're greedy; the national economy would collapse if you weren't!”

Letting serious economy concerns rest at bay, I am talking about the state of my personal finances which are on the verge of collapse at the end of every month and need a bail out. Is it because of my greed?

But I wasn't raised to be a greedy individual. Even today I am not greedy. Understanding of brands, appreciating value for contentment and satisfaction more than ‘value for money’ and having to upgrade in life are the real spoiler kind of virtues I follow these days! Don’t be judgmental about me like that. It isn’t a good habit. My needs have simply translated (and upgraded, like my life) to my desires and I am being in complete obedience with Maslow. Spending lots on tiny portions of food, almost limiting street shopping to Sunday wear, not buying shoes off the roads are certain ways in which I have upgraded. At the end of the financial year, I feel that fulfilling the burden of self-expectations is the bigger than any tax burden of the world!

I used to wear sandak in school and now I wear Catwalk and I feel proud. I know a lot of fancy names like peep toes and I own mustard wedges and green bellies and silver stilettos. 2 years down the line I will probably wear a Jimmy Choo and feel prouder. I don’t know household work but I will (make my husband) invest in modular kitchen. Because I probably belong to the income bracket of top 20% of the salaried individuals in the country and we are spending hard to fulfill Pareto’s principle (lest he feels upset) and ensuring that we contribute to 80% of the country’s annual consumer spend. Pareto will thus become a happy man because people of my kinds will strive to justify his statistics for the coming ages

Sometimes I feel lucky to be privileged. Sometimes I feel confused about my happiness quotient. Sometimes I can’t relate the two because my base hypothesis is I should be happy if I am fulfilling more aspirations. My logic is illustrated below –

Upgrade -> Moving up in life -> Spending on fulfilling aspirations -> Higher probability of happiness

I am not in a job from hell and I have time on weekends. On weekends when I meet friends I consume high calorie food and then I walk with my father for 30 minutes and burn a small percentage of fat I accumulated through the day. I feel happy that despite living a fairly more comfortable life, I haven’t become fat. I like this life a lot because I feel it gives me freedom to spend on my family, my friends, gift them and pamper myself. Yes, retail therapy works! A mailer from Flipkart with top 5 offers (just) for YOU (what a lie!) delights me on a mundane office day and I buy another pair of shoes and my mother shrieks because of the lack of storage space and low re-usability

I was happy 5 years ago when I used to spend 1/5^th of what I do today. I am happy today as well. I don’t think consumerism has victimized me. I am a happy consumer and Flipkart and Central & Pantaloons like me and they all have given me loyalty points as well! At times I almost feel like I am the proponent of how to upgrade in life :P

I think consumerism is making more brands come to India, creating more jobs and making more people like me feel nice (and pampered). It is making India a global market place and that is, on any given day a good thing to happen to any economy

The other day I had a good day at work and I was happily prancing back home when I met a couple who told me they belonged to my state and have lost their money purses and did not have means to get anywhere. I knew I was trying to be conned. But they did look poor. Probably they dint know how to communicate their (monetary) needs to me (like brands do). I felt generous and I gave them sufficient money to have a humble meal for two and left. I felt happier (than I feel when I shop). Probably this is what life is…happiness rests in all sizes XXL, XL, L, M & S. This was probably a S gesture but it gave me a XL amount of happiness! As silly and stretched that it may sound, but my generosity  was based out of the fact that I spend so much on myself (aspirations, etc), I can might as well help a couple who seemed to be distressed

Ultimately, you and me, rich and poor, old and young are all trying to be happy (as against rich) and getting rich (and then upgrading) is one of the many proven ways of finding happiness!

Kindness

Life is beautiful in its own sweet ways. Sometimes full of remorse and maddening, blackening sadness and at times blinding you with its radiant happiness!

On one such day when she was fighting her soul and tears, she reached the waters of Juhu beach. The sun was burning on a March afternoon and the winds were slapping with their fierce flames. She walked the entire stretch searching for her share of peace but dint find any. Tired and weary, she sat down on the edge of a small embankment which separated the sands from the concrete. She pulled out the tickets from her purse and tore them into two, four and then eight pieces. She stared into the setting sun and kept weeping hot tears that flushed her face. Her tears seemed as endless as the horizon. She recounted events and it made her feel more miserable. The merriment at a beach wasn't hampered by her state. She whimpered in the silent corner like a broken pug. Many strangers sat by her side and left it after a while. She dint rise for hours together. One stranger came and sat by her. He dint speak to her for long. Finally, he spoke and introduced himself as a person having his own business to mind but couldn't help intervene because of her endless sobbing. She said nothing and kept staring. He asked her if he could help but she politely refused. He advised her to not stay there for long because it is not a safe place for a single girl to be. He once again asked if he could help and she once again expressed the futility of his endeavour. He still waited for some lewd souls to leave her side. He then rose and held out his card and said, “If you need anything, do give me a call. Don’t mind my interference. I don’t know if you are new to this city but you could reach out to me as you would reach out to your brother”. For the first time in many hours she smiled with a certain gratitude that she bore towards a stranger. She decided to retain the card which wasn't meant to create a business relation, for as long as she could. His name was kundan and his phone number was clearly spelled out so that she could reach him, if need be. This incident made her hopeful and she started her return journey with a belief that she will find her peace and before reaching home, not just her peace and calm, but she even found her lost smile!

When she recounted this incident to me, my faith in human kindness only increased. Maybe you and I have both experienced such instances when the dearest of our people don’t seem to understand our plight but some stranger does. Maybe the stranger also wouldn't understand but we assume that he does! Such is our innocent mind which puts faith in anyone who shows kindness because that is the most rewarding action a human is capable of performing! Maybe such little instances fill our life with hope, faith and endless belief in humanity which we otherwise think is debilitating by every passing day…