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