Born in 80’s? Lucky you! :)

The ones born in 80’s are surely the most blessed generation.

Not because I belong to this group, or because I wanna start a motto like every teenager announcing their era, the best one. There are more reasons to it.

When we were born, the news spread through Postal services. Our families spent most of their free time socializing (Real time and definitely not virtually), making strong connections, creating hobbies – be it the tremendous patience and time involved special foods like pickles, fryums, sweets etc., or colorful rangolis or collection of beautiful articles/things. Boredom was never heard then or experienced. Neighbors looked after each other and shared amazing quality time and even food!

When we grew up, we started hearing of an amazing box which showed us people and things we never witnessed in person – the TV. Only few extremely rich families had this wonder machine in a closet closed by dragging small doors over it. We started hearing of another communication wonder called the Telephone which passed our information to far far away within few minutes or sometimes an hour via a trunk call during emergencies.

When we attained teenage, most of us had our own black and white TV at home. Chitralahari, Surabhi, DDNews were the most awaited programs then where the entire family watches together spending quality family time. As days passed, Shaktimaan was our new (in fact only) Hero and Aap Bheeti scared the hell out of us resulting in many sleepless nights and we waking up our parents 😉 As months passed, Pop music hit the notch and Kaanta Lagaa was a revolution! Though we were embarrassed watching the lead lady in the song behave and dress different, we rushed to the TV sets when we heard the song playing in local music channels.

Our favorite past time was to play on roads and grounds near our home (not virtual again – the real games which involved sweating, brain and REAL fun!). Every hour, we used to run across the street to home just to have a look at our mother and siblings and run back to join friends (in fact gang) to continue the fun. Our favorite snacks were served at 4 in the evening and the Ice cream wala in summers was our best friend for whom we eagerly waited opening all the windows and doors not willing to miss hearing his call or bell. Our most lazy moments were when mom asked us to get some groceries from a general store which though was quiet nearer, seemed far far away!

During special occasions and functions, our parents walked a while to the STD booth to make calls to our relatives, friends and also dropped post cards inviting them over for an event. The well recognizable auto walas or the bus drivers wished our father and got up to speed on important updates of our lives. Our parents helped the kids who fell down the road and the old needy ones to cross a road though they knew that it would mean they’ll have to miss their bus to the work. “We all have to look out for each other. When in crisis, only then every family will be saved.” was very often heard by us. Being friends with an opposite gender was almost a No-No then.

We went to the schools in cycles and college in packed city buses. By graduation time, we had a personalized telephone all for ourselves, which by then evolved to a Mobile phone. We spent sleepless nights watching movies, messaging our friends and also convincing parents that we would sleep right when the next advertisements in the movie would start, which of course never happened.

But, by the time we grew up things changed once more. We don’t even bother to know who lives right in front of our apartment, let alone our neighbors. Shopping malls, movies, TV, Internet is our only mode of passing time and once either of them is unavailable, we complain of boredom. Family time watching something together is long gone as we have a lot of shows which might not interest everyone in the family. While one watches something on TV, the other sticks to the desktop, other to a mobile
and the last one to a laptop. We sure live in the same house. But, we hardly know each other well.

Even after returning home after almost 2, 3 years, our mom still knows what we need at which fine moment and we still do not understand what our siblings or other family members need and when. We do have a lot of opposite gender friends to talk to, a lot of technological gadgets to address every problem of ours, a lot of ex-lovers leaving memories to recollect and a phone which stores the contact of every tom dick and harry including our best childhood friends, parents and siblings. But, we hardly find few minutes time to grab the phone, call them and express our love or show that we even care. We no longer run to a grocery store and talk random stuff to the shopkeeper wishing and greeting him. We no longer help an old man who shivers while crossing a road in this technology ruling world.

May be an app needs to be written, which would vibrate upon witnessing an old person struggling to cross a road or when our mom recollects us and calls us with love and we disconnect since we are busy or when our father wants to go for a walk on a pleasant evening with us sharing his learnings from his experience or when our neighbor collapses on floor after a heart attack calling out for help while we are busy plugging ear phones or when we feel that this is not how anyone is supposed to live! – Then we would respond, Of course!

We are the ones who witnessed world revolutionizing. We are the ones who felt Kajol wore an extremely short dress in Chanda Re song starring opposite Prabhu Deva and our jaws dropped in awe. We are the ones who loved when our neighbors shared their things with us and also shared our problems. We are the ones who blabbered how our day went at school to our mothers after being back from school. We are the ones who had at least one injury on our body, visible till date after playing physical games (lots of them!). We are the ones who believed in Shaktimaan, Jai Hanuman, Ramayan and watched Aap Bheeti every Friday night and tried to sleep only because of a reassurance that our parents would fight the devil, even in our dreams. We are the only ones, who witnessed the change, accepted it and in turn, changed!

The ones who landed on this planet recently know neither of this. They watched TV as a kid and only saw a lot violence, sex which is termed as romance and high definition exposing. They grew up socializing in internet – with a misconception that that’s what socializing means. They drive to school in bikes. They, like we are now, do not know how being friends with a 20, 30 year older person feels like or the value of the quote, “”We all have to look out for each other. When in crisis, only then every family will be saved.”

May be it’s time to spread some love – Real love!
May be it’s time to recollect how beautiful those days were in our childhood and pass on the stories to the next generations, as the stories are the only memories that would remain with them.. Forever!