The Other Side of the Decade!

So, my first day in office in 2010 started on an adventurous note. Missed the office bus on a chilly day in Delhi, waded through fog and a subway with no lights, shared the rest of the journey with an irritating office boy, tried the much hyped Noida Metro..You get the picture, right? Not exactly the normal, calm day that I enjoy - which got me thinking about how the daily "nuances" of life have changed in a decade.
To be very frank, I don't remember much of the 90's. I didn't have an email Id or a blog back then, to read through old mails and smile at my innocence. I did not have a cell phone, and the landline phone was placed on top of the refrigerator where my hand could never reach. I had never played snakes, and my idea of playing was limited to, or rather not limited to outdoor games! I ran and ran till my legs couldn’t carry me anymore, played stupid games hiding in bushes and plants, jumping across fences, hitting each other with the ball. Oh the times when I got in trouble for crawling under the wired fence to get the ball from the other side! Of course, many would say it’s easier to simply hit Spacebar and get my virtual self to swing the bat in any direction I want. I guess to each his own!
Then there was the whole fun of crawling in a sweaty corner to read books, sometimes the same ones all over again. The joy of the "Aah" moment when Enid Blyton described the Famous Five's afternoon snack - the éclairs and meringues, ginger beer and honeysuckles. Now after tasting some of that delicious sounding stuff, I can safely vouch for Enid Blyton's immense talent and writing skill. She just made it sound "WOW"!
Yeah, there were moments in the 90's which make it a nostalgic decade. But then, there were happenings in the 00's which make it the "revolution" decade. The invasion of Home PCs with internet into our lives transformed bulky holiday homeworks into 10 minute "Cut-copy-paste" jobs. How can I not mention the single thing which DEFINES the 00s for me - GOOGLE! My love affair with Google just got more and more intense with every product launch - The search, Gmail, Documents, of late the Reader, and Blogger. Then there was the Cell phone which became a necessary part of our living. We became friends on SMS, we spent and spent and spent on Recharge, we coo-ed our love all night on the cell irrespective of jamming the networks, we broke up on the cell phone, we made up on the cell and at the end of the decade, we realized the Cell phone wasn't that important after all. What mattered was something as simple as "communication", be it through Inland Letters, Postcards or 140-Word Tweets!
How can I talk about 00s and not talk about Social Networking! We suddenly had the craving to keep in touch, tell the world our deepest secrets, show-off, put up misleading status messages, follow the "How I Met Your Mother" group on Facebook, post a pic with huge out-of-place Shades on our eyes - Basically, portray ourselves as strangers to all who know us, but it was okay because we kept in touch with friends!
Transportation in Delhi of course went into a tizzy with the Delhi Metro that came into our lives! We zoomed across the city, over flyways and swanky buildings, didn't look outside the window at the slums and half made brick houses. But who am I kidding? The Metro has to be the best thing that happened to us, it's a first step towards encouraging public transport, it's the pride of Delhi and we love it for what it's worth!
Amidst the smooth going lifestyle we had gotten used to, we suddenly got a rude awakening. Someone shouted "Global Warming" and so we created 46,200 tonnes of carbon dioxide in Copenhagen to discuss how best to reduce Emissions. Lost causes are not remembered, the failed accord is!
All in all, a great decade, wasn't it? I remember when we were in school and we were asked to write essays on the future - 2010, we imagined a life full of zooming rockets as the only modes of transportation and capsules as meals. That hasn't happened, but it's still a decade we have to be thankful for - the decade of information, comfort and hope for an even better future!
Here's to 2010 and the whole decade that lies ahead of us, full of promise! :)

PS: If someone's listening, if there's one thing I feel HAS TO be invented in this decade - a CTRL-Z key (Undo) for life..I've got too used to it! ;)