Skip to main content

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! ;)

Comments

  1. GOOGLE n metro ..did change our lives :)
    n who can forget the orkut n it's scraps :D
    lets hope 2020 do bring in rockets ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah! My wishlist is kinda long: Personal Rockets for travel, the CTRL-Z Key to undo small things in life, the CTRL-F key to look for all those things that I keep misplacing, CTRL-S to capture emotions, Virtual Keyboards, Robots instead of maids, oh and most of all, like your username - Truth, Love and a little malice! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Totally agree on the Google bit! My life almost revolves around it :)
    Unfortunately , we don't have the metro out here, loved travelling by it when in Delhi!

    Have happy 2k10! Oh btw, I apparently can post comments on your page only from home! So finally!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ha! Ha! A fun post peppered with humour. It took me down nostalgia lane. Nostalgia is priceless, isn't it... ?!!

    "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."

    I can sooo identify with this :)

    éclairs! Mmmmm. They don't make it like they did... in the good old days... anymore :( :( :(

    P.S. Have a rocking new year!

    P.P.S. I guess the decade ends in 2010 :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. @ divyaiyer: Glad you could finally comment! :)
    Happy 2K10 to you too..
    You know, Google's planning to enter Mobiles in a BIG Way..I have my eyes set on Google's Nexus One Phone! I hope it beats IPhone! Woohoo..! :D:D:)

    ReplyDelete
  6. @ Roshmi Sinha: Thanks! Yeah, nostalgia is something..:)
    Happy New Year to you too! :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Google Nexus One is just out Preeti. I am up until 2 AM to see the first few official videos on youtube :)

    and BTW Happy New Year :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh I had already seen the sneak previews last month itself..Friends at Google got that as a Christmas Gift :O! Why do you think I am so excited about its launch! Anyway, I do hope the launch is spectacular..:)
    Happy New Year to you too..:)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Enid Blyton's description of food in The Famous Five and other series could always whet my appetite while reading the books. In fact, I have a segment, titled "Food in Blytonian Literature" in my book on the author, titled, The Famous Five: A Personal Anecdotage (www.bbotw.com, www.amazon.com).
    Stephen Isabirye

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wow! I feel honoured that you should wish to leave a comment on my blog! I wish you could have left a link so that I could contact you back..:)
    And yeah, I absolutely agree about Enid Blyton and her amazing ability to lead a child's imagination from the front..If there's one thing that I hope will never change in as many decades that come and go, that has to be the presence of Blytonian Literature in every child's bookshelf!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Loved what u wrote..kept me glued...keep it up preeti..:)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Them 90s Things - 1 - iTV Music Channel

Starting a random series of all things from a 90s childhood, just so I have a record of these memories for posterity. Do you remember a channel called iTV?  The 1999 Cricket World Cup was when our extremely middle-class, government quarters colony rose to the challenge of cable tv. Till then, we were happily adjusting our antennas and watching wholesome family entertainment on the two channels of DD1 and DD2. Then came the cable wale bhaiya, with his fancy earring, a few TV guides stacked under his arms along with long ropes of cable, promising unlimited entertainment for the entire colony. And just like that, we all got lured. Cable TV bought with it a lot of changes, many of which I assume will get covered in this series. But, today's post is about 1 particular memory which every 90s kid can relate to. A huge letter I revolving on the TV in anticipation of a new song being chosen. Yep. The iTV generation. Not MTv. It was all about iTV. I still don't know what that channel was

Drumrolls and All That

In crass Hindi, this moment would have been aptly defined as "Laut ke buddhu, ghar ko aaye".  Exact translation would mount to "Fools return home" and that's what this post is. So, after taking a break from work, doing a second Masters, getting a job in Singapore and moving countries, I am back on the blog.  Who would have thunk? An year back, I had no idea this is what I would be doing in an year. But then again, do we know what we will be doing an year from now?  Lesson learnt. No planning, no guessing.  Just keep exploring, keep doing new things, keep learning, keep meeting new people. Things will happen. Trust. Like a fool (who returned home!) So, while I discover this part of my life, Singapore, I thought I need the blog more than the blog needs me. Because moving countries is not in the least as glamorous as it sounds.  There's the whole deal with selling all belongings which you have hoarded lovingly over the years. A

Letters to the Upparwalla!

(Wow! BlogAdda made my day! :) ) Prologue: I have been SO so SO so lazy, busy and blank, that I stopped writing posts altogether. But then, on reflection, I thought I owed this one to the unseen forces above. Hence, this post! LETTER #1 To The Gods Above, 1, "All Roads Lead to Heaven" Road, Heaven - 000000 15.06.2010 From Un Faithful Earthling Somewhere on Earth - Does the pin code matter? Sir/Ma'am, SUB: Complaint Regarding Services Rendered             This is to bring to your kind attention, the highly unsatisfactory services being rendered to me, not at all in keeping with the Contract signed during my release to the Earth. Further, I wish to register a complaint regarding the following key issues: Interaction With Irritating People : According to Clause 4 of my Contract which you have also signed, it was mutually agreed by both parties, that during my peaceful stay on Earth, my interaction with irritating people would be kept to as minimum as possi