Winds of Change

Year 2010 : Almost every single person owns a computer/laptop. Every house has an internet connection in this era. All have Facebook, Orkut, Twitter accounts. The very first thing some people do after waking up is updating their status in FB or 'tweeting'. Well, I also had that craze during the initial days. Almost every kid now has an account in Mafia Wars, tends to his/her farm and animals in Farmville, Runs his/her own coffee shop in Cafe World and many other games. You know times have surely changed drastically when you get the updates about your family and friends through social networking sites, Chat with family on gtalk or messenger than using the phone, Kids play cricket, tennis and kancha virtually in Zapak games than in real. Gone are the days when kids run to the play grounds as soon as they reach home from school. When I was a kid, I could barely wait to get home, drop my bag onto the sofa, remove my shoes,socks and throw it somewhere, have my glass of milk and some snacks and then go runnning to the colony play ground along with friends. We used to make sure we reach early, cos the colony watchman used to tie the swings by 4:30. And swings had a great demand. We had the FCFS (First come first serve) rule. When we had the swing to our hearts content, ie After playing with the swing in all ways like sitting, standing, doubles etc, our gang used to start our daily routine of games. There used to be I-spy, crocodile, lock and key and many other games. Those were the days when Doordarshan ruled over the Indian Television. We used to wait till the transmission started from the station, gazing at the revolving DD logo.The tv programmes were Chitrahaar, UGC, The world this week, Dekh bhai dekh, Shrimaan Shrimati and of course Circus, of our very own King Khan, Shahrukh Khan. On sundays, we had Rangoli, Chandrakanta, Mahabharat, Ducktales, Giant Robot, Disney Hour, Superhit Muqabla and the weekly regional movie, which used to be some art movie in some language. But still, we used to get excited, when we come to know the movie on schedule that week would be of our mother tongue, no matter we are going to watch the movie or not! Used to make us feel special! Every kid on the block knew the lyrics of 'Mile Sur mera tumhara' and 'Mahabhaaaaaaaarat' by heart. The old 'Mile Sur' still tugs at our heartstrings, unlike the new one which is well... utter crap. Slowly the 'Cable TV' pitched in. It was usually referred to Star TV or Sun TV down south mainly TN. Though the cable guy used to provide many channels, it was called Sun TV. Kids at school who had cable network in their homes were considered the 'posh' folk. Gifting a coloring book to a kid used to make him/her happy. Now, to make kids happy, one ought to shell out some grand and gift them a PS (Play Station). I guess its our era (The ones who grew up in the 90's) who have seen the greatest transition. From Doordarshan to Cable TV to Dish TV, from Coloring books to tetris video games to Comp video games to Playstations, from the indian cartoons to the disney ones to the pokemons, from Calculators to Personal computers to laptops to netbooks, from trunk calls to std/isd to cell phones to smart phones, the list is endless. It feels nice when we go back in flashback and remember the times we lived in, the way we lived life. Nostalgia. Gud old days... Hey!!! Now come back to the present world and get busy with your work!! After all recall the words of the Great Virus... 'Life is a race... or u ll be an broken anda!!!' ;) Just kidding folks... Its just that my filmy mode takes over me at times! Live your life the way you want to after all, you only get a single chance! :) B.r.b !!!