"kuch khaas hai hum sabhi mein,
kuch baat hai hum sabhi mein,
baat hai....khaas hai,
kuch swaad hai......
kya swaad hai zindagi mein "...
and the flash video ended showing two more thumbnails for another advertisements from that era ...the golden era ...the unforgettable era..lemme
give a name..."the unforgettable nineties".
I just finished watching an Old Cadbury commercial which was aired during the nineties, the one minute odd clip parceled me to the ancient age...yeah it is ancient, even if its not, it seems very much, Youtube videos are now in High Qualuty HD mode...but that ad wasn't such, it had bigger pixel size, which only made viewing a little more ambiguous, but their was something abstract, virtual, unreal feeling associated with it that ignited a nostalgia in my head, and I who was very much happy with my present too thought "Gosh, what a time that was and today is such a chaos ..a blur..... ", suddenly memories came creeping in my head which were long dormant inside my cerebrum, one said how I cried when India Lost to SriLanka in WC semifinal in 1996 and other neutralized it by how happy was I when The God of Cricket scored two back to back tons against mighty Aussies in 98, another one helped me recall how happy was I playing Mario in my neighbors home.
The attack of memories was short lived ..and the string of memories bumping my mind was jolted by the sound of my mom screaming "Shashank, are you gonna waste all your day watching those match clips of Federer..?" I replied in my mind, this time mom it's not Federer ....it was about me and may be millions like me who were brought up during the nineties in India...I shouted "Haan Mummy bas shut down hi karne wala hun....", Mom didn't replied...I glanced through the Video Clips given in the bottom right side of the screen and read the clips ...Amul Commercial,Bajaj Scooter Ad Retro, Coke Commercial with Amir Aish....Lucky Ali O sanam....and so on...'O sanam' Music video had almost had 10lakh views, It was hard to believe, but that showed there are people living in my generation who are still in love with this ...these songs ..Lucky Ali ....Today it's pathetic, you see music videos having one girl leading 10 other similar creatures, dressed in sense, you can't even in the wildest of dreams associate with song.. and singer knows every trick except what he is meant to.
I forgot I pledged to shut Windows minute earlier instead ..what I did was to click On a thumbnail saying Doordarshan Signature Montage..what followed was utter nostalgia, I don't know how I recalled the tune that played in video, it was Shehnai by Late Ustad Bismillah Khan which I haven't heard since ages, as the video played It catapulted me to my childhood ..
My Grandma ..my buaji..my sis... flat apartment...Binatone black n white TV .....doordarshan ..mowgli ...mahabharat...surbhi....tarang.....rangoli ..chitrahaar... the MP state news at 7.00.PM.......
I read comments on the clip, there were many lines which I could relate too but the one's which got my eyes heavy worth a post here -
"Wow....I used to Hate this...because DD1 was the only channel we used to get...and everytime my grandma would hear this music she knew it was news time..now I miss them both......thanks...."
Thoughts and memories charged from everywhere towards my brain, as if my arteries and veins had stopped their job and began bringing memories from every damn possible times in past. My head was invaded by them, I realized nothing would ever match the happiness of those times, and I was happy being in the vicinity of such memories........................
If you too, swim back in the memory lane and recall your childhood days.......this is what you'll end up with...
- You know the words to ‘In-pin-safety-pin’ and ‘akkad-bakkad’ by heart.
- Cricket is almost a religion for you, and you idolize at least one of Kapil Dev/Rahul Dravid/Sachin Tendulkar/Saurav Ganguly.
- You have read at least some Chacha Chaudhary or Tinkle comics.
- You’ve watched Shaktimaan on TV at least once in your life. And you can immediately recognize the character when you see him.
- You had some "NRI"relatives or even you don't have you said so.
- You watched Cartoon Network like crazy.
- You watched corny dubbed versions of Small Wonder, Silver Spoon, and I Dream of Jeanie.
- You dreamed when would McDonald’s open in your neighborhood (or even eight kilometers away).
- You have seen Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Hum Aapke Hain Kaun at least 5 times each.
- You still remember the theme of He-Man and Duck Tales.
- You watched Zee Horror Show though you were scared in doing so
- You drank 50 paisa GoodLuck Pepsi everyday in summers.
- You have played hours upon hour of Pukdam-pakdai,ready pa ready.
- You collected trump cards of wrestlers, cricketers, and airplanes, and did not quite understand why your younger siblings were obsessed with Pokemon and the other Japanese trends that followed.
- Your summer vacations were often synonymous with visiting your grandparents.
- You knew how you lips said "Bole mere lips, I love uncle Chips!".
- You know the song ‘Made in India’ by Alisha Chinoi.
- You have seen many many many episodes of ‘Antakshri’ on Zee TV and know the only thing constant in the show is Anu Kapoor.
- You watched Boogie Woogie on Sony.
- You were the coolest thing in class if you had a computer in your house while it was still the 90s.
- You learnt LOGO in school!.
- You couldn’t wait to start 4th/6th standard so you could start writing with PENS instead of with pencils!.
- You often use terms and phrases like ‘katti’, ‘abbey’, ‘same to you, back to you, with no returns’, and ‘shame shame, puppy shame, all the donkeys know your name.’
- You most probably saw Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge at the cinema at least once. You also fantasized about singing songs in mustard fields as in the movie.
- You have seen David Dhawan and Govinda movies and laughed at them.
- You have seen Titanic a dozen times.
- You thought seeing English movies and speaking English made you the coolest thing ever.
- Barbies for girls, and GI Joes for boys were the ultimate status symbols.
- Hotwheels cars were in your dreams.
- You know the words to ‘Posham Paa’
- Parle Glucose biscuits were the Universal Biscuits.
- You loved licking off the cream from the centre of Bourbon biscuits.
- There were no Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Puma- Bata and Liberty was the way to go for your sports shoes.
- You have probably consumed more Frooti/Rasna in your lifetime than there is oil in Iraq.
- You bought packets of potato chips for the specific purpose of collecting silly Tazos.
- For the longest time, the Maruti 800, the Premier Padmini, THE Fiat, and THE Ambassador were the only cars you saw on the road.
- You would literally jump up in excitement if you ever chanced upon an imported car (Oh my gosh, is that really a MERCEDES?)!
- You spent a good part of 1998 drooling over the Hyundai Santro and the Daewoo Matiz, debating which one was better.
- You also chewed Big (big) Babool and/or Boom Boom Boomer chewing gum. They were bright pink and disgusting tasting, but you loved them for the temporary tatoos .
- Talking of temporary tattoos, you sometimes had contests with your classmates about who had more tattoos on their arm, leg, knee, hand,forehead, wherever.
- You thought Mario and Tetris were the coolest things ever invented, especially if you were a boy.
- You knew that having the latest Hero or Atlas bicycle would make you the coolest kid on the block.
- You have, at some point of time, worn GAP clothes (real or fake) like SRK in KKHH.
- Seemingly senseless acronyms like SRK, DDLJ, KKHH actually make sense to you.
- You have at some point debated who was more beautiful- Aishwarya or Sushmita.
- Coke or Pepsi ? The question that can raise debate...
- When you would watch WWF keenly every evening/afternoon and really think that Undertaker had 7 lives and he made an "actual" appearance in the Akshay Kumar- starrer Khiladiyon ka Khiladi.
- You remember the Nirma tikia jingle and You also remember the Nirma girl.
- You remember the 'doodh doodh' ad and also the 'roz khao andey' ads.
- You grew up reading, if you read at all, some or all of Nancy Drews, Enid Blyton books, Hardy Boys, Babysitters Club, Animorphs,Goosebumps, Sweet Valley series, Judy Blumes, and Tintin, or Archie comics. Because naturally, reading foreign authors made you much cooler than reading Tinkle.
- You absolutely HAD to go to Essel World if you went to Mumbai! "Essel World mein rahoonga main, ghar nahin nahin jaaonga main!"
- You watched the Bournvita Quiz contest on TV pretty religiously. The smarter ones amongst you actually took part in it and had your entire school and your entire extended families watch you on it!
- "Jungle jungle baat chali hai, pata chala hai. Chaddi pehen ke phool khila hai, phool khila hai!"
- Maggi 2 Minute Noodles = ultimate snack (and tiffin, lunch, dinner)!
- If you grew up in the early 90s, you recall the nation's obsession with Mahabharata on TV.
- In the later 90s, you religiously followed Hip Hip Hooray on Zee. Maybe Just Mohabbat on Sony too.
- You eagerly awaited Friendship Day, so you could give friendship bands to all your friends, and get bands from them in return. Then, of course those with the most bands loved to show them off (and on Rakhi, boys with the most Rakhis loved showing those off too!)
- You could argue to the limit for Sachin and his being the best.
- You played Vish - Amrit, Nadi - Pahad , Pinky Pinky what color, chain and chupan chupaiyya.
" Shaashaaaaaank........"My mom again yelled my name and helped me get back in present..I hesitantly turned the PC off, gradually everything seemed to be blur. As I regained my thoughts, I heard bhajan song playing through loud speakers in neighbourhood as it was festive season of Ganesh Utsav. I was back in present, but still my mind, my heart,my soul, wished to somehow turn back time ...and relive my childhood in the unforgettable nineties, but I was old enough to realize this wish ain't at all possible and all I could do is dive again in the pool of memories later, and once again virtually relive the unforgettable nineties and can proudly say I lived during 90's in India.
Relive Retro India by watching this, the source of inspiration for writing all this..
P.S : I've taken some excerpts from unknown author describing Retro Age.
