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6 Things That All 90’s Born Kids Miss Today
More from Nanditha Sankar
By Nanditha Sankar:
I was born in the early 1990s. Having lived in both the 90s and the 2000s , I’ve seen several objects vanish into oblivion. With the advent of technology and improved comfort, our lives have transformed- mostly for the better. Traditional play-things and toys have given way to smart-toys, those that can even read minds. The iPad is almost every urban child’s imaginary friend(read as Siri). Sadly, physical activities seem to have lost out in this era where playing couch-potato at the mercy of electronics seems to be the order of the day. More than lamenting about the somewhat sorry state of affairs especially when it comes to moving oneself about, let’s revisit the past through these items which have lost out in the rat-race.
1.The Walkman
The iPod of those days. The Walkman was our instant access to songs . With a size that fit into the palms, miniaturization was redefined with its arrival into the public sphere.The Walkman went hand-in-hand with the cassette. Long-journeys were incomplete without this. Oft have we found ourselves short of the life-giving batteries, sometimes having to be stuck with a defunct Walkman mid-way through a trip. Today, they live in our shelves, long-forgotten.
2.The Games
Super Mario (because it was a class apart, I decided to put it first), Dave, Wolf, Alladin, Caveman, Roadrash and Brick Games. They were not just games.
In an inexplicable way, these games which may seem bland to many of the gamers of today, engaged us like never before. Stealth, new lives, getting stuck in a level for days, these were the most brain-wrenching issues that affected a kid in the 90s. Recently, I installed Dave once again in my PC. And needless to say, that Dave sound when the little man jumps brought back a flood of memories.
3.The TV shows
Doordarshan was the be-all and the end-all of television. Crowds thronged homes with TV sets and shows were enjoyed in unison. Sundays were reserved for the saga of Mahabharat. The dancing outline of fire in Om Namah Shivaya was how we were introduced to Indian Gods, much before the Shiva Trilogy. Other shows like Shaktiman, Ali Baba, Legends of The Hidden Temple and Hum Paanch ruled the roost. Not to forget the ‘old’ Cartoon network with its wonderful array of shows like Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones, Swat Kats, Captain Planet etc. To those of us who lived with these shows, the present CN might seem bland and disappointing. YouTube re-runs are all that we have left.
4.The Pagers and Biggie Phones
Those with a pager were the ‘cool’ people of our times. It signified their importance, busy souls with someone paging them whenever important events cropped up. Mobile phones were big. Most people I know screamed into it for fear their voices might not reach the distant listener. The young and the old stood wonder-struck at the amazing marvel. Little did we know that the pagers would die an early death while mobile phones would revolutionize the world around us connecting millions and millions.
5.The World of Music
Indie Pop had a cult status in the 90s which is no longer to be seen or felt. Names like Alisha Chinoi, Shaan, Lucky Ali, Adnan Sami and Sonu Nigam sang their way into our hearts. The Colonial Cousins and Euphoria came out with chart-busters. Rushing to the stores to grab their newly released cassettes was something most of us did. Today, Indie-Pop is almost dead. The thought of Yo-yo Honey Singh sends a shudder. And music shops are shutting down across every nook and corner.
6.Indian Sports
90s brought us the rare pleasure of seeing sportsmen revered as legends today, play together. It was then that Sachin, Saurav, Dravid, Laxman, Kumble and Srinath enthralled our lives. When Paes and Bhupathi catapulted India to a recognizable position on the world map. Tuning in to hardly accessible channels that showed these stars play, seeing our country grow as a sporting nation, those were blissful moments to any one. Thankfully, Indian sports has seen a lot more highs in the following years and a more uniform representation of the country in all forms of sports. It’s when the men of our days retire that the wistful nostalgia seeps in.
The world in the 90s was different. To describe it with so much would not suffice. It was a lot more than that. From playing Lagori and skipping on the streets to waiting for the ice-cream walah to arrive at our streets, childhood was spent in the streets. Travelling in double-deckers, writing letters to our friends(not e-mails), creating our first email id, sipping color Soda, watching the Hamara Bajaj ad and doing so much more. Those times are gone. What remains is a wanting to go back in time, to relive those days, to live in an era that can only be recreated in our minds and words.
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Karan
Enough with the 90s kid nostalgia trips. I was born in 1991, but rather than reminiscing over those “golden” days, I am glad to have moved on. Most of these points don’t even have a valid reasoning.
1. Walkman was great while it lasted. Now the music is even more accessible in all shapes and forms and devices. Long trips are much more convenient with chargeable mp3 players and AUX players in the cars. Who wants to carry such big devices and batteries anyway.
2.You can still play all of those games, along with the new ones, whenever you want. The advancement the gaming industry has made is phenomenal. There will always be great games and bad games, but there were terrible games, back then too.
3. Again, you can access all the shows over the internet. There are many great shows that are being made today as well. But I will give you that, the quality of new original Indian shows and cartoons has in fact gone down. But we can always head to the western television for quality.
4. I don’t see how that is a problem.
5. Those artist still make music today, along with many other great artist. I don’t think we can consider Honey Singh’s work as music anyway. Listen to english and some indian rock bands and indie musicians, if you really care about the music scene. Hundreds of great and hard working musicians, still blow my mind with original work.
6.Players will always get old and retire. Nothing we can do about it. Cricketers and other sportsmen, playing today, will retire in the future as well, so why not cherish what we have today?
Shreya
I was born in 1991 too, I’m sure we have moved on to better things, no doubt about it, but the fact that these things form an essential part of our childhood memories, is what makes them special for a lot of kids born in the 90s. I can’t say about others, but I am certainly one of those people who miss all this.
Akshat Seth
Are waah bhaai technocrat. Obviously the writer is also aware of the changes that have taken place for the better, but she has every right to be nostalgic. Actually you know, besides the common sense logic that we all posses and you have really exemplified here, there are other things in life. One of them is emotion- ever heard of the word? I think not!
Nanditha
Of course we have to move on. And all of us have done that.. As someone born in the 90s there are some things that’ll always be close to my heart and I would reminisce them for a long time to come. Things may have become better and speedier but I certainly miss a lot of it. If you look at it from a purely advantageous pov you can certainly point out why some things may have improved. But the saudades of the 90s still haunts me.
Karan
You are right. My apologies. I was just tired of seeing the ‘only the 90s kid remember this’ kind of posts, all over the internet. It was a great time to be a child, indeed.
Nanditha
I know. A lot of posts have been doing the rounds. While some of them make us truly nostalgic, a lot of them are written purely to grab eyeballs. I didn’t write about more things cuz these were the ones I could relate to, the most.
AbhinitaMohanty
OMG!! It made me nostalgic, although I must say you should have included many other things that were a part of our childhood once.
nageshrd
For karan i think you are the one who donot have any iota of judgement of what to accept and what not
something is new so lets embrace it with open hands without using ur .1% of brains
i will reply to each of ur suggestions
and thanks to nanditha shankar
1 walkman was great or not but the music if u hear of 90s is far superior . and one enjoys the music and do not think of accesibilty in terms of mp3 or other bullshit examples u gave todays music crapppppppp
2 games were less addictive and more funny unlike now which are costly braindraining and addictive
3 going to see western shows u moron the pheonomenon is all around the world they too are not making show as was in 90s
4 u see only glamour money and i think modii
5 i think regarding music i already answered i u want to have few names those are lucky ali strings junnon etc
6 if your are given food which have good aroma proper taste and smells good and other one which had foul odour no salt with lots of chillies which one u will eat same in case of sports we didnt watch cricteres for sports but for their honesty genius and humanity unlike todays sports star only playing for money fame and brand endorsement
so these are my befitting reply to u