Imagine you wanted to meet your friend for spending time over a quality evening! And, you are in your early teens and don’t have any other means of communication tools such as mobile phone/internet. How do you think you can manage to meet your friend?

This is exactly how the days were in the 90s and through a good proportion of time in the early 2000s. I fondly remember walking down to my friend’s house & either knocking the door or shout out loud the name of my friend! It is unlikely for my friend to appear right away. Most likely, it is his parents who would verify the caller before letting my friend out and vice-versa! In some cases, that doesn’t happen without hearing numerous rounds of parental advice and friendly scolding! The fun part is that we never pay heed to all these!

Welcome to the 1990s! Let’s go back in time and touch upon a few classic tales from the 90s that are truly special and nostalgic!

I was born in the late 80s. So, a major proportion of my prime childhood was spent in the magical 90s. By the beginning of the last decade of 20th century, I had just turned five. So, all that had happened prior to this decade of my life are quite vague. I barely recollect any occurrences. Growing up during the 90s meant experiencing the real childhood before the technology took over. We are the generation that saw and experienced the many facets of life! We had the best cartoons to binge watch! We had the best candies of varied shapes and dimensions! MRF and Britannia were more than just brands! And, the most exciting was eagerness to wait for the turn of evening to get onto the streets for a delightful session of play. I can keep adding to that! Trust me when I say

Anyone that grew up in this decade are truly special!

TIME TRAVEL TO THE PAST:

Here are SIX incidences that I went back in time to recollect and consider it special! Although, there are many!

• SPENDING TIME WITH YOUR BUDDY:

As a kid, getting your hands and clothes dirty on a real playground with plenty of physical activity is close to my heart! It wasn’t just Cricket that we played on. Rather, several recreational games such as Hide-and-Seek, Seven stones, Dog and the bone, to name a few! And, there are interesting proceedings behind how we gather together for an evening’s play either on the streets/playground? We didn’t have the luxury of mobile phone. So, no SMS and/or WhatsApp. We go over to each other’s house to get ourselves on to the streets! And, that doesn’t happen without hearing numerous rounds of parental advice and scolding! The fun part is that we never don’t pay heed to all these!

• B & W TELEVISION DAYS:

Watching the few television programs on the only channel of Doordarshan. Literally, one has to wait for the programs to begin. Because the broadcast was only for few hours, and not 24 hours! My fond memories include, watching the then popular He-Man cartoon! Do you remember that opening theme? Truly epic! Others include Duck tales, Alice In Wonderland, Mowgli (The Jungle Book), Surabhi (a cultural show). And, how can I not mention about the Krishna TV series by Ramanand Sagar, followed by Mahabharat and Ramayan series! These programs paved the way for a thought provoking Sundays! Almost for the entire decade!

• WIRED TELEPHONE CONNECTIONS:

That proud feeling of having a telephone connection at home! My dad was employed with the then popular MTNL (now BSNL), the only telephone company in the country at that time! And, those days it was not easy to get a new telephone connection. An interesting tale is to to dial STD (calls outside of your state boundaries) and ISD (International) calls. You just can’t do that straight away. There was something called trunk dialling where you request your local telephone exchange to connect to a number existing in another telephone exchange (other city). And, this was a process that involved longer wait times. So, it wasn’t easy for long distance telephonic conversations.  Yet, each conversation was truly close to the heart.

• BUBBLE GUMS & MALT DRINKS:

Cricket in India was making its presence felt among the masses. And, so do the many bubble gum manufacturers. In fact, we were spoilt for choice. Among the many that existed such as Boomer and Big Babol, we just choose couple of them – Big Fun and Center Fresh. And, that’s for the sake of Cricket. With each purchase, we get a free Cricket card with player statistics. Over time, there was a craze among the youngsters, especially with the school going kids.

• PERSONAL COMPUTERS:

The 90s saw the introduction of Personal Computers. And, I am glad that I was able to get my hands on to it as early as anyone at that time! I still remember, in a residential colony housing more than 1000 families, there were only two that proudly owned computers. And, we were one of them! It was, indeed, a proud moment to invite my friends to come over to my house just to show what computers are and how they look like! That was truly special!

• INTERNET ACCESS:

Ever heard of dial-up modems? These days connecting to internet is a breeze. Just turn ON the router and you are connected to the world. Back then, you have to be lucky to be able to make an internet connection. The dial-up modem used telephone lines to connect to the internet. Each time it tries to establish a connection, you hear the dial tones and other strange noises from the speaker. Believe, as a kid this invoked curiosity! And, once the connection is established, your telephone line will become unavailable for others to reach you. It’s a shared connection for both telephonic conversations and Internet. So, only one of these could be used at any time. That was interesting. Isn’t it?

EARLIEST HOBBY:

The 90s was a period like any other. We had a host of very interesting hobbies to choose from! My earliest interests include Philately and Notaphily! From a very young age, I had fascination for collection of postal stamps and currency notes/coins from across the globe! Also, several of my relatives stayed abroad and I took this opportunity to gather more unique postal stamps and currency notes/coins. My love for postal stamps continued as late as 2006 when the entire postal communication was seeing a drastic drop.

REDISCOVERING NEW INTERESTS:

Growing in the 90s meant that the game of Cricket was an integral part of life, serving as a favourite pastime! Though the game has had several glorious moments in the past, this decade was special. For the first time, the game was played in colored jerseys, subcontinent teams lifting the World cup (1992 & 1996), and the arrival of Sachin Tendulkar! The Indian cricket team was beginning to obtain global attention and so does the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)! It was only during the teenage that I caught up with the world of Cricket. My earliest memorable remembrance is the Coca Cola cup at Sharjah in 1998 where Sachin’s masterful strokes kept Australia at bay, eventually helping India lift the cup! My second favourite is the ICC Cricket World cup at South Africa in 2003. It was during the beginning of new millennium that I started collecting cricketing memories from newspapers and sporting magazines. And, this formed the basis of my own Cricket album! After Philately and Notaphily, maintaining my Cricket album became my new-found hobby!

Here’s a short video clipping that’s very dear to me! My custom made Cricket Album featuring the game’s glorious past! And, it’s more than a treasure!

I hope you enjoyed going back in time reliving some of the memories from the last millennium! What was your favorite 90s moment? Do let me know your feedback in the comments section!

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