Legends of our times

As a kid, I often heard adults speak about things "back in the days". I never imagined that I would one day be saying exactly that, and that too before the age of thirty. Before we forget them, a list of things that we should salute to. Fill me on what I've missed.

(And of course, all these are with respect to mainstream urban life in India. Lots of villages still live in similar or more primitive times)

1. Phones

a. Dialling with an actual dial.

b. The privileged landline, with lesser fortunate ones having to share and pay per call.

c. Expensive and hard to connect STD calls

d. One phone for the family

e. Setting up rendezvous at very specific locations

2. Letters

a. Inlands - writing on every centimeter

b. Postcards - quick cheap communication

c. Aerogrammes - amazing things which travelled the seas.

3. Music

a. Audio cassettes - Sequential music! Remember the fancy players which could play both sides?

b. Tapes that get old and whiny. Reel breaks, cassette players which eat tapes.

c. The joys in dubbing, and making an assorted tape with all your favourite songs.

d. The walkman - That cool fancy device whose name is a Sony copyright.


4. Rarities

a. When Thums-up was for the special day when parents were happy with you

b. Pepsi was for the cool kids. Not for the "aam admi".

b. The 200ml of Frooty always got over so fast

c. Fancy cream biscuits. Brittania Bourbon, my favourite!


5. Transportation

a. When Ambassadors and Fiats ruled. Maruti 800 just came in.

b. Before the railways had AC.

c. When plane travel was extraordinarily rare, so rare that I thought one needed a passport to fly.


6. Television

a. How can one forget Doordarshan, it's news, shows, cricket, movies and all. Everyone watched DD.

b. When DD metro, the 2nd channel, was a privilege of the 4 metropolitan cities.

c. When Ramayan would start 20 minutes late due to advertisements.

d. VCRs & VCPs, those rare and fancy things. The effort in trying to make a copy of a video tape.


7. Cameras

a. The film roll - 36 photos, "Don't expose it to sunlight", "Make sure it has loaded properly"

b. Developing and printing - It took 2 days before you knew what kind of photo you took. Hopefully you hadn't stuck your finger in the middle.


8. Computers

I needn't state the obvious. Coming from the times of "what is a computer" to the youtube & facebook age. Still continuously changing and a lot more to come.