Yes! It does exist. Most prevalent in the generation born
in the mid-late 80’s and early 90’s and is defined as “unwillingness to grow up”.
Almost all my fellow 89’ers and 90’its are afflicted with this disorder. If for
any reason you think that you are above this nonsensical syndrome then please
consider this:
Do
you associate Parle-G with shakthiman? [ “No” is not the answer!] 
Do
you remember the spinning psychedelic Doordarshan symbol and the funeral song
that played along?—if you don’t, please pass away and I will play it for you!
)How about
games like lock and key, chain catcher, “color pei”??
“knock knock”
Yaar adu???
“Pei idu!!”
Enda pei??
“color pei”
Enda color?? Followed by Usain bolt like sprint in all
directions??
Rember
those Sundays reserved exclusively for cartoons like Flintstones, Laff-a-lympics,centurions and chandrakantha?? Fortunately the mega families
dramas dint exist then, so the TV was mostly free.
Do
you remember Dravid as Jammy even though he earned more sophisticated names
later??
And
have you ever checked out, liked or shared stuff that glorifies the 90’s, the
old cartoon network or “The I miss my childhood” pages on FB??
Things have changed in unimaginable ways over the last
decade. The World is just a touch away. It is possible to have pepperoni pizza
in Kumbakonam and Avial in France. There is airtel D2H, Videocon and tata sky
and yet life is not very Jinga-lala as it was before.
I spent the 90’s in two different countries and six
different schools. Change was always the constant common denominator.
The first school I was enrolled in is at Coimbatore. That
school taught me two very important lessons
a) The
teacher will ALWAYS know if you are actually sleeping or pretending to be asleep
during the sleeping hour.
) b) The
water bottle with a tiffin box on top, and the sharpener with an eraser on one
end and toilet cleaning brush like bristles on the other was(still is) the most
genius stationary ever !
It was during this period that we had
Annual day in our housing colonies, which included appetizing games like bun
eating, and Jamun on spoon. Clothes were meant to be soiled rolling about in
the mud. Knees were almost always covered with scabs as a result of falling
multiple times from cycles or trees. All the unoccupied houses in the colony
were said to be haunted and my friends and i promised all the new kids in the
colony that we had seen a ghost in a white saree under the banyan tree that dint
even exist.
Then I shifted to a boarding school in
ooty! That is where I fell in love with Inland letters and envelopes. That was
the only way I could communicate with my family. The letters were distributed
every Sunday. Every time I opened a letter, the familiarity of the handwriting
(usually my mother’s) were the happiest few minutes of a Sunday (also the Sunday
tea time when they gave us vegetable puffs)
Irrespective of the fun I had I would
always write letters complaining about how horrid the school was! There have
been occasions where I would lightly smudge the ink with saliva to make it look
like I was crying while writing the letters! ( I love drama!)
After this short period where I was
obsessed with hand written letters, table manners and vegetable puffs I moved
to another country in the year 1999.
There life progressed at lightning
speed. There came a brick sized nokia phone with a table cloth like transparent
cover. I got my first Walkman, and I discovered the existence of Sonu Nigam and
his albums!
I spent the better part of my teenage
reading agony aunty columns from YOUNG TIMES, the most popular magazine in the
region. The “F” word was all over the place and was uttered in hushed tones
like when saying “he who must not be named”.
I created my first email id and I am
proud of my 13 yr old self for having had the insight to not create id’s with
names like “bunnylove” or “twinkle sparkles” because I still use that id!
Msn messenger is where all the after
school action happened and anything that left the confines of the chatroom was
a juicy piece of gossip to be discussed during the recess!
Series like hip hip hurray, fresh prince
of bel air and Sabrina the teenage witch slowly replaced cartoon network and
small wonders. It was probably the fastest 5 years..like a log phase of a
growth curve.
Looking back I’ve had an eventful
childhood. It is a place I would gladly visit again.and again and again! It
invariably arouses a sense of fondness. It amazes me that “childhood” was
hardly 20 years back! The changes have been faster than a chameleon changing
its color.
I am sorry for the generalization but I do
believe I come from a generation that holds on to its dear past! It is indeed
golden. As golden as the gold color of the new Horlicks gold label.
Kids these days [that line ages me by almost
100 years! But anyway!] Prefer to grow up ASAP! They are on the lookout for the
magic beanstalk that grows overnight. Childhood is replaced by a mad race. A
race for better grades, better jobs, better bank balance and a better coffin at
death. That thought almost pushes me into the depression mode. I am sure a few
episodes of The Jetsons can cure that.
Thank you YOUTUBE.
Oh! The irony!
