Looking back....

If I look back a decade or so -we had no internet,satellite TV was a recent phenomena..mobile phones were unheard of...it makes me wonder how things have changed in the interim. When I get a chance to talk to school kids these days I really marvel at their knowledge of what's in vogue!.They seem to know the happening internet sites,the cool games,new age music and the works.My generation specially those who spent their childhoods in small sleepy towns in india,are kind of danglers-having seen the pre and post gizmo life.

When I look back,I feel we had our own forms of entertainment-street cricket,comics,DD movies!.Those days DD would have excellent sitcoms like Malgudi Days,Mungerilal ke haseen sapne,Nukkad,Karamchand to name a few.Today's soap operas dont even compare-the same trash splashed across multiple channels.No wonder dvd's of these old hits are still so much in demand.

Cricket was another big pastime.There are few things we would do as seriously as "matches" against rival teams.Those tennis ball matches stretching well into the late evening(almost dark many times) were so much fun.We would discuss our favourite players in school and someone would invariably slip a small transistor set in the class during India matches.Suddenly by mistake(or by design)the volume would go up crazily leading the whole class to giggle.The culprit would thus be caught and the transistor confiscated.I have a strong suspicion that our teachers used it to check on the scores in the staff rooms!.

Comics were such a hit amongst us children.We would devour the Tinkles,Chacha Chaudhary,Pinki,Biloo,Mama Bhanja and the works.On many occasions my friends have gifted me comics(of their choice!) on my Birthday which would be borrowed by them the same day!!.
Its been ages since I have laid my hands down on a hindi comic.You dont seem to find them these days.No bookstore in Bangalore sells hindi or even english versions of diamond comics.Couple of years ago while on a long train journey,I spotted a "chacha chaudhary" digest at the wheeler's book stall.Even though it was the english version I had great fun reading it.I'm not sure if the original creator-Pran of the diamond comic series is still alive.

Exams were the worst times.I think somehow this phenomena is same for whatever generation you are born.I remember we would have 2 "monthly" tests and 2 "terminal" exams follwed by the holy grail-"The Finals".I'm really not sure if whatever I learnt at school could qualify for "Education".If I have to give an honest opinion I would say all we learnt were some fancy rules to solve problems(read math and science) and lots of unwanted information which had to be memorised and outputted in good handwriting at the exams to go to the next class.Strangely enough this pattern remained the same even in Engineering school which makes me wonder and somewhat scared as I really cannot recall anything I learnt.Anyway,I had lot of fun learning "nothing" and do not regret being uneducated that much!.

In essence though the times have changed the social structure has not changed that much.I guess parents are still anxious about their children taking 'safe' careers(read engineering,medicine..).Though with the growing opportunities in other fields like law,design,commerce and even sports this trend is changing somewhat for the positive.

To think of it, I dont really remember what I wanted to take up as a profession when I was a child.I dont remember anyone asking me that question and I feel like having progressed from one stage to another without much thought to the destination.So I kind of reached where I had to as a 'matter-of-fact'...which is not such a bad thing if you think about it.