Thursday 13 February 2014

What Makes You a '90's Kid?




Do you remember the last time you slammed the phone down to END CALL? When was the last time you watched Tom n Jerry? Whether it’s the incredible speed at which you could climb a mango tree or your instant affinity for freshly sharpened Natraj pencils, everyone has an official trademark from growing up in the ‘90’s.
What made this decade so special? Was it just our carefree childhood or was it the rapidly changing world we grew into? Technology progressed from dial-up modems to WiFi, music changed from Bryan Adams to Justin Timberlake, even toothpaste changed from Dunthmanjan to Oral-B!
Here are some unforgettable ‘90’s moments:
1.  Career Choices
We had the advantage of growing up in a growing world, where our choices just kept expanding. We were dreamers, cos we were allowed to be.
2. All the walas

On the flip-side there are so many endangered jobs that were so popular back then, take your regular icecream wala, istri wala, dhobi wala, knife sharpner, supercane juice stalls, broom maker, postman...
3. Hand-me-downs



Even if they do exist, the dhobi and istri walas of today are ironing first-generation clothing! I remember my cupboard stocked with hand-me-downs of different shapes and sizes! Was it just me or was this a purely 90's trend? We recycled everything from school bags to plastic bags, geometry sets to make-up kits!
4. School Games

Lagori was a big deal in school. Girls who didn't finish lunch in time always ended up on the losing team! Now if you want to play, you go online and wait for a faceless players to join you at online scrabble!
5. The Great Outdoors



Our idea of fun was cycling down a really steep slope or plucking mangoes from the neighbor's tree. We just enjoyed the outdoors a lot more than kids these days!
6. Power cuts!

And when we were inside, we had our favorite cartoons - Powerpuff Girls, Scooby Doo, Richie Rich...until the power went off and mom would call the electricity board in a huff, while we made shadow animals or played dark room.
7. Cassettes


I'm talking about a time when MTV really played music and we'd never have imagined being able to 'download' an entire Britney Spears album on what we used to call a 'telephone'. I do remember sneaking the land line into a quite corner to talk to my bestie about the latest crush!
9. Kodak Moments  

 We're the only generation that will ever struggled with dial-up modems or learnt how to draw pentagrams with Windows Basic, or recorded radio songs on cassettes and carried them around in walk men! We knew the real value of a photograph cos we could only take 48 on a Kodak reel and it was rather tricky to get the right background and perfect smile for each one of those.
10. Perms!



Fashion in the nineties meant high waist boot-cut jeans and a flouncy perm! Dungarees and a chokers made you extra cool and god-forbid you wore anything monochrome!
We have to admit it was a very special decade and no matter how nostalgic we get, the '90's got us used to tech and trends that changed in a blink-of-an-eye, making everything we loved so yesterday!