Back in the Day

• The only reality show on TV was Krishi Darshan.
• Blogging was what happened to Malyali noses in Delhi winters.
• India, China & Brazil were on the brink of becoming superpowers...wait, they still are.
• People had friends made of flesh & blood, not inch-high FB pics.
• Taking a flight was something 'rich people' did.
• Relatives from abroad would return with bagfuls of Marks & Spencers, Benetton & Sony Walkmans...and we'd be excited.
• Sony Walkman - the era of 'Don't Run Too Fast Or The Tape Will Get Jammed in The Head'.
• McDonald's was the classiest joint in town.
  
• 50p could get you a whole mess of stuff.
• Boys didn't put more product in their hair than girls.
• Sting, Tracy Chapman & Bruce Springsteen performed in Delhi and the roads were blocked for miles. Now the Backstreet Boys come and go and there's barely a rumble.
• People were famous because they did cool stuff. Now there's Rahul Mahajan.
• Traveling acrobats, snake charmers and folk singers would roam the streets of our colony - remember the tiny ferris wheels & bioscopes?
• The Bioscope: long before cable TV crowded our brains.
• We laughed out loud, not LOL.
• It wasn't cool to diss Indira & Sanjay Gandhi.
• It wasn't cool to diss Vajpayee.
• You could see a film and still not file for bankruptcy.
• Cricketers' jerseys were not walking billboards.
• Good handwriting was important.
• Air hostesses were rude but spoke English we understood.
• Girls had bangs called 'flicks' and wore shoes called 'Baylleez'.
• 'Mile Sur Mera Tumhara' was not a marketing ploy.
• Anil Kapoor was famous for being hairy and teaching us incorrect math ('One-Two ka Four, Four-Two ka One').
• Sundays were all about Ramayan, Mahabharat, He Man and Molu.
• America was cool but the USSR was our friend.
• Games were played outdoors and had weird names like pithhoo and four-corners. Wii was just a sound one made on those tiny ferris wheels.
• Avatars were things we prayed to, to pass exams.
• South Indians did not have wedding sangeets.
• We thought the glaciers would be around forever. Then we didn't. Then we did.