Of dragon-flies and scraped knees...
It's a warm Sunday afternoon, and Sis and I are chilling out at home...
I'm reading a Perry Mason, and she's chatting online with some friends while humming (very out of tune) something she's listening to on her headphones.
Her phone rings... Sis can't hear it, but because the screen flickers she knows it's ringing. She picks it up...
Sis (chirpy) : Heyyyyy... wasssup?
.......... (caller says something)
Sis (mock anger) : Oh shut up!!
.......... (caller says something)
Sis (mock anger) : What rubbish
.......... (caller says something)
Sis (giggle) : Sho shweeet... (giggle giggle)
.......... (caller says something)
Sis : Ok, let's do that then. You call up the others, and let's meet at 8?
.......... (caller says something)
Sis : Cool, ciiaaaaaoooo (sing-song)!!!!
Hangs up.
Turns to me...still smiling thinking of some flirty bit of the conversation she's just had...
Sis (to me with an incredility-filled voice) : Di... when you were in college, how did you guys EVER make any plans with your friends? None of you guys had cell phones!!! Omigosh!
Me (looking up from the book) : Well... we managed. It wasn't that bad... coz it's like we knew what we were missing, u know...
Sis (not giving up) : Ya-ha... but, you could never do anything impromptu i'm sure.. like you'd have to wait for everyone once a plan was made... right?
Me : Actually... i think we did more spontaneous stuff than u guys.. But yes, once a plan was made, you couldn't suddenly just change it. Not until everyone'd met. It used to be fun too. At times, there used to be major chaos...
I think it kept us fitter...
PG and i used to hang out together... but in the final year when we took up different subjects, we'd to look for each other after our lectures were over. And in doing that I'd go looking for her.. the canteen foyer, the 1st quadrangle, the micro lab, the lending library, and ultimately find her in the reference library. In that time, i'd have climbed at least 6 floors of stairs, and ran around for at least an hour.
And this was an everyday thing...
When the gang went out, a flat tyre meant 3 people in the car getting very late, and 3 other people waiting for them somewhere else with no clue about what happened. If the 3 waiters got tired of waiting and went ahead (say for a movie), the stage was set for a massive scene. The 3 flat-tyre people would reach after the others had left, but would not know that. So then they would wait... and after a very long time, figure they've been left behind and must not wait anymore.
The reunion of the two parties was seldom a pretty sight. You might be able to imagine it. It's like...imagine if your phone dies out and you can't contact the rest of your group.
(Sis - wide eyed, hands on cheeks, gasps. Look of complete horror as she imagines the import of my last statement. I ignore and continue)
Messengers and message-keepers and passers-on therefore were very, very important people. Many a confusion was averted or compounded depending on the competence and reliability of the message-keeper.
Yes, life was tougher, but only in retrospect. Back then it was all cool. We thought we owned the world (we still do)... and were very proud of the infrastructure that was available to us.
I was about 7-8 yrs old when we got a phone connection at home. Oh you have no idea HOW exciting that was... to be able to dial dad's office and speak with him in the day...was like magic! :)
Sis : And now that we all have cell-phones we hardly call-up dad in the daytime...or speak with him much in the evening either...
Me : Ya..
Sis (checking time suddenly and getting up with a start) : Oh Gosh I'm late!! Ok, gotta go. Tada..!!
She leaves, and I try unsuccessfully to get back to the book I was reading. It doesn't work, coz she's left me thinking, and remembering my days of childhood, of growing up in the 80s.. with noisy and rugged games with many, many kids in the evenings, of having perpetually scraped knees, and riding cycles that were too big for my short legs, of galavanting in the sun the entire day during summer vacations, and catching dragon-flies for fun, of playing in the garden sand-pit with my real and imaginary friends, and still finding time to read books about Russian kids and Greek mythology... Of waiting to watch TV at night, and falling asleep dead tired everyday by 9.30pm after watching the half hour of whatever played on National TV.
Forget iPods, cell-phones or the Internet... It was the time before cable TV. And yet, it was a time of great fun and joy... something which only those in or before 1980 can relate with and understand :)
I'm reading a Perry Mason, and she's chatting online with some friends while humming (very out of tune) something she's listening to on her headphones.
Her phone rings... Sis can't hear it, but because the screen flickers she knows it's ringing. She picks it up...
Sis (chirpy) : Heyyyyy... wasssup?
.......... (caller says something)
Sis (mock anger) : Oh shut up!!
.......... (caller says something)
Sis (mock anger) : What rubbish
.......... (caller says something)
Sis (giggle) : Sho shweeet... (giggle giggle)
.......... (caller says something)
Sis : Ok, let's do that then. You call up the others, and let's meet at 8?
.......... (caller says something)
Sis : Cool, ciiaaaaaoooo (sing-song)!!!!
Hangs up.
Turns to me...still smiling thinking of some flirty bit of the conversation she's just had...
Sis (to me with an incredility-filled voice) : Di... when you were in college, how did you guys EVER make any plans with your friends? None of you guys had cell phones!!! Omigosh!
Me (looking up from the book) : Well... we managed. It wasn't that bad... coz it's like we knew what we were missing, u know...
Sis (not giving up) : Ya-ha... but, you could never do anything impromptu i'm sure.. like you'd have to wait for everyone once a plan was made... right?
Me : Actually... i think we did more spontaneous stuff than u guys.. But yes, once a plan was made, you couldn't suddenly just change it. Not until everyone'd met. It used to be fun too. At times, there used to be major chaos...
I think it kept us fitter...
PG and i used to hang out together... but in the final year when we took up different subjects, we'd to look for each other after our lectures were over. And in doing that I'd go looking for her.. the canteen foyer, the 1st quadrangle, the micro lab, the lending library, and ultimately find her in the reference library. In that time, i'd have climbed at least 6 floors of stairs, and ran around for at least an hour.
And this was an everyday thing...
When the gang went out, a flat tyre meant 3 people in the car getting very late, and 3 other people waiting for them somewhere else with no clue about what happened. If the 3 waiters got tired of waiting and went ahead (say for a movie), the stage was set for a massive scene. The 3 flat-tyre people would reach after the others had left, but would not know that. So then they would wait... and after a very long time, figure they've been left behind and must not wait anymore.
The reunion of the two parties was seldom a pretty sight. You might be able to imagine it. It's like...imagine if your phone dies out and you can't contact the rest of your group.
(Sis - wide eyed, hands on cheeks, gasps. Look of complete horror as she imagines the import of my last statement. I ignore and continue)
Messengers and message-keepers and passers-on therefore were very, very important people. Many a confusion was averted or compounded depending on the competence and reliability of the message-keeper.
Yes, life was tougher, but only in retrospect. Back then it was all cool. We thought we owned the world (we still do)... and were very proud of the infrastructure that was available to us.
I was about 7-8 yrs old when we got a phone connection at home. Oh you have no idea HOW exciting that was... to be able to dial dad's office and speak with him in the day...was like magic! :)
Sis : And now that we all have cell-phones we hardly call-up dad in the daytime...or speak with him much in the evening either...
Me : Ya..
Sis (checking time suddenly and getting up with a start) : Oh Gosh I'm late!! Ok, gotta go. Tada..!!
She leaves, and I try unsuccessfully to get back to the book I was reading. It doesn't work, coz she's left me thinking, and remembering my days of childhood, of growing up in the 80s.. with noisy and rugged games with many, many kids in the evenings, of having perpetually scraped knees, and riding cycles that were too big for my short legs, of galavanting in the sun the entire day during summer vacations, and catching dragon-flies for fun, of playing in the garden sand-pit with my real and imaginary friends, and still finding time to read books about Russian kids and Greek mythology... Of waiting to watch TV at night, and falling asleep dead tired everyday by 9.30pm after watching the half hour of whatever played on National TV.
Forget iPods, cell-phones or the Internet... It was the time before cable TV. And yet, it was a time of great fun and joy... something which only those in or before 1980 can relate with and understand :)
Two decades are a long time i suppose :)
posted by Pixychik at
9:00 PM
2 Comments
