Growing up in 80's - Derrick's MySpace Blog |

Growing up in 80's - Derrick's MySpace Blog |

Growing up in 80's

Most of us born around this time, grew up in the 80's India. It was an India totally different from today. There was no internet, no mobile phones, no cable TV, no 24 hours news channels, in fact nothing which we take granted for today. Mail was still supposed to be written and posted in an envelope. If you had Rs,.20 as pocket money, you were loaded, Rs 50 you were stinking rich, and anything more than Rs.100 you were a millionaire. Movies were strictly regulated by parents, who would decide what to see and what not. Pubs, discotheques, partying were all something which we only read about in magazines like Readers Digest and Time. Fords, Toyotas were something, we could only look at in magazines. We never knew what weekends were, neither did we thank God it was Friday's. We either cycled to school or took the school bus. If some one came to school in a car, or by scooter, we would assume they must be some one. So life must be pretty boring then, na.And all i can say is a big NO. Yes we did not have internet, I-Pod, video games, cable TV. But yeah when the holidays came or when it was Saturday or Sunday, we just went outside and played all day long in the hot sun. We would climb trees, play really rough games like seven stones. We got our knees scraped, clothes dirtied. Unlike the virtual world in which kids spend time today, we spent time in real world. Some of our games were really rough, and yet we managed to come out unscathed. It was the time when our creativity flourished as we made something out of nothing. Discarded cartons became homes, matchboxes turned into cars, note book papers turned into jets or boats. Yes we learnt how to adapt, how to survive and how to be street smart. We are comfortable with computers and calculators, but if by chance all the computers in the world stopped working we would still be comfortable with a pen and paper. And for any simple calculation, we would use a pen, paper and our brains. While we have taken to technology, we have not yet become slaves to it.

We grew up in a time, when we did not care a damn about what caste, class or creed the guy sitting next to us on the school bench belonged to. We cared a damn about what brand of clothes we had or what watch we wore or what kind of shoes to wear. Yeah we did not have multiple brands to fuss over, and thats why i guess we put our brains to better use. And yes we had FRIENDS. We did not need to ring up and take an appointment to meet a friend. We could just barge into his home any time, sleep on his bed, or yell at him to come down while going to school. We did not know that things like space and privacy existed. We did not have web sites dedicated to movies, yet when a movie was released, some one or other would watch it, and the news would spread all around. We spent hours discussing movies we saw, comming up with all kind of weird theories.

Our environment was what shaped us up, We learnt to be more adaptable, more innovative, more creative. Is it any wonder that most of the internet icons like Larry Page( Google), Jerry Yang( Yahoo), Sabeer Bhatia(Hotmail), Jeff Beezos( Amazon) belonged to this generation? We were the ones who went out to different countries, and put our necks on the line, working on various necks. We loved India, yet we were tuned into the global world. We are comfortable with the Net, IPod, Mobile Phones, yet we are not slaves to technology. Sachin Tendulkar, Viswanathan Anand, Leander Paes, Rahul Dravid belong to this generation. As do the Khans, Hrithik Roshan, Akshay Kumar. And in direction the likes of Madhur Bhandarkar, Nagesh Kukunoor, Vishaal Bharadwaj, Ram Gopal Verma to name a few. Hollywood's hottest icons llike Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Russel Crowe, Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman all are part of this Generation. We were the generation that harnessed the powers of the Net, and unleashed its potential in a way, that has totally changed life. We are comfortable with our past and yet still live in the present. And we are ready for future. Today i feel proud of myself belonging to that generation.