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Remember those 'good old days' (aka the Eighties - yes I am getting old) when we had...

Doordarshan and...

... Doordarshan' s Screensaver!

Malgudi Days

Dekh Bhai Dekh

Ramayan and Mahabharat

Bharath Ek Khoj

Alif Laila

Byomkesh Bakshi

Tehkikaat

Mile Sur Mera Tumhara

Surabhi : Renuka Sahane and Siddharth

Fauji and Circus were bigger hits than a certain SRK
and then were 'Mungerilal ke hasin sapane', '
Karamchand', 'Nukkad' and 'Vikram Betal'...

Cartoons meant He Man

...and Cricket meant Gavaskar and Kapil Dev.

Hockey was still the national sport

Salma Sultana was still reading news on DD...


... and we watched Turning Point
and The World This Week.

Advertisments were...

Vicco turmeric, Nahin cosmetic
yeh hai Vicco turmeric ayurvedic cream
I'm a Complan Boy(Shahid Kapoor) and I'm a Complan Girl (Ayesha Takia)
Surf ki kharidari mein hi samajhdari hai

Washin powder Nirma, Washing powder Nirma Doodh si safedi, Nirma se aayi Rangeen kapde bhi khil khil jaaye

Truly, the world has changed and we also changed for the world! How did one survive growing up in the 80's?

We had no seatbelts, no airbags. Cycling was like a breath of fresh air… (I got my first cycle when I was 5 years old complete with training wheels - and when I turned 13, I remember all my relatives pooled in money to buy me the latest rage - A shiny red Hero Ranger!) There were no safety helmets, knee pads or elbow pads, but still we raced arounf carefree… and we were fearless on our bicycles even when the brakes failed going downhill!

We could stay out to play for hours, as long as we got back before dark, in time for dinner… (From Cricket to pittoo, football to "Ice-Spice" aka "I Spy", nothing could come in my way from palying 4-6pm each day!) When thirsty we only drank tap water, bottled water was still a mystery… We kept busy collecting bits & pieces so we could build all sort of things and we showed off how tough we are, by how high we could climb trees & then jumping down….It was great fun. (I could actually do this!) We lost teeth, broke arms & legs, we got cuts and bruises and bloody noses…. nobody complained as we had so much fun, it wasn't anybody's fault, only ours...

We walked to school, or sometimes we even rode our bicycle - at best took the school bus (the school bus rides are still those most remember most fondly!) - We had no mobile phones, but we always managed to find each other... How?

We ate everything in sight, cakes, bread, chocolate, ice-cream, sweet sugary drinks, fruits..yet, we stayed skinny by fooling around. (Well most did!) And if one of us was lucky to get a 1 litre Thumsup bottle, we all had a swig from it & guess what? Nobody picked up any germs...

We did not have Play Stations, MP3, Nintendo's, I-Pods, Video games, 99 Cable TV channels, DVD's, Home Cinema, Home Computers, Laptops, Chat-rooms, Internet, etc ... BUT, we had REAL FRIENDS!!!! We called on friends to come out to play, never rang the doorbell, just went around the backdoor - We played with sticks and stones, played Chor-Police, hide and seek, soccer games, over and over again… and when we failed our exams we were given a second chance by simply repeating the same grade…without visiting psychiatrists, psychologists or counselors… Such were the days!

We had freedom, success, disappointments and responsibilities... Most of all, we learned to respect others. Are YOU from that generation? If that's the case, maybe this post will help you forget the stress that surrounds us these days and just for a few moments will put a smile to your faces as you remember what life was really like in the good old days - those were the days, eh? And here's a list of stuff that truly defines the generation - see how many apply to you and find out whether you too are getting old (like me!)...

1. Though you would not publicly acknowledge this now, but at the age of 5-8 years, you were very proud of your first “Bellbottom” or your first “Maxi” - False

2. Phantom & Mandrake were your only true heroes. You can also nod your heads to names like Tinkle, Chandamama, Champak, Lot-Pot, Nandan. The brainy ones read “Competition Success Review”. - True

3. You took pride in turning to the back page of your latest Amar Chitra Katha and ticking off yet another title. How many ever you ticked, you still had many to go. - True

4. Your “Camlin” geometry box & Flora pencil was your prized possession and you actually have dissected a frog with your Biology Box! - True

5. The only “Holidays” you took were to go to your grandparents’ or your cousins’ houses. - True

6. Ice-cream meant only – either an orange stick, a vanilla softy in a cone or at most – a Choco-Bar if you lived in a swanky town.- True

7. Your father owned a Chetak or a Rajdoot. Your first family car (and the only one) was an Ambassador or a Fiat (Premier Padmini). This often had to be pushed by the entire family to get going. - True but the last part is thankfully false!

8. The glass windows in the back seats used to get stuck at the two-thirds down level and used to irk the hell out of you! The window went down only if your puny arm could manage the tacky rotary handle to pull it down. Locking the door was easy. You just whacked the other tacky, non-rotary handle downwards. - True

9. If your dad was the comfort-oriented kinds, you had a magnificent small fan upfront, below which screwed to the board was the cassette player - True

10. Your parents were proud owners of HMT watches. You “earned” yours after 8th or the 10th standard exams.- True - I got mine in Class 5 actually!

11. You have been to “Jumbo Circus”/ “Gemini Circus”; you held your breath while the pretty young thing in the glittery skirt did acrobatics, quite enjoyed the elephants hitting football, the motorcyclist vrooming in the “Maut ka Gola” and it was politically okay to laugh your guts out at dwarfs hitting each others bottoms!- True


12. You had at least once heard “Hawa Mahal” on the radio, and used to look forward to “Binaca Geet Mala” from Ceylon Radio every Wednesday with the unforgettable Ameed Sayani voice - True

13. If you had a TV, it was normal to expect the neighborhood to gather around to watch the Chitrahaar (Wednesday) or the Sunday movie. If you didn’t have a TV, you just went to a house that had the TV. It mattered little if you knew the owners or not. - True

14. Sometimes the owners of these TVs got very creative and got a bi or even a tri-coloured anti-glare screen which they would attach with two side clips onto their Weston TVs. That was a make-do “colour TV”, and would confuse the hell out of you! - True!

15. Black & White TVs weren’t so bad after all because cricket was played in whites. - True

16. You thought your Dad rocked because you got your own (the family’s; not your own own!) colour TV when the Asian Games started (and Appu became a overnight celebrity). Everyone else got the same idea as well and ever since, no one came over to your house and you didn’t go to anyone else’s. - True

17. You dreaded the death of any political leader because of the mourning they would announce on the TV. After all how much “Shashtriya Sangeet” can a kid take? Salma Sultana (with that big flower behind her ear) didn’t smile either during the mourning. - True

18. You knew that “Indira Gandhi” was somebody really powerful and terribly important. And that’s all you needed to know. - True (and have some scary memories of the time just after her assassination!)

19. The only “Gadgets” in the house were the TV, the Two-in-one, the Fridge and the Mixie. - True

20. All the gadgets had to be duly covered with a crochet covers and sometimes even with ingenious, custom-fit plastic covers. - True



21. Movies meant Amitabh Bachchan. Before the start of the movie you always had to watch the obligatory “newsreel”. - True

22. You thought you were so rocking because you knew almost all the songs of Abba, BoneyM, Michael Jackson and Madonna because you had worn out the cassettes! - True

23. You couldn’t contain your happiness when you suddenly had knowledge of Grammy Awards and Tina Turner, Cyndi Lauper & (OMG!!)… even Michael Jackson became familiar names. - True

24. School teachers, your parents and even your neighbours could whack you – and it was all okay. - True (but sad!)

25. Clicking a Photograph was a big thing. You were lucky if your family owned a camera (HotShot, perhaps). A reel of 36 exposures was valuable hence it justified the half hour preparation & “setting” & the “posing” for each picture. Therefore, you have at least one family picture where everyone is holding their breath and standing at attention! - True

Wow! 22.5/25 on that list were true for me... !

(Was sent this forward a few days back - enjoyed it so much that had to customize and post it...)