The perks of growing up in a multi-cultural melting pot of a neighbourhood in a secular country in the 1990’s:
✓ Celebrating all the festivals with the same vigour. Greet and wish strangers and passersby. Smiles all around.
✓ Saving some crackers from Diwali for Christmas and New Year’s.
✓ Randomly hugging people and saying “Eid Mubarak“.
✓ Neighbours distribute cake during Christmas, biryani during Eid, sweets/spicy food during Diwali and Sardarji jokes all year round.
✓ Sticking the National Flag on to vehicles and driving around in whites on Independence Day and Republic Day, and wearing blue on days there is an important Cricket match involving India.
✓ Only 239 working days a year. Every third day is a holiday.
✓ And the most important of all- Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, Shah Rukh Khan and A R Rahman.
The sounds of birds (crows, sparrows, cuckoos and mynas) chirping and crowing early in the morning.
And of course, the sound of the dial-up modem.
Big Fun/Center Fresh:
Not that there didn’t exist more choices for youngsters and kids in the chewing gum market (there was Boomer and Big Babol) but we bought a couple of these just for the sake of the cricket card that came along with it.
Maggi noodles:
They have been a hit ever since the 1990s. They were briefly banned and managed to make a comeback!
Gold Spot:
Before Pepsi and Coca Cola entered the market, Gold Spot was the king of “cool” drinks.
Diamond Comics:
Need I say more?
Amar Chitra Katha/Tinkle:
They used to be quite a lot of fun. I’m pretty disappointed they have lost their old world charm these days.
That was indeed a wonderful trip down memory lane. 🙂
