Remember the time?

Music cassettes and two-in-ones

Phones that didn’t ring for months

Phantom & Bahadur, Diana & Bela

Fun fairs & circus, disco & mela

bahadurphantom

Family doctors who made home visits

Silent comedians who kept us in splits

Neighbourhood tailor & buying cut piece

Only a few hundreds for school fees

tailor-ny-timeschaplin

Annual visits to ‘native place’

No Byju’s Classes, Kota or PACE

‘My colony-vs-your colony’ matches

Action in the gullies, passion in The Ashes

Indian Railwayscricket-by-ajay-kalwaniya

Buying ice-cream sticks from a pushcart

Teenage crushes, till dads did us part

Playing hide & seek, rummy & bluff

Blowing away the worries, few paise a puff

 

Home kitchens dishing out fresh meals

No Dominos, KFC or McDeals

Mum’s cooking in love & pure ghee

Worth a thousand ‘likes’, not calorie

mums-cooking-1mums-cooking-2

The first refrigerators were a rage

Some were Allwyn some Godrej

Binary choices, no Flipkart or mall

No full page ads, no promises tall

allwyn_refrigerators-wikipediaold-telerad-tv

Chasing your dreams, no matter what

No fear of trolls or getting caught

Bombay ka ‘bhai’, Madras ka ‘anna

Both crying in bed for Vasu & Sapna

ekdujekeliye

Rare outings to eat ‘thali meals

Premier Padmini, your biggest set of wheels

Holding hands, walking to school

Kaali Peeli’ an exception, BEST – the rule

kaalipeelibest-from-dna

Watching Sunday ‘blockbuster’ on DD

Enjoying ‘Talkies’, no Dolby or 3D

Charming newsreaders, no Arnab or Prannoy

Salma (Sultan) & Komal (GB Singh) – so demure, so coy 😉

salmadoordarshankomalgbsingh

Soulful melodies, not files in megabytes

‘Eastmancolor’ after silent black & whites

Srikkanth’s sixers peeling off the Pakis’ colour

Skylab crashing on Bombay and all that horror

skylabsrikanth

Jaimala & Akashwani, no Red FM

The odd Walkman, few could afford ‘em

Campa Cola, Gold Spot & Dukes lemonade

Rasna & matka paani, who needs Gatorade

 

Noisy alarm clocks with no snooze

Good clean fun, no ciggies no booze

Fountain pens, Nataraj pencil & Chelpark ink

Waterbury’s Red Label – if you must drink!

alarm-clockwaterburys-compound

Days were bright, nights were starry

No flights to catch, no PPTs to carry

Slow n noisy fans, growing up ‘non-AC’

How we needed one, but it never came easy

 

Then came Moore’s law, internet & twitter

Hours on phone & laptop we chose to fritter

Don’t get me wrong, I like my devices

But how I miss the younger me, the older vices!

 

Oh! It’s a new year, let’s not fret over what’s past!

Spread a little cheer; slow down you’re going too fast

May your ship of dreams never run aground

Love people & use devices, no other way around

********************

©KP Sanjeev Kumar, 2016. All rights reserved. All pictures scanned from personal collection or Wikimedia commons.

15 thoughts on “Remember the time?

  1. You are a wonderful writer with a great flair for the written word. I have always enjoyed reading all your works. Love… an ardent admirer

  2. Thanks for taking me down the memory lane…
    Life is nothing but good old memories.Wonderful penned down almost all the good things we enjoyed…
    Pleasure reading KPS…
    Thanks

  3. You know that when your mom’s been telling you to read the new article on the kps blog for the past few days, something gold awaits you.
    Love the flair of writing, sir. 😉
    Lookin out for the next one!

  4. Awesome write up
    ..very nostalgic ..cudnt stop smiling as i was reading thru…walked down the memory lane of my school days.. beautifully penned each n every minute details…so much of home work u do…amazinnnnng….loved reading…ATB n heartiest congrats

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