Summer of 90’s

Hi Everyone,

As promised in my promos, I am back with the summer of 90’s. I am sure, lots of people who follow this blog closely are waiting for this article. Well, here is it.

This post might look boring as there are no pictures, but I am sure, you will get that beautiful smile on your faces. Pictures are not added on purpose, so that each reader can capture their beautiful days.

As summer unfolds in Bangalore, I have reasons to get back to the joyful days, very far away from our ever charging laptop; our finger printed androids, to put in a nutshell – away from our busy lives. Yes, I am taking you back to the Bangalore in 90’s to see the colourful life we led during our childhood.

Many days back, I was standing with my colleagues near a Chai Thela (Small tea shop) discussing about the chocolates, referring to the chocolates of 90’s we began to unearth the good old days, infact our best days.

There was a 3 year old boy, he cried and cried a lot; did not allow his parents to watch the movie in a cinema hall. The movie was a blockbuster, remember Qayamat se Qayamat tak? That 3 year old boy was me. I remember my mom saying this to me. And of course I didn’t cry for the tragic ending which the movie had.

My childhood was fun, I used to hate going to school, and I was very shy & silent boy who used to get scared even by the fall of note book. I used to wait for Saturday evenings which most of the times I spent with my uncle (mom’s brother). We both used to watch “Street Hawk” one of the few shows on Doordarshan which made every kid dream to own the bike. I also loved wearing watches, not the Rados, Titans. Those were the colourful plastic wrist watches which we would get from the balloon wala (Balloon Seller). We would go to Majestic (Gandhinagar) to buy the toy cars and some gadgets of the time. Do you remember the water rings game? It had a button with the help of which you push the rings into a stick?

Waking up on Sunday morning was a wonderful feel which is hard to find in these restless days. The day would start with television and end with television. TV was the I-phone of the day, then. Everybody wanted to own a colour TV. As our family was big enough, we had a television set. 8am, I would sit holding the cup of milk in my hand to watch Rangoli, I wouldn’t watch it with all concentration though. I would pull my uncles to play cricket with me when they were deep into TV. I remember watching Mowgli, Chanakya, The sword of Tippu Sultan as well.

Terrace was the place on which we spent most of our evenings, everywhere we would find the coconut trees; it was a scenic beauty at that time. Now I can only see buildings, Namma Metro line, to add the background to it is the famous World Trade Centre (Brigade Gateway) of Bangalore.

The paper boats we used to make and play in the small stream of water running in front of our house in rainy days was the moment everyone would want to cherish. The fascinating touch me not plants. Do you all remember “Naale Baa” hanging in front of our house? The story was like a ghost will knock the doors, and would go away after finding the words “Naale Baa” (Come back tomorrow).

My uncles would take me to Cubbon Park for the Puttani Rail ride, and then we used to have the cotton candy and ice creams, eating corns sitting on the small rocks which we find in the park even today. Even while I think, I feel fantastic and blessed for spending my childhood in this beautiful city. Don’t you think we should get those days back?

Also we used to go to Lal Bhag (Red Garden), the huge lush green trees, glass house; the kempegowda tower is the sight our eye captures even today. Lal Bhag was built by Hyder Ali and Tippu Sultan, the famous warriors of Mysore Kingdom.

The summer of 90’s would be at its best when my mom used to make Rasna and serve it to all of us when we come back home tried.

Coming to Bangalore traffic in 90’s, I remember playing cricket, hide and seek, dog and the bone etc on the empty streets. One would hear the honks rarely. We used to see lots of Bajaj Chetak scooters on the road; in today’s date it’s very rare to have this sight.

As we grew up, our interest grew on cricket; I remember playing cricket on the streets. We made wooden planks or bricks as wickets/stumps. We even ran to save ourselves when we broke window panes of the neighbours, climbed houses, jumped from one roof to another. Those adventurous days and today’s day lying down on a sofa with TV remote on stomach. Incomparable isn’t it?

The game seemed to be big when we started playing in the Navarang ground, just opposite to KLE College in Rajajinagar. As we moved on to cable era we found new channels, television series were emerging out like Antakshari, Saap Seedi etc on TV. We also watched wrestling games (World Wrestling Federation) and started collecting the trump cards too. The evening discussions among the friends were only about their favourite stars on WWF.

Then came the age of video games, believe me we started exploring Gandhinagar at this period. We used to visit National Market, Burma Market near Thribhuvan theatre in search of good cassettes’ for video game. Those yellow lights in front of every shop, the crowded corridors, shop owners calling you “Kya chahiye” (What do you want?) will always remain in my Sandisk, Oh sorry, I meant memory.

The festive time was the best of all; we used to wait for Diwali. Did we? Nah, not exactly, we used to wait for the crackers (fireworks) boxes. It was ecstatic feeling when all the little kids (my friends) used to take out one box at a time and burst the crackers together, we wouldn’t get satisfied with this until we pull out all the gun powder from the left out crackers and fire it all at once.

Can we get these blissful days back, can we get our Bangalore back or it will just remain as memories will depend on us. It is we who chose the lifestyle; it is we who are changing. Hope this article has rejuvenated your memories, now you can put off your laptops/PC’s, tablets and phones. Take a long walk in your neighbourhood and see the changes.

I request you all to keep our city clean and tidy. Like the charity begins at home, cleaning also begins at home. Thanks for your time. We shall meet very soon on one more splendid topic.

Quickly wrapping this post with my heartfelt thanks to all those people who are appreciating and giving so much love on my write-ups and the blog. I am working on so many things to improve this blog. I also take this post as an opportunity to introduce the new page of my blog called “Blissful Stomach” where you get to see the best food straight from our kitchen. Do check that out.

Thanks for visiting and lots of love,

VK