The Wonder Years

I quite like Mumbai now, despite all the squalor, grime, crowds and the shitty lifestyle that 90% of the population here lead. Its much more user-friendly out here and I find validation every day - whether in office or outside - home still remains a mix of Ranchi and Delhi...:-D

I come from a largely middle class background (though in those days, we revelled in calling ourselves the 'upper middle class') and one day a friend remarked that our children would be so much more luckier than us. Is that really true? I mean I grew up without a lot of luxuries I can lay claim to now, but never feel as if I lost out on significant happinesses in life.

If anything, I feel more previliged than the generations to come in having grown up in an environment where pollution meant only the smoke billowing out once a week out of a distant factory chimney, 180 feet above our heads. I grew up having huge parks to play in, lots of lychee and mango trees to climb up on, yearly melas to spend meagre amounts of pocket money on, being able to have 8 abandoned puppies grow up in a far-off corner of the house, having a garden to potter around and claim gardening as a hobby, seeing my father come home for lunch from office everyday at 1pm (that used to be a time to wrap up all the mischief and go back to being a good, studious boy) and head out on weekends with friends/families for picnics to waterfalls or forests surrounding the city I grew up in.

5pm was a time to head out of home in droves for the park where different areas were sequestered off by different groups for doing their own things.
So while a group of older guys would be playing cricket (this was seasonal...football was the flavour in the monsoons)in a corner, another would be busy doing wheelies or making large skids in the sand with their newly acquired mountain bikes (those had just come in our time and were much smarter-sleeker than the traditional green cycles), a group of younger kids would be playing India-Pakistan across a grassy ditch, throwing seeds of the Lantana bush on each other, some agile ones would be climbing up and monkey-crawling across sturdy poles, a group of girls would be busy making houses from sand or chucking frisbees or just running around, playing catch, hide and seek amongst the many trees or that game called kit-kit which I could never get a hang of, some group would be playing a game called pitto (yeah this was a fave - which involved piling up 8 stones and then 1 team endeavouring to keep the pile intact and the other to hit people of the other team and break the pile with a softball) or generally messing around with the touch-me-not plants.
I've been a part of all these groups in different phases of growing up when 5-7pm every evening was sarcosanct and it was much much more fun than anything kids do now.

On fridays, the club had movie shows and that used to be a fairly popular family meet-up spot. Elders never called up families before going to their houses for an evening meet-up, tea and snacks with loads of discussion on politics, sports and office. Sometimes more than 1 family dropped in and we were recruited hastily to run to the market nearby for getting samosas/grocery replenishments.

Everyone loves to just be in their own coccoons after office these days. When I was growing up, going to other people's houses, entertaining them at yours, inviting many families for a movie on the VCR or having potluck dinners used to be de rigeur.

Family trips to restaurants - which are so common now, used to be a rare occassion on the few family celebration days like anniversaries or a shopping trip to the business centre of the town. We invariably ended up ordering Dosas (later on, Pizzas) - the concept of ordering typical North Indian food was deemed silly - we anyways had that every day at home, and mexican, thai or continental had not made inroads into the sleepy town then. Chinese restaurants were run mostly because of the college-going student population who were exploring more global cuisines and noodles with a lot of soya sauce used to be hot favorites.

The first superbazaar was opened in 1991 and it was quite a novelty to go with your own shopping cart and pick up Daals which had been prepacked and did not have stones in an effort to make more money. The kids used to love hanging around the main counter which had the CCTV. We used to make a monthly trip to this shop which was a 20 minute drive away and the car used to come back laden with cartons and sacks enough to last an army for a while. You couldnt really bunk school because everyone in the town knew from your uniform that you studied at St Xaviers.
And being in class was anyway much more fun.

School was the only place I sang in choirs, learnt to play squash, TT, basketball and practised Karate. Elocution competitions, held once a year used to go for 3 days with all classes suspended for this mega event. Teachers were enormously respected - I could have never dreamed of calling a teacher by his or her name behind their backs till I was in class 10th. Of course, some had nicknames which were part of the school lore.

The bus drivers and conductors knew you by name and also knew your parents. The postman would often drop in on a hot summer day for a cool nimbu-paani and of course, the local grocery shop gave you a month's credit and deliver stuff to your house long before credit cards and free home delivery became such hot concepts.

When TV came, Chitrahaars used to be the time everyone watched TV, dinner was around some serial time and on Sundays, the streets were deserted at Ramayana/Mahabharat time. Sometimes we even watched Krishi Darshan and news for the deaf and dumb. :-)

Life has changed radically even in these small cities now. The kids there now have X-boxes instead of sandboxes. Those who can afford it in Ranchi (and many can, since it is quite a prosperous town - industry and business being the mainstay of the local economy) wear Osh Kosh B'Gosh (whats with the name?) instead of stuff tailored by the local tailor master. Chimichangas have taken over Dosas.

When I was last there, our park had a totally run down look - hardly any kids - most were busy watching cartoon network. The prickly hedges had overrun everything and the grass was upto the knees. Who rides cycles? The youngsters zoom around on bikes.

What do kids in the bigger cities do? I've seen kids in my building skate around in the teeny compound or just sit together, talking. Of course, parents now send them to salsa classes, lawn tennis coaching, painting classes and swimming for developing a well rounded personality. Of course, they watch oodles of TV, laugh at cute cartoons, manically play on consoles, get to ride in big cars without blinking.

Sounds like a lot of fun....but personally, I'd still prefer my childhood:-)...or then, come to think of it, who wouldnt...these ones will, too...so yeah...carpe diem, as ever!