In Part 1, I dwelled upon how the 90s were a time of great change in India, as our nation started reducing the development gap vis-a-vis the Western world and saw transformations on many fronts. I took a narrow perspective of the situation - pop culture driven - but I do feel that pop culture gives a fairly decent view to the society's soul, and dare I say, the Aam Aadmi's soul. As I mentioned then, I originally intended Part 1 to be along the lines of We Didn't Start the Fire, but decided to move that to Part 2. And thus, here we are.
Anybody who has grown up in India in the 90s, should first read this and then realize that each of us have our own impression of the 90s, characterized by fond memories - maybe not large in number, but definitely clear as yesterday. For some, they were the shows on TV and the characters that were idolized and imitated. For others, the products sold in the 90s, that went out of fashion soon after, but are still in memory. If I were to ask you write down the first 10 things that come to your mind at the mention of the 1990s, each of us will take a trip to our happy place and will come up with our own version of why the decade was so awesome. A natural extension to this was, what if someone sat down and tried to chronologically order these memories, into a timeline of events? Maybe try and put a date onto these memories, to get a basic impression of how those formative years progressed. So, I began this experiment and tried to recollect events/memories from different years of the decade. The strategy was to pen down the first few recollections and move on to the next year, lest a soppy memoir start taking shape. As you can imagine, most recollections are on a personal level so a Manorama Yearbook is unlikely to manifest itself in the following paragraphs. A lot of common themes will be found: Sports, Movies and Television, all being major constituents of my daily calendar. Let the time travel begin!
1993: Earliest first-hand recollections. Other memories all second-hand accounts from the past. Most memories cricket-related. Expected. Remember the Hero Cup, and that over from Tendulkar. Kumble runs through the West Indies in the final, 6-12. Eden Gardens celebrates Diwali, again. The year of Darr and Baazigar. SRK comes of age. All the rage in town. Stumbled upon this recently. Sign of things to come? Flop Show reruns on TV. Originally aired in 1989. Discovered many years later that only 10 episodes were ever shot. Hugely surprised. Funny since Day 1. Zee TV showed Saanp Seedi, with a life-size board on which they played Snakes and Ladders, for real. High amazement levels. Sunday nights meant Superhit Muqabla, on TV. Among the many, many excellent shows on DD Metro.
1994: First full year of memories. Many great movies. Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa. Watched it on VCR. Mohra. Raveena Tandon, the mast mast cheez. Could not take a bus trip without the song being played. Andaz Apna Apna. Watched it first a few years later, though. Wasn't a box office hit. Ha! Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, perhaps the first visit to a movie theatre. Simply could not comprehend where the dog got the brains to carry the note to the right person. First introduction to the amazing ways of Bollywood. This was all over the charts. Songs like these are seen in a new light, when you watch the video again, as an adult. Over in the cricketing world, one Sachin Tendulkar is invited to open the batting in an ODI, after 5 years of playing in the middle order. The rest is well documented. WWE enters life in a big way. Trump cards are what the cool boys play. Also leads to owning Cricket trump cards and Aircraft trump cards. Distinct memories of comparing wingspans. Watched WWE pay-per-views on video cassettes. Earliest recollection of a match. Had to be WrestleMania. Toothpick usage increases, courtesy Razor Ramon. Dad gifts toy championship belt on Birthday, made of weird plastic/polymer thingy. Wore it, ALL.THE.TIME.
1995: This happened, I recall. Exciting series, based on description on TV. West Indies' home matches go on way past midnight. The ONLY excuse to stay up late at night. Dad, a perfect partner in crime. Big Fun chewing gum comes up with its own line of cricket cards. High consumption ensues. Mom not happy. Sid Monga refers to the said phenomena in this gem. Worth your while, reading that. Earliest recollection of book cricket, where your inner cricketer could find expression, albeit artificially. Favorite pastime for a long time. DDLJ. Discover few years later that Senorita is not a first name. The defining movie of the decade, perhaps. Seniors in school bus discuss Santa Barbara, Beverly Hills 90210 and Baywatch, new entrants to the Indian TV market, courtesy Star TV. Wonder what the fuss is all about. Puberty still a few years away. Some brilliant shows on TV. Hum Paanch, Dekh Bhai Dekhand Zaban Sambhal Ke. Early inclination towards sitcoms.
1996: This happens on 1st Jan 1996. Begin admiring Aussie cricket and Channel 9 broadcasting. World Cup heartbreak at the Eden Gardens. Shocked to see Kambli in tears. Jayasuriya's annus mirabilis. Fastest 100, Fastest 50, using a spring-laden bat. Jury still out on the last one. Dada makes a debut hundred at Lord's. Prince of Cal-koot-ah is born. First ever Sahara cup, in Toronto. Raja Hindustani is the hit movie of the year. Long Kissing scene. Don't remember watching it. The movie theatre could have cut the scene from the print, maybe. First experience of the brilliantly made, The Crystal Maze. Anyone who has all seasons, please contact. Host looked like a Bollywood sci-fi villain. Had also watched Mr. India and Shaan in a similar time frame. Confusion all around. The interestingly named Omung Kumar hosted the popular 'Ek Minute', with the sequel being 'Aur Ek Minute'. Got introduced to Contra, Pole Position and ExciteBike, at the local "video game parlor". Much time pass, and time waste. Further compounded by Disney Hour, I dream of Jeannie and Small Wonder. Started stocking up on Khushboo wale pens.
1997: Lovely English teacher in School. Each one of us probably has an "English Teacher" story from school. Start listening to Indipop; Sony and Zee give it a lot of airtime. The beginnings of music appreciation. Want to watch cartoons before school. Sis overrides it with a news program. Says it's good for you. No idea whatsoever. Sachin is captain of the cricket team. Results not as expected. Good job giving it up within a year. Border released. Too crowded, had to watch it from the third row. Bye-bye neck. Remember Gupt being a hit. Had no idea females could be villains. Eye-opener. Dil to Pagal Hai. Crazy dance-off scene when Karishma gets really jealous and dances despite a sprained ankle. Very watchable.This song heard a lot in the school bus. Boys teasing the girls. Seemed funny then, maybe not so much now. Shakitmaan illuminates television. Much wondrous viewing. Creative character names. Everyone hooked. Faked stomach ache to avoid school and watch cricket match. Mom totally buys it. Sorry Shaktiman! Some great shows on TV. Just Mohabbat, Antakshari and Aahat, to name a few. Major Bret 'The Hitman' Hart fan following. 'The Best there is, The Best there was, the Best there ever will be'. Truer words never uttered.
1998: Salman discards shirt, for O O Jane Jana. Much hoopla. Bollywood ages by a few years. Aamir Khan's singing debut with Aati Kya Khandala. Heard everywhere. No, seriously. Friend tries to use it as a pick-up line, girl starts crying and goes home. Awkward dinner table, he reveals later. Movie of the year is Kuch Kuch Hota hai. Everyone buys the C-O-O-L neck chain. Too much, I tell you. And of course, the "Friendship Band" hysteria. High school crush gives friendship band to some other boy. Much sadness. Strange happenings, left side of the chest. Too ignorant to comprehend. Curse Karan Johar for popularizing the concept. Best year for SRT fans. Midas touch, and all that. Two Sharjah innings. Aussies bested throughout the year. Join Tony Greig fan club. Top, top commentator. Knowledgeable, articulate and excitable. Had it all. Movers and Shakers, with Shekhar Suman doing great Laloo Yadav and Vajpayee impressions. India's first late-night talk show. Finally OK to stay awake till 11. WWE fever at all-time high. Great time to be an enthusiast. D-X, The Rock and Stone Cold. Saw many email ids in the future, containing '316'. Hugely entertaining Royal Rumble. Stone Cold eliminates the people's champ, over the top rope. Jim Ross roars,'Stone Cold! Stone Cold, is going to WrestleMania!'. Goosebumps. Stone Cold, the South Park to Bret Hart's Seinfeld. Too frickin' difficult to separate.
1999: Lot of memories. Lee-hesh make it to the finals of all four grand slams. F1 season sees some great action, courtesy Hakkinen, Schumi and Coulthard. Interest stoked in Cars. Kumble takes all 10 at Kotla. First time exposure to FTV on television. Ahem. God bless the cable-wallah. Aamir Khan shines in Sarfarosh. Rehman's magic in Taal. One of the better Bollywood soundtracks. Comedy becomes a mainstream genre. Govinda, Kader Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Paresh Rawal and Johnny Lever, in different combinations. Hip Hip Hurray on TV. Regular watching. Garfield in the afternoon on Cartoon Network. Must-watch stuff after school. MasterCard Family Fortunes, with Roshan Abbas. Another gem. Scooby Doo's All Star Laff-a-lympics. Muttley. Best.Laugh.Ever. Major Video game phase. 64 in 1. Sega. Some great games. Y2K hysteria all around. No computers panicked. Still alive. First recollection of Internet usage. Just realized that lived on both sides of the Internet age - before and after. Enough material for a new post. Maybe later. Made email accounts all over the place. Too embarrassing to reveal. Yahoo Messenger chat rooms. ASL? End of the innocence era. Yet to hear about IIT. Good times.
Wow, some trip, this. Try it out!
