The 90s kids
Each generation feels that they were the last ones to thoroughly enjoy the simple pleasures of childhood and pity the generations that came later. Our parents harp about how they played outside all day without being hooked to television sets and reminisce about the joys of growing up in a joint family. Not to be outshone, our grandparents talk about how glorious it was to grow up in villages. We brag about a childhood free from cellphones and video games and get up in the arms about how Tom and Jerry is way superior to Pokemon. The Pokemon generation in turn is nostalgic about beyblades and Pokemon wars.
Here I am, taking my turn to tell you how magical it was to grow up in the early 90s.
We are young enough to not remember a time without television but old enough to have seen black n white tv sets and shudder at the memory of “Doordarshan” only days.
Back then it didn’t matter to us what kind of a house we lived in or what our parents did for a living. We just didn’t know to compare. And though we would get jealous of someone getting more pocket money and cry rivers about that kid in class who bought a “Thums up” at lunch break, it didn’t translate into any kind of a complex. For us kids, there was no such thing as status anxiety. Money definitely didn’t determine self-esteem. We would happily go to a neighbor’s house if they had cable television just so we could watch the terribly dubbed versions of Different Strokes and Small Wonder.
I remember studying for exams in candle light, sweat pouring down my back because there was yet another hours-long power cut, a “kachhua chhaap” mosquito coil lit under the table. A lot of things which seem like discomforts today were simply how we lived. The simplicity with which we accepted them made it easy to bear them and many a times even enjoy them.
Every monsoon, after a day of particularly heavy rain, the streets would get completely water logged. Sometimes schools closed down declaring it a rainy day. Those couple of unplanned holidays were the most cherished. Sometimes, it would start raining after the school day had already begun. By the time dismissal rolled around, the streets would be clogged with knee deep water. Those few lucky kids who commuted by cars felt extremely privileged unless their car stalled in the middle of the road (which was a fairly common occurrence). Many of us lived close by and walked to school. We literally waded through the water trying to remember where the potholes were and doing our best to stay clear of them. The water would be muddy and you couldn’t see what was in it (probably a good thing!). The beautiful fresh rain water mixed with the mud and cow dung lying on the streets, open drains every now and then adding to this mix … and hundreds of kids gleefully wading through it, too young and carefree to worry about what they were getting exposed to. We didn’t care about germs! Necessity had steeled us in the face of insects and rodents as well. Water snakes were my one big fear but thankfully I never encountered any.
I remember one such occasion when a rainy day was declared. Just after the principal declared the day a holiday and we gleefully returned home, the rain slowed down to a drizzle and then stopped. We were ecstatic! The rain gods themselves had conspired with us kids to outsmart the brutal regime.
The roads were mostly clear with some big inviting puddles. Together with my partner in crime, who lived right across the street, I decided to sail paper boats in those puddles. We quickly made a dozen or so tiny boats out of newspaper (that was another thing you did back then!) and armed with them, we went to look for the biggest puddle. We picked a quiet side road that was mostly used by pedestrians, bicyclists, stray dogs and cows — cows that would walk around the colony all day eating the grass from the fields.
We found the biggest puddle and put a couple of boats in, using twigs to make them go faster. A few minutes later, we saw two boys on bicycles come in our direction. They were a lot older than us, about 17 or 18. We fully expected them to go around the puddle as most of the road was clear. But to our dismay, they went right through the puddle, splashing us and sinking our boats as we hastily tried to run out of the way. The two ruffians sailed through the puddle and looked back at us smirking and high fiving each other. I could feel my ears burn. Without thinking, I grabbed a stone lying nearby and flung it at them. It didn’t even hit anywhere close to them but suddenly we froze as they started swearing and turned their bicycles around speeding towards us. That moment of terror will forever be etched in my mind! Patna had not yet become the cesspool of political clout and police corruption that it would go on to be, but there were murmurs of days that were soon to come. We knew that it was entirely possible for two 18 yr old boys to chase down two pre-teen girls and thrash them in the middle of the street in broad daylight.
We flew back home, fumbled to close the gate behind us and didn’t feel safe till we were hiding inside my friend’s room. She was furious with me. It’s a testament to our friendship that she didn’t throw me out of her house. I tried to pass it off with nonchalance and false bravado but internally, I was shaking. Fortunately or unfortunately, this lesson wasn’t enough to scare us/scar us enough and within a few days we were back to our usual ways just loitering around looking to see what would entertain us next.
By grade 6, we were very much into reading. Most of our class had finished the Famous Five books and moved on to Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys. Our school had a huge library, and kid-detective trope was extremely popular with us. One day, the aforementioned friend and I decided that we would become detectives and with full confidence, started looking for a mystery. For the next 2–3 days, we scoured the streets of the colony looking for anything vaguely suspicious.
Fortunately for us, we didn’t have to wait too long. We came across a couple loudly quarreling in the street. We could make out that the lady worked as a household help in some house and the guy seemed to be her husband. I don’t know why we decided that he looked like a person of interest but we decided to follow him. After the argument, the guy went on his way and we followed him for some distance before playtime was up and we had to report back home.
The next day, we were super excited. I had taken a new notebook to my friend’s house and we made various headings on a page like “Clues”, “Suspects” etc. The only thing missing was the actual mystery! We started roaming around that spot around the same time. Soon, the lady came and went to the house. To our triumph, the man arrived soon after. And then, to our absolute delight, he climbed a tree and hid in it! Nobody really noticed loitering kids back then. With bated breath, we waited for something to happen while pretending to take a walk or play a fake game. Constantly looking at our watches, we were willing the lady to come out or some drama to unfold. Playtime was drawing to a close! 5 mins passed… 10 mins… It was starting to get dark and we were getting very impatient. And then I saw someone turn around the corner. Definitely a person of much interest! My grandmother was looking for us with a thoroughly annoyed expression on her face. Unwillingly, listening to a lecture on responsibility and the importance of time, we were marched back home.
That night my mother discovered the notebook. Immediately, I was dragged to my friend’s house and our families became the real detectives as they made us confess to what we had been up to. We were both grounded for a week. By then, the fever of the mystery was over and we got busy doing the next “in thing”. Whatever that might be, it was guaranteed to be awesome! It was the 90s after all!
