23 September 2009

'When We Were Kids...'

If you're a new comer to Laptop Diary, please read the Introduction...

I'm sure you can relate to this. Has it ever happened that you're eating lunch with your family, or watching T.V. together one evening, when the elders around you say something like, "What all happens in this generation. When we were kids..."

And so it begins.

It's fascinating at first to hear that your grandfather lived in a village. Its even funny when they tell you about how they would play in the mud and splash around in the water, (though a bit scary when you realise they never had Lifebuoy around...)

But after a while, it's infuriating when your dad tells you that he walked 5 kilometers to school everyday, everyday! So I wondered how it would be if we could get a turn instead, to talk about how it was when 'We Were Kids...'


Life was good back then. Most of us spent our childhoods, playing amazing games on revolutionary game consoles like the Playstation.

Our teenage years were spent, almost always next to the computer. We chatted with total strangers in MSN Messenger, sometimes until they became our closest friends. We made accounts in social networking sites like Orkut and Facebook. For a while, it seemed as though the 11th Commandment was 'Thou Shall try to get as many scraps as possible'. Some of us had friends all over the globe, from Argentina to Germany to Japan.

We photographed every important event of our lives, and some, sadly, photographed even the unimportant ones. Pictures of Birthday parties, Summer trips, Weekend Stay-overs....everything was uploaded for everyone to see. All of us felt important, as though everyone else wanted to know what we had to say. So we updated our status every other day. What's more, we read every one Else's status updates. We let everyone know when we were happy, we sulked publicly when we were sad. We sought comfort when we were depressed, we swore publicly when we were pissed off...

We had friends. Loads of them. We had friends whom we'd never ever seen in person. We had friends who were actually our friends' friends. We had friends who wished us on our birthdays, we had friends who forwarded mails every time. Then we had friends whom we messaged often. There were other friends who we'd call often. We messaged each other at every time of the day, left scraps, gave miscalls. We were never out of touch, unless we wanted it that way.

We watched movies. Not once a month. Not even once a week. We watched a movie whenever we wanted. We watched movies like the Titanic and Lord of the Rings, which left us spellbound. We watched movies like the Matrix, that dazzled our senses. We watched movies like Spiderman and The Dark Knight. We memorized movie scenes, by hearted (actually learnt by heart!) movie dialogues.

We witnessed historic events. We stared in horror at our television screens, as two planes crashed into two towers. We cried when we saw people being slaughtered in war. We shook our heads in despair as bombs ripped across cities all over the world. We worried about death, yet faced it bravely. Earthquakes, floods and hurricanes came, but we stood strong and brave. Even a Tsunami washed away our cities, but not our courage.

We watched as horrible leaders like Saddam Hussain were disposed, ironically, by other incompetent leaders like George Bush. After years of Anti-Americanism, we were mesmerized by the speeches of a man born to a Kenyan man, and a woman from Kansas. For the first time, almost all over the world, we applauded the victory of Barack Obama.

Then there were those days when we counted the months, weeks, hours and minutes, camping outside bookstores so that we could get our first copies of the latest Harry Potter book. Newspapers and Television channels around the world covered the story as millions of us hoped that Harry Potter would survive. And he did.

Perhaps most important of all, we lived in the generation of 'Greats'. We got the unique chance of watching Michael Jordan soar to slam a basket,Tiger Woods swing a drive, Sachin Tendulkar send yet another ball out of the stadium, Roger Federer lift Grand Slam after Grand Slam after Grand Slam. We bid good bye to Michael Schumacher after he won everything there was to win. We said 'Well Done, Michael', 'Good going Michael', 'Keep it up Michael', 'Excellent Michael', 'Unbelievable, Michael!'...until we smiled and simply said, 'Wow, Michael Phelps. Wow.'

Perhaps even more importantly, we were mesmerized by a Jamaican, who sailed across a race track as though he was out for a jog. Usain Bolt became the fastest man ever, and we witnessed it.

It was exciting back then. We used the Ipod and the Internet, to hear the music of Britney Spears, Eminem, Linkin Park and Coldplay...without paying a single cent. New Superstars were born, and we regretted the death of the biggest pop star of all time. Michael Jackson.

Years from now, we'll be asked about these times. They'll want to know how it was back in the early 2000s'. And this is perhaps what we'll say....about the time when 'We Were Kids...'

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16 comments:

  1. yup and then someone would laugh at the other end :)

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  2. And then, after you finish telling this to your grandchildren, they will go on to the internet, and post in the same way, what experience in their day to day life!
    True, but your post proves that, as the generations begin to increase, man becomes more and more mechanical.

    Cheers!

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  3. Awesome, this was just so cool !!!!

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  4. Lol, that sums up our entire lives I guess. Btw, whats the difference between by hearted and learnt by heart? :S
    "Even a Tsunami washed away our cities, but not our courage."
    Nice line.

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  5. eda.. this is really good..
    the starting kinda sucked, but the idea of us telling the next generation about how awesome our childhood was.. and the thought of how they would swear at us under thier breath like we do now..:D
    its awesome...:D

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  6. think i'm gonna save this post for my kids to read..saves me the trouble of having to say all that..plus...i cudnt have said all that as beautifully as u did...
    Good one, mate!

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  7. Cool post Musthafa..you were right about our teenage times but i guess times of our childhood were spent more playing games outside rt..and wondering what our kids would have to tell theirs??!!

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  8. dude wat abt this:We saw a new millennium star..the greatest 21st century at its first!!
    neways nyc to red..lol..to kno we r so jjobless..lol

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  9. @New Beginning: Yup, they may laugh. But I'm sure they'll also be a little amazed by everything we have to say...

    @Pawan: Hmm....never realised the mechanical side of it....but yes, our grandchildren will write about how awesome their childhoods are. But I really hope our generation turns out to be more fun...:)

    @Shalini: Thank you...

    @Rejin: Well, learnt by heart is the proper usage. And thanks for the line. Even I thought it was quite gud!

    @Shahbaz: Dude, thanks for the critic....I rewrote the starting a few times...and changed the tone of things half way through I guess....but yes, the idea of it all, sounds kinda kool right?

    @Ms. A: Well thats a sweet compliment. Tell you what, why dont I keep blogging till then so that you dont have to save the post? Lol....btw, welcome back!

    @Anonymous: Yah, I just realised that childhoods werent just spent playing video games. You're right about the outdoor games...

    @Rocky: Point noted Rocky....the post isnt complete yet....must be lots more to add...

    @Pawan: Ah, sorry about the lack of replying dude. Its a bad habit of mine. At first thought that replying to comments merely inflates the comment counts. But yes, I will reply...thanks for the reminder!

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  10. Keep inflation aside, but once you start replying you will receive better quality of comments!

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  11. I can only imagine what the next generation would be telling their kids...but that doesnt sound too good.

    I guess our generation had it good huh?
    Playstation beats playing-in-the-mud anyway!
    :D

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  12. this is really true...i was actually thinking bout such a situtaion...tats wen i read ur post...must say gud thinking.....its a kool post....not the message giving or the one with the moral but the one that conveys all of our childhood in one whole page which is simply awsome.....gud going bro....keep writing waitin for more!!...

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  13. Interesting. We have witnessed quite a lot of wonderful things in our lives already. I wonder how many more great experiences we would have had by then. Wonderful post! ^ ^

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  14. I can only imagine what the next generation would be telling their kids...but that doesn't sounds too good.

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  15. If you have 4 kids can your husband husband claim two and wife claims the other two kids?

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