Born in the 70s but really speaking, I grew up
in the 80s.
Back then, having a bicycle was rare.
We rented them, by the hour.
We paid a few Rupees paise (damn I lived in the age of paisa !!)
50 paise for the hour was it ??
Hop on and the moment your feet touched the pedals, you knew you were in a race
against the clock. That thrill of pedalling like mad, not because you were fit
or competitive but because your 60 minutes were ticking away ?
Priceless.
Fast-forward
to today :
Nobody rents bicycles.
Instead, everyone has at least two cars,
three bikes and maybe even a scooter for the maid.
Yet, we still complain about
“No Parking.”
Zen irony, isn’t it?
The more we accumulate, the more space we lose.
Funny how abundance creates problems that scarcity never had.
The roads we cycled on were narrow, sometimes
barely wide enough for a bullock cart and a bus to squeeze past each other.
But we managed.
Today, the roads are six lanes wide, dotted with flyovers and expressways.
And yet, traffic hasn’t moved an inch faster.
A Zen mystery of modern life : the longer the road,
the longer the jam.
Shopping back then was not a “weekend plan.” It was an adventure.
There were no malls, no air-conditioned food courts, no escalators carrying you
from Zara to Starbucks.
You probably take a bus or a train and head to Fashion
Street or Linking Road.
Half the day gone just getting
there.
And when you finally bought a shirt after bargaining for 20
minutes, it was earned.
That shirt carried a story.
Try
saying that about the fifth T-shirt you casually ordered on sale at midnight on
Amazon.
Movies were rituals too.
We had just 2 theatres.
Single screen !
We went early, stood in line, prayed the “House Full” board
wouldn’t show up.
Most movies were HOUSE FULL for weeks and there were no AI
bots back then !
The real deal was with the “ek
ka bees .. ek ka bess ..corner seat” ruffian who sold the tickets in black ! I paid
more for 1 movie at Gaiety then, than my monthly Netflix subscription today !
Today?
Multiplexes, recliners and OTT platforms mean you have endless choices.
But isn’t it funny? The challenge now isn’t watching a movie.
It’s choosing one before you fall asleep scrolling.
Life in the 80s till late 90s was slower,
scarcer, simpler.
Today, it’s faster, fuller, fancier.
This is what I think though : The
happiness quotient hasn’t really changed.
The joy of a rented bicycle then is no less than the pride of a shiny SUV
today.
The laughter in a single-screen theatre echoed just as loud as the Dolby sound
of an IMAX hall.
So maybe the real evolution isn’t in roads,
malls or cars.
It’s in us.
In how we measure joy.
In how we mistake convenience for happiness.
When I
look back, the smudges of the past, the sweaty cycle rides, the crowded
trains to Churchgate & VT, the sticky samosas in theatres, they all sparkle
with a charm that never fades.
But when
I look around today, the comfort of cars, the ease of malls, the click of a
button to watch any film in the world, there’s beauty here too.
Yesterday was raw, unpolished and full of effort.
Today is smoother, faster and full of choice.
Different flavours, same joy.
Maybe the trick is not to compare but to cherish
both.
Because happiness doesn’t live in decades. It lives in the moment.
That’s the
Yzen way.
What’s one memory from your childhood that still beats
today’s conveniences?
Share one ‘then vs now’ story from your own life. I would
love to hear it.
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