Memoirs of childhood

When I look back at my childhood, I reflect back on the easy going life of 90s. I vividly recollect having shifted from Jamshedpur to Mumbai in 1991. At that time my dad was an employee in an PSU bank, which necessitated this transfer.

90s can be identified with introduction of cable television. I remember at onset we only had five channels, all under ZEE umbrella. But spending endless hours in front of the television was a novelty atleast in the begining, when I was small and had all the time in the world( I still have a lot of time and I have found out newer ways of wasting them). How can I forget Cartoon Network, which was newly introduced at that time, Swat Cats, Tom & Jerry, Captain Planet were some of my favorite shows that I followed religiously. WWF was another craze at that time and so was collecting cards of these stars which we used to gather diligently( I cannot imagine myself doing such things now but I guess I would say the same thing about my current time passes ten years from now).

Life was also cheaper in those days. I remember having bought a sports shoe, somewhere between 1993-1994. It had cost my father 130 bucks, relatively cheap even by show room standards, but I can distinctly recollect only branded shoe available at that time was Action shoes of the Bata brand. Miser as I was I went for the cheapest shoe(The last shoe of mine bought 3 years back set my pocket lighter by 250 bucks from a Delhi street vendor, I suppose street offerings are still relatively cheap.).

At that time, Maruti 800 was a luxury, with majority preferring to go with a second hand Maruti. I remember my father's colleague had bought one for 85,000 bucks in 1994. It was only 3 years old and was considered relatively new. At that time Maruti 1000 was a rich man's car with only one such that in our colony which was relatively affluent. (to be continued)