It all started when one of my friends and colleague commented on the sony TV I had - " isn't it time to get a bigger one" ? I just didn't reply coz there was a flurry of thoughts that overtook me - it was a 32" LCD TV and considering the first TV we had in our family - a BPL SANYO 14" black n white one with a pair of overhead antenna. This one was BIG..
THEN:
my mind wandered to all the things my dad as a central govt employee had bought us and also the upbringing we had and what and how the bar will be set for my now quickly growing 7 month old junior. My usual day started at 0630 and then watching my dad working on his small kitchen garden before he left for work, then the usual 'getting ready for school' and the highlight was the fight for the socks with the elastic bands still intact , with my sisters . I was very particular of dressing up right for school - well pressed clothes , polished shoes and right socks.
After that there used to be a 20 minute brisk walk to my school - be it rain or shine used to walk the distance with my friends till standard 9 where i used to take my Dad's second hand bicycle , feeling very proud about it.
I loved sports at school and used to play almost everything from volleyball, Table tennis, cricket , soccer to basketball .. during our summer vacation for the coaching camp we needed to have sport shoes , bats and racquets. I pleaded with my dad to get me a pair of shoes and was looking for getting a pair of "power" shoes then endorsed by ace cricketer Kapil Dev. After much convincing I know my dad somehow bought me that shoe but I had to feel content with the base brand for the Table tennis bat and had to live with a loaned cricket bat for that summer.
After playing a couple of matches in hot Trichy sun , some of my effluent friends would invite for a cold drink which was a total luxury to me that time coz my dad hated the cola family and was right on saying 'carbonated drinks' are not good for health. So it used to be those times or when my uncle visited us from Chennai I would get a chance to taste the 'tabooed' drink..
I was about to join standard 10 when there were a 3 major milestones in my life - i owned a parker pen and a watch which were gifts from my grandpa for having done well in academics ; the last one was that i removed my moustache with my dad's rustic shaving set..
One of our other pastime was to go swimming and fishing at a irrigation canal which was like a 45 minutes walk/run from our school. We used to swim in our undies and then with a self made fishing rod which was essentially twine, a stick long enough, and a hook (which was the only thing bought from a store) and then bait which we found from the muddy beach nearby. And then fish for the finger-fish (so tiny).. those days were those with all these memories , trying to put perspective on those in my current picture is the 'NOW' part below
NOW:
The picture is after 2 decades...I have a LCD 32" television, an Xbox with Kinect , a roku player and a Lenovo state of the art "all in one" desktop, iphone to keep me connected and an epad for bedtime viewing. I was even thinking of acquiring the 50" TV which was up for sale during this black friday..I just held back to that blue trying to overtake my red..
I have a whole bunch of branded socks in my wardrobe - separated out for training, official mon thru thu and Friday ones . I have an array of shoes to chose from which includes all good brands - which is really a big contrast to what I had and what i wanted 20 years ago...I also own an array of sports equipment and can surely afford the best of table tennis bats and after a tiresome day if I need something cool I just have to open my refrigerator door which has been
packed with unnecessary liquids in all forms
I work downtown and my good SUV takes care of me travelling in luxury - heated leather seats for the winter, auto climate control and Bose speakers to give me company when am driving solo. I now do my facial hair removal in the laziest way possible by using a electric 100$ Philips razor and does it do any good than my dad's - your guess is as good as mine. Yes one thing has not changed I try to dress neat and now I have an array of watches to chose from too - my
grandpa if he was alive now needs to find a new kind of watch to gift if he were to excite me.
The fishing pastime has never changed and even now we go out fishing in Minnesota and I do have two fishing rods of great quality and we do buy the bait and have a night bobber to fish at night - what a transition but yeah we do catch bass and walleye apart from dozens of pan fish (which is the designated finger-fish now)
the question I ask to myself is and it comes to my middle-class mind multiple times is - can I live without most of these and the honest answer is YES i can ; the next question is did all the transition really create 'happiness' proportionately ??honestly the answer is a big NO !! I feel some of my RBCs have been converted to Blue Blood Corpuscles so the question is gentlemen - how blue is your blood ??
THEN:
my mind wandered to all the things my dad as a central govt employee had bought us and also the upbringing we had and what and how the bar will be set for my now quickly growing 7 month old junior. My usual day started at 0630 and then watching my dad working on his small kitchen garden before he left for work, then the usual 'getting ready for school' and the highlight was the fight for the socks with the elastic bands still intact , with my sisters . I was very particular of dressing up right for school - well pressed clothes , polished shoes and right socks.
After that there used to be a 20 minute brisk walk to my school - be it rain or shine used to walk the distance with my friends till standard 9 where i used to take my Dad's second hand bicycle , feeling very proud about it.
I loved sports at school and used to play almost everything from volleyball, Table tennis, cricket , soccer to basketball .. during our summer vacation for the coaching camp we needed to have sport shoes , bats and racquets. I pleaded with my dad to get me a pair of shoes and was looking for getting a pair of "power" shoes then endorsed by ace cricketer Kapil Dev. After much convincing I know my dad somehow bought me that shoe but I had to feel content with the base brand for the Table tennis bat and had to live with a loaned cricket bat for that summer.
After playing a couple of matches in hot Trichy sun , some of my effluent friends would invite for a cold drink which was a total luxury to me that time coz my dad hated the cola family and was right on saying 'carbonated drinks' are not good for health. So it used to be those times or when my uncle visited us from Chennai I would get a chance to taste the 'tabooed' drink..
I was about to join standard 10 when there were a 3 major milestones in my life - i owned a parker pen and a watch which were gifts from my grandpa for having done well in academics ; the last one was that i removed my moustache with my dad's rustic shaving set..
One of our other pastime was to go swimming and fishing at a irrigation canal which was like a 45 minutes walk/run from our school. We used to swim in our undies and then with a self made fishing rod which was essentially twine, a stick long enough, and a hook (which was the only thing bought from a store) and then bait which we found from the muddy beach nearby. And then fish for the finger-fish (so tiny).. those days were those with all these memories , trying to put perspective on those in my current picture is the 'NOW' part below
NOW:
The picture is after 2 decades...I have a LCD 32" television, an Xbox with Kinect , a roku player and a Lenovo state of the art "all in one" desktop, iphone to keep me connected and an epad for bedtime viewing. I was even thinking of acquiring the 50" TV which was up for sale during this black friday..I just held back to that blue trying to overtake my red..
I have a whole bunch of branded socks in my wardrobe - separated out for training, official mon thru thu and Friday ones . I have an array of shoes to chose from which includes all good brands - which is really a big contrast to what I had and what i wanted 20 years ago...I also own an array of sports equipment and can surely afford the best of table tennis bats and after a tiresome day if I need something cool I just have to open my refrigerator door which has been
packed with unnecessary liquids in all forms
I work downtown and my good SUV takes care of me travelling in luxury - heated leather seats for the winter, auto climate control and Bose speakers to give me company when am driving solo. I now do my facial hair removal in the laziest way possible by using a electric 100$ Philips razor and does it do any good than my dad's - your guess is as good as mine. Yes one thing has not changed I try to dress neat and now I have an array of watches to chose from too - my
grandpa if he was alive now needs to find a new kind of watch to gift if he were to excite me.
The fishing pastime has never changed and even now we go out fishing in Minnesota and I do have two fishing rods of great quality and we do buy the bait and have a night bobber to fish at night - what a transition but yeah we do catch bass and walleye apart from dozens of pan fish (which is the designated finger-fish now)
the question I ask to myself is and it comes to my middle-class mind multiple times is - can I live without most of these and the honest answer is YES i can ; the next question is did all the transition really create 'happiness' proportionately ??honestly the answer is a big NO !! I feel some of my RBCs have been converted to Blue Blood Corpuscles so the question is gentlemen - how blue is your blood ??
7 comments:
As an offshoot thought, It's interesting how the perspectives change with each generation of parents. The generation to which our parents belonged had definite priorities which were good education and a job, which is one of the reasons why you and me have ended up being engineers and not cricketers or artists. What may have been the perspective of their parents? Education (which meant any degree)and a government job I guess. What will ours be? :)
@ Nitin - truly said if it changed once in a generation decades ago now there are multiple jumps in the same - lets see the trend n compare | good perspective brother
This one is nicely written and I believe everyone should take a moment to go back and recollect what defined happiness for them. This will be a big wake up call for an individual, something that will change him/her forever. As I read through I was able to connect myself to every words but in a whole different way. When we go back, we burst the "NOW" bubble, slowly realizing everything, all your luxuries, is evanescent and doesn't provide what you are actually looking for, Happiness..
@MC rightly said da - each one of us surely will pass thru the same story but different flavors..
Very well written buddy...I thought of reading it tomorrow after the morning presentation but could not wait...There are lot of gradual lifestyle changes that we don't always notice when they're happening... this definitely helped me (hope this will be case for others as well) connect many of them and go back & recollect some of the precious old memories...Thanks and keep writing…:)
I loved your article... like you, I grew up in a family which did not have too much... but my father gave me a solid set of values to live by... somehow, reading through your article... I felt that the values are pretty much the same though we grew up in different parts of the country... thanks for sharing
Thanks Amit - yeah very true - as you rightly said some core values are hard to shake off or get shaken... looking forward to your travel and food posts - don't spread jealousy thru your facebook posts :-)
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