Those Were The Days!!

It’s that time of the year again, when you cannot help but feel good. It’s neither too hot nor too cold. Fall has almost come to an end and new leaves are already on their way. All around, there are fresh happy colours of flowers, trees, fruits and what not. In the daytime the sun is warm and bright while the evenings are cool and breezy.

This time of the year always reminds me of my childhood years with my little brother. As kids, I and my brother would be beyond elation and excitement when spring set in. This was that time of the year when we had tons of stuff to keep us busy. Gorging on cornflakes, dancing to Scooby-Doo tunes, taking rounds on our sparkly purple Hero Cadet (our beloved bicycle), playing gully cricket with the neighbourhood boys, watching WWE, Pokémon, Aladdin and what not! Downing glasses of milk, fighting over bigger omelettes or fluffier pillows, bickering over who cheated and who actually won bouts of Carom or Chinese checkers!!

It’s actually sad that as time is passing by sibling relationships are becoming more and more impersonal. Talk about generation gaps, everything from technology to trends to youth slangs is changing so fast that kids born even three years apart do not feel the warmth of being siblings. I’ve seen friends that have certain professionalism around their kid brothers and sister. They greet each other as if greeting a minion in office. There is just the emotionless acknowledgement that goes like; “Raj” (with a cursory head nod) and “Nikhil” (with a similar bob of the head). There’s no friendly punch or a heart-warming bear hug or sly name-calling. I mean the fun, warmth, love, possessive-ness, protective-ness, mock rivalry is somehow lost!

There’s no sharing or inside jokes to make memories and look back on when you are all grown up. I don’t know what the world is coming to but all this seems very robotic. Maybe the camaraderie is the sacrifice you make while you are trying to win the rat-race and your own brother/sister is just another competitor.

The next generation will never care about the joys of sipping on Pepsi cola or fighting over the remote control of the TV or sharing school gossip. What a sad sad notion!!

The days of hide n seek, scrabble and crazy fun playing outdoor games on summer holidays are really over with the advent of Play stations, Tabs and Smartphones but man those were the days!

LOVE J

Making faces and blackmailing on secrets.

ADITI

Of characters in the Idiot Box

Very recently the popular TV series of the West but I daresay more so of the East (seeing its fan following in the country) How I Met Your Mother came to an end. Ouch it hurts! It sounded like the sad demise of a beloved pet. Yes it hurt that much. Amid tears of joy and sorrow it took me a while to take in the fact that there will be no more new Canada jokes or have-you-met-ted games and totally off the rocker bonk-a-doodle from Barney.

Oh well what can I say? I see everyone around me and see how people have invited these characters into their homes, let them make space in their hearts. They have cried when Ted was turned down by Robin or when Ross and Rachel broke up. We live in an age where these characters are more loved, adored and cared for by us than we do our family and friends. Oh speaking of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. boy was it an international phenomena? It went on for ten whole years and one day BAM! Season Finale is knocking at your door. That’s the day you realise how much of a part it was of your lives.

Back when I was 10 I used to read this column in the supplement of a popular newspaper where celebrities were interviewed. Every single one of them was glued to F.R.I.E.N.D.S. choosing it as their favourite TV series. I couldn’t understand what the fuss was all about but now I know why. It’s because you cannot help but fall in love with Phoebe even when she is barking mad and Rachel even though she is obnoxious and materialistic and Joey for being unbelievably dumb and Monica for being so controlling and sometimes Chandler goes so far out of the limit that you wanna say “Dude take a break!” but you don’t. ‘Cause the fact of the matter is in real life these kinds of people would probably be hated and bullied! But for a decade and even now they help us recuperate from a bad fever or heartbreak or simply a bad day when nothing’s working to lift our mood and we are wrapped up cosily in a blanket sipping on hot chocolate or cocoa (if you are anything like Sheldon) and staring at the idiot box or the screen of our laptop and laughing along with them innocently forgetting our pains.

These characters are people we’d like to have in our lives but don’t or they are probably there but we don’t realise. We all have a Marshal and Lily (the perfect couple) in our friends circle, or a Joey or Barney. Over the years they have just helped us realise the happiness that comes from having similar people in our lives, from sharing a joke to a whole wardrobe or apartment. They have taught us to embrace all kinds of people and be tolerant and that faith finally comes through, that destiny is a real thing and that eventually life moves on but the epic memories makes the whole thing worthwhile.

LOVE J

Bows and Applause to them.

ADITI