Nostalgia: '93 - '97

'93 was the year, we shifted to our own house (one of the 150-odd apartments in the complex) in T. Nagar near Hindi Prachar Sabha. I was happy to leave the place because it was boring now as the owner's granddaughters had moved out by then. They were my best friends (outside of school) till then. [Now, I can hardly talk to them :-D] The shift was due to the fact that the house we were living in, was to be razed to the ground and converted into apartments. It made a lot of economic sense for the owners. They got paid for the land as well as got two apartment for themselves. Long before this, the place which was our home till '87 was also converted into flats. That was the time when independent houses in Madras were razed to the ground and apartments roze instead. This phenomenon has subsided relatively. Now the expansion is in the suburbs.

I still continued to go to the same school, which was on the same road as the rented house we lived in. But now it was no more walkable. Enter auto- and cycle-rickshaws. Getting cramped with about 5-10 more and going by the most curviest path possible dropping/picking up kids wasnt really a great joy but it was a nice time to interact with people. I dont remember much of these though... I started going by bus after a couple of years. Free bus pass was given to all students till 8th (later extended to 12th - me benifiting from this later). It wasnt too far off, just arnd 10-15 minutes of travel. I remember even having walked the distance a couple of times (It was quite a remarkable thing given my amazing power to remember routes. lol.) People were very supportive of us ( ;) ), especially when we shoved our school bags (heavy enuf for trekking) into them. Not to forget our lunch bags.

The shift to the apartment gave me access to cable TV, one of the earliest technology revolutions in India. Thus began one of the closest relationships i have ever had. This was when I started watching Hindi serials/movies with lot more seriousness (I had also started writing private Hindi exams conducted by Hindi Prachar Sabha opposite to our flat). Star was almost completely english. Zee was the major regional channel. Sun & Gemini had just started being aired only a few hours per day but slowly became full-fledged channels. DD Metro was still the coolest though with weekly serials. 'Junoon' - weekly first, biweekly later - was one watched quite a lot. Tekhikaat, Taara, Darr, Shanti, etc. Weekly serials surely created a lot more interest due to the time gap. Daily serials now are far too dragging. Lots and lots of comedy serials that time - Dekh Bhai Dekh, Shrimaan Shrimati, Hum Paanch, etc.

Will add to this later....