12 - 12 - 12

This morning, I got a wish from a friend…

“Today is  12 - 12 - 12.   A similar date will occur only in the next century.  Most of us won’t be there to see that.   Let’s make this a Special Day”   

True..none of the people of my generation will be there, for sure.

But we saw 1999 and 2000! Then we saw 1-1-11, 10- 10 -10, 11-11-11, 12-12-12!!!

And why should we wish to see more of this, as we are a generation who saw almost everything!

We are a few people lived on planet Earth, who witnessed two Centuries and two Millenniums. Youngsters may ask us, “so what?”

How to explain? But at least let me try to.

When we were born, India had a few radios, a few telephones, and a few record players.

The radios stood high on a radio stand, which was luxurious furniture in some homes. If not run by electricity, it was called a transistor, which would run with batteries.

The telephones were black and bulky, except for some rich banglaws which had one, looking so posh and stylish. The dial of the telephones, we had to rotate each number a half circle, in order to dial, and each rotation would make a ‘dring’ sound, quite interesting.

The records were as big as a plate and there was a surface for it to rotate, with a sharp pin touching it from the side.

A few were blessed with one or two toys, but we played with anything and everything from nature. We created our own toys and our court yards were safe to play.

Games were plenty and many are extinct now, and I cannot explain them here.

Books were everyone’s friends and our parents and grandparents, our story tellers. Friends were few, but no one got bored, as families were close knit.

We saw our grand parents’ houses made fully of wood and craft works, some of its floor was polished by cow dung. Many houses were thatched roofed, in the neighbourhood. Our houses were mostly cemented, with cement floors or polished with red oxide. There were no show cases and no show pieces.

Our clothes were few and most of them, cotton or silk. Our vessels were made of brass, copper, iron and aluminium. Vessels and pots made of clay were mainly used for cooking and polished coconut shell served as spoons, with the handle made of the wood of the coconut tree. Our grand parents’ generation used only ceramic plates and bowls to have their food, where as we had steel plates and tumblers.

Our grandparents wore traditional dresses of the state and religion, and it is our parent’s generation who started wearing saris and pants and shirts. Kids had shorts and shirt, or frocks.

Water was drawn from wells, and we took bath in the river or in bathrooms which were outside the houses.

Fruits and vegetables mostly came from our trees and garden, and food was cooked either using firewood, kerosene stove or an electric hotplate.

Verandas accommodated the visitors and people could visit anyone, anytime.

Schools and colleges were far, and buses very few, cars very rare and we used to walk or cycle miles. The main vehicle for transporting goods was the bullock cart.

Milk came from the cows grown in our homes, oil from the coconut trees or other seeds, and most of the ailments were cured by the parts of the plants that were grown all around us.

There were houses with and some without electricity, petrol max or kerosene lanterns or lamps were common.

There was no calling bells for homes and there was enough silence to hear if anyone calls from outside.

Food was cooked and served at homes and restaurants were meant for travellers. Our outings were limited to Churches or temples or Mosques, and at the maximum it reached a cinema theatre. Rarely there were plays and concerts performed on special occasions.

Thus it goes, my list..which will have no end…

Then, slowly our generation saw many things. Cooking gas stove, Television, Tape recorder, Audio and Video Cassettes, Toys, Computers, Cell Phones, etc. etc…

Finally we moved on to a life style with new things and our world was filled with plastic and electronic stuff.

The dresses and the foot wears that we saw in pictures and films from other states and countries came to our homes too. The new stuff and word called “Synthetic” came to the scene. The hair styles changed, cycles were replaced by bikes and cars.

Our houses got show cases and food was eaten sometimes in restaurants.

The roads started flooding with buses and trucks and bullock carts were pushed out by animal activists.

Dogs and cats which remained outdoors started coming in and became available in all breeds. Birds were caged and fishes moved in to aquariums.

Slates and slate pencils disappeared and notebooks and fountain and ball point pens came in to class rooms.

The new things that came in, we called them “Modern” and that too was a Modern word!

We saw the transition of many things, yet we remained stable without losing our past. The ones who invented the modern gadgets, many belong to our generation. They work in all fields, holds all posts, in India and abroad. Even in less than 50 years, many of us celebrated the transition of the Millennium and welcomed the 21^st Century! From our parents we have heard the stories of British rule as they have seen Gandhiji and witnessed the year of independence. Our grandparents studies in schools started by English and their brain could calculate anything without calculators. We knew from them the stories of their childhood days and how the world existed without plastic and paper!

We used everything that was introduced on our journey through this world, and most of us are well informed and updated about the modern gadgets and use it well.   

This journey through the transitions has made us special in some way. I find most of us content in their lives and not scared of changing scenes in life. We all say this in common…“We are fortunate to have lived with and without, and we have seen it all.”

At the end of this wonderful day 12-12-12, I would say…. I definitely don’t regret that I wouldn't be here to see this date when it repeats…but I am eternally grateful to God that I was chosen to be born in my generation, a generation which earned a lot of wisdom from their journey, a generation which has a lot of tales to tell.

Hope my fellow folks would agree with me and I wish you all contentment about our great lifetime.

Before this day ends, let me post this blog…I may not find such a fancy date again!