Yahoo! mIRC chat...ASL, anyone!

Yahoo! The crazy Yahoo ID that slowly came uninvited, minus knock knock on the door when we were slowly de-alienating ourselves to worldwide web. Social media was rocket science. It was the days we spent in the cyber cafe and yes, we had a life back then met friends at the dingy cafe and struck a conversation with that school girl, who sat opposite us chatting and sending emails. Internet ki Jai ho. 

There were many like us who never owned a computer and the cyber cafe came like the messiah to hit send an e-mail to friends with the usual, hey! How you doing? It was the late 90s and ushering in the 20th century where creating a mail id was like...well! winning gold at the Olympics. The first e-mail I created was after the tuition classes in 1996 on my birthday and dashed away post tuition in the evening at the cyber cafe.  Birthday boy...24 June!!! e-mail was born! Yahoo!!! Amitabh Bachchan fixation...aby@yahoo.co.uk...I dashed to join the club of exclusives...extraordinary gentlemen and ladies who own an address now.

 I ain't homeless. I got mail!!! I am no poor dude, you see. It tastes like liquor sending me in tizzy height of high spirits and chocolate marshmallow melting on the tongue. Cool dude is here, running with the heart doing dhak dhak karne lage to the cyber to check mail and the heart shimmered with excitement, eyes glittering and mouth wide open when the inbox pop-opens. Yay!!! I got mail. It's no less than an award. My love and flirt story started and transported to Khul ja sim sim...websites and the world wide web. Clicked and registered on websites of film stars, watched on film web address. I pranced and sang with joy. Life has just started you moron and mind you if you tell ki dude is boring and drab. I gotta life and gotta tell the world bout it.

The mailbox was never flooded like the Tsunami and it kinda made me sadder by the day. After all, why I don't get hundreds of mails like folks do?! See! Dude is crazy and he needs excitement in his life called e-mail and internet. It got me dreaming. I gotta add girls and landed on some random sites...added and mailed few chicks who dropped their e-mails. I hit send and complimented a chick who was studying in Australia. The heart went amok like the cartoon characters when she responded and almost leaped with joy. Distant...love was in the air. Ahem! Ahem! Ahem! 

We exchanged few mails to discuss our happening lives. The heart broke into pieces when she didn't reply to that mail and after few months of mindless romance, the conversation was ripped apart. The romantic heart longed for her and sunk into depression, almost sang a single sad Hindi film song...Jiye toh jiye kaise. 

Measly pocket money was splashed paying for one or two hours of chatting my way to heavenly bliss with girls, exchanging mails and what's not. There was bliss in this world when boy discovered something called mIRC chat room. It felt like discovering gold and wearing them like Bappi da.  Spoilt for choice like the kid in the candy store prancing from one shelf to the other but here it was checking on the enticing chat rooms, love, girls, boys, sex and fluffy romance. The Internet Relay Chat to hook young adolescent boys and girls, to discover each other...with Hi and ASL...common questions as if it was some kinda bhajan we gotta sing and learn by heart. Age, Sex, and Location, followed after the Hi...and the nicknames, sugar babe, muckrakers, sweety, honey, hunter, lesbian girl...and the list goes on.

You gotta the right dashboard and you are served with options of names, clicking on them and typing Hi...the icon is flashed and internet chatting starts. Snippet of chat, dirty talk, humor, attempt to romance an unknown face who hid behind the veil on the large, boring white desktop. Yes! It was called computers in those days that lined up in the cyber cafe. We are 90s kids and proud to be that. Everything was simple and sometimes we fought with the couples of girls we would simultaneously chat with. We had a life!  I had something exciting to boast about to friends, making them jealous of chatting with a sexy girl. No picture was flashed or phone number given...just a plain, kinda blind date on IRC chat till our time was up and pocket money emptied. The cyber cafe was a luxury and implored Mom & Dad to give pocket money to buy chocolate which was the cyber cafe. White lies to chat with girls. 

Joining this group or that group as if someone is singing a song to tell the world or exploring sex for the first time. It just felt like that! If you feel like chatting with that cool and cute girl sitting next to you, make your move and train roving eyes not on her, stupid but her nickname that flashed on her screen. Next thing is easy peasy and you find her on IRC, sending her a Hi...and she types ASL! Common sense, na.

Play the pretense game and as if you don't know what's happening, seeing her smiling to her screen and you chat till you drop like some 90s ka chocolate hero. 

Net romance, chat, and email started for me in this fashion, unlike adding shadding on Facebook or scrapping on Orkut. Hell! What's that thing called Facebook? It was mIRC in those days. My love affair started on net like some rebel teenager, exploring that what mustn't be and uncensored it stayed. The feeling, you know how it is, as if you just discovered the world of porn and making up in the dark. How many of you felt that way and remember your MIRC chat? It was my love affair with chatting on net.

See ya

V

Age ole' VCR, Video cassettes we 90s kids treasured

An epoch or a lost era that cannot be emulated or recreated, unlike our movies showcased on the silver screen, but memories captured at the back of our minds. I take pride in being a 90s kid who grew up, whining my time, cuddling with the timeless love of VCR and Cassettes.

  Downloading songs, CDs, You Tube and films on mobile phone. You gotta be kidding! What's that? For sure, rocket science that was alien to my generation growing up in the dear old 90s. I remember Bombay Vikings, Woh Woh Chali dekho pyar ki Gaali playing on radio or the amazingly perfect songs of Ashiqui, Saajan, Khuda Gawah or Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin. Our neighbor owned the luxurious but shining black VCR and they would borrow cassettes for 25 bucks at the video library, was called video club at that time.     The nice neighbors would call the 'poor child' me who couldn't afford the VCR as his nieces would watch a nice Amitabh Bachchan super duper hit Hum, yeah I remember and the shining stars Shah Rukh-Salman-Salman or Ajay Devgn standing tall on two bikes in Phool aur Kaante..kya entry hai boss! I remember watching Maine Pyar Kiya, Raaju Ban Gaya Gentleman, Love and Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin. Our neighbor's house was converted into a home cinema, watched by five to six person as his old mother, we called Nani would prepare tea for us. Man! I was hooked! What a treasure trove they have, I was jealous and totally in awe.

   Sometimes, the desire to watch a movie and asked for permission was received in a nod and after all, who turns down or break the heart of a cute kid? You thought the hardest nut has been cracked. Time to plead with Dad to give me a special treat between 10 to 25 bucks to rent a VCR that everyone could watch together. Sometimes, getting the money and feeling rich may took months owing from Mom and Dad promise, do your homework and bring good notes in the school test. The trip to Nani's place where I stormed inside the TV room to check if there is a VCR and bang as I jumped in joy, almost stomping on someone's feet. See! I was a naughty child and pretended that I am not hungry or faking an angry mood to get someone to treat me with a video cassette of my choice. I remember being in love and drooling over my favorite hero's mass act in Shahenshah, Rishtey mein Hum Tumhare Baap lagte Hai, Naam Hai Shahenshah.

    Growing sullen during the whole day, refusing to eat anything or drink tea and crawling on the floor to being whacked and slapped for being such a naughty kid. It was worth the effort as I was sitting on the bed and watching Amitabh Bachchan performance in Shahenshah..baacha gaye bachpan bachpan Bachchan Bachchan Bachchan..should have come earlier to celebrate the Bachchan mania, the God of Cinema. My world would start and stop at the mention of the name, Amitabh Bachchan.

    The cassettes was yet another story which I grow a fetish for them, my life long friend who would entertain me as soon as I get home from school. The small shop selling cassettes between 35 to 50 bucks where the daily pocket money was not spent buying ice creams, chocolates or sweets but nicely slunk somewhere inside the room. I quenched my thirst with water at school, eagerly waiting for the bell to ring, dashing to the shop buying cassettes. I had such a huge collection of cassettes and someone bring a new addition was like cherry on the cake. The last time I bought few cassettes was way back in 2004, the time I had a walk man for company, a luxury item on the table.

   It's different ball game altogether when the money was spent buying glossy magazine to the likes of Filmfare, Stardust, Movie and Screen to read the latest juicy gossips are made of bout' favorite heroes and heroines, with complimentary, posters, some I have still conserved. It calls for another post. Move over free wallpapers on the net.

   Somebody please give me back my VCR and cassettes I spent a fortune to build the treasure trove made with so much love and flurry of passion. I wanna the decade back where holding a tiny cassette in the palm of the hand was no mean feat but sheer delight. It's like possessing gold biscuits.

   What's your VCR and cassettes story? I wanna hear from you if you are a 90s kid. Nothing beat the sheer excitement rushing down the spine.

Lovingly yours

Vishal