Random Musings

I have wondered for a long time, about the extent of change that one experiences in a single lifetime these days. I presume the pace of change was slower in earlier times, and from the time of your birth till you died, things would change, but not drastically.

I thought about this, in context of my grandmother, when she was still alive few years back.

Like I realise that when she was born in a small town in Gujarat many years back, during those days, they still moved from place to place in a bullock cart (people in villages in India still do that).

But over time, in her life, she travelled by trains, and then by cars, and finally by aeroplanes. Imagine, in a single life, going from bullock cart to aeroplanes..

And now lets think of our own lives. And I will look at an even smaller time frame than from birth till death.

In 1985 when I was in the US as a student, I used to write these long letters to my family, letters which I would then stuff into envelopes, put a stamp, and send to India. Letters that would take a week to 10 days, perhaps, to reach my folks. And a reply would come after another 10-15 days. One that you would eagerly wait for. And now with email, if you write to someone and she does not reply in a few hours, you wonder why she is taking so much time!

Or think about television. Something that we take for granted now. It was probably the early 70s when it came to Mumbai. I still remember the very first day when it was launched, and since my Mama took an agency for EC TV, we had the previlege to view TV that very first day. We were all sitting on the terrace of his building, where the big antenna was set up, and which was adjusted number of times, to get it just right. And then we saw television with “The Count of Monte Cristo” and his fencing skills! Of course it was black and white tv. For many years, TV was s single channel, few hours a day, B&W experience. We had to remember that on Thursday 8 pm, there was Chhaya Geet, with Indian film songs for 30 minutes, and we would be watching TV that time. Or on Friday nights, Tabassum would be interviewing a film star on her Phool Khile Hai Gulshan Gulshan. For the rest of the programming was stuff like Aamchi Mati Aamchi Manasa, Santakukdi, Kilbil, Batmya, and stuff like that. And oh year, there was the Apan Yanna Pahilat Ka? Of course, there were the high points like watching the first day, first session of the test match at Brabourne Stadium, in 1972-73 India-England series, and watching Abid Ali remove two English wickets, I think, in the first over itself. We all thought this performance was thanks to the television being there! Of course, later we were drubbed by Tony Greig and his antics, and so much for the TV and whatever.

Well, but I digress..

We were talking about how TV was..

And then suddenly everything changed. In a matter of a few short years, it would seem..

More channels came, color came, live tv from different corners of the country, 24 hours tv, cable tv…

And here we have 100+ channels to choose from, one competing with the other for our attention. And where TV was a once or twice a week, 30 minutes at a time option, now, it is ubiquitous. We have to resist temptation to switch it on, and do other things.

And it appears that more change is in the offing. Broadband, Direct to Home, etc. etc. And all that in our lifetime..

Its a breathtakingly fast changing time period that we live in…