Stories of a millennial

In 80 and 90s the telephone were considered to be luxuries. If someone has a telephone in their house they automatically were considered wealthy. They would automatically considered more respectable in the society. I remember in our society complex we had only two families who had the telephones in their house. These were the line line phone. Phones which were attached to a unit. If you want to speak with someone then you would either have to stand or sit near the unit. Looking at today they definitely were inconvenient. Back then they were prestigious.

While growing up I had a fascination towards the landline phones. Mainly because my uncle had a landline phone and we did not have it. Then I used to go to my uncle's house I would sit by the telephone. It was my favourite thing in his house. He open used to say that I visit his house to see the telephone and not to meet him.

When I was 6 years old a letter received at our house. The Postman who delivered the letter handed over the letter to my mother saying that congratulations very soon you will receive your telephone. I was over the moon. Finally we are going to have our own telephone in our house. Our home was going to be the third home in the complex who would have the telephone.

Approximately 2 weeks later a man came from the telephone company with the telephone unit and installed it. He said that there will be some formalities to be completed and once those formalities are completed the telephone would start operating. We had immediately completed those formalities. We were eagerly waiting for our telephone line to be operating. After every few minutes be would pick up the receiver and check if the telephone line is now operational. It took almost a week for our telephone to get operational.

After that the crowd started pouring at our house. People from our complex would come to our house only to see the telephone unit. Someone would say that my child really love telephone and that is why we wanted to visit to show him the telephone. Children, adult, and elderly would come to our home to first see the telephone and later to make the phone calls. At that time phone calls were free of cost. So we allowed the people in our society to use our telephone to make the phone calls.

Later the calling increased exponentially. People would ring our doorbell at 7 o'clock in the morning saying that they want to make a phone call. Someone would come at 11:00 in the night to make the phone call. Some or the other person would always be there in our house to make the phone call. At 1 we started feeling that our phone is not used by us but the rest of the society. We were thinking how to make this stop. We could not find any way to make it stop.

My mother hospitality made it even worse. She would offer beverages and snacks to everyone who would come to use our phone. It was tiresome. Still there was no way to make people stop coming to our house. My parents would never say no to anyone. I would get angry because our house was no longer our house and always someone would be at our house to make the phone call. People would be sitting in our living room waiting to make the phone call.

It was becoming very inconvenient. But then a miracle happened. The Telephone Company had accepted the application of all people who had applied for the landline phones. Due to the bulk approval people started receiving their telephone units and subsequently their phone lines became operational. The footfall in our house started reducing. Now the living room was not full of people waiting in the queue to make the phone call. Now there were times when the phone line was not busy. Our home was our again. Our phone was our for the very first time.

When I tell this stories to youngsters they feel as if they story comes from a fantasy book. They cannot imagine a world where there were limited means to make phone call. They cannot believe that landlines word a luxury. However let me remind teach and every word that has been mentioned in the story is true. We still have a lot of photos in our old photo album where you can see that how excited we were when we saw the telephone. We had pictures where we are sitting next to the telephone as if it was our family member. The telephone indeed was our family member.

These are some of the memories that I cherish even today. These memories are wealthy of sharing with the world. Even today I remember our first telephone unit and our phone number. But if you ask me what was my first mobile number I may not remember it. That is how important our telephone was back then.

Listening to the music was always a trend. Any decade can be considered and the music was a wide part of the culture. The tool by which they consumed music was different. Each era had a different tool. For my era it was the Walkman.

In mid 90s a few films, ads, and music videos made the Walkman popular. Walkman was a small portable device that would operate on batteries. Insert a casset, plug in the earphones, and you are ready to groove. The models and actors in the media would be shown to listening to the music using walkman. They would be shown to jive on the street listening to the music. They would appear cool while doing so. Youth automatically followed the trend. They all wanted the walkman. They all wanted to look as cool as their favorite actor. The cool kids would be spotted having a walkman in their hand and earphones in their ears. Even in public transport it was common to see the "cool" crowd carrying a walkman. Whether one listens to the music or not, walkman became a status symbol. If you have a walkman with you, you have elevated the status to cool.

Walkman became so popular that all leading electronic companies started manufacturing walkman. They released various versions to quench the requirement of the growing demand. Walkman was kept at the display in electronic shops. Still one may visit the electronic shop to buy a walkman, only to be told that the walkman is out of stock. The rage of walkman was so much that even roadside vendors came up with their version of walkman that was cheaper and of inferior quality. People were still buying from them.

When any trend blows out of proportion, it inflates as quickly. The same happened with the walkman. One major setback was the batteries. Walkman would consume the batteries quickly. Within few hours the batteries would drain and required to be replaced. The crowd found it tedious to frequently buy new batteries to appear cool. Besides everyone had a walkman, so either everyone was cool or noone was cool any longer. The device that ruled the hearts of the youth was struggling to find the significance after a couple of years. The market was oversaturated. The sales dropped. The popularity dropped. Everyone was looking for "the next big thing" to take over the market. By late 90s and early 2000s, the walkman was on its verge to disappear.

In my family, we had a walkman that was used by the entire family. My parents got bored after using it a couple of times. Me and my sister continued to use it till it was broken and beyond repair. We even have a few low resolution photos where we are trying to look cool by showing our walkman.

Nevertheless, walkman became a cultural phenomenon in 90s. Even today if you google symbols for 90s, you will find an image of the walkman. Walkman became iconic. It was viral before the term "viral" wss coined. Walkman could have been the inspiration for iPod, though it was released several years later. The rage of walkman can only be compared with Stanley Cup and Labubu. The difference wal that walkman was still affordable. It was available as per the budget.

The era of 90s and 2000s was truly phenomenal. The technology was evolving. New innovations were getting introduced and hyped. Each innovation would engulf the market, only to be engulfed by a newer product. Walkman had its turn and had a good run. Each millennial will have their special and unique memories with the walkman. Walkman had its special place in the hearts of millennials and it will still remain.

Gramophone one of the vintage musical instruments. Whenever I see a gramophone I find it exquisite. Just by the way it looks. It looks regal. It looks elegant. It looks expensive. It looks rich. It looks like something that does not belong in a middle class house. At least that is what I used to think.

Now gramophone has nothing to do with a millennial's life. But I am very sure that many millennials like me who were or still are a fascinated by gramophones. We grew up using tape recorders. The tape recorders had no glory or glamour. They used to look exactly the same. There was nothing special about them. Or at least we used to think that there was nothing special about them. We had a lot of cassettes which were to be inserted inside those tape recorders. The cassette sometimes used to get unwound. We had to wind it using a pencil or a pen. It was fun to do that. Though it was not glamorous. It was all good till I saw the gramophone. When I saw the gramophone for the first time I was thoroughly impressed by it.

I had visited the house of one of my distant relatives. He also was a middle class person. He had gramophone placed in his living room. It was the first time I had seen the gramophone in the real life. I had only seeing the pictures of the gramophone in the book. I was surprised and my excitement was very evidence on my face. I asked him that how did he get a gramophone. I was thinking that gramophone had extinct just like that dinosaurs. He told me that he got it from one of his friends. His friend had got it from his grandfather. I asked my relative if the gramophone works. He not only said yes but he got a few vinyls from his collection. He played those. I was mesmerized by the whole experience.

Next day when I went to the school I told all my friends about the gramophone. I had given them all the specifics - how big it is; how exquisite it looks; how melodious it sounds; how it is superior to our tape recorders. While I was talking about the gramophone a lot of other students had gathered around me. Everyone was eager to hear about the gramophone. They were asking me many questions about it and I was more than happy to answer all those questions. They even asked me if I was a bluffing. I told him that I had seen it in person. Many of them even wanted to see it and ask me if I can take them to my relative's place so that they can see it. Of course that was not something I could have arranged. Gramophone which was a mystery in the childhood was no longer a mystery. It was a luxury witnessed.

In 2010 gramophones were trending again. They became available at certain shops. A lot of art collectors and music lovers had purchased them from the shops. But these were the modern gramophone and not the real vintage ones. They had lost their charm and royal appearance. Vinyls once were rare but now became widely available. Gramophones were no longer a luxury. Now they were affordable. Now they were also not intriguing.

Yet I still do not have a gramophone. So yes a millennials dream to own a gramophone is still a dream.

When I was a kid mineral water or bottle water was luxury. When we were thirsty, we used to drink water from whichever source we can find. Mineral water or bottles water was never a demand. We used to find a tap from which we can drink water. We would put our hands together to make a cup out of our hands so that we can drink water.

I remember when we use to play we never even use to carry a bottle of water from our house. We want to just go outside and play. After playing we used to get thirsty. We would either go to our neighbours houses to ask them for water. Else we would find a tap nearby and we put drink directly from the tap. We put not care if the water has come from a trusted source. We did not care whether the water was filtered or purified. Water was just water so that we can drink it.

Surprisingly we never well ill because of drinking water from an untrusted source. We would drink water from anywhere without worrying about the microbes that it would carry. We were carefree.

Also I remember that we did not have a water filter at my house till mid 2000. In house also we used to drink tap water without boiling without filtering. The elders felt that the water filtration system was unnecessary. And how true that was. It was unnecessary at that time. There was less pollution during that era. Everything was of superior quality. Everything was cleaner, presumably.

When I look back I find it hard to believe. Today, I am someone who always carries water from my house. I never leave my house without a bottle of water. When I visit someone's house I drink water from their house only after ensuring that they have a water filter. I don't trust tap water now. Of course I am not one of those who goes and buys mineral water. I would rather die of thirst than drinking tap water or buying the mineral water. And it is not because I had grown up. It is because how the times have changed.

If someone ask me today if they should do what we did in our childhood, like drinking the tap water. I would definitely not allow that. I know over the years how the water has been polluted. The tap water is not something that is to be trusted. Nobody should drink tap water if they care about their health.

I am a millennial but definitely I am not stuck in the time. Somethings definitely need to change. Anything that needs to be changed for safety and health, then those changes are absolutely mandatory. I drank tap water in my childhood that does not mean I would advise that to anybody.

There are somethings that we had learnt from our past and we are no longer holding into those. Drinking water from the untrusted sources being one of them.

Lastly I would say not all stories from millennial are inspirational. Some stories definitely require caution based on the experiences and the current times.

I was born in 80s and grew up in 90s. In this times telephone was considered a luxury. When I say telephone I am referring to the landline. Only of you people would pulses the telephone in 80s. The landlines became widespread in 90s. Despite that public call office also known as PCO had a very prominent role in the life of any person who was alive in 80s and 90s.

This was the era before the mobile phones. If you are outside and you want to contact someone, PCO was the only alternative. Having PCO booth was a successful business. To access the PCO we needed to visit the PCO booth, insert one rupee coin, after that we use to get 1 minute to speak with the person we intend to. If you want to extent that time then we need to continue to put Re 1 coins till the time ends. Every time if the talk time needs to be extended you have to insert a Rs 1 coin before the time would end. Else the call will get disconnected and we need to reconnect the call.

PCO booths would be at various places. They would mostly at any place where there would be a lot of crowd. The places such as railway stations, crowded streets, and market places. Some shopowner would also keep the PCO facility in their shops. This would boost their business as well. If a customer comes to make a phone call there was a high possibility that the customer would buy something from the shop as well. There would also be a demand for Rs 1 coins which the shopkeepers could fulfill. If they did not want to give Rs 1 coins to the customers they could simply tell the customer to buy something from their shop so that they tender the change. Having a PCO in the shop was a massive business making idea.

Generally PCO was would be used only in case of emergency. Like giving an important message to someone. It was really used for long conversations. I remember several times using the PCO to call home and to tell my mother if I was going to be late because of the train delay or assignments at the college. PCOs very useful in that time and age.

Looking back now everything feels as if we were living in a different world all together. It is very difficult to imagine the life without mobile phones. At the same time, being lived in the world without mobile phones, I understand how the life was different yet it was not inconvenient. Mobile phones replaced a lot of tools and instruments. Yet we still have memories of the PCO. Nowadays if we go to any public place we hardly find a PCO. Even if it exist there is a very likely chance that it would be not operational. Mobile phones completely replaced PCOs by early 2000s. Yet I can proudly say that the memory of PCO and the importance of it would never be erased from any millennial's memories. PCS would always have a special place in our hearts and memories.