The only
significance of these two dates is that these are the dates when a father
(myself) and son started their respective careers.
The dates
are being used as an indicator of, what seem to me, two different eras.
To me what
seemed to be a privilege or an aspiration is today a birthright!
Firstly
let’s compare communication…whew what a sea change. From the days of an
old-fashioned public phone in our school hostel and, that too, in Housemaster’s
office. There used to be long queues for those interested in talking to their
families but the real problem arose when one wanted to talk to ‘personal
friend’. There used to be a long drawn out silence…waiting for Housemaster to
move out of the room.
And now, a
personal phone with each student – to message, BBM, What’s App, Facebook … the
list is endless.
The second
remarkable change is in photography. From the big, bulky looking camera – one
only and that too with rare families. Top it up with the trouble of focussing,
shutter speed, buying reel and developing limited pictures at an exorbitant
cost.
Now, we have
smart digital cameras in each family and a camera in each mobile phone. Now
shoot whatever, whenever, wherever and just upload and share!!!
Then comes
Music…those were the days of LP records, record players… again to be found in
lucky homes. Now we have music on phones, Ipods etc….choose your music,
volume…it’s your world.
Most
irritating part of our lives was booking of tickets…be it at railway stations
or cinema halls. I remember standing for hours in queues and mostly when my
turn came the window was shut in my face for lunch or urinal break!
Now book
tickets online; choose seats, select meals all in the comfort of your air
conditioned room.
Does anyone
remember the thick airline ticket jackets? A prized possession for a rare breed,
an aspiration for some and a source of envy for most.
Nowadays
airports are crammed with people waiving insignificant looking e-ticket print
outs.
If we move
toward in-house entertainment; we have come a long way from Binaca Geet Mala on
Wednesday nights on Radio Ceylon to special childrens’ programme on Sunday
morning on AIR to now a bouquet of FM channels with no time limits. Kids are
busy changing radio channels in cars than focussing on driving.
From the
days of Chitrahaar on Wednesday and Friday evenings and Movie time on Sunday
evening to an ever growing choice of channels, beaming 24 hours –your choice of
genres .Also, not to forget youtube and torrents.
The whole scene is still in the process of
evolution and the future is almost unimaginable. But of one thing I am quite
sure. The same technology that makes the age gap between my son & I seem
huge will ensure that the gap between him and his child will be much smaller.