I remember...
... telephones with the round dials - where did they all go??? It used to take soooo long to dial international numbers!
... our first microwave - and how we only ever used it to make papadums!
... monochrome computers.
... watches with lights - you had to press the button soooo hard to get it to light up and then the button would go INTO the watch (because you would press it so hard) and the light would light up at random intervals or only on one corner.
... my dad's pager
... when "white goods" used to come in all sorts of colours
... a computer without a mouse
... Encyclopedia Britannica and being addicted to "Mind Maze".
... Tetris
... when TV was only broadcast for a few hours each day!
... drawing on Microsoft Paint.
... MS DOS and having to type in "C:/win" or something like that to get it to start.
... tape drives.
... an antenna that used to sit on top of our TV - which we had to adjust constantly to be able to see anything!
... being on dial-up internet. I remember the dial-up tone and how it would NEVER connect first-go. I used to HATE that!
... hand-held scanners that could only scan black & white pictures
... video-head cleaners - I remember the liquid you had to place in that tiny hole on the tape and you could never really tell if you had added enough or not! It used to smell wierd!
... using the "auto-tracking" function on the video player so we could watch all the pirated videos that would get to Fiji a few months after their release in India.
... wanting a mobile phone that would let me compose my own ring tones. That was all I wanted in a phone!
... playing "Snake" and getting REALLLY good at it on that same mobile phone. I am surprised I didn't get arthiritis in my thunbs from that!
... audio cassettes - and how they would get tangled in your radio and you would have to pull it all out and twist the little circle thing with your fingers (that used to hurt!) till all the tape went back inside - only to realise that the tape had reversed/flipped itself at some stage and so you had to undo it again and re-rewind it!
... taping from the radio to an audio tape! You would ask everyone to be REALLLLYY quiet but there was always someone who coughed so you were doomed to listen to your favourite song with an ill-placed cough. "Enna paaduvathu? *achuu* Enna Paaduvathu? Paatelaam ennaku paada theriyaadhu..*aachuuuu*..."
... sending hand-written letters. E-mails will never replace the joy of writing and reading a hand-written letter!
Most of the above things are not that old and are still around - but it is amazing how quickly some of the above became extinct from my day-to-day life. I refuse to watch video tapes or use dial-up internet anymore. Such small comforts are so easy to get used to! I often think about just how materialistic I REALLY am...
Comment of the day: "Do you even do anything any more???" - Rama. I think I have been so happy and relaxed over the last few months that it may actually be causing some concern! :P
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