“The nature of life is not permanence but flux,” says Mr. Carson in one of the episodes in Downton Abbey, and coming from him who tries to retain the old order was so refreshing. Closer home, I find many of us reliving the old times quite nostalgically, particularly in the last few years. The pandemic made us slow down and re-evaluate. Aided by a steady stream of Whatsapp forwards we started questioning our dreams, the need to earn more and more money, and the life as it was then was eulogized.  It was almost as if the pandemic was giving lessons to the human race to re-think their life choices, on their over-dependence on technology. Having said that, is it easy to go back to the earlier times? Are we not guilty of romanticizing the past? Let us revisit some of the changes the few decades have wrought on us which has made our lives easy, to say the least.

Travel

My husband and I were sitting by the banks of an off-beat lake on the outskirts of Bangalore, and just enjoying the plash of the water on the pebbles and the rocks and we both were filled with gratitude for modern living. It was Mr. Google that helped us find this place, the GPS that led us here, the electric car in which we drove over the national highway which was a pleasure to drive in that made it possible.

Turning the clock back a few decades prior in the mid-1990s, we had taken the bus to the village temple in Tamil Nadu where we had to get our children tonsured. An agony if ever there was one. The bus was crowded. My husband’s cousin ushered me into a bus with my younger one who was just a year old but before my husband could get in with my older child, the bus had started. The basket with the bottle for my little one was left behind.  I give a shudder at the thought of that two-hour-long journey with a wailing child, the press of the people and it has taken me close to three decades to forgive that cousin!

But today traveling to the very same temple on well-laid roads, with homestays galore, restaurants, and tea stalls, we have it all.

My parents would have loved to travel more. They were lucky enough to travel much more than some of their generation did. But then, going around visiting temples or nearby sites was almost unheard of.  Today, empty-nesters are happier googling, finding places and setting off.  We have tours and travels catering to multiple middle-class and upper middle-class parents traveling around. Even cruises which were considered a luxury is more accessible to today’s greying generation.

Food and provisions:

Come March, I remember my mother along with a few colony women trudging their way to the Hyderabad city wholesale market to buy tamarind, the various lentils for the year around.  The colony women in the 1970s and 1980s would give their requirements to the volunteers and the womenfolk would return in a bullock cart with the provisions that would last the year.  The prices of lentils would skyrocket or sometimes be unavailable for the most part of the year and hence, this yearly pilgrimage.   After getting them, the stones would be removed, dust particles would be sieved and it would be sunned and stored.  These industrious ants followed this ritual year after year all through my school days till they retired and they could buy them in the friendly neighborhood shop the year around. Eating out was rare as it was a costly affair. If we did eat out, it was carefully budgeted into our monthly expenditure.

Milk and water shortage:  

There was a period of time when milk and water would be available only at a particular time and it was at some ungodly hour of 3 AM. This time the menfolk would take turns and sleep in the shed where the milk and water would be delivered and then it was their responsibility for equal distribution to all homes.

Public transport

Houses very rarely had a cycle leave alone a car and most of the work would be done either by walk or taking the public transport. I was in 3rd grade when a freak accident caused the gate of my house to slam back into my face. My mother along with our neighbor carried me all the way down the road for more than a kilometer to get stitches on my forehead and it still serves me as one of my identity marks on my passport!

Telephone services

A call came at 11 PM at a factory that was a furlong away from my house and my father’s first words over the phone were, “My parents or my in-laws.”   A call at an unearthly hour or a telegram was sure to be bad news.  When we all left home post marriage, we had to go and stand at the local STD booth to make a call and our eyes would be on the amount displayed rather than enjoy talking to our loved ones. We preferred calling post 9 PM for the rates were slashed at that time.  Not only we had to go stand in the queue, but we also had to give prior information about the call. Even when we registered for a landline in 1995, the waiting time was long. Today, we get the landline connection, if at all we need it in an hour! We have  mobiles which has sort of taken over our world.

Books and periodicals: The library was rarely in the vicinity and the only way we could borrow books was from the school or college library.  Many of us depended on like-minded people coming together and exchanging personal books so that the circulating library could be in place.

Movies

Ha! This would take a page in itself! Theatres were far-off from our home. Most movies were long particularly Big B’s movies which had a weekly release on a Friday. At the end of the movie, National Anthem was played.  The last fifteen minutes of the movie, was rarely if at all enjoyed. If we missed the bus, we had to walk and most of our fathers were unhappy if we returned home after dark. As luck would have it, there was a railway crossing and goods train with no less than 99 bogies used to pass by and with every bogey, our pulse rate too would increase! Today, we have Ola, Rapido, Uber, Namma Yatri to drop and pick us up from the theatre and spending cash is far easier. This is not to speak of the OTT release.

Clothes and shopping

Shopping for clothes was a bi-annual affair.  It was either for our birthdays or for the most important festival.  The budget was laid out and we traveled by bus immediately after a brunch. The most exciting time of our lives was when we shopped for that rare dress. It was an unforgettable experience unlike the online, offline, and year around shopping that is possible today and the wardrobe heaves, groans, and moans with clothes, handbags, shoes, and accessories.

True, we took pleasure in small things, we looked up at the world around us, spoke to real people, helped out with the chores around the house. Buying a refrigerator, Mixer-grinder, Television were all family accomplishments. One radio around which the family or friends gathered, the running for buses, and the keen disappointment at missing the direct bus were all part of our lives.

 But, today we are able to play wordle, buy girdles, read books, watch movies, have opportunities galore, hardly lift our head up from the oxygen-giving mobile phones and connect with our loved ones at the swipe of the screen. Aren’t we having a better life then?

Yes, to connect or not to with real people, family, friends, not be too immersed in technology is surely in our hands.  But the fact remains that changes are here to stay and most advancements make life easier than what was possible in our grandparents or parents’ generation.  Opportunities and information are aplenty and to take advantage of the same is again our responsibility.

This blog post is part of ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’
hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla.

This was published as a guest blog at https://www.anewyou.se/an-ode-to-the-much-maligned-modern-living/