A very nice email I received. Thought I should share it. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did! :)
You Know You Grew Up in India in the 90s When…
1) You know the words to ‘In-pin-safety-pin’ and ‘akkad-bakkad’ by heart
2) Cricket is almost a religion for you, and you idolize at least one of Rahul Dravid/Sachin Tendulkar/Saurav Ganguly
3) You have read at least some Chacha Chaudhary or Tinkle comics
4) You’ve watched Shaktimaan on TV at least once in your life. And you can immediately recognize the character when you see him.
5) You watched corny dubbed versions of Small Wonder, Silver Spoon, and I Dream of Jeanie
7) A visit to Pizza Hut used to mean a special treat
8) You have seen Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Hum Aapke Hain Kaun at least 5 times each
9) You still remember the theme song of Hum Paanch. (Hum Paanch, Pam Pam Pam Paanch!)
10) You have played hours upon hour of running and catching, chor-police, lagori, saankli, ‘Doctor, doctor, help us!’, ‘Lock and key’
11) Dog ‘in’ the bone was your favorite co-ed game.
12) You collected trump cards of wrestlers, cricketers, and airplanes, and did not quite understand why your younger siblings were obsessed with Pokemon and the other Japanese trends that followed.
13) Your summer vacations were often synonymous with visiting your grandparents or cousins
14) Bole mere lips, I love uncle Chips!
15) You know the song ‘Made in India’ by Alisha Chinai
16) You have seen many many many episodes of ‘Antakshari’ on Zee TV and know the only thing constant in the show is Annu Kapoor.
17) You were the coolest thing in class if you had a computer in your house while it was still the 90s.
18) You couldn’t wait to start 4th standard so you could start writing with PENS instead of with pencils!
19) You often used terms and phrases like ‘two-say’, ‘same to you, back to you, with no returns’, and ‘shame shame, puppy shame, all the donkeys know your name.’
20) You most probably saw Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge at the cinema at least once. You also fantasized about singing songs in mustard fields as in the movie.
21) You have said ‘haw’ or ‘yuck’ when you saw people kissing in English movies. (nowadays kids are used to it!)
22) Titanic was your FIRST favourite english movie.
23) You thought seeing English movies and speaking English made you the coolest thing ever.
24) You remember the Gujarat earthquake very clearly and could possibly tell everyone EXACTLY what you were doing when the earthquake occurred (yes, this happened in 2001, January 26, 2001, to be exact — but this group is about the things that Indian kids that GREW UP in the 90s remember and identify with).
25) Barbies for girls, and GI Joes for boys were the ultimate status symbols. You just wanted more more more and more. And how can I forget Hot Wheels, for both boys and girls?
26) You thought ‘imported’ clothes were definitely way better than ‘made in India’ clothes (never mind that a lot of clothes brought from overseas by NRI relatives were actually made in India, before ‘Made in China’ started appearing on EVERY existing thing)
27) "Jungle Jungle Baat Chali Hai Pata Chala Hai! Chaddi Pehen Ke Phool Khila Hai Phool Khila Hai!" You watched "The Jungle Book" every Sunday morning at 9.a.m" and just loved mowgli, bhalu and bagheera. A few years later, you watched Disney Hour, which had cartoons like Aladdin, Gummy Bears, Tail Spin, Uncle Scrooge!
28) At some point or other, cool was your favourite, and therefore, most overused word.
29) You loved licking off the cream from the centre of Bourbon biscuits.
30) There were no Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Puma- Bata and Liberty was the way to go for your sports shoes.
31) You have probably consumed more Frooti in your lifetime than there is oil in Iraq.
32) You bought packets of potato chips for the specific purpose of collecting Tazos. And you had Tazos depicting everyone from Confucius to Daffy Duck to Daffy Duck dressed as Confucius.
33) For the longest time, the Maruti 800, the Premier Padmini, THE Fiat, and THE Ambassador were the only cars you saw on the road, and the Contessa was cool because it was bigger.
34) You would literally jump up in excitement if you ever chanced upon an imported car (Oh my gosh, is that really a MERCEDES?)!
35) You used to Fuzen gum. You also chewed Big (big) Babool and/or Boom Boom Boomer chewing gum. They were bright pink and disgusting tasting, but you loved them for the temporary tattoos.
36) Talking of temporary tattoos, you sometimes had contests with your classmates about who had more tattoos on their arm, leg, knee, hand, forehead, wherever.
37) You thought Mario and Contra were the coolest things ever invented, especially if you were a boy.
38) You knew that having the latest Hero or Atlas bicycle would make you the coolest kid on the block.
39) You can imitate Sushmita Sen’s winning gasp to perfection
40) You have, at some point of time, worn GAP clothes (real or fake) like SRK in KKHH.
46) Seemingly senseless acronyms like SRK, DDLJ, DTPH, KKHH actually make sense to you..
47) You have at some point debated who was more beautiful- Aishwarya or Sushmita.
48) You would watch WWF keenly every evening/afternoon and loved Bret Hart "Hitman"! really thought Undertaker had seven lives and he made an “actual” appearance in the Akshay Kumar- starrer Khiladiyon ka Khiladi.
49) You remember the Nirma girl.
50) You remember the ‘doodh doodh piyo glass full doodh’ ad and also the ‘laal kaala peela, gulabi hara neela classic hai badia bristles wala’ and 'roz khao ande' ads.
51) You grew up reading, if you read at all, some or all of Nancy Drews, Enid Blyton books, Hardy Boys, Babysitters Club, Animorphs, Goosebumps, Sweet Valley series, Judy Blumes, and Tintin, or Archie comics. Because naturally, reading foreign authors made you much cooler than reading Tinkle.
52) Towards the late 90s (1998-99) at least some of us started our Harry Potter obsessions!
53) You absolutely HAD to go to Essel World if you were with cousins! “Essel World mein rahoonga main, ghar nahin nahin jaaonga main!”
54) You watched the Bournvita Quiz contest on TV pretty religiously. The smarter ones amongst you actually took part in it and had your entire school and your entire extended families watch you on it!
55) Maggi 2 Minute Noodles = ultimate snack (and tiffin, lunch, dinner)!
56) If you grew up in the early 90s, you recall the nation’s obsession with Mahabharata on TV
57) In the later 90s, you religiously followed Hip Hip Hooray on Zee. Maybe Just Mohabbat on Sony too
58) You remember parzan dastur sayin "JALEBI!!!!" in the Dhara Ad
59) You eagerly awaited Friendship Day, so you could give friendship bands to all your friends, and get bands from them in return. Then, of course, those with the most bands loved to show them off.
60) Backstreet Boys' "Quit Playing Games" was one of the first english songs that you LOVED!
61) Andaz Apna Apna is and most probably will always be your favourite comedy flick!! "Aila Jhakaas!!!"
62) This list made you smile.
Miss that age, it was sooo awesome!
And I could relate to each n every one of them actually.. fortunate to do so.. J
