Though this might be another post for the series titled Nostalgia but, no dear reader, it’s not digging up old graves. Let one subtly put it as taking a nice light stroll down the memory lane. It doesn’t concern a specific memory or event but rather the whole chain of happenings happening around us that we were too absorbed to take even little notice of or give a thought or two to. I dedicate this post to the music and the adfilms that people from my generation grew up listening to and watching.
Before going to bed on the New Year’s Eve, I had this urge in me to listen to this old number “Someone out there” by Code Red. I am not sure how many people still remember but they were touring this part of the world about 10 years ago, they released a single with Asha Bhonsle and were driving girls crazy with their boyhood. How could we forget the phenomenon that we were so much a part of? Remember the boyband mania that gripped us like bad bouts of flu which would make us get together in groups and swing to the melodies of OTT, Backstreet Boys, The Moffats, Boyzone, A1, Westlife, 911 and so many more and not forgetting the girl bands, Spice Girls, Solid Harmonie, B*Witched, Dixie Chicks, Destiny’s Child, well, until they all split up. How naive were we then! Though, it’s nice to see groups like PCD still making it big, the new age girl power music. However, now our mature music sense translates into rock and metal bands like “Linkin Park, Avril Lavigne, Pink Floyd, Scorpions, Eagles, etc.” and “Def Lepard, Korn, Iron Maiden, Rammstein, Pantera, etc.” respectively, but I am not complaining. I like my new music so much better, so much more like me – rebellious, gregarious, high-spirited, loud, passionate!
Now what really got me going with this post did not take place until the first morning of 2009 when my dear friend Ghanshu (as we so affectionately call him) decided to im me url’s of old adfilms on youtube. It started with the dusty old advertisement for Hajmola masterji, and making its way to Vicks ki goli lo, khich khich door karo. I was so immersed in the feeling of nostalgia (How I wish there were a word without the root ‘algos’ and instead the Greek root for joy!) by now that I spent the next two hours cleaning off dust and cobwebs that had settled on a section of my memories. It was pure joy watching the ‘Mile sur mera tumhara’ and ‘Purab se surya uga’ (The National Literacy Mission Promotional Film), running across my then favourite Cadbury ad: “Kuch khaas hai hum sabhi mein”; the Mentos, “fresh goes better, fresh goes fresher with mentos fresh and full of life”, “I love you...Rasna” and humara Bajaj, “Buland Bharat ki buland tasveer”. Remember the Titan piano theme, or the catchy Complan song “The skirt can’t you see, is so high above the knee, but I am growing mummy. You play basketball and don’t come when I call, but I am growing mummy. You put doggie up so high, can you please tell me why, but I am growing mummy!” All of it feels so vintage now, like those semi-precious nuggets which adorn the antique shops. It makes me sigh and gaze and smile to myself.
Wow, time is swift, it does race by.
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