Flash Back Mode..

What man, eh?” “Come man, eh.” “Tell man, eh,” still rings in the air some times. “You only”, “then only”, “giveaa”, “yessaaa” were often corrected at home by parents, but we didn’t let go. That was how we spoke. Back in the ’80s, there was little pressure to be smart. And so, in our naïve ways, we believed what our classmates told us. We couldn’t come home and Google, you see.
I still remember in my school days we were collecting pencil shavings to make something out of it. I guess, to make “scent rubber” (the perfumed eraser). Our notebooks were full of those shavings, our bags were full of that. But we never would make it, eventually. Showing off collectibles was our greatest source of entertainment those days. So, classmates would flaunt a new pencil box, mostly of that magnet variety, which only some would have, a new sketch-pen. We would take out the refill once the ink was about to get over, and press the refill hard to get any ink left on to the paper! ..Soon, such trifles were glossed over. We were growing up. Maybe, when we were in the fifth or sixth standard, the next new wave had begun. Collecting stamps…. But, collecting stamps was an all-consuming madness. The deal was: two less important stamps for one rare stamp. This deal would constantly happen, at lunch break, between classes, during class. Much politics, many complaints, much anger, several fights would follow.
Soon, high school was just round the corner. And from there, it was the beginning of the end of the simple, carefree life. Rajiv Gandhi was killed, the USSR disintegrated, Sunil Gavaskar and Viv Richards had retired, the markets opened, and life changed forever.