“Yeh aajkal ke bachche!” 

They said it every time we skipped lunch to have Maggi or rushed through our homework to get to the playground. They even used it when we were negotiating for our pocket money.

For us, it was a humongous task trying to convince them about the importance of Chatmola and Phantom cigarettes in our lives. But for them, it was a struggle trying to teach us the value of money and how tough they had it in their childhood. 

Aajkal ke bachche has clearly been a favourite of the older generation. But have you noticed that the in the past few years, it’s actually us who use that phrase to address the younger lot? 

Yes guys, we are officially old and it’s time we start admitting it. 

We’ve all been to parties where we have stood in one corner, trying to guess the song that’s playing. But then, how can we compete with the kids of today who know every single song, word by word! Just like, back in the day, we knew Made In India by heart. 

Today, we inadvertently blurt out “Music toh ’90s ka achcha tha!”

Getting those extra 10 minutes on the landline phone was quite a struggle for us but the generation of today is not bound by such rules. How would they know for they had smartphones since they stepped in primary school? 

This constant comparison of humara zamana and aajkal ka zamana has basically turned us into our parents and guess what, we haven’t even realised it.

When our parents spoke of their college years, they labelled it as the best era and always hinted at how the we knew no better. Put yourself in their place and you, my dear, have been doing the same thing to the present generation!

We grew up in the 90s and for us, there can never be a decade as awesome as that. Even though it has been almost two decades, we still can’t have enough of it! 

When we watch the television shows of today, we think of the 90s. We are still fixated by the jokes of Dekh Bai Dekh and Shriman Shrimati. We are even biased when it comes to cartoons because in our head, nothing can beat DuckTales.

All of us have spent hours with the older generation where they have force-fed us the music of Mohd. Rafi and Kishore Kumar when all we wanted to hear were Lucky Ali and Silk Route. Today, we can’t understand how Badshah and Yo Yo Honey Singh’s strange combination of instruments is called music. 

We see ourselves objecting to lyrics like Chhoti dress mein bomb lagdi mainu and label them vulgar but we have clearly forgotten the days when our birthday parties had songs like Tu cheez badi hai mast mast.

They talk about Virat Kohli and we counter that with Sachin Tendulkar. They talk about their Playstation games and we are ready to defend that with Contra & Mario.

The sports, music, movies, books, lifestyle and even the basic form of communication has changed drastically since the 90s but we still like to hold on to our past with whatever little shred we get. 

The minute anyone even remotely mentions anything from the 90s, we get a certain sense of belonging. Our memories are etched in that time and no matter how much we grow up, we are always going to cite examples that showcase the best of that era.

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that 90s are to us, what 70s and 80s were to our parents. And as the new generation starts to take over, we’ll probably appreciate the days gone by even more.