Make your identity

Who are you?

No... I'm not asking your name.

What I'm trying to ask is what people think of you when they hear your name?

If you're over 25, then most probably you're known by what you do i.e. your profession. But if you're just beginning your career or are a student, chances are good that you're known by mainly your marks (if you've been a topper) which is true for less than 1% people. But what about 99% of others?  Are they just average people with no talents who are lost in the crowd? Heck no!

Most of them possess some abilities. Some can paint well, some can dance well, some may be good at sports, some may have a photographic memory, some may be good photographers, some may speak well, some can sing well.

What I'm trying to say is make your identity. Have something in you which you're known for. Be so obsessed with that thing that when people hear your name, they should be attributing that thing to yourself. Like "Yeah... He/She <Insert your name> paints <insert anything that you're good at/ want to be good at/ like doing> very good."

Just imagine this. Wouldn't this feel amazing to you? When you're known for what you do and not just by your name.

Why is it important to make your identity?

It increases confidence and boosts your self-esteem

• Need I say more? Being complimented by others frequently certainly helps to increase your confidence and feel good about yourself.

It makes you an interesting person

• When you have something in you, then it becomes easier to expand your horizon of knowledge. People will like to talk to you and you'll be able to hold conversations with people.

You meet like-minded people

• When your friends know about your strengths/hobbies/what you are good at, they will often mention you while talking with other people who are just like you. You can thus meet like-minded people through your friends. I don't need to say how comfortable does it feel to be around people who see things the same way as you do.

It makes you feel alive

• When you are admired and known for something you do, that is awesome. Life becomes more enjoyable and you feel some sense of purpose.

What to do when you can't find anything?

Here's the thing. The majority of the people are not that talented so you not being talented isn't the excuse for not trying anything. Of course, if you have any talents, it helps a lot but things don't stop when that's not the case.

Here's what to do when you are confused:

You may have many hobbies which you couldn't pursue due to some reasons.

Think about the things you always wanted to do later in life.

What was the thing you loved doing or never got tired of doing?

I'm pretty sure you'll at least find one thing after reading all this.

If you're afraid that you're not that good at the thing you like, then don't worry. Because you're not doing this for someone else. You're doing this for yourself, your soul. You don't have to monetize it (doing it isn't a bad idea either if you're good at it!) so you don't have to be world-class at that thing.

Earning a great amount of money is a good thing and crucial, too. I understand that in some points in your life, you have to compromise some things you love for making your lives better (like studying or earning) but when you find yourself in a better situation in life where you can find some spare time for yourself, I suggest you do something which you always wanted to do. Have/Develop something in you which gives yourself a sense of fulfillment. You'll thank me later.

You're not only your bank balance or mark sheet but much more than that.

You've got only one shot at life so there's no point in not living the way you want it.

A letter to the world from a guy entering into his 20s

09/09/2019

Dear world,

I wanted to let you know that today, I've completed 21 years of my existence and you have witnessed my transformation from an infant to an adult.

I am writing this letter to you to pour out my heart. In this letter, I'll talk about my life till date and how my 20s is going to be like.

When I was a kid, life was fantastic. It was something like this... Eat....study....play....sleep.... repeat. Plain and simple. No problems, no tension of career, no heartbreaks, no break-ups. Even if I was hurt, I could cry whenever and wherever I wanted (nobody took me seriously back then tho!). I was unaware of what "mentally hurt" actually meant! Whenever I had any problem, my parents were the first to know about that instead of my pillow. Whenever I was angry at someone, I used to show anger. Whenever I didn't like something, I said it as it was. I used to say exactly what was in my mind. I was transparent and innocent. "Diplomacy" and "Decency" were unknown words to me.

If I talk about vacations, I actually played in all those without any worries. My parents used to take almost all of my decisions.

I thought that I could become anything. From a board topper to a rockstar. From a cricketer to an Actor. From a Dancer to an Astronaut. From a Doctor to an Engineer. My imagination knew no limits. Nothing was impossible for me. Because all of my wishes were being fulfilled by my parents, my innocent self believed that whatever we want in life, we can always get it. I didn't have any hardships (read it as "my parents didn't let me know about what hardships they were going through"). After dreaming about all this, my delusional self couldn't wait to grow up and do whatever he had dreamt of.

Then came my teenage life. It was awesome. Beginning of it was like something I never experienced. I started noticing some changes in my thinking pattern. Now, I liked being independent and having control over my decisions. I didn't like my parents' advice and being told what to do. I became a bit rebellious. Being with friends and doing crazy things with them was the things I wanted to do the most. And it had a reason behind it. At that age, we thought our parents didn't understand us properly and moreover, being at the same stage of life, I and my peers were going through the same things. We could understand each others' situations well and thus, we were on the same page.

Early teenage years were all good and fun. But 3-4 years after that, I was burdened with studies. I had some responsibilities now. This period made me realize that "Life is not that easy as I thought it would be". I realized that my parents won't be always there for providing me whatever I wanted. I have to fight and earn what I wanted. I also realized that it's not possible for me to be everything. I learned to see you <the world> for what you were, not for what I wanted you to be. I became more rational. Most of the (unrealistic) dreams I saw in my childhood were now shattered. It was painful but I moved on. So I can say that it was a crucial part of my life which converted me from a kid to a man.

Then I finished my teens and entered into my adulthood. (Yeah, finally that wait of becoming 18+ was over!) I finished school and entered college. Most of the school friends separated to carve their own path of life. Meeting the old friends was hard now which I took for granted in childhood. I felt amazing in the initial days of college. Those new friends, that independence and many things. I met persons from various backgrounds and I was amazed after knowing how different they were from me. I thought that college life will be way better than school life. But unlike school, no one in the college cared whether you attended the lectures or not. It was all your responsibility to study. Nobody spoonfed to you.

Now stress, anxiety, career confusion has become an integral part of my life. I see many young people who are very accomplished and dream of achieving great heights but at the same time, I often doubt my own abilities.

After witnessing the painful realities, sometimes I think that those unrealistic expectations of childhood were far better. Why did I grow up? Isn't there any time machine through which I can go back to my childhood and tell myself that "Hey, don't ever think to grow up. Your childhood is the best part of your life. It's never coming back so enjoy it as much as you can. You probably won't have this much stress free life ever again. Surely, you would have independence but trust me, you would crave for your current life but you won't be able to have it again."

I think the 20s is an interesting phase of anyone's life. The funny thing about my present age is, "I am an adult among the kids and kids among the adults." In other words, I am too old to do childish things but to immature to take any critical decisions. In a few years, I will see many of my friends being settled, getting married and having children, getting their first job and what not. In their 20s, kids are dealing with great pressure of completing their education, getting a job, settling down, finding themselves, exploring different things. If they are single, then they see other couples around them and wish (not all of them) if they were in a relationship, too. It is the age at which kids get to experience the real YOU<world>.

Currently, I have many dreams to achieve. I'm entering into prime time of my life. I'm ready to live the new phase of my life and face the challenges thrown by you. Let's see what you've got for me!


Your guest,
Akshay Brahmbhatt     

Why is it important to try new things in life?

We see many people around us who are boring, uninteresting and unhappy with their lives and stuck where they are.

Do you know the reason behind all these?

Because they don’t try new things. They don’t have any interesting things to do or talk about.
In this post, I’m going to tell you why you should keep trying new things and advantages to this.

What happens when you try new things?

 

Why being yourself is important?

Do you know what is the main source of unhappiness most of the time?

It's not being our original self.

Yes!

In this post, I will discuss the reasons that stop us from behaving naturally and the importance of being yourself.

Why don't we be ourselves?

It's not true always that we don't want to be ourselves but sometimes due to some factors, we don't/can't behave the way we want to.

Those factors are :

Fear of getting judged

This is one of the main reasons we don't behave naturally. We're afraid of people judging us because we're different and we don't fit in.

You shouldn't be worrying about people because contrary to your imaginary fear, most people don't actually care about you or what you do. It is because they too think the same way! They are also human beings like you. So stop worrying about other people and be confident.

To gain the approval of others

Imagine you meet the opposite sex the first time. Your mind is filled with a thousand thoughts. Now tell me what will be going on in your mind?

"What if she/he doesn't like me?"

"What will she/he think of me?"

"What will be my first impression?"

And due to these thoughts, you try to gain her/his approval and to get it, you behave totally differently. By doing this, even if she/he likes your behavior, you should keep in mind that you weren't being original.

Of course, making a good first impression is important but you can make it by mixing confidence with your attitude. You don't have to wear a facade to get the approval of others. Even if you succeed by faking your behavior, believe me when she/he sees your true self, that great first impression which you made by being fake will vanish in seconds and you'll lose her/his respect.

Peer pressure

Sometimes in a group of our friends, we tend to behave like other friends because we are afraid of standing out. You're afraid that your friends will make fun of you. If you're afraid of them making fun of you for being yourself, then you should seriously think about who you hang out with, because true friends will never mock you for what you are.

Why should we be our selves?

Now I will tell you the advantages of being yourself:

• When you behave naturally, you feel stress-free. Because you don't have to make any efforts for behaving a certain way.

• Have you ever noticed one thing about children? They are always happy. They can always be happy because they are themselves, whether you like them or not. They don't care about what other people think of them.

• When you are yourself, you are confident because you don't have anything to hide. Moreover, when you're confident, people will naturally be attracted to you.

• When you don't care about what other people think of you, people will respect you for living on your own terms.

Trust me, people who don't care about being liked are damn sexy.

• Have you noticed the behavior of people who are always calm and composed? They are themselves. One of the reasons they can stay calm because they are not afraid of being exposed, they don't care about anyone's approval, they don't care about being liked. They are comfortable in their own skin.

As stated above, when you are your natural self, it will be beneficial to your mental health because you will be stress-free and happier.

Sure, you will take some time to find friends or girlfriend/boyfriend but when you find, you'll know that they really like you. Because they've seen your true self.

No matter how many friends you make by being fake, you'll never know if they really like you or not.

The places where being too original may be harmful to you

Though being your self is a good thing, there are some situations in your life when being too transparent or too original can be a bad idea.

• Imagine yourself sitting in an interview... when an interviewer asks you something about your past employer, even you didn't like him, you shouldn't be bitching about him. If you do this, chances are good that you will be rejected for being original.

          In an interview, some diplomacy and decency is expected from you so you should keep that in your mind.
       

• Suppose when your mom wears a saree and asks you that how's she looking, even though if the saree isn't suiting her, you shouldn't answer bluntly by saying that "You look horrible, this saree doesn't suit you". It'll hurt her even it's true because humans are irrational by nature, they don't always think logically. Instead, you should say "This looks ok but you would look great if you'd worn 'X' piece"

Understand one thing that by the above examples, I no way tell you for completely lying or to be fake. I am just telling you that you should be yourself but you should also know how to behave slightly diplomatic where it is necessary. Because no one is black and white in this world. People are in grey shades, a mixture of both.

You will lose your relations and no one will talk to you if you say whatever comes to your mind.

Decide from today that you'll never be afraid of being yourself, but don't be blunt. Have some diplomacy where it is needed to save yourself and your relations with your loved ones.

Can money buy happiness?

We've always heard countless arguments on this topic. Some say that no matter what, money can't buy happiness whereas some believe that money is everything.

In this post, I will discuss the importance of money and consequences when you give way too much importance to money.

Importance of money

Do I need to even explain this? Every physical thing that you see around you costs money. The food you eat, the vehicle you drive, the device in which you're reading this post, your house, education, your bills,.....and this list goes on.

Tell me why do people do a job?

Because they like it? Hell no!

Maybe they like it but it's not the primary reason why they do it. They do it because they have to pay their bills, they have to make their ends meet, they don't wanna sleep hungry, they want to buy stuff, in short, they do it because it makes it possible for them to live a better life.

Most of us have probably learned about Maslow's hierarchy of needs in our schools.

Observe the above pyramid carefully...

It shows the order of priorities of human needs and wants.

The fundamental needs of humans are water and food. After these needs are satisfied, we search for security and safety. As you can see further in the picture, only after the underneath needs in this pyramid are satisfied, we go upside chasing more things. 

So here is the million-dollar question...


"Can money buy happiness?"

Absolutely not!

I can name you a number of wealthy people who led a miserable life despite being wealthy. That's because apart from money, we need to have a balance between other aspects of life like health, family life, emotional well-being which has a great influence on the quality of our life.

Though money can't buy happiness, it reduces various problems in our life drastically.

Let me explain,

• Suppose you don't have enough money to pay your bills, now tell me would you be able to have good sleep at night in such a condition? I don't think so. But if you have sufficient money, you can sleep peacefully knowing that your money will take care of your bills.

• Suppose you don't have money and you want to invest in some promising scheme, would you able to do that? I don't think so. But if you have money, you would invest and will be benefitted by returns on investment. Thus you'll be able to earn more money because you have money.

Out of all the problems we have, most of the problems can be solved by money.

• Of course, money can't buy health. Money won't make you healthy if your health is already ruined but it will surely help reduce your pain by costly medical treatments.

• Money can't buy you sleep but it will buy you a comfortable bed in which you can sleep peacefully.

People who say that "money can't buy happiness" are either rich or poor.

Rich people say this because they have enough amount of money in their bank account so they can't understand how is it to struggle to fulfill your wishes.

Poor say this because they don't have any money so they don't know how is it to have a shitload of money who can solve their most problems. Since they can't earn more money, most of them find it easier to curse money.

I think middle-class people understand the value of money more than anyone. That's why they struggle their whole life to earn money.


Here is a dialogue from the movie "The Wolf of Wall Street"

Couldn't agree more.

Consequences of giving too much importance to money

I agree that money is very essential in our life, but there are some things which are far more important than money like family, health, true love, character, peace of mind, time. If you prefer money over these things, you'll do anything to get money and you'll ignore other things and as a result, you're going to have a miserable life for sure!

Remember one thing that money can be earned back but if these things which I mentioned above are once lost, they can't be earned back.

Conclusion

Money doesn't buy you happiness but it makes you able to buy things which will make you happy. Of course, you should value money but not at the cost of your well-being.

Is social media a waste of time?

You must have heard a lot of parents saying(complaining) that their children always stay busy in social media, they waste their valuable time in that, it affects their study and blah blah blah...


In this post, I'm going to talk about how social media has changed our lives and you'll be able to answer whether it's a waste of time or not.

So what is "SOCIAL MEDIA"?

It includes a number of websites and apps that let users create or share content.

Yes, it includes apps you use like WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, etc.

Contribution of social media

In the last 12-15 years, especially after the arrival of Facebook, it has changed our lives drastically.

• Do you see how easy it has become to stay connected to our old and distant friends! (Facebook)

• How easy it has become to message anyone at the other end of the world! (WhatsApp)

• How easy it has become to share your photos with the world! (Instagram)

• How easy it has become to show the world that what are you doing! (Snapchat)

• How easy it has become to share your opinions on major events! (Twitter)

• How easy it has become to share/gain knowledge! (Quora, Reddit)

• How easy it has become to share your stories with everyone! (Blogger, Wordpress, Medium)

• How easy it has become to attend meetings sitting at your home and video calling? (Skype)

• How easy it has become to watch any video, be it educational, movie song, TV show, entertainment, news! (YouTube, Jio TV, Hotstar)

Apart from this, it has changed several other things which we couldn't imagine 15-20 years ago...

• Could you imagine that you could order food sitting at home and get a discount for that! Thus, you save your time and money and get your food home delivered. (Zomato, Swiggy, Uber eats) (People could order food on the telephone in the past but there weren't any discounts and  delivery charge was another problem.)

• Could you imagine that you could book a taxi according to your time schedule? (Ola, Uber)

• Could you imagine that you could do the marketing of your products to millions of people and that too for free? (Marketing on various social media pages created by respective company)

• Could you imagine that you could build your network with professionals which will help you find the job? (LinkedIn) 

• Could you imagine that you would be able to show/teach your talent to millions of other people? (Tiktok, YouTube)

• Could someone with mediocre writing skills think that he/she could write something he/she loved and get paid for it? (Blogging)

So you see, Social media has changed our lives unimaginably and that too, for better!


Today as a result of the social media revolution,

• Almost all know what is happening all over the world.

• You know that what are your friends up to.

• Almost all of us have opinions about everything.

Social media has made it easy for us to save our time, energy, socializing, know everything around us.


Social media has given an opportunity to every common guy to become "Overnight sensation" through its wide reach. (Do I need to give examples? They are all around you.)

Downsides of Social media

Every coin has two sides. Likewise, social media has its disadvantages, too.

• Students waste their valuable time on social media, scrolling through feeds seeing "what are their friends up to" and surfing mindless things. They can use social media for their benefits if they use it wisely. For example, there are countless channels on YouTube that have informative videos related to your field, your interests, new languages, calligraphy, and the list goes on. If students will watch these videos, they will learn something and add value to their life.

• You see that it has become much easier to become popular nowadays. But it is a two-way sword. If you misuse social media, you can also become a target of people who want to mock you aka trollers. (Memes)

• Another downside is people separating from each other. Though social media has made the world small, it has increased the distance between people. If you see people around you, you will see that most of them will be staring at their mobile screens, they would barely care that what's happening around them. People have 5000 friends on Facebook but they barely have 5 friends in real life upon whom they can count on.

We know which event has taken place in the other country but we don't know what are our neighbors up to.

In the end, I'll say that social media is quite awesome if you want to use it for your growth but it's totally a waste of time if you use it to scroll through the feed, do mindless surfing, trolling.

There is no point in blaming social media for the current situation. It's up to you how you use it. 

Is MOTIVATION a trap?

 "I don't want to do this because I don't feel motivated."

"I couldn't do this because I lacked motivation"

"I have the ability to do this but to do that, I think I must have motivation"

These sentences sound familiar, don't they? We hear them daily from people around us.
In fact, almost all of us have at least once in our life thought of this!


Let me ask you a question...

What is motivation?

According to Google, "It is a reason for acting or behaving in a particular way."

From my experience, I say "Motivation is nothing but the greed of getting the reward which people try to find every now and then."

Why do people need motivation?

• Frankly speaking, people need motivation because they want something in return for everything they do. They're too lazy to take action (even if it is important) if they don't get something in return.

• People want answer of 'why should I do this?' or 'what good would this do to me if I do this?' and there's nothing wrong in this. In fact, if we didn't ask all this to ourselves before doing something, we'd be wasting our valuable time and it would be too unproductive.

Is motivation a trap?

This can be a bit subjective.

But I think there are two kinds of motivation, Good and Bad.

Motivation might be a trap to you if your motivation is Bad and on the other hand, it can be a driving force for you if your motivation is good.

Let's take an example.

• Consider two persons, A and B.

• Both are fat and worried about that. People make fun of their chubbiness. Though circumstances of both the persons are the same but the way they approach it isn't the same. Let's see how.

• Person A thinks that people make fun of me, I'm tired of this. I must do something. I think I should go to the gym and make muscular body so that I'll get revenge for my insult and show these people that I'm not fat anymore.

• Person B thinks that these people are right. I'm fat and this is harmful to my health. I must do something about it. I think I should get membership of the gym and start doing workout and following diet so that I'll get a healthy body and it'll help me live a much happier life.

Did you notice any difference between the approach of them?

• Person A wants to go to the gym because he wants to prove others wrong. But what if no-one would have teased him about being fat? Chances are he'd still be fat because his motivation is bad.

• person B wants to go to the gym because he wants to improve himself and his life. He doesn't let someone's opinion affect his thinking. Chances are he'll continue going to gym till he's concerned about his well-being because his motivation is good. 

• Motivation is not a trap if you use it the right way but it starts becoming a problem if it is the sole thing you need to get anything done.

Why we shouldn't rely on motivation?

• We shouldn't rely on motivation because it doesn't last. Today you have motivation and tomorrow you don't. Just like the example of person A above, probably he won't go to the gym if people stop teasing him.

• I think the main reason people need motivation is that they don't like the current task that they're doing or they fail to see the bigger picture. We need motivation to study because we hate to do it. People need to understand that we have to do something if it needs to be done (even if we don't like it).

• Imagine if your teacher says before a week of your exam "I won't teach you today because I'm not motivated."

What will happen?

Syllabus won't complete and students will perform poorly in exams.

• Imagine a doctor saying  "I won't check patients today because I'm not motivated today."  

          What will be the condition of patients?

• Imagine if a bus driver thinks that "I won't drive the bus today because I don't feel motivated."

          A number of people won't be able to reach their destinations on time.
          Some will miss their meeting. Some students will miss lectures.

• We have to study (not only talking about 'formal education' here) despite hating it because after studying, we'll be able to get a job, become independent, improve our living standards, solve people's problems, make the world a better place to live.

• Similarly, we have to do plenty of things in life which we don't like but they are important.

The world would be a painful place to live in if everybody needs motivation to do something.


We should do something because it is important, not because we feel motivated (unless it's good motivation) 

What if someone doesn't have motivation?

• Many of us feel that we lack motivation, we don't feel like anything to do. So what to do in such situations?

I think the best way to deal with this problem is to think of possible worst consequences if we don't take actions. You should make a list of reasons of "Why I should do this?"  and think that what is the worst that could happen if you don't do this?

If the consequences are bad then chances are pretty good that they will force you to move your ass and even if they don't, those reasons will motivate you to do something.

• So whenever you think that you don't feel motivated, imagine how you'll make your or others' lives happier by your actions and your future self will thank you for that.

Just remember that there won't be any destination without any journey and that journey is only possible if you decide to do something, even if you don't want to. Get one thing through your head, nobody gives a sh*t about your feelings or mood. Do something or get ready to face consequences and regret it. It's that simple!

In the end, I'll say that motivation is good if you are willing to take action and your actions improve your and others' life but it's useless if you aren't willing to do anything and want some miracle to happen because you're too lazy to do something.

Share your views in the comment box.

How the lives of the 90s born kids have changed

 When I saw  #10yearschallange trending on social media, it reminded me of my childhood days and I decided to write on this.

               

 If you are born in the '90s (Specifically after 1995), then you'll not only relate to most of the things described in this post but you'll feel like you're living your childhood while reading this.

I will start with the games...

I think we had been very fortunate in this area because we enjoyed playing Cricket, Football on the ground and we also enjoyed playing video games.

•   I'm pretty sure that whenever any Indian boy hears the word 'Ground', the first thing which comes to his mind is (Yeah, you guessed it right :) ) 'Cricket'. 

• I still remember that we used to play cricket as long as 4-5 hours continuously in summer vacations. (Sun may be HOT but it couldn't stop us from playing cricket!)

• These games didn't let us bore in the afternoons.

 

We didn't play Ludo in Mobile, but we played it with friends. (That fighting for our favorite color's pieces!)

Remember these cards?

  

I had a huge collection of those.

Now, let's come to Video Games. (I know you just thought about Super Mario)

• Obviously, any video game cassette is incomplete without Super Mario!

• I hope you still remember the place of '1 ups' and 'hidden bank of coins'. 

Can you recall these video games?

• Islander 

• Super Contra 

By the way, my favorite power was 'R'.(Which was yours?!)

• Road Fighter

I remember blowing in cassettes whenever they didn't work. (Stupid me!) 

Now, heading towards Computer games...

• Here it comes........the dream of every child back then, GTA Vice City.

We friends used to exchange Cheat codes of this game. 

Btw, how many of you managed to succeed in that Helicopter Mission in the very first time?

• The classic Road rash

I don't know what did I do more in this game, Playing or fighting?!

• Am I the only one who used to buy this only because of free toys and stickers?!

• Remember this 1 Rupee Pepsi?

• This was used to be our way of getting rid of heat. ( Ahhhh....that feeling when you tasted this after playing in 45-degree temperature, it was no less than a Heaven!)

• This was once my motivation for studying hard.

By the way, which of the following Cartoons and TV shows did you watch?

• For us, Cartoon meant Tom & Jerry then

• Doraemon

• Bob- the builder (Ha bhai ha...)

• Noddy

• Oswald

• Pokemon

• Dragon ball Z

• Dragon tales

• Harry and his bucket full of dinosaurs

I always wished of having that 'Magic bucket' in my house.

• M.A.D.

I always eagerly waited for this show on Sundays.

• Shakalaka boom boom

My only dream of life was to get this Magical Pencil.

• Power Rangers - S.P.D.

Which was your favorite ranger?

• Shaktiman

Our very own superhero!

• Hatim

• Shararat

• Karishma ka Karishma

I'm sorry if I've added too many pictures. I don't want to bore you but I feel very nostalgic about my childhood days! :(

• Just compare the technology of that time with that of today. You'll be surprised how drastically everything has changed!

• At that time, seeing color phones was a thing and the most common mobile was a Nokia 1100.

• Internet wasn't widespread, mostly professionals used it. The word 'Social media' was yet to be known by people.

• Songs weren't that easily available as those are now. I had to insert songs in mobile from shopkeepers (Sounds so strange, doesn't it?)

• VCDs were becoming outdated and was started being replaced by DVDs.

• This was our "Home theatre"

• We see very few scooters today. But I waited very eagerly to enjoy a ride by sitting front side in a scooter with my father(Most middle-class thing ever!). While driving, dad allowed me to touch the accelerator for a few seconds and I felt very proud then like I drove the scooter all by myself!

• We are probably the last generation to have played on the ground. How much kids do play on grounds nowadays? You can count them on your fingers.

• I think we were born in the transitional era because.....

We witnessed the transition from -

• Keypad phones to Smartphones

• Big computers to Tablets

• Giant TV sets to LEDs

• Walkman to Wireless earphones

• Video games to VR games

The special thing about being born in the '90s is that we have lived in 2 centuries, 3 decades and 1 millennium and we are just around 20 years old yet!

I can say that I feel very fortunate being born in the '90s because I spent my childhood playing on the ground and not in my house playing games on smartphones. Our childhood wasn't ruined by excessive technology; we experienced both the touch of technology as well as the joy of playing on the ground with real friends.

I wish if I could bring those golden days back when I didn't have to set alarm clock before going to sleep, when I could sleep as soon as I lied on my bed, when my only worry was 'the unfinished homework', when I didn't have to hide my pain and I could cry whenever and wherever I wanted, when I didn't know the meaning of Ego, when JEE, GATE, GRE, IELTS, UPSC were just another unknown words to me. I would trade any amount of money for getting those days back but alas! We know that it's impossible. All we can do is smile after recalling happy memories of those days!

You can share your favorite memories in the comment box.