The Changing Tides of Time — An End of an Age

It’s 2021. It has been a couple decades since 2001. I find that hard to believe. In my mental clock, we are still somewhere in 2011 or 12. 2001 seems like it was 10 years back. Yet, it isn’t. Ten years back none of my cousins were married. Today they are all married and have kids of their own. And while I take time to process all these changes, I can’t help but notice this point- we are at a cultural crossroad, of sorts.

I grew up in the 2000’s and 2010’s to dial up Internet, Windows XP, PM Manmohan Singh’s mumble rap speeches, Iraq War and Tom Cruise/ Will Smith movies. Titanic was a ten year old movie and I saw the twin towers crash live on BBC. High Schoolers in 2021 weren’t even born when the first tower went down. Kerala’s roads were replete with Ambassadors. Today it is a relic on our roads. India’s GDP in 2004 was $ 700 million. We are four times richer today. Shah Rukh Khan was “King Khan” back then. Today, he’s kind of washed out.

Technology has revolutionized over the past ten years. If you are an Indian, you would’ve noticed the difference. Internet penetration and mobile connectivity has been off the charts for the past four years. Ten years back, I could’ve never guessed. I cannot even begin to imagine how hard my life today would be without Amazon, Instagram or Quora. Yet, I lived the 1st seventeen years with no fuss. Also, LGBT rights are a thing now.

Part of the perk of growing up as an early Gen Z is that I got to live through all that tech transition. From dial up internet to ADSL to “free” Jio 4G and fibre optic connection. I will never forget the hours I’d spend staring at the screen for a 70MB game to download! My nieces would never know. In 2001, mom would still send letters by post to my grand parents in Kerala. In 2015, when I finished high school, Instagram and Snapchat were the “it” thing. I can’t even begin to imagine how different things will be in next 14 years.

And that’s the thing with change. It comes fleeting by, where you wouldn’t even notice and before you know, it’s a new landscape. The Indic dhoti or mundu has given way to pants and T Shirts. Sarees made way to Salwar Kameez gave way to jeans and top. India’s social media and entertainment is far less orthodox that it used to be. A cursory gaze on any “Insta-Indian-model” pages should be enough. Back then, Emraan Haashmi was the “serial kisser”. Today, any film except for Salman Khan’s has to indulge in that unnecessary peck. We have sort of, become a lot more liberal over the past 20 years. Save the politics for now, please.

Every age leaves it’s own taste in hindsight. I’d attribute the 2000’s and 2010’s to the tech boom’s infancy and that bridge between the analog 90’s and digital 20's. And yet, a lot has remained the same. Pop music and fashion has largely been the same over past thirty years. Lingos and common vocabulary haven’t seen any new spikes either.

I can’t seem to accept the fact that my nephews and nieces will grow up in an India where the 3 Khans may not be the biggest superstars. Or that Tom Cruise was “that actor in these old action movies”. And yet again, it’s not all that bad. If you’re a child growing up in Kuwait circa 2020, it’s a lot better. Kuwaitis are a lot less racist today compared to 20 years back. Or that as a nation, we are way better off than 2010 (stave off the politics man). I will take solace in that. I don’t know what the future holds. We are nearing an end of an age. Perhaps, in twenty years, I can add an addendum under.

While I choose to remain nostalgic over my past and remain averse to this new decade, it is a sobering reminder of my mortality. Our childhood is dusted and the children of today shall reign. 2000’s kids is the new 90’s kids. In the very least, Mammootty and Mohanlal should still have a decade in them. Ikka and A10 set!!