What has changed around us?
Social, Technological, Cultural Changes — An Autoethnography
This year in March I celebrated my birthday for the first time but it was my 22nd birthday. I wouldn’t have done it this year too but it was my friends who really surprised me. Celebrating my birthday on a moving train with the cake and everything else, I need to say I have got some real awesome friends. I don’t celebrate my birthday but I have started to. I never celebrated it because my family never did it. I was born in a village far from city life and people there did not give much importance to the birthday until now. I have a joint family and last year we celebrated the first birthday of my cousin sister’s son. Didi posted pictures on social media too. This isn’t just the birthdays, when I look back I see a lot has changed around me.
I remember we (my family) used to go to my relatives’ place to help them celebrate marriage, to be with them when someone died in their family and also just to visit them in regular days too. Today just one of my family members goes to their place for the same, well just to maintain the formality. And the other side does the same. Our lifestyle has changed. We are more busy than ever. My whole family hardly gets full attendance even on most holy festivals. Yeah, I don’t make it to the home too most of the time. Moving out from the village was the biggest turning point, it has changed me. Now I hate going to my grandma’s place, I find it boring, so less electricity, slow internet and no one of my age to talk to.
My father does agriculture, yeah a farmer. I remember buying groceries for home from the grains, we used to exchange. Today my sister has already ordered Rakhi for the upcoming Raksha Bandhan and she has put my hostel address in flipkart too, it will get delivered to me just before the day. I just can’t forget buying that sweet colored block of ice by giving him two maize bars (corn). Now I love Cornetto and Baskin Robbins (chuckles!).
I was a big fan of Raj Comics. Dhruv was my favourite superhero. Trust me here I read the whole shop of comics on rent, yes they ran out of comics. Then I started buying new ones. Today I am eagerly waiting for the season-3 Netflix Originals Stranger Things, season-2 of Dark and season-8 of Game of Thrones. Let me take you a little back again, in my childhood days I used to just watch every Indian TV serial or anything and in anyone’s home because we didn’t have a TV then. Today I don’t even fight for the remote, I just don’t watch tv at home, I don’t like watching all that shows that my family watch except Cricket. From Shaktimaan to Superman, Junior G to Batman, Dhruv to Captain America and Mahabharata to Game of Thrones, things have all changed.
As I grew up I started getting more and more interest in smartphones, gadgets and internet. I literally know about every new phone that comes in the market and also the new patents of the phones that are going to come in future. Pushing buttons to swiping gestures on a bezel less display phones have really become smart. When I was in 10th class I used to borrow mp3 player from my senior, put my SD card in it and listen to songs late night. Today I don’t have a single song downloaded in my phone, I listen to them online. When the first Nokia 1100 came to my family, I was in love with it. I used to play those games in it all the time. Before that whole family had a wired telephone. Now I change my phone every year because of two reasons — First, I get bored of old ones and second I can’t wait for the new features and enhanced speed that new phones bring with them.
I remember we as a whole family texted our relatives and friends to wish for new year and on Diwali. Today people chat whole night on WhatsApp as like having conversations. I don’t like texting much, I feel it’s just to have formal conversations, you can’t have real conversation in it. We text to reply, not to talk.
A lot has changed around us and the whole era has changed in the last decade. I feel lucky to see all the layers of change and I am waiting for what is coming.
