A collosal chain of events

sorry for not posting for such a long time but some things take time to work at. and when its something like your own life story some details are vague, some are too private and some frankly you get scared of revealing. and in these past few months i have been struggling with my inner-self to come out of a mental nutshell i had created for myself.

right, back to the business at hand. there was essentially no major event in my life (that i recall) , from the age of 1 year to about the time i became 4 years old. except of the fact that i was just like any other normal child and had all the pleasures, pains, and desires that such a child would have.

but during this time there are some major events that took place and it lead to a major change in my life, a change that in some ways helped shape my childhood until the age of 10 .

some are very small things that we kids make a big deal of some others are things that we as kids completely overlook but as adults we reflect and realize the impact it makes on kids .

right enough beating around the bush...

these events are not necessarily in order and they certainly do not reflect any hierarchy as far as "impact" is concerned .

EVENT 1 - my first television

For a small kid whose favorite past times involve playing with toys and playing under the water tap situated at the back yard of the house, the television was perhaps the holy grail. i remember the day my father got his 14 inch solidaire color television. In India in the 1990's like in America in 1970's the television was perhaps the greatest luxury a middle class family could have, cars were a rarity, and transistors were barely being used by anyone except one transistor in a locality. the television brought to India what the radio couldn't. visual entertainment. access to news , cricket matches, while all of India listened to the news of India winning the cricket world cup in 83 , 1990's ushered in an age of fanaticism among Indians be it in sports, in entertainment or in politics. people at least those who could afford it.. where glued to dd1 like we seem to be glued to orkut, yahoo messenger and and video games today .
i remember the television not for what i saw in it for most of it i don't remember anything i watched in my television . i remember the television for the few memorable moments i spent with my father. i remember sitting on his lap and watching news. and he would rock me like i am on a horse. those days, my father was away longer than he was around. his irregular shifts often meant that i spent most of my time with my mother. and when he was around it was in front of the tele.. (at least thats how i remember it ) .

another impressive fact about the solidaire television is the fact that it lasted almost 15 years before it encountered its first ailment . and ofcourse it never managed to last 15 years. but it is a well known fact that although we have advanced so far technologically sometimes the oldest forms of todays inventions are most durable. i have seen 1950 enfield motorbikes still running smartly on the road chugging along while people struggling to maintain their spanking new "push button start" bikes. i have seen 15 year old televisions work without a complaint while the latest tv's start coughing and bellowing in 3 -5 years . that i feel is the ironic beauty of technology itslef. that as we progress we compromise on durablity. today people change their cellphones as often as they change their dresses . they are forced to change our computer configurations according to the lastest game that hit the market, irrespective of how well the computer was functioning in the first place.
people now cell thier playstations to buy ps2 only to repent their decision in less than 5 years and they go about buying a ps3. my solidaire is no longer with me. today we own a 7 year old sansui television that looks like its barely clinging to life. we are considering a new television.

but no matter how many televisions i'll buy in my life. no matter what these televisions have as a technological feature that old solidaire 14 inch will remain my most favourite television and the memories it gave me, the images it clumsily displayed on its narrow face will remain in my memory vivid, and beautiful.