Time changes

My friend SAJS is very nostalgic about his past – his childhood days when he would jump in the canal flowing next to his village, like all others kid of his village did in the summers. He would watch children playing pebbles, a favourite game in the villages, or perhaps he also joined in and bagged all the pebbles from others (or perhaps lost all of his own and went sobbing home).

When he grew up, he was put to the village school that was the day when a writer was born far away in a small village near Mandi Bahauddin. He would often write small words on the sand, which probably made a theme for him to write a book later in his literary life. He had a passion for reading and writing since his childhood, I would say and this is what reflects from most of his posts. Perhaps for this reason, he loved writing letters and sending eid cards to his friends and family when he moved out of his village for higher education. In one of his recent posts, he has expressed his love for these greeting cards and has also displayed a greeting banner I once drew and posted on the notice board of our academy where we both happened to be undergoing training.

Now that the times have changed, and so have the habits and way of life of people even in the rural areas. People who once used to listen to the songs from the Urdu and Punjabi films on the radio and commentary on cricket and hockey matches played in and foreign lands are now glued to the 24 hours run TV channels. Listening to radio is no more the priority. During Shirazi’s youth, the black and white PTV only aired its programmes from 6-11 PM with a weekly break on Wednesday perhaps. We had few good prgrammes to watch everyday rather than the Urdu dramas full of family feuds and intrigues by the otherwise not-doing-anything women folk of our families.

Those were the days when life was simple and compassionate. People loved to write letters to their near and dear ones and waited for the postman to deliver the replies or “re” of todays. And we also send greeting cards on Eid. Children would throng the greeting cards stalls opened on every corner of the street and buy cards on behalf of their families. And am sure so did SAJS.

But now times have changed, as these change in the lifespan of every generation. Fashion has changed too. We now see women wearing long shirts, lose from bottom, as did women in the 50s. The LPs that we grabbed in our youth and played on the turn tables have been replaced with CDs and even USBs directly inserted into car AV paying devices or even stored in the cell phones. While once we waited for the post man for letters and eid cards - now we wait for SMSs and E-Mails instead, as technological developments have overtaken human emotions.

This change is necessary as inertia in life leads to boredom and stagnancy. So let the life take its own course. But at the same time it is also good to recall old memories and feel nostalgic about it as this is what remains when one has gone past its prime youth.

So say good bye to old habits, traditions and way of living - who knows what is in the store for next year?

Related Reading: Greeting Cards