I still remember my childhood (atleast a substantial portion of it). It was 1988 and I was 8 years of age. I had just learnt riding a bicycle and used to take bicycle on rent from the nearby store (it used to happen in India).

The place I am talking about was Katni, a small town in Madhya Pradesh. We used to stay in Nai basti (stands for New settlement) as it was very close to my grandparents’ home. The place was very small and we used to know most of the roads and pathways of the city (at the age of 8… surprised?). We used to go playing cricket on bicycles.  Everyday had a complete life in itself and nothing was dumped onto the weekend.

I am feeling nostalgic and am trying to remember what was hot in 1988. Following things may be the hotspot of 1988 ( from a kid’s point of view):

• Raj comics were giving a big competetion to Manoj comics and diamond comics. Angoothelal’s comics had stopped coming and Nagraj was hot.
• Chacha Choudhary aur Heeron Ki Kheti took a long time to get launched. We waited for it eagerly.
• 1-2-3 was a super duper hit song and we used to like it a lot.
• I was afraid of watching the movie “Bees Saal Baad” which was released in the same year.
• We purchased a new car. It was a 2nd hand Maruti Suzuki 800. Having a car was a big thing at that time.
• Ubli hui ber was what we used to eat in the evenings. Alongwith it we used to have Aloo Kachaalu.
• Pepsi icecream (ice with sugar syrup in a long pen-like polythene) made its highly successful entry in the market.
• Forester playground in Katni was small. It was still known as Forester playground.
• The “Nagar Nigam Library” was known as Venkat Pustakalaya.
• I got badly injured riding my bicycle.
• Campco was a hot chocolate at the time.
• I did not like Ramayana much but we used to die for Heman.
• Circus was a popular past time in those days.
• In the ‘Dopahar ki sabha’, they used to teach how to create various things of art to the children. I used to love it.

There can be innumerable things which may be written but I need to stop somewhere. I know many of the things here may not be of use and interest to anyone, but I have written them as they were important for me as a kid. A kid may not think of politics or sports.

I will be writing more about my childhood as I want to write it. Do read it in case you like this post.

Cheers,

Himanshu Joshi

THIS IS  MY ATTEMPT TO RECREATE THE MAGIC, THE NOSTALGIA OF OUR OWN FAVOURITE SUPER-HEROES OF HINDI COMICS….NAGRAJ,SUPER COMMANDO DHRUV,BANKELAL,CHACHA CHOUDHARY,PHANTOM,MANDRAKE,BAHADUR,RAM-RAHIM……SO,LET’S ENTER THE WORLD OF HINDI COMICS…..