#TBT the '90s

Do you remember inserting a pencil into the holes of a cassette to adjust the tape reel Or pretending to be grownups with a Charlie cigarette hinged on the parting of your lips and filling slam books with intense concentration These are souvenirs of a simpler time aka the 1990s one of the most vibrant mdash culturally and otherwise mdasheras of our livesA new hashtag that has caught the fancy of netizens has set in motion a major blast from the past with millions of people using YouAreOfficiallyOldIf on social media platforms to share their vivid memories from the decade be it click pens with refills of three different colours geometry boxes iconic movies indie music or food Popular Mumbaikars who were kidsyoung adults at the time tells The Guide about favourite YouAreOfficiallyOldIf momentsFast food comes to MumbaiYouAreOfficiallyOldIf You watched the IFB Star Sunday Lunch cooking show It was one of the first ones and I actually appeared on it I remember Ally Khan was the host and it was one of earliest cooking shows to invite celebrities This was also the time Smokin Joes came to Mumbai I think their first outlet was on Carmichael Road at that time everything would open in SoBo first though now its reverse with Bandra being the first choice Soon after Dominoes came too Oh and yes the 90s were also when softies were a huge thing Paradise started selling them and Bachelorrs opened around then as well if I remember correctly recalls Tara Deshpande who was an actor during the time though now she has found her calling in the food industryPizzas and softies became popular in the 90s in IndiaThe era of sitcomsYouAreOfficiallyOldIf You remember watching Dekh Bhai Dekh which was one of the early sitcoms and had a fantastic starcast with actors like Shekhar Suman and Farida Jalal The slapstick family drama was very relatable especially for a joint family Though I wasnt living in one per say my uncle has always lived with us I think the whole concept of showing daytoday issues that people face made it so familiar And they had such a humorous take on it It was perhaps one of the biggest shows of the 90s at least for me shares television actor and host Shruti Seth who incidentally later worked with both Suman in Comedy Circus and Jalal in a popular TV show in the 2000s called ShararatAd this to the mixYouAreOfficiallyOldIf You know what I am talking about when I say I loved the Pepsi advertisement that came out around the same time as the release of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai It had Shah Rukh Khan Rani Mukherjee and a very young Shahid Kapoor It was so iconic and if I am not wrong KK Krishnakumar Kunnath sang the jingle says Parzaan Dastur who you perhaps remember as the sweet little child from a touching advert of an oil brand and who also featured in the famous film Apart from that I remember watching Titanic which was perhaps the first English language film most of us kids watched at the theatre during the timeStill from TitanicStill from cola advertThe comical 1990sYouAreOfficiallyOldIf You read or collected Indrajal and Mandarake comics because they were defining for the industry in that era At that time superheroes were unheard of other than Superman and Batman So for Indian readers it was largely these two But more than that I feel the 90s was the time for single issues After college days I have hardly seen stores selling single issues of DC or Marvel comics like you know Superman No 63 or 75 I recall collecting gems from the raddiwallahs I used to keep an eye out for them Book shops are also fewer now so the entire maths of collecting comics has changed I recall picking them up from the street stalls in Fort and theres also a guy outside National College He used to have a great collection though now hes known more for academic books illustrator Abhijeet Kini who has worked on several comics sharesCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates