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Vanishing act

I was on a drive to wilderness with my grown up children and they were amazed to see the change in the lifestyle just 100 kms from Delhi, a metropolitan city and we got talking about old times. Later I realised that old times have not been such old times at all. In the history a time of 25 years is not too much but still within the same time how much has changed.

It got me to sit uptight and count that how many things have kind of vanished from a metropolitan life in Delhi in the last 25 years. The list surprised me completely. Read for yourself ( in a random order)

- coal stove (अंगीठी )
- kerosene stove
- electric water heating rod
- mercury thermometer
- traditional weighing scales
- horse carts (तांगा )
- audio spools
- audio cassettes
- video cassettes
- floppy disks (of all sizes)
- fax machines
- film cameras
- photo processing labs
- wet photocopying machines
- carbon papers
- slates and chalk
-  rotary dial phones
- mechanical hand wound alarm clocks
- fresh milk
- small scale flour mills
- local biscuit maker
- sandwitch blades
- knife sharpeners
- hand woven sweaters
- custom stitched shirts/ trousers
- washing soap
- home made sweats
- steam engines
- snake charmers
- marriage albums
- post cards
- postal oders
- telegrams
- operator assisted long distance calls
- trunks (steel variety)
- marble playing (कंचे )
- गुल्ली डंडा  (sorry can't translate)
- masseur
- sewing machines at home
- home made butter

and I am sure there are many more but do I want to live all those nice memories and feel the void.....

ah no.

Yes I miss all that

But I am happy with what is available now.





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