TIME TRAVEL

The year 2000, we thought, would be the dawn of a new age. Twenty years later, how far have our dreams come true?

- ANJULY MATHAI

Flashback to 2000. Those were the days when the most advanced gadget in the market was a Nataraj steel geometry box. You stood in long queues outside cinema theatres to buy tickets for the matinee show, whilst swatting at mosquitoes and playing ‘Snake’ on your Nokia handset. On Cartoon Network, the PowerpuffGirls were rocking it and Johnny Bravo was everyone’s idea of buff. Bret ‘Hitman’ Hart and Hulk Hogan flashed their biceps from the back of WWF trump cards. Most middle-class families owned only one television and their love-hate relationship with each other was epitomised by the Great Indian Battle for the remote control. Parvati and Tulsi of the K-serials sashayed onto Star Plus, perfecting the art of waking up in the mornings with hair and makeup intact. Schoolgirls subtly fished for compliments from their crushes in their ‘autograph books’ and people bought the cheesy lines that Hallmark peddled on their greeting cards.

2000 was also the year in which the country saw the birth of its billionth baby. The government, however, did not see it as an occasion for celebration and came up with its own unique form of birth control. Every time someone picked up the phone in Delhi, a recorded voice in Hindi and English announced the news of the billionth baby and reminded the telephone user that a small family was a happy family. India was the beauty capital of the world, with Lara Dutta and Priyanka Chopra winning the Miss Universe and Miss World titles respectively. The words “Sure? Confident? Tala lagaye?” in Amitabh Bachchan’s deep baritone resonated across hundreds of households with the birth of the Kaun Banega Crorepati craze. Star Plus got 15 million calls in five months. Prince William turned 18. Everything from his music taste (he liked to jam to techno music) to sartorial preference (wore bespoke suits by Anderson and Sheppard) became grist for the paparazzi mill.