Changes Over The Years

There are so many things which people of this generation take it for granted, but there are many things which were not available or heard by people born in 1940s or after the country’s independence. The things which have become necessity were luxury during those days. Now a days two year old child will know how to operate mobile phone or even lap top, but during those days even computer or phone was unheard of , in most of the house holds. I am listing below few of the things

Electricity in Homes  –  in the decade of 50s hardly 20% of country’s population had electricity in homes, the situation improved in every  decade and the situation now is that the electrification has reached the villages, and most of the states  are 100% electrified. I remember during my child hood , at our house there was no electricity and we used to use kerosene lantern, when I was about 8/9 years old that time I saw electricity at our home.

Telephones – In the 50s if you had a phone , you were considered to be very important person or celebrity. I still remember telephone instrument as big black box. In the 60s situation did not improve much, but slowly people started realising the importance of telephone, and you could find Public telephones installed at strategic locations in big cities. I never knew how to operate public phone till I was 11/12 years old. Getting telephone connection in those days was big headache, I still remember my father applied for connection in 1972, and system was connected in our home in 1978. In the 80s new push button type  electronic instrument were introduced and in the later part of the decade cordless telephones were introduced . Now the situation is such that you get land line connection in certain areas immediately and in balance areas within few days. In the early 90s paging system was also introduced, where you could send a message to pager number, by talking on telephone to pager operator. Then in mid 90s came the biggest revolution in communication system The Mobile or Cellular phone, this changed the concept of communication. Mobile phone started improving, it started with messaging, then came cameras with phone, then came querty key pads like laptops and  lastly android or smart phones came in the market. Presently mobile phone is your hand held computer, where with internet connection through mobile data system or wifi internet connection you can perform umpteen operations with different apps installed in your mobile phones.

Written Communications – earlier written communications was with hand written notes, then came type writers, where  you could type your communication on piece of paper and if you need copies of that , you could insert sheet of carbon paper between sheets of paper. Then came electronic typewriters, where you could correct the text while you are typing. Then came computer System which consisted of Monitor(Screen), Key Board, Central Processing Unit( CPU) and Printer, here you could type and see the same on monitor and could do immediate correction and then print out the same on desired size of paper through Printer. Over the years computer system went on changing for betterment. After Computers came the Laptop  in the earlier part of first decade of millennium, where monitor, CPU and Key board were installed together and the system could be open/close like a book. The Laptop name  was derived from, as this system you could put on top of your lap and work. The system worked on batteries which could be charged through normal electric power. The earlier Lap tops were quite heavy, but over the years they have became lighter. Now you get Tabs , Note Books which do most of the functions of laptops, which are really light.

Listening Music – In the 50s if you have to listen to music, either you have to listen   the same on big size radio or you could play the standard 78 revolution per minute  (rpm) record on manual record player, the record carried one song on each side. Each side had a recording of about three & half minutes. Later the Electrically operated record player and record changer were introduced. Similarly in 60s record manufacturing companies  introduced 45 rpm records which were known as Extended Play (EP) records, which generally  had  two songs on each side, duration of each side was about 8-10 minutes,. Then came 33 rpm records, which could have 4-6 songs on each side and duration of play for each side was about 20-25 minutes, so in one LP records the full songs recording of one film could be accommodated. I still remember that from late 60s to late 70s, at home we used to listen music on Record Changer/Player, which could hold upto 6 LP records at a time .There was one other way of listening audio/music was to get the same copied on Electrically operated spool type Tape Recorders and then play back the same  music/audio. In the radio segment Battery operated Transistorised radios were introduced, which people could carry outdoors and listen. Then in the 70s  cassette type tape recorders with two tracks were introduced. Now music became available on pre recorded cassettes along with records. Suddenly Cassette Players and Recorders became so popular that records started loosing their values. Then in late 80s and early 90s Compact Disc (CD) music system started, the discs were like records, but their better versions as per the quality of sound. By early 2000s even cassette were phased out and music was generally available in CDs. Now a days even CDs are getting irrelevant, as with Internet you can down load the music from the web sites to your computers and mobile phones. From computers music can be transferred to Pen Drive (a USB device) . This Pen Drive can also be used with your car music system. Now CDs also have lost their utility as most of the people listen to music on their mobile phones.

There are other things also, which I will write in next blog.

Waiting for your view/comments/feed backs.

Anil Malik

Mumbai,India

12^th Dec 2018