Growing up in the 80s (Part I)

Anyone who had the privilege of seeing the 80s rolled by wud agree how magical it was.

Forget the technological re-tardiness, you had to be there to see it...unfortunately you cant now.....so let's reminisce and go back to Aizawl in the swinging 80s.

TELEVISION - TVs came to Mizoram in the early 80s (late 70s actually), but the common man could afford it only in the late 80s. No cable back then, we had to be content with cartoons on sundays (HeMan, Spiderman, Jimmy & the magic torch, few others i forgot). Those whose adobes happen to be located higher up along the west hills (McDonald, Dawrpui, Chanmari) and westward had reception to Bangladesh network which aired far better programs including cartoons everyday (see how small our joys used to be) and MacGuyver. I remember seeing my first episode of Thundercats at a fren's house after hearing so many lively discussions amongst the exclusive priviledged lot.

Of course, Chitrahar and later Rangoli were the only source of music videos. But what we'd really be waiting for were the commercials/ads/fakna which often run upto 30mins at a stretch (and ppl nowadays curse long ads tsk tsk). On saturday night, there was this informative "The world this week" which my bro never missed.

Saturday and Sunday nights meant...Movies - colour flicks, then later Sunday's was black n white. News in Hindi - never missed them, even tho nothing made sense without the video footage. Lots of serials and soaps....saw few, actually followed a couple.

Coming back to Sundays, after HeMan came Ramayana (later Mahabharata) which we couldnt watch fully cos of Sunday School. And, right after Sunday school, i remember seeeing an Indian version of star trek aired for a year or so. Much later, the sword of Tipu Sultan was aired.

World cups - My 1st WC goes back to 1986 with Maradonna's magic and hand-of god goal. I saw the semis and final at my uncle's, slept thru most of the matches. And i had actually seen (but dont remember) the final of Euro84.

Olympics, especially the opening and closing ceremonies were a must-see. Saw Ben Johnson winning the 100m sprint, Greg Louganis smashed his head on the springboard and USA beating USSR overall in the 88 Seoul.

Saw Pat Cash winning Wimbledon with his trademark checked headband. Saw McEnroe and Boris Becker battled it out, Martina-Graf rivalry and later Graf-Seles.

Movies of the 80s are now described as cheesy. But hey, nothing can beat the thrill of seeing the hero beat up and kill villains after villains in the one-man-army flicks - Rambo or Commando. Action movies like Karate Kid, Rocky series, Bloodsport, The Champ, American Ninja have become cult movies. To top it all, the martial art movies (Kungfu film as we wud call them) like Jackie Chan's, 36th chamber of shaolin(lost count of how many times i saw) and the countless Chinese movies were pure joy.

But i guess as far as movies in Mizoram go (at least in Aizawl), if you had been there in the 80s, you would have seen at least half of these listed

1. Grease2

2. Girls just wanna have fun

3. Terrence Hill & Bud Spencer series

4. Qayamat se quamat tak

5. Khoon Bhari Maang

6. Indian version of Tarzan( Vai tarzan)

7. Raiders of the lost ark

8. Terminator

9. ET

10. Evil dead

and Ka nu khawnge i awm

Movies were rented at Rs10 per night and Rs5 for half-day. If u borrowed 2 or more sometimes they will throw in an extra one free of charge. But u had to check that the film(the reel as we called it) was even and not serrated(a tlang kir) at the edge as that wud result in jumpy pictures and cause "dirty head" (a head bal) to the VCR player, and rewinding the tapes seemed like the longest 2 minutes of a lifetime.

Hulkamania conquered the entertainment world with his crazy antics, superhuman strength and showmanship, and everyone caught the wrestling bug , then available only on VHS tapes. Music videos were available only on tapes as well. I remember seeing Starship's Nothing gonna stop us now, Dire Strait's Money for nothing and Queen's I want to break free.

Those were the magical days for ppl like me...i can go on & on but that's it for now. I'l try and cover music, video games and other forms of entertainment in Part II, til then LONG LIVE THE 80s.