Sometimes the world of social media is overrun with people reminiscing about the dim and distant past. One gets lost in the nostalgia of days past, peopled with beloved characters, old-fashioned tech which would puzzle kids today. Twitter had this kind of nostalgia-fest recently when people were tweeting with the #90sKidsRumours hashtag.
Back in the day, the nation wanted to know whether Sri Lankan batsman Jaysuriya had steel in his bat.
These rumours not only got around, but they were also largely believed! Unlike today, those were the hey-days of the Australian cricket team and we really wanted to know why they seemed invincible.
The number of birds you saw together determined the failure or success of your love life and apparently the pattern of hair on the head would decide marital fortunes.
Remember FLAMES? We were convinced if some random letters crossed each other out, this was proof that our crush loved us back. Or not.
When my parents bought an Omni van my brother joked macabrely, that they were giving free wheelchairs with the vehicle (owing to its perceived lack of safety). Some people also believed this!
You can recognise a witch by her backward facing feet, a celebrity died because of a tattoo, snakes are really vindictive. Many of us believed these and then some!
The beloved bubblegum from the day was apparently toxic if ingested. At the very least we believed that the gum would stay in our system for 7 years. Also, watermelon seeds would sprout and grow from the stomach if swallowed!
We all had someone visit us in school to create these wondrous objects from paper and sell us booklets poorly printed on recycled paper. When we tried to replicate these crafts at home, we were all doomed to fail.
We hoped that the coin would get magnetised because that distant visiting cousin swore this was true. If nothing else the exercise yielded a lovely flattened coin – still a conversation starter for school!
All of us played this during free periods. Some of us also believed that it would make us smarter.
It would erase invisible ink, said some! We actually believed them!
Buying this pen will improve your handwriting they told us.
We collected bottle tops to win prizes and rumour had it that some one rupee coins would help win a watch. And everyone wanted an HMT watch then!
It is a little sad how we believed parents who told us – just work hard for good marks in the XII, it will be plain sailing after that. Oh! What cruel subterfuge!
So there you have it: #90sKidsRumours versus kids’ rumours today!
Do you have something interesting you would like to share? Write to us at [email protected]
