27 May 2009..As compared to us today, my grandparents never had television, computers, jet planes and four figure salaries. Their lives are not cluttered with so many consumer goods that we find today in supermarkets and shopping complexes. For that matter, they never had supermarket or complexes..
As compared to us today, my grandparents never had television, computers, jet planes and four figure salaries. Their lives are not cluttered with so many consumer goods that we find today in supermarkets and shopping complexes. For that matter, they never had supermarket or complexes. They did their occasional shopping in simple shops, devoid of air-conditioning or price tags. They probably did not have to face arrogant salesgirls who would rather be gossiping than serving them.
Nowadays, cars are common sight. Traffic jams have become a daily affair. My grandmother never sat in a car until she became a grand-mother. She reminds me sometimes saying how pampered we are. She says that in her youth, people got around on foot or on bicycles. Cars and buses were rare. Only a few rich people could afford cars. The streets were unpaved and not dangerous. There was no pollution or the deafening roar of timber trucks. Traffic lights were unheard of. An old photograph that I have seen showed a policeman standing on a raised platform in the middle of a junction directing traffic. He wore over-sized shorts and a colonial-styled hat. If he were to do that in the middle of a junction today, not only will he be laughed at but probably some ill-tempered driver will run over him.
The lack of effective mass communication during the old days probably meant that my grandfather was not besieged by all sorts of information, relevant or otherwise. They were blissfully ignorant of World War I or the atomic bomb. They did have to listen to pop sings and become addicted to them. The few opium addicts they tolerated cannot compare with the epidemic we now experience. They did not become square-eyed because they have no television to watch. I wonder how they spent their evenings. I suppose that the daily labor and chores they had to do render them weary enough to go to bed early. The lack of electricity meant that they had no lights to switch on or off at will. They had to be careful not to waste too much oil in their oil lamps. So they probably sat around in relative darkness conversing with and getting to know one another.
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