As I check my email I remember those old days
When email was not invented yet
We were free of the social media craze
No iPhone to enslave us, No Facebook to cajole
No playing Wii or Xbox on a gaming console
Days when Solitaire was fun on a Pentium 2
Watching some television, but we’d never over-do
Asking directions to passers-by in a new place
That was how we got around in the pre-GPS age
Google wasn’t there, to guide us with their maps
Cell phones did not have any geo-positioning apps
Telephones with huge antennas and bulky handsets
Movies that were seen and recorded on video cassettes
No internet, No Yahoo, no messenger chat windows
No live streaming radio feeds or YouTube videos
Had our share of fun with a healthy dose of cricket
Checking play conditions, the players, and the wicket
Match coverage was widely heard on pocket transistors
Unencumbered from match fixing and shifty selectors
Bollywood churned out masala movies using fixed formulas
Questioned the moviegoers’ intelligence, but that was the case alas
Banking was with withdrawal slips and token numbers
No one had dreamed of earning pounds or dollars
Not many had anticipated the IT industry boom
Nor had anyone considered the financial crisis gloom
Things would change so rapidly, who would have known
Lives, though easier, won’t be simpler, the changes have shown