Top 7 things that 21 years of internet has changed in India
1.) Watching the World Cup
India won the world cup only twice – 1983 and 2011. But the way both matches were watched and loved by fans here at home was strikingly different. With 3G mobile speed and YouTube, for the first time watching a cricket match was no longer limited to just TV. Wonder how it’s going to be in 2016?
2.) Getting that cab It’s not that cabs or autos weren’t comfortable back then, they have almost not even changed over time. But what has changed is the way you can get to them. Or they get to you! While earlier you had walk up to a cab, fight with whoever wanted to get on first, hop off at your destination, fight with the driver and say “Aapka meter kharab hai!” Today, cab booking is mobile and instant. They come at your doorstep and you even get to rate your ride experience. Back then no one could imagine drivers would ever care for how your ride was!
3.) The daily news Back then news had its intervals. It was either 1 day old in newspapers or at least a good few hours late in scheduled broadcasts in State run TV news or radio. Today, news has various forms but one thing is common among them all – it’s live and now! Delay in delivering news today is like death for that digital publishing or broadcasting channel.
4.) And politics is finally evolving too…
It was a common scene to see people standing in rallies under the scourging Sun or pouring rain to hear Indira Gandhi speak. And in 2014 Narendra Modi was a hologram, present in multiple locations at once. And the people in their urban apartments never even had to leave their sofas to hear him speak.
Thanks YouTube!
5.) Holding those long office meetings
Meetings back then meant it was either telephonic or face to face. And since outsourcing rarely ever happened back then, you can say Americans hated us a bit less than now when they think we stole all their jobs! Today meetings, even among colleagues in the same city, means Skype, WebEx or perhaps even a video WhatsApp call!
6.) Our offices got a lot less boring
For a millennial kid, growing up and imagining working in that pile of papers our parents worked in was a nightmare! And thank God things changed. Our offices became nearly paperless and were replaced by pretty cool and thin desktops. Sure it didn’t happen overnight, we did go through the phase of ugly, fat monitors, but be glad it happened!
7.) Getting your own cash out of the bank
Can you imagine walking up 3-4 miles just to withdraw your own money from the bank? If today this happened, people would stop depositing money to begin with! Today cash is on-demand and to withdraw it, you just walk up to your street corner ATM!
