Essays

In comparison to us today, my grandparents never had TV, video, computers, jet planes or four-figure salaries. Their lives were not cluttered with so many consumer goods that we find today in supermarkets and shopping malls. For that matter, they neither had supermarkets nor malls- 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 gossip more than serving.

Nowadays, cars are a common sight. Traffic jams have become a daily affair. My grandmother never sat in a car until she became a grandmother. She teases me sometimes, says 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 neither pollution nor the deafening roar of timber trucks. Traffic lights were unheard of. An old photograph that 1 have seen showed a policeman standing on a raised platform in the middle of a junction directing traffic. He wore oversized 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 grandparents were not besieged by all sorts of information, relevant or otherwise. They were blissfully ignorant of World War I or the atomic bomb. They did not have to listen to pop songs nor became 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 had no TV to watch. I wonder how they spent their evenings, I suppose that the daily labour and chores they had to do rendered 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 and getting to know one another.

Today, we have too much free time. Our chores are done by washing machines. vacuum cleaners and the likes. So the more affluent of us join clubs and societies to fill in our free time. Status and snobbery are the results of growing affluence, Neighbours do not know one another anymore. They are too preoccupied in maintaining their imagined status quo. Who has got time for nosey neighbours? They are bunch of bores anyway.

For us today, travel is a matter of hopping on to an express bus or an aeroplane, depending on the distance involved. London is only a few hours away and the moon is not unreachable- In the days of my grand-parents' youth, travel was a great event. Most people never moved more than fifty miles from their place of birth all their lives. So only a few adventurous people bothered to travel at all. Even for these few, elaborate preparations were needed for the months of arduous travel by land and sea. It was not unexpected that they never returned. Travel during those days was filled with danger. Today we take travelling far distances for granted. The risks are negligible. People are more concerned about whether they should travel first-class or economy.

As a whole, life in the old days was simpler. One did not have so many problems that we face today. Diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular diseases were rare. There was nothing railed fast food and aerobics, I am not saying that their lives were better or worse, only that they were different. They had no TV but they knew one another better. They had no hospitals and died from tuberculosis. They did not have cars nor pollution. We have .so many modern gadgets hill at the same time so many accompanying ills as well. Which period is preferable''' Neither, we live in our own ! inescapable period. We must make the most of what we have.