20 years of Internet in India

20 ways the Internet has changed how we do things:

Remember the time, that now appears to be long ago, when you would allocate different times of the day to different tasks? Mornings were usually reserved for buying fresh groceries, and certain afternoons of the month were fixed to pay the monthly dues. Job seekers would start their day waiting eagerly for the newspaper vendor and the postman ringing the bell stirred up emotions. Children couldn't afford to miss on outdoor games in the evening. That was a period when we wouldn't mind investing all our energies and spend all our time in making hand-made cards for our special ones. Every day was full of a lot of activity and variety.

But the times have changed. While the chores haven't changed, we now do them in a different (and more convenient), courtesy the Internet.

As public Internet in India completes 20 years, we attempt to take you back in time to show how we now do the things that we did then.

1. Shopping

There was a time when the number of shopping bags defined our happiness. But the concept of placing orders online has changed the way we now look at the very idea of shopping (and window shopping). Now the discounts and speed of delivery are the measures of our happiness.

2. Playing games

Evening for kids were once incomplete without playing outdoor games or loitering around with friends in park, but now the mobile phone is both a friend as well as a field for kids and grown-ups alike.

3. Job hunting

A few scrolls or a couple of clicks may now get you a job, but there were times when people would comb through newspapers for openings.

4. Communication

The joy of writing letters is incomparable. Internet may have made communication faster and easier, but many of us still miss sending and receiving handwritten letters.

5. Photo albums

Photos were once no less than prized possessions and were carefully preserved. Today, the ample storage in our smartphones and a spate of free cloud storage services available have changed our habit of taking and preserving photos.

6. Research

Research, lost in a maze of books inside a library, is an experience that many of the new generation would perhaps never experience.

7. Banking

There was a time when banks meant long queues. Now the bank is on your palm.

8. Bill payments

One of the most dreary of tasks has been made simpler and smoother thanks to the Internet.

9. Grocery shopping

This is a change which is happening now and happening fast.

10. Reading newspapers/magazines

Not too long ago, so many of us would start our day reading the newspaper while sipping morning tea, and now with news apps, Facebook updates and tweets the dedicated habit of newspaper and magazine reading is becoming a thing of the past.

11. Radio

The Internet has revived the radio. Now it is called music streaming.

12. Audio cassettes

Remember how we would spend hours selecting and jotting down your favourites songs to be recorded on a blank cassette? The Internet has killed the audio cassette and also the music CD.

13. Taxi

Cab hailing is becoming more and more associated with taps of fingers than waving of hands.

14. Renting video cassettes

Release of a new movie in the past would mean waiting for it to be available at the nearest VHS rental stores. When was the last time you had rented one?

15. Asking for an address

We earlier had simple opportunities to strike a conversation with strangers. Pointing to an address on a slip, many of us have used this statement, "Bhaisahab, ye kahan padega?" And the reply would come somehow like, "Aage se daaye, fir T-point se baayein, aur fir seedha jaake..." Now the staccato voice from the navigation app shows us the way.

16. Exam results

You, perhaps, still can't express those mixed feelings of tension and excitement that you would have while scanning through result sheets at notice board. Now you can rejoice and grief in the privacy of a mobile phone.

17. Hand-made cards

Festivals and anniversaries had that touch of the hand. From crayons to water colors to sketch pens, we put them to good use to express our wishes on folded paper.

18. Love proposals

The Internet has saved the suitor the awkwardness of approaching the love interest.

19. Railway tickets

Getting the railway bookings done for a vacation was an adventure in itself. Remember how you would wake up early in the morning to be the first in the queue?

20. Sleep

The Internet may have simplified much of our lives but has also turned us into voluntary insomniacs.