How has my hometown changed in my lifetime?

I have grown up in multiple cities in my country India. In the first 18 years of my life I lived in 3 different cities and today when I look back I see how these cities have changed drastically from what they were when I was young and spent my time in these cities. All of these cities were almost same except Mumbai which was a little more glamorous and upgraded then the other two.

When I was young I remember in Mumbai city there was only one shopping mall and that too a very small one just a ground level mall with multiple shops and most of these shops had smuggled goods or 1st copy items of shoes, branded clothes, show items. There were nothing like brand stores 30 years ago, may be just a couple of them which I do not even remember. We had majorly all local stores with local manufacturing. When anyone would travel abroad and get something it was a very big deal, because everything look fascinating then which was brought from another country.

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In my city there was no MacDonalds or any other food foreign food brands. The 1st MacDonalds opened in 1993 and after that much later was SubWay, KFC and others. When McD had opened it was like a craze, like something never seen before.
Our childhood was spent much in the most local ways and almost everything we used was Made in India.

The other major change was in the banking system. I remember I had to go to the bank for every transaction. So there had to be proper planning done because on weekdays there would be office and it would be difficult to go to a bank in office days. It was a real struggle then doing banking transactions. There were very very sparse ATM machines across the city and that too with only some of the International Banks. And at that time only Account holders of those banks were provided with ATM so there were no cross banks ATM transactions. When this whole system grew it was a much relief in many ways.

The other is the Construction. As a child I remember there were not many high rise building in the city, and the ones which were there were very traditional types. 25 to 30 floor buildings were max that we would see. We could see an open sky line, but now it's a struggle. If we look around there are skyscrapers all around the city. The old structures in my city are a heritage now, because they do not build anything like that anymore. Now what we have is all contemporary structures.

The Movie theatres were another big change. We had old single screen theatres. The first Multiplex in the city came up sometime only in 2002, again it was so much of a fascination. The tickets were much expensive then the normal single screen cinema halls and again going to a multiplex seemed to be like a occasion in those days.

This is the first Sea Link road in the city which was completed in 2009. Another big change for the city as this made commuting easy on one of the most crowded road.

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In the last 20 years, many global brands in all sectors took entry and that changed the whole face of the city. After 2000 the change started happening at a much faster pace. Our road side eating started turning into fancy dining. In our city we had a place called Fashion street, it is like a road side shopping area of apparels. Almost everyone in Mumbai city would shop there, they were cheap but moreover they had some trendy stuff so even the rich people would be seen there at times. But gradually as Malls opened up and more brands came, this place started dying. In today's time now the same fashion street is more of a shopping area for the lower middle class category.

We had a lot of road side eatery joints back then, but as the malls opened up in that Food Courts started coming up, so gradually even those small road side joints started getting shut and people shifted more to Food Court joints. But still there are many places in Mumbai where you do experience and enjoy local road side eating, but they have also upgraded to keep up with the competition.

As children our play area was majorly the local parks. We did not have any other option, but with time then as things progressed now a days I see less kids in the park and more kids in the play zones which offer variety of virtual games.

The city limits have extended so much since the time I was young, that my city completely looks like an other place developed in the last 25 years.

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Almost similar changes have been in the other 2 cities also that I lived. Some of them I really feel have been very good and progressive but there are some which I feel have not really boosted us much

In the last 25 years, Mumbai city has changed drastically in almost every way. But when my parents talk to me about how things were when they were young, I believe they lived a more carefree life even then us. And sometimes it also feels like they lived in a stone age when I hear their stories. They have seen the city almost building up in front of them. There was no clutter, roads were open, no traffic jams and a much simpler lifestyle. Everything was in limited options that also included education.

Every generation sees a different pace of life when they are young and when they grow up. Specially now when things are shaping up so fast even in a span of 2 years I feel there are changes. As I mentioned some changes we feel good and some we feel uncomfortable about. It's all about our personal choices.

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