Crystalline Nostalgia...

The year, was 1991.

A warm Saturday afternoon. Too hot to play outside.

A 10 year old boy walked into his friends home. The home that held the keys to a whole new magical world for him. These were the days when the boy had just heard phrases that seemed to send his classmates into raptures. Phrases like WWF, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the like.

Yes, this was the time when the boy only had Doordarshan in his house and had only heard stories about this magical thing called 'Cable TV', a veritable rabbit hole that led into a delightful wonderland.

And today he was going to experience it, first hand. He could barely hold back his excitement and while people were talking around him, he felt in a different zone all together. Every few seconds he would steal a quick glance at the TV in the living room. Looked just like the TV at his own house, except for a thick wire snaking in from the window. Finally, it happened. The kids settled down and the friend turned around and said, "There's this fun show we watch on Saturdays. Let's see it now."

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was when I watched Crystal Maze for the first time. And boy, was it fun!

People rolling all over, climbing walls, running from one zone to another, cheering on, doing puzzles, solving mysteries!!! What else could be more entertaining? Of course, I didn't understand it too much initially. It was too much of an overload (I was used to Doordarshan guys)for my innocent little brain. But I really enjoyed it.

AK put up a post of Facebook with a link to the Crystal Maze. And it just brought back memories of all those wonderful wonderful summer days when we used to just prance around and have so much fun. The card games (court piece)with family (my granny always used to win), waiting for the sun to go down a bit so that we could rush out like prisoners who suddenly discover that the jailer had accidentally left the doors unlocked!

Ah, good good days. Good to remember them.

And now there is another black crystal that holds a certain significance :)

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