I, for few years had thought that lack of exposure to the world in general was a big drawback I suffered from. Grew up in not just pre-wiki-google, pre-email era but there wasn't even TV in early days (phone, hasn't really managed to become mainstream part of life even today). Plus, I was a completely non social child of completely non social parents, so voluntary exposure to humans in real world was also almost nil.
Why I say 'for few years' in first sentence is, before those few years, I had no idea of world to which I had no exposure and after those few years, I started getting doubts wrt to both if it really was a drawback or if it was possible to give exposure to me at all - would I been a lot different lets say if my parents were very social and if I had to grow up in world like today's? I increasingly suspect answer to that is No. May be, I would have acted less stupid on some (okay, many) occasions, been less lost at times and may have avoided some mistakes, but at core level, I think I still would have managed to turn out more or less same in the end.
But anyways, there were certain side effects of reality that was me and my environment. I sometime leave people surprised at or unable to understand my actions. for example, I learned recently that to watch Loksabha/Rajysabha TV with lot of interest was probably strange for a teenager or as I had learned earlier that you could give shock to someone if you happen to ask "who is this person on hording" if he turns out to be most popular film star of recent time. and how could I forget the frightened look on faces of all around me once while waiting at bus stop near my old home. Cause of that look was behind me. A big bull standing almost touching me. Well, that was the same individual who when it was young used to come to me everyday to talk. We happened to change home after that and it was after long time he had seen me.
So, I watched Lok Sabha TV (I had no idea that something like politics exists, my interest was they were talking India), I also watched live telecasts of ISRO launches since ASLV days with great excitement, and for the same reason (theme India), I never missed davis cup games nor did I doubt Doordarshan's commentator during 1993 Davis cup quarterfinal when he said Ramesh Krishan can still make a come back if he looks at Tiranga just once at this moment. India was playing against France, who had won Davis cup just two years back. Krishnan, playing for the tie, was down 1-2, 2-5, 0-40 (if my memory serves me right) in fourth set, that match was on France's home ground and yet, I actually believed the Doordarshan commentator wholeheartedly.
Unfortunately, I ended up depriving myself of joys of tunnel vision once I started working in late 90s (it was kind of tunnel vision replaced by complete blindness) with only few exceptions like watching 2004 Olympics or dreaming (actual dream, not just wish or hope) of Rupee reaching level of 42 around same time. Nadir came sometime in 2008 when I found myself googling to find out who is prime minister of India. But then, that hopeless state of mind has also passed and I have again achieved mental state somewhat similar to early 90's.
If I just say it in short, what I mean is, I am quite eagerly looking forward to Olympics and may not post for three more weeks.
