Well personally maybe coz it was my growing up decade, the time, when I entered my teens, so a bit of a nostalgia factor. I was 10 when it started out, and just entered my 20's by the time it ended. But nostalgia apart, I have my own reasons for liking this decade. Most of them are India specific.
We had only one TV channel Doordarshan, but the content and genre of the serials was far superior to the saas bahu, Reality Show, Idol crap we get on TV nowadays.
We had Indiana Jones, John Rambo, Arnie as our heroes to look up to, and who do today's kids have as an Idol, Hannah Montana.
We could drop in at our friends home without taking an appointment or without ensuring we don't disturb their favorite TV show, and spend hours, sometimes even sleeping over there, or lazing around.
We did not have Playstation, X Box , but we were ingenious enough to create our own games. And yes video games, started to make their first appearance in India during the 80's. We loved haunting the Video Game parlors.
It was the decade when large shopping complexes came in India for the first time, a big break from the dreary Super Bazaars we went to as a kid.
We still had open spaces to play, we cut our thumbs, grazed our knees, got our clothes dirty, and we loved it all.
We actually loved to have intelligent conversations about History, Geography, Politics, Science and had heated debates quite often.
We could exchange comics, debate on Tintin vs Asterix, Marvel vs DC, Spiderman vs Superman for hours together.
Theaters actually played classic movies. I still recall watching old classics like Ben Hur, Guns of Navarone, Ten Commandments, Good,Bad & Ugly in theaters with great acoustics.
We had our sugarcane juice, nimbu soda, mango pieces, without worrying about health hazards.
It was also the decade when Color TV first came into India, and it was a moment of pride to have one. And yes cricket matches became an occasion for bonding, when every one was present in front of the TV set.
Movies might have been crap, but for sure we did not have 3 hr long Wedding Videos.
Our heroes did not spend 3 hrs trying to convince their Girl's dad. If they wanted the girl, they went and got her, giving one big middle finger to her Dad. Romance was passionate and intense, and there was no angst there.
We could cheer and enjoy a cricket match, we accepted losses without stoning players homes, or passing allegations of match fixing.
It was the decade when India won the World Cup and World Championship in Cricket , Maradonna scored the Goal of the Century, Steffi Graf proved that you could look deadly and play great tennis, Boris Becker was our favorite underdog story.
Yeah DD News was boring and staid, but we did not have India TV, nor Sansani Khabar nor Breaking News. Or Barkha Dutt or Arnab Goswami for that matter.
We had ads between serials and movies, not the other way around. We could actually see a player walking back after being dismissed and the on field celebrations.
Sixes were sixes, not DLF Maximums, and catches were not Karbon Kamaal, yeah we had great catches and we called them classic catches.
We could indulge in our own tastes, quirks, adventures without having to be labeled.
And so many other reasons too, any one from that period is free to contribute.
