1. Scooby-doo There is hardly anyone who does not know about the Great Dane or his scooby snack. Not to forget the goofy Shaggy, the smart Velhma, the sassy Daphne and the frivolous Fred. Remember how there are no such things as ghosts? 2. Moomin Cartoons in the Nepali language were as rare as they are now. Moomin fit the bill perfectly. It was witty, it was fun, and it was a bit emotional. We are sure a lot of you resonated with the characters. Which was your favourite? 3. Mina Cartoon A poster designed for the episode ‘Dividing the mangoes’ of Meena, a cartoon series by UNICEF. Who doesn’t remember Meena, Raju and Mithu? They made you laugh, cry and, more importantly, they taught you a lot about health, bullying, sanitation and why it was wrong to discriminate on the basis of colour, creed, caste, and sex. 4. Hijoaaja Ka Kura A week would be incomplete without watching Santosh Panta and his gang entertaining you on Friday. It showed the realities of Nepali society. Shows that have followed Hijoaaja Ka Kura have not been able to do so. 5. Om Namah Shivaya That Shiva Tandav was the bomb. 6. Mahabharat The title song is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the world ‘Mahabharat’. The show was quite good too. Its rerun during the lockdown must have brought back a lot of memories. 7. Ramayan Did you not feel for Ram during the entire show? He was probably the most ‘senti’ god in all of these shows. But, how could he shoot an arrow? How many of you built your own arrow from bamboo? 8. Chandrakanta Did Yakoo give you all sleepless nights? The show was plain weird but quite interesting. No wonder most of you were glued to the TV wherever it was airing. 9. Daily soaps with mother and Aunts If you were not forced to watch the boring lame daily soaps with your mothers or aunts or grandmothers, you were just lucky. These shows sometimes sucked the life out of you, powerless you still watched. 10. The “aayo aayo” phase The joy when you get a clear signal after moving the antenna located at the top of the house is something kids nowadays will never relate to. The struggle was real somedays at some antennas were absolutely archaic. 11. Dial-up internet Little do kids these days know how hard it was for you to use the internet. Firstly, you needed a login id and password which was as scarce as a wild tiger in Bardiya. Then, you needed to ensure that no one would use the phone. Then, the sound of the modem is something that all of you will relate to. How many of you got yelled at for a high phone bill (quietly raise your hand)? 12. Cybercafé As the dial-up internet was a pain in you know where, the invention of cybercafes was a boon to many. People would throng these cafes and pay Rs 15 to Rs 30 an hour to use the internet. Some used to spend time flirting with boys/girls while a few came there for work. The number of college applications sent via cyber cafes is probably uncountable. 13. MSN and Yahoo messengers Before Facebook, there was another way of connecting with people – online messengers. The MSN, AOL and Yahoo messengers were two of the most popular platforms on which you could chat with people from all across the globe. We are sure you recall going to the cybercafes and spending all day chatting with friends. 14. Dodging flying objects from mothers If you were not beaten up by mothers, were you even a 90s kid? We are sure a lot can relate about flying slippers, broom, stick or any blunt objects. Dodging these items would often give a sense of fun, although only for a little while. 15. Orange balls and Black balls Four chocolates for a rupee.:it does not get better than that. They did not taste that bad either. Neither did the black balls. What was your best orange ball/black ball memory? 16. Lacto Fun This is another chocolate that could be found in the pockets of a 90s kid. Many say they got free chocolates for pulling the wrappers of Lacto Fun up to a certain length. Were you one of them? 17. Ghurra A sweetener which was also a toy: How good is that? 18. Mama chauchau Before Wai Wai became a household name, there was Mama chauchau. Coming in small packets, the noodles were quite underrated. If you had a Mama chauchau packet, you were cool. 19. Alu cross All of you had back pages of our notebooks that were full of remains of alu cross (Tic Tac Toe). This is probably the most fun game to play in the class while the teacher was giving a boring lecture. 20. Name place animal and thing This was a game that tested a person’s aptitude. The struggle to name an animal and a thing starting with the world X and Z were real struggles. 21. Chinese whispers If you did not get in trouble playing Chinese whispers, you did not play it right. Ever butchered the words duck, truck and luck? 22. Dumb Charade (Dam Sharad for Nepali) How many of you called it a charade? Many only a few. But this game was probably the most 90s thing to do in class. Easiest was to guess actors like Anil Kapoor, Rajesh Hamal, SRK and Akshay Kumar. 23. Going to Bhatbhateni or Nerulas for icecreams Before there was Baskin Robbins or Nds, the only places that served icecreams were Nerulas in Durbarmarg and Bhatbhateni Supermarket. These were not great ice creams, but if you went to any of these places on the weekend, it would be full of people. 24. WWE trading cards Getting caught for playing these trading cards was the worst feeling. But winning a friend’s set of 100 cards was the risk every one of you must have taken at one point of time. 25. Bhadakuti At a time when there was no internet and with the TV being occupied by the elders, playing bhadakuti with brothers and sisters was quite refreshing. Maybe that is why you are so good at imagining things. 26. Playing WWE with younger siblings Watching your favourite WWE superstars lay the smackdown was your best moment on the TV. But, doing the moves (even though you know about not trying this at home) of a younger or an older sibling was just too good an opportunity to pass out on. 27. Trolleybus Most who did not live in the valley do not know how cool the trolleybus was. Riding it from the starting point in Tripureshwar and then the way back was a really fun thing to do. 28. Watching 8 pm news in Nepal TV With only one TV in the house, watching the NTV news at 8 pm was basically a ritual that no one could miss out on, even if you desperately wanted to. 29. Bikram tempo Not many will remember these tempos which used to ply all over Kathmandu. It is good that they are gone because they were very dirty for the environment. 30. Bluff calls Annoying as it may sound, but doing that was quite fun. Calling your friend to tell them you are on the radio and they have won a 1,000 rupee will never get old. 31. Putting brown paper covers on all new books and notebooks Wasn’t this the most 90s thing to do? We are sure a lot of your gift wrapping skills is thanks to the countless hours you spent wrapping books and notebooks. Kids today never understand the effort. 32. Getting a bath in the sun every weekend If you cannot relate to this, you are very fancy. As there were no geysers or solar heaters, the only way to deal with the cold water was bathing in the sun. During the winter, it was torture. 33. Songbook for your favourite songs The only way to remember a song was to listen to it and jot it down on a notebook. No wonder you remember almost all the songs you used to listen to back then. 34. Phone diary Before Google started saving contacts on the account, it was pretty hard to remember numbers. You either mugged them up or wrote them down on a diary. Almost every household in the valley must have a diary with numbers arranged according to alphabets. 35. Lava games How many of you jumped from one couch (or bed) to another pretending the floor had lava or something poisonous. It was all fun until you fell and banged your head. 36. Buying CDs in Mahabouddha (Chinese market) Going through CDs of movies and games at Mahaboudha is also something that a 90s kid can totally relate to. With the internet, the culture of going there to buy things has definitely taken a hit. 37. Cassettes Cassettes were the hippest thing when it came to pop culture. If you owned a walkman, you were the cool kid in school. If you recorded songs that were being aired on the radio, you were probably the weirdest. Did you also use a pencil to rewind the tape? Or were you smart enough to change sides? Regardless, listening to music on a cassette is probably one of the most 90s thing to do. 38. Fountain pens and the myth that you will have better hairs if you whipped the ink on it Fountain pens were a mess. But an ink war with friends was quite fun… well until the teacher arrived in class. 39. Going to arcades Going to Soaltee’s arcade or the one at UWTC was so much fun. Getting on a bike and race around international tracks, be it on a video game, was a great feeling. Shooting hoops and beating your friend/sibling was a feeling you all relate to. 40. Hide and seek Playing hide and seek in the alleys of Patan or Basantapur was as fun as it was frustrating. We are sure there are some who are still looking for people there. 41. First craze of Boost, Complan, Bonvita The hypes surrounding these products were insane. Most of them claimed that it would change the way your bodies worked. Some said it would make you smarter while others claimed they would make you taller. Did you believe in the hypes? 42. Using bedsheets to make a cape Who did not want to be superman or batman? If you did not use a bedsheet and put on underwear on top of a trouser, what were you doing when you were a child? 43. Saving lunch money to eat panipuri A plate of panipuri for Rs 5: It does not get better than that. 44. Flying kites If you are a 90s kid from Kathmandu, there are chances that you have flown a kite. There would literally be a 1,000 kites in the skies. The joy in running kites was something else too. Nostalgia… 45. Using cordless phones for the first time Wasn’t that fancy? Taking the phone to the terrace to call your friends to tell that you are calling them from the terrace. Simple days… 46. Going to the zoo to look at the lion and tiger It was old and grumpy and was rarely out of its den. But seeing a lion and tiger for the first time was a joy. 47. Giving best friends better chocolates during birthdays If you did not give your best friend(s) a Five Star or a big Dairy Milk while you gave others two Eclairs, you did not celebrate your birthday right. 48. Tracing coins with pencils Most of you did this part of school or class projects. The quarter coin remains the easiest coin to trace. 49. Lead pencils These pencils were quite fancy. We are sure you ‘lost’ a lot of them. 50. Rubber insects Scaring a teacher or fellow student with a rubber lizard or a spider was fun. Having the prank done on you, however, was not at all pleasing. 51. Flipping eyelids to scare kids The look on the kids’ face when you did that was priceless. This was scarier than watching Aahat on the TV. 52. Catching fireflies, dragonflies and butterflies Not a great thing to be doing as you look back, but this was quite adventurous. It was not easy catching any of these insects. Tying a dragonfly to a thread and releasing it was cruel yet fun. 53. Bhrikutimandap There was a different joy going to Bhrikutimandap and getting on these rides which may or may not have been safe. The Bhootghar was definitely no walk in the park. 54. Blackboards and chalks The spine-tingling sensation after the squawking sound of a chalk stick on the board is something that still gives a lot of you jitters. Having to wipe the boards as you coughed up chalk dust was just a very 90s thing as whiteboards and markers have replaced pretty much all the blackboards. 55. Friendship bands, rulers as bands Friendship bands were quite a thing, weren’t they? When was the last time you gave one to your friend? How cool were these rulers that could roll into your wrists? 56. Floppy discs These were quite handy, weren’t they? The look kids face when you show them a floppy disc makes you feel quite old, doesn’t it? 57. Paper planes, boats and rockets Competing with friends in regard to whose paper object would last the longest does bring back a lot of memories. Using a rubber band to launch a rocket into the neighbor’s house was not only fun but dangerous.