Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny

I first came across this phrase two and half years ago in the book "Modern Operating Systems" by Andrew S. Tanenbaum.

Ontogeny is the growth (size change) and development (shape change) of an individual organism; phylogeny is the evolutionary history of a species. (ref: wikipedia)

Tanenbaum quotes this phrase and explains how it has happened with compute science. In this blog I would like to generalise it.


When the radio was invented, it was the hottest medium of mass communication but radio became obsolete once TV was invented. It almost became extinct but suddenly came back as FM Radios became a very common thing in cities.

I have never used a gramophone player but gramophones were circular to allow random access but became extinct after tape drives came into existence. But CDs and DVDs are once again in circular shape. Here the circular shape of the storage media has done a come back.

When I was very small kid, we used to have antenna on the top of our home to receive the DD channels - direct to home is the concept. It became extinct after local cable operators became very strong and they would provide people with lot of channels. But the concept of direct to home with a small antenna on the top has done a come back now.

Writing Diary has reinvented itself as blogs.

Pen-friendship has reinvented itself as anonymous friendships on the net.

My mother told me once that when she was a kid, house holds used to use raagi quite often for food. But after some years it was looked down to have raagi dishes in the middle class families. Now, once again raagi and other such cereals have seen increased consumption due to health reasons.

Man started with raw foods and moved to cooked foods but once again raw food in the form of salads has seen increase in consumption for the same reason as in the previous case.

The Transformation ...

There have been numerous articles in papers; numerous books have been written; it is in the air every day - India's transformation in the post license-raj era. But today I want to recollect my days to the farthest corners of my memory as small school boy to this day - a young professional who just entered the corporate world.

I was always excited at the prospect of New year when we could distribute greeting cards. My memory goes back to as far as  1992 - 93. ( I would have been 7 or 8 years old then ) It is not very long ago in terms of time but the way things have changed since then is unimaginable. We(My brother and I) would get to buy greeting cards each worth one or two rupees only. We would give a card including both our names to common friends and teachers. I can not remember buying a card worth even 10Rs till my 10th class. My brother and I would get to use pens costing 2 - 3 Rs. Reynolds pen with white bottom and a blue cap was 5Rs then and we would rarely get to buy it. Reynolds Jitter which was 14 Rs was always out of reach. I always wanted to buy that but don't remember if I ever bought one before my 10th. I don't remember when was TV bought in our home. But I faintly remember that the first TV we had was from dyanora company. ( I am neither sure of the spelling nor of its existence today)  But I have vivid memory of BPL - AJITH which had 6 buttons for 6 channels ! Why do you require 6 channels when there were only two channels that you would watch - DD and the local cable TV operator's movie telecasts. This BPL - AJITH is not yet defunct and is faithfully serving even till date. It is in one of my uncle's home(We were a joint family then) I can faintly recollect the days when we did not even have TV and would go to some one else's house quite a bit far to watch the weekly Mahabharatha  serial in National DD. I also cherish the memories of  our struggle with the antenna on the top of our home to get it working so as to receive the DD channel. I miss the Friday evening Chitralahari program - a bouquet of songs.

I was in fourth standard when they introduced computer classes in my school. Logo was the first language that I learnt. There was a boot floppy followed by another floppy to load the OS and probably another to load the language. Logo was a drawing language. The programs to draw triangle would be
FD 20
RT
FD 30
HOME

Very recently did Bajaj anounce that it would be exiting from the scooter segment. I  very vividly remember those days when I would stand in the front of my father's chetak, my brother and mother sitting in the back seat.

My last recollection is that of the first time I saw a phone in my neighbour's home. My most memorable phone call is the day I got a call from my friend soon after we got a phone ourselves, after I longed for one for a couple of years. This would be somewhere in my seventh or eighth class.

Just seven to eight years back there was no internet connectivity available in my hometown. I created my first mail id only in the third year of my undergraduation which would be in the year 2005. You might say I am very late in catching up with technology for the previous sentence. Agreed, I was very late in catching up with technology but my point is not that - we are changing at a rapid pace!

I described my memories of TV, money(the way a middle class family would deal with it), phone, and computers. Today I see my cousins growing up in an environment with atleast 50-60 TV channels. They will probably laugh at me if I tell them that we had only one or two channels as small kids. I need not say much about the amount of info that goes around today. The middle class is no more conservative in terms of money. ( especially in the urban and semi-urban areas) This carries some bad news with it. Firstly, India being the youngest nation has millions of  youth who have just started earning salaries which are more their parents were earning almost at the end of their careers. This has lead to severe indulgence into materialism among those who earn and thereby leading to change in lifestyle patterns(especially in the cities.) I never imagined myself sitting in Cafe Cofee Day to spend 50 - 60 Rs on cofee even a couple of years back. My mother will surely chide me if I tell her that sometimes I spend that much amount on cofee.The problem is that college goers and teenagers want to have similar cosy life styles and many of them are burdening their parents with little concern for their plight.

A lot has changed in just 15 years. I am happy that my own growing up has coincided with this change. I am also proud to be part of the times which will take Mother India to new peaks of glory and happy for having been placed in the right age group to do so. The past has been filled with sweet memories. The future is filled to the brim with unknown opportunities to learn and contribute and therefore filled with excitement. I cherish my past and look forward for my future.