This amusing decade made a comeback in the past few years and presented us with people embracing all things 90s. Mom-jeans paired with crop tops, hipsters walking around with Sony Discmans and even the creepy guy next door hosting theme parties featuring Rachel from the Friends TV show's questionably popular hairstyle.
It's a whole different story for those who grew up in Dhaka in the 90s. Sure, we wore our mom-jeans until they literally fell apart. We even had a go at the baggy flannel shirts.
However, there is a special place in our hearts that is filled with memories of the little pleasures life bestowed upon us in the good old days.
Milk Vita Chocolate Milk
This gem that was delivered to us in a plastic bag, was the highlight of our evenings after an intense session of Ludo or Ha-do-do. Chugging chocolate milk apparently also helped calm distraught children in the 80s and 90s.
Illustration by PriyoRumour has it that this chocolatey concoction still exists, but the experience of receiving an ice-cold bag of milky paradise from the chacha at a corner-store, who went the extra mile to pierce it with a straw for your drinking pleasure is a distant memory.
The classic illustration of an astonished cow with udders that resemble blooming flowers on the bag just adds to the overall experience.
Fuji Noodles
Chances are, your parents bought and let you eat Fuji Noodles. They let you eat the noodles at school, they let you eat the noodles after your socially awkward math tutor left your house, hell, they were just happy you were eating!
Illustration by PriyoNo one seemed to have issues with exactly how much Monosodium glutamate (MSG) a packet of these incredibly delicious instant noodles contained. Fuji Noodles delighted our taste buds with a secret ingredient - a golden pouch of oil that has never been replicated since the product went off the shelves around 1992.
Let's take a moment of silence in rememberance of this square green pack of love.
Fresh Chips
If you were a kid in the early 90s and you had Tk6 in your pocket, you were a cut above the rest. While everyone else was munching on generic potato chips from a transparent packet, you happened to have shelled out on the first ever proper pack of crisps...made in Bangladesh!
Fresh chips was probably the pioneer in the chips industry. These crisps were packed in an iridecent bag and was available at most school canteens or cornershops,The paprika flavour was the bomb. (Can we even casually use that word anymore?)
Illustration by PriyoYeah, everyone wanted to be friends with the kid with the shiny green bag in their grubby pre-pubescent hands.
If you missed out on Fresh Chips you probably missed out on one of the best things growing up in Dhaka because this baby was up there with reruns of Macgyver, Manimal and The Man from Atlantis on BTV.
Mimi Chocolate
Sweet, sweet Mimi Chocolate. The one that will pop in your head first is Mimi Orange in its iconic brown packaging. Back in the day, before your neighbourhood shops started selling Kit Kat bars, Mimi was all we had.
Sure, it left an oily coating in your mouth. That's only because it was chock full of hydronated palm oil which helps keep the chocolate in solid form in humid countries. No one cared about that. All that mattered is that it was straight up delicious.
Illustration by PriyoWhile on the subject on Mimi, true fans will remember a chocolate bar called Picnic which was a better version of Snickers. Yes. We went there.
Mimi also made icing sugar, but you wouldn't know that since you probably weren't baking when you were a child.
Mix tape mania
No, not the kind you spent hours making for your eigth grade crush, we're talking about proper establishments that specialized in recording the mix tape made up of your 90s dreams.
The most popular shops were called Shur Bichitra and Rainbow. You could saunter in there and browse through their endless collection of records and pick a selection that would end up on a spanking new TDK Metal cassette tape which was guaranteed to supply your earbuds with 90 minutes of pure pleasure.
via GIPHYYou would have to wait over five days to receive your tape unless you paid them Tk50 extra.
The minute you had that tape in your hands, you were free to listen to Richard Marx's “Right Here Waiting for you” on a continuous loop.
Film Fair/Video Connection
These were the premium destinations to rent video cassettes to binge watch on the weekends.
Located in Dhanmondi and Gulshan 2 respectively, we considered ourselves lucky if we had a membership to these “video-clubs” or had a friend of a friend who would let us borrow a movie for a few hours.
Sometimes the quality of the movies would be awful and you could actually see shadows of the heads of the people seated in front of the brave soul who taped the whole film on their Sanyo Camcorder.
No one cared about that. It was a steal at Tk25-30 a pop and we were just happy to be able to watch Macauley Culkin in Home Alone the same year our cousins abroad did.
BTV
A long, long time ago, before we had satellite dishes on our rooftops and cable connections, we had one option-Bangladesh Television (BTV). In an odd way, sometimes it's kind of comforting not to be spoilt for choice. Tough luck if you didn't feel like watching ThunderCats on a beautiful Friday morning, because you kind of had to and every minute of it was amazing.
via GIPHYHonestly, how would we have known what to expect in the future if shows like Dallas and Dynasty hadn't prepped us for our travels abroad?
Illustration by PriyoRumour has it that this chocolatey concoction still exists, but the experience of receiving an ice-cold bag of milky paradise from the chacha at a corner-store, who went the extra mile to pierce it with a straw for your drinking pleasure is a distant memory.
The classic illustration of an astonished cow with udders that resemble blooming flowers on the bag just adds to the overall experience.
Illustration by PriyoNo one seemed to have issues with exactly how much Monosodium glutamate (MSG) a packet of these incredibly delicious instant noodles contained. Fuji Noodles delighted our taste buds with a secret ingredient - a golden pouch of oil that has never been replicated since the product went off the shelves around 1992.
Let's take a moment of silence in rememberance of this square green pack of love.
Illustration by PriyoYeah, everyone wanted to be friends with the kid with the shiny green bag in their grubby pre-pubescent hands.
If you missed out on Fresh Chips you probably missed out on one of the best things growing up in Dhaka because this baby was up there with reruns of Macgyver, Manimal and The Man from Atlantis on BTV.
Illustration by PriyoWhile on the subject on Mimi, true fans will remember a chocolate bar called Picnic which was a better version of Snickers. Yes. We went there.
Mimi also made icing sugar, but you wouldn't know that since you probably weren't baking when you were a child.