Childhood in the 90's

It was a lazy weekend and I was sitting by the balcony and reading a book when few kids of the apartment started running around shouting out loudly. The kids were forming a group to play cricket with them finalizing if it should be boys vs girls etc. They were a boisterous lot between the age of 6 -12 years, running around and calling the others from their house. I couldn’t stop smiling as I was looking at the energy levels they had. I was then taken down memory lane. I was so reminded of my childhood days when I used to be more on the road than at home! It was a task for my mom to get me back inside the house. Me along with the neighbors’ kids used to be on the road and in the ground in front of our house playing all kinds of games. 

There used to be a whole gamut of games that we kids used to be involved in, ranging from the very age old “Territory game” to the noisier “gulli cricket”. I remember very vividly how we all used to go- “acquiring land from the opponent player on the bifurcation drawn. Global map was totally not in picture. Based on the country we liked, we used to choose and have Delhi the neighbor of London and Germany. And there were the other games of “Cup and Saucer” and “Chain cut” where we used to run helter skelter trying our level best not to get out! And there were the much noisier games of “police thief” and “lock and key”! Boy, were we a boisterous lot while playing these games! There was also the game of “kanna mucchi”(hide and seek) for which we used to explore our surroundings fully to find good hiding spots so as to ensure that we don’t get caught by the person who was out! The games like hopscotch, color games were the girly ones and the boys quite naturally abstained from playing these games. Police Thief, lock and key were more of the uni sex games which all of us- boys and girls used to play together. And there was the more boyish game of “bambaram”( spinning top) and ‘’Goli vilayaatu” (marbles). I remember once it was evening, we were forbidden to venture out in the fields, cos of the fear of snakes and scorpions. But we tagged along with the older kids picking up the glass jars (Horlicks and Maltova jars were commonly used) to catch the fireflies in them. And slowly as time progressed, we started playing with frisbee (commonly called as disk) and badminton. The debate would be if the ball falls into the ditch who would pick it and wash it. Those were times when girls wanted to be treated equal to the boys, which could mean jumping walls with them and plucking fruits from the trees that were forbidden. Rainy days had a different set of games, it would start with paper boats being made and floated on the ditches in front of the house. “Snake and Ladders”, ‘pallanghuzi” the mancala game and then came in “name, place, animal, thing” and slowly we moved to board games or rather sophisticated games of carom, scrabble, monopoly and dumb charades. 

When I look at it, today’s kids are not even familiar with most of the games. When I see the kids around me (friends’ kids and neighbors’ kids) they are busy with gadgets and of course cricket which has not lost its charm. A few play cricket whereas rest are glued to mobiles, X boxes and what not. Once the gadget is taken away from them, they get restless, cranky and tantrums are thrown. This could also do with the world which is technology driven and not blame the kids for having missed on good opportunity to play. Cos today’s kids are also competitive and precocious for their age.

Yes, this is the generation gap that we all talk about. However, this aspect of the generation gap is something that I find disturbing to accept as I somehow feel it has an adverse influence on kids and their innocence. Technology has its pros and cons, and this is one of that. Can something be done now? Can this be changed? Or should we wait and watch time unfold more of these changes. 

 Do we have an answer for this ?