KIDS ARE NOT KIDS ANYMORE...WE WERE NAUGHTY & ADVENTUROUS!!!!

Just a couple of days back, I happened to find myself engrossed in a discussion with a couple of friends thanks to the “thought stimulant” that we were holding in our hands. The discussion was on Social Media which apparently is a topic of particular interest to my friend Vikas for his PHD. I would not like to talk about it today but instead this post would centre around my observations about life when we were kids and the contrasting lifestyle of kids these days. I can’t help but get nostalgic when I revisit my childhood days. A piece of wood for a cricket bat, piece of paper for a ball, newspaper for  pads, winter gloves  for cricketing gloves and a pine cone for football. The idea was to enjoy outdoors with limited resources as much as possible till you hear those familiar words…”Ayan if you are not coming home in another  5 minutes, you might as well stay out!!!!”.

Television did not mean much to us except on Sundays and that too for a few hours. Yeah somehow she used to turn into one Great Temptress every night the moment I used to pick up a book. I am sure the same holds true for others as well. Stealing a few glances at her used to be exciting. “Home” then meant parents, food and sleep. Parents were taken for granted and a few slaps occasionally did not matter much. Amazingly food was only a necessity when I would be home and sleep used to sneak in just before dinner. Next day I hardly used to remember what I had eaten. Life was exciting because of the time spent out of doors with friends doing all the crazy stuff. School was fun but then the moment the bell rang, we used to rush out through the gates and by the time we would knock on the door, the school uniform would be in our hands except for the pants of course. No one wanted to waste time for the days are short in that part of the world. Swabhiman and Junoon would be on at that time but still I never missed the sound of footsteps running down the stairs. It would be time to run out and enjoy the company of friends doing all kinds of stuff. Running down the hills or climbing the hill like Soldiers, Rock Climbing, taking the air out of tyres of vehicles parked in our cricket ground, collecting money to build shelter and buy chains for stray dogs, cricket matches  against teams from the neighbourhood, horror story sittings, venturing out during Curfews to stealthily move from one house to another and occasionally picking up the broom during neighbourhood cleaning drives. Weekends would be special but a bit difficult too as Dad would be home. Friends coming over and asking permission from my Dad for me to be allowed to join them.  My Dad never objected as I would be unusually behaving very well since the morning hours. The same act would be repeated every weekend and in atleast ten odd houses with near cent percent success rate. We were so proud of our intelligence. But now I realise “Baap toh akhir Baap hi hota hain”. Our parents knew that it is very important for a kid to get such group exposure out of the four walls as these teach him/her to face challenges, value relationships and above all enjoy amidst Nature. This stage of life (like any other) never comes back and even money cannot buy such moments of innocent fun at a later stage in life.

As I see my young cousins and other kids now, their definition of “Fun” has changed. Cartoon Network, Playstation, Facebook and even Saas-Bahu sagas are all that they care about. The reason being given is…Where is the Time and Where is the Space????? It is so unfortunate that the young kids are asked to compile tons and tons of notes on the pretext of homework and as a result of which the evening hours are lost. Kids should be prepared for life and not for some IIM or IIT. Life is a bigger challenge. As for "Space", I agree that concrete jungles have made it difficult but fun is not a slave of any reason. Even finding space could be an exciting activity and trust me as a kid there is no greater feeling when you see that your effort has yielded some positive result. When we were kids, we have been chased out of grounds so many times but yet we managed to find some space or other. Parking Lots, terraces, Prayer Grounds, Girl School Grounds and roads…we have been all over the town. I still remember that Bowling used to be such a tough task especially when you were running uphill and the Batsman just needed to push for the ball to run down the hill at the speed of light. The funniest part would be to retrieve the ball which would enter the shop of a shrewd man or sometimes into the house which used to be guarded by Rambo or sometime into the nearby jungle full of prickly plants. Infact, once the ball had fallen into a stream which had more mud than water. I was trying to locate the ball from the bridge above and my slippers fell off. I got down and retrieved my slippers but had to return home immediately as I had a mud bath there. My mom had to throw away both parts of the scale later. Now a days in SPAs , they charge a bomb for the same treatment.  

Today kids are more detached and relations do not matter much to them. Shooting down some terrorists or reaching the finish line first in some virtual game gives them thrill. It is ironical that kids who have got good life, they do not have “Life” at all. Cartoon Network is more of an addiction and Friends are all those who are on their list. Violence is something which they are exposed to at such an early age and it freaks me out when I hear them speak. So mature for their age that I myself feel like a “kid” before them. They hardly know their relatives and their world ends with whatever they are comfortable with. They get their mobile phones so early and yet their World is a small one. The very idea of communication loses out. Grammar is no longer a subject in the school syllabus and texting has further made things worse. They have Tennis Courts and Swimming Pools and yet only a few kids avail themselves of such facilities. Moreover, those kids go there to be an athlete and not to enjoy. Any activity that a kid indulges in stinks of some competitive spirit which gets drilled into little heads by their parents. They are forced to jump into d rat race when they ought to enjoy without any burden. We used to be dragged out of grounds and now the kids are being dragged to the grounds. The day they themselves run to the ground without any fear of losing, the society would come alive again. Cmon Kids…..BREAK SOME FLOWER POTS!!!!!