I look at kids these days all the time with their personal mobiles and computers...and wonder where the magic of childhood, the innocence, the carefree feeling, those shrieks of joy have gone.


I wonder how many kids today have played tipri (Hopskotch), Long Gallery/ Short Gallery, Car Numbers, Catch, Treasure Hunt/ Investigators, Hot & Cold, Dodgeball, Dumb Charades, Roti, Unch Neech, Frisbee, Hide n Seek, Cycling, Swimming etc etc. One of my favourite games (I just can't remember the name though. If any of you do remember plz tell me) was where one person with his back to the rest of us (the Denner) would call out random alphabets and we could take a jump forward only if our name had that alphabet and when one of us finally reached the Denner, we would tap him on the back and run back to the Safe Zone. If any of us got caught by the Denner before we reached the Safe Zone, then that person was the next Denner. I remember resolving loads of disputes about who was to be the first Denner with a show of hands or "Oh God God". I remember playing "Uma Joshi" and "Jab Miss Mary choti this..." and doing intricate puzzles with strings. I would learn new string tricks from my grandmother and show them off. Onetime we put up a tent and sold lemonade and made sure all the Uncles & Aunties in the building came down to have it. We sold it for 25p a glass. I remember making all cards - birthday cards, anniversary cards, just like that cards, new year greetings. I remember playing for hours with a small ball of atta (dough).


I remember playing Dark Room, Snakes & Ladders, Darts, Quiz, Make-believe, Zap, Uno, Ludo, Scrabble, Business, Monopoly.


I spent hours reading the latest Quest and Target and Newsjoy (I don't think any of these exist anymore). Quest was a children's magazine which used to come from Russia. Publication stopped after the breakup of the USSR. Target was another children's magazine which was on the lines of Quest. Newsjoy was a children's weekly newspaper, which used to condense the news from "adult newspapers" and put it in an easy-to-read and understand form for the kids. I remember reading Amar Chitra Kathas, Tinkles, Chacha Chowdhary (whose mind thinks faster than a computer), Chalet School series, Three Investigators, lots of Enid Blyton (I shall have to do a separate post on her sometime).


I remember waiting for Sundays to watch Tom & Jelly (as I used to call it) & Mahabharat. I remember watching Dekh Bhai Dekh & Zaman Badal Gaya Hai. When Sony TV & Star had just started showing in India, I would avidly watch I Dream of Jeannie, Different Strokes, Wonder Years, Swatcats & Doogie Howser MD.


Those were the days when we had to painstakingly sit with the family encyclopedia and research for school projects (no Wikipaedia in those days) and trace out pictures to put in it, write out the entire thing with tongue hanging out in the effort & concentration required, make charts for the class board.


Aaaahhhh...the magic in those good ol' days. Kids today just miss out on all of this and so much more cooped up with their personal phones and computers all day. They lose their innncoence in the umpteen rounds of tuitions and career enhancing classes. Kids today don't go for dance classes cuz they want to, but cuz it's somethig to put in their CV. Kids are entering the ratrace as early as the age of 10 and burn out by the time they are 18. The only time my parents actually got serious about my studies was my Board years & class 9 (when I almost flunked Maths). My parents didn't mind whether I got an A or a B, so long as I understood what I had studied, and not learning by rote.


I hope my kids (whenever I have them) have a chance to enjoy their childhood and don't get weighed down by peer pressure and the ratrace at an early age.

The words for this week are middle finger, text message, the letter “Q,” Shangri-La, melodramatic, compensate, elixir, band of brothers, quadruped, explicit.

I looked up to see the Old horse flashing me her middle finger. I had already figured out by now that everything she said and did had to have an explicit undercurrent to it. Just then my phone beeped. It was  an enigmatic text message from Crow which simply said "The Letter Q" and made no sense to me.  

I zoomed ahead toward the shops. Passed a  brightly lit board advertising "Shangri-La". Well I was pretty much sure I wouldn't get the famed elixir  of Immortality in this Shangri-La at least.  Passed a merry band of brothers singing some bawdy number loud and drunk. Shit....I miss home and my friends there. I would have been upto  some such nonsensical thing with my friends.  The sun was just starting to set. If I could only ignore the  pubs and bars dotting  either side of the road at regular intervals, I could just about imagine a pretty blonde  with green eyes sitting beside me in the old  roadster  which would pretty much compensate for the otherwise sad view. Just as i started imagining a girl in a short skirt and lovely long legs, an image of the   melodramatic Old Horse flared up before me. Ughhhh...scary sight.  Oooops I had just crossed the silversmith. Had to back up . Shelled out some very hard earned money of mine and picked up the smallest frame I could find. Well she could always cut her photograph to fit the frame. Another stop at  Buffalo Wings. Picked up a couple of plates of wings. Narrowly missed the boss and headed back to the Old Horse again.