Snehreal’s Weblog

I was watching the kids play in my colony yesterday. Well, not exactly playing. They were listening to ipods while discussing some movie. Later at night, there was a huge fight amongst them and one kid actually called another a nigger causing the intervention of parents to sort the matter.

What has happened to the good old days, I wondered. When I was a kid, and it wasn’t that long ago, summer vacations means full dhamaal. We used to play from about 10 in the morning to 1 or so in the afternoon and then return at 5 to play till 9.30 in the night. Plus the games we played really ensured that all our physical energy was well spent. Now before anyone even mention loss of space, I would like to say that my colony still has the same space as when we played. So that’s really not the issue.

Also, one of our favourite activities as kids was inter-colony catch and cook. The game was very easy. Small walls that can be mounted on, if you try, segregate all our buildings from one another. The gist was that if you are willing to put in the effort and climb walls, you can escape easily. So we all indulged. Scrapes on hands and knees were an everyday occurrence and one of our parents ever got involved in our fights.

Another summer extravaganza was a camp that we used to set-up. For a minimal sum of Rs 5 or 10, two of us used to set up a camp behind one of the buildings. Everyone was handed a list of what to bring that included blankets to build tents, food that everyone shared and music cassettes. Games were organized and prizes were bought with the admission fees. Parents knew where we were and never interfered. Sigh…those were the days!

 Now, I wonder what the kids do? Most of the time they play video games or hangout talking downstairs. But the strong bonds that I cherish with all my colony friends do not exist between them. How can they? They don’t share a history of experiences that we do. Cheers!!