Games limited

          "What does Sameer do in the summer vacation" was my question to my friend, inquiring him about his son’s plans for the vacation? Without any hesitation he replied , "he plays video games on his play station all day. That’s what most of the kids do", was his justification for the same. This answer took me aback for a while. 80 days of vacation and most of today’s children spend at home fiddling with these mechanical gadgets. The only fun they get is by hitting a virtual enemy, winning a virtual car race, building up some castles and battlegrounds as part of some gaming exercises on these devices.

          Pondering upon this issue – I tried to compare the nature of games existed earlier than the ones prevalent today. I tried to enquire whether the social set up and the civilization pattern is leading to such a kind of habit amongst the kids. Nuclear family structure and a busy lifestyle takes a toll on the children unknowingly. The charm of a ‘summer vacation’ seems to have faded now. Earlier, the summer vacations were synonymous with a visit to a village, hometown of either of the parents, playing the fields, mud, water, binging on food, sleep and more. Hanging out with the ‘gang’, playing gully cricket, being together most of the time was the norm. This social structure is truly changing amongst the kids nowadays.

          Now, the summer vacations are eagerly awaited to spend maximum time either in front of cartoon network, on video games and on computer games. The vacations are marred by these laze inducing technologies. The ‘summer classes’ are thronged by crowds in such large numbers that one has to really crave out space for yourself to understand the ‘teachings’ of the classes. The ever popular swimming pools during summers are swarmed by more people than the water can take probably.

          A certain tintin, tinkle, champak, chitra katha which were the lifeline of the avid vacation readers don’t have a place in the book shelves now. They are being replaced by the ‘Ben10s’, ‘Doremons’ and many more broadcasted on the idiot box. Earlier, there were no Play Stations, MP3, Nintendo's, I-Pods, Video games, Cable TV channels, DVD's, Home Cinema, Home Computers,Laptops, 
Chat-rooms, Internet, etc but still there was a strong connect. There were much ‘real’ moments of enjoyment than being dependent on these gadgets to give us leisurely pleasure.

          The aspect of the city development and the social structuring too is responsible for germination of such a culture amongst the kids. The open spaces in the city which were earlier playgrounds for the kids are getting fast replaced by townships and housing schemes, the kids have no other place than a club / sports class to go and ‘play’ in a real sense. The spaces in the townships are earmarked not to let the gully cricket make its presence felt. Nuclear family set up is also responsible for isolating kids from the ‘fun in group’ charm. Due to these aspects the parents,who have realized this take special efforts to ‘create’ an appeal for their child’s summer vacations.

          I relived the ‘real’ fun in street games when I happened to see some kids having a ball of a time on the streets – all engrossed in their game of cricket into their own ‘created’ stadium. There is a great amount of fun to absorb oneself on these ‘imaginatively created’ pitches, stumps, boundaries etc. Games like pakda pakdi, lappa chappi, gilori, gotya, dhaba aispais, langadi, vitti dandu and many more do not feature on the list of ‘to-do’ list of the kids these days whilst playing. ‘Jasti- chi-majority’, ‘time- please’ and other lingo used while playing no more are heard.

          Changing times have brought in virtual fun rather than constructive leisure for the kids. Going by the current rapid techno-gratification of the kids, there is certainly a ‘virtual’ scene of being ‘games limited’.