Drifting Childhood!

      The other day I went to a park with my nephew and sister. It was really after a long time that I was seeing those slides, swings, monkey-bars, etc. My nephew super excitedly was running up and down the slides. All the other children with a lot on enthusiasm were running around making their own way. But the thing I couldn’t help noticing was, the children playing there belonged to the ages of 2-6 years. The question was ‘What were the ‘slightly older’ kids doing on a holiday evening?’

The answer was pretty easy. They probably were sitting in front of the TV, or lost in their parent’s smartphones or wandering aimlessly in a mall.

      And in a jiffy, there was a flashback. I remembered the little me and my friends running and playing.  I just loved playing those outdoor games so much. Being from a small town and having a nice park just around the corner, childhood was a treat to me. For us evenings meant a never ending game of hide and go seek or our art in the sand-pit. We actually faked our ages to play for a few more years on those slides.  We actually found new ways to entertain ourselves. Parents literally dragged us back home saying “enough of playing”.

      Video-games was a like a commodity, which used to be kept in the top most compartment of the shelf. And which was unpacked and allowed only during the vacations. Well those were the days! Well getting back from my flashback I kept wondering, who was to blame? Parents, kids or the digital advancement. The screens seem to have blind folded children with virtual joy, then how will they ever experience the pure happiness of ‘andhali koshimbir’.  Childhood then was defined with bruises and scratches on knees and elbows and now it is little children with big glasses.

      With a hopeless smile on my face I kept thinking how lucky I was to have a completely normal childhood. And a big thank you to my parents who kept that video game packed up year long, to make us understand what real happiness meant!