All that glitters is definitely not gold

I came back early from work one evening - it is a rarity to reach home at the time when kids are still howling in the playground. I assumed some hectic, energetic sport must be on. You can imagine my surprise, when I rounded the corner and came upon a large huddle of kids jumping excitedly. By kids, I mean a group of around 14 with ages ranging from 12 to 16 yrs.

I was very curious and waited till the commotion died down. I walked up to them and asked them what they had been doing. They were having matches on their PSPs! It was only after they mentioned the gadgets, did I notice the PSPs that the girls were ‘preparing for the next match’! They were playing some god-forsaken car racing game!

Since I stood there quite stunned, one of them assumed I was waiting for more information. So he took me through their gaming routine.

In the morning, they usually didn’t come out to play because of the sun.

‘We don’t want to get tanned in the sun’. Wonder where these kids get their Vitamin D.

Evenings are spent at some class or the other. Classes for Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and even History and Geography! Wow… really? Science and Math I can understand. But History? And Geography? I know it’s been a decade since I wrote an exam for these papers, but I am pretty sure it wasn’t that tough!

Anyway, among the group of 17 odd who play in our society, more than a dozen kids have PSPs, 4 of them have PS3s and 2 of them have Xbox consoles...! On any given day, everyone is occupied till 7 pm in some form of tuition or the other. They are obviously quite exhausted and not in the mood for any physical activity post that. These kids have scheduled gaming matches after careful discussion about their schedules. Each gadget has it’s appointed day of glory and there is a clear timeline for each one to bring their gadgets as well….! So this is their substitute for actual games...!

As I am listening to what all games can be played on the respective game consoles, I start noticing other things around me.

Some of these kids are messaging, checking facebook (I know cause one of these tykes sent me a friend request), emails or randomly checking their phones (I guess they were waiting for me to leave). What annoyed me, I guess, is that they were all sitting right there but yet they were pre-occupied on their phones.

But, what possibly annoyed me more - were the phones these kids were carrying. I can see at least 4 Blackberry phones, 2 iphones, and some fancy touch phones. Why the hell do they need such fancy phones?

As I stood scrutinizing these spoilt brats, I was distracted by ‘Aryan tumhari toh main pitayi karungi’. This is followed by an energetic kid, roughly 2 feet in all, who is rushing out of the building. Aryan is my neighbor. After close to 5 secs, he was followed out of the building by the house help.

And it hit me.

You know guilty conscious parents? The type who want to make up for the time they don’t spend with their children? They need not actually feel guilty about it – but for some odd reason they do.

I was seeing a prime example of that right in front of my eyes. I know which kid belongs to what household. Most of them are dual income households. Working parents with hectic work lives. Pushing themselves, making sacrifices for a better future.

Parents, in my generation, were not ambitious enough. Or maybe there were and they gave it all up so that they are around when we were growing up.

My mother waited up for me each day when I got back from school. If I had a particularly long day, she would prepare my favorite eats and treats.After an hour of my favorite cartoons, we would sit for studies. An hour of studies at max and we were free to go play!

We did not have fancy gadgets growing up. We pretty much grew up on games and sports our parents grew up on. We have fallen and had a fair share of bruises which we carried with pride (really it was quite cool to be seen with a bandage and red antiseptic liquid which resembled blood).

We attended classes to aid our studies. But now, the classes take up more time that the time spent at school…! And I don’t really blame these students/parents – it is damn competitive today.

I felt bad for this bunch I was talking to. They do not have the time to be children! Maybe these kids deserve the gadgets and the fancy material life.

I have something priceless of my own - I have the memory of a childhood.