KOCHI: ‘One, two, three,...48, 49 and 50...I am coming...I know where you all are hiding...hey, I saw you! I saw you! SAT, you are caught’. Remember this incident happening at any point of time in your childhood? Yes, you all guessed it right, it’s our own hide-n-seek game that we all used to play once with our cousins and neighbourhood friends. But has anyone seen kids now playing kuttiyum kolum, (gilli danda), kabadi or spinning top or kho-kho in the streets? No will be the answer for sure. The new age kids down the block will either be playing cricket, badminton or will be inside their houses glued to their playstations playing NFS or MotoGp. Swimming down the memory lane of our own childhood, there will be a number of games that we still cherish in our hearts but unfortunately they are not even heard or seen now-a-days. It is evident that many of our native games are losing their significance as we are adopting western culture in the name of technology. Lack of time, or a place to play these games is also contributing to its extinction. “Earlier most of the games played involved physical exercise. Take satoliya (seven stones) for example, lot of running and chasing takes place. We can breathe and smell the fresh air,” says Neeraj Nair, network engineer working with Sasken Network Engineering.For the native games if there is a vast expanse of free land available then readily it becomes the playground to play games like kho-kho, kite flying, goti (marbles), kabbadi, hopscotch and blind man’s buff. These games brought children from all the classes together. They were simple and down-to-earth that even today the mere mention of it reminds the good old tension-free days. “Most of the games required atleast four people, so calling kids from the neighbourhood was usual. Just a howl over the balcony and next we all would be ready on the ground,” says Preeti Menon, an HR professional. “Children were naïve earlier. Sharing mentality was there. If somebody gets hurt it would be a trade secret among friends in fear of scoldings from the parents and the ban for the next day’s game,” says Aashish T S, software engineer. Many are also of the opinion that now the children have become self-centric and stubborn due to the lack of this social atmosphere. “Now children play games in the virtual world. We see a lot of fights between the siblings to share the joystick,” says Neetu Nath, a mother of two boys. Another growing trend that is seen in the city bred children is going for gaming zones in malls. These games which costs hundreds of bucks for an hour also owes to the ‘I’ and competitive spirit seen in kids now. “During weekend my kids wait for me to take them to malls. For them it has become a habit. If said no, then our house will be turned into a mad house,” says Raju Varghese, project manager. “Earlier even a paper was enough for us to play. We used to play cricket with balls made with paper bundle but now kids need a whole kit of cricket equipments to play. While thinking about it, I feel our generation was so inventive,” adds Neeraj.
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