The Great Expectations: falling in love with childhood once again

Childhood when the expectations were not great

People who are in their 40’s or 50’s and beyond will remember how much fun it was playing outdoors. When I was a kid, we spent most of the time  outdoors, always looking for an excuse to get out of home. Playing with friends was so much fun,whether in the park or at somebody’s house. Parents hardly got a chance to see us. It was not that parents weren’t interested in their kids. It was just that relatively, they didn’t have those great expectations from us.

Playing was not limited to only organised games like cricket or football. Building a sandcastle from a pile of sand lying outside a house under construction was so much fun. Aiming for the white marble positioned at the center of a circle of marbles and winning it was like a gladiator winning the fight in the Colosseum.  Ice-Pice was our nomenclature of hide and seek. “Den” was the person who was supposed to look around for friends hiding behind the cars parked on the road or the trees. And “Dhappa” meant that the guy seeking friends had to repeat his Den.

A simple life meant that childhood was also simple

Girls were equally involved in playing cricket as much as the guys who played the role of father or a patient along with them. If the game was of mummy and papa then taller guys used to get the role of papa while the smaller guys had to enact a patient lying on a hospital bed. Stapu and Pitthu were games that had their roots in the stone-age. Both were played with stones. In stapu, you had to colonise the squares and rectangles (also called houses) numbered from 1 to 12. In pitthu one had to aim the ball at a tower made of 7 marble stones piled one over the other.

The reason for the popularity of these games was that they were simple to play with no kits required. Also, as the economy was still in the under-developed category, so was childhood. The guy who owned the cricket bat was the king and would bat first and never field. Wickets were either marked on the wall with a red brick stone or just 3 ordinary sticks standing between bricks holding them. Leg before and wide balls were the biggest dispute. And if by chance, the guy owning the bat was given Lbw, the game used to get over.

The night under the sky on father’s arm

To sleep you had only 2 options. Sleep in the open under a sky with a revolving Usha table fan blowing air on the entire family or sleep inside under a ceiling fan. In both options, you had to sleep on cots made of ropes or nevad (made of white interwoven straps).

I still remember I used to sleep on my dad’s arm. But there was a fee. I had to recite the math table to him every night. While I was always comfortable with tables of less than 5 (5 being my favourite), he would ask me to recite tables of 7 and 8 which I would find difficult. The best part was that in the morning you could see everybody with a covered face. Nights use to become chilly with the fan blowing more cool air than today’s air conditioner.

How life changed from no Expectations to the Great Expectations

Launching a kid in the education space today, is like launching a satellite in the space. The destination can be Moon or Mars. Satellites are lifted into space by a rocket with 4 boosters. Education in today’s life is also like a 4-stage rocket that propels a child into his final destination, the Moon. After all, we always tell our children that “Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star”. The 4-stages are – Pre-Nursery, Primary, Secondary and Senior Secondary.  Each rocket propels the satellite from a lower orbit to a higher one and finally, the 4^th rocket propels the satellite or kids towards its final destination.

So let’s see how this 4-stage rocket launches our kids towards a destination called the moon.

The Pre-Primary stage

Life in a technology-driven age has changed for everybody. Today, children in the age group of 2-3 years spend most of the time home watching Baby shark or Peppa pig on You-Tube. They seem to spend most of their active time with the maids rather than the mother. In the evening they do go out to parks with proper swings and play areas. There is a marked difference in the swings of our time. We had a rope hanging from a tree with a cushioned cloth to save your ass from the thick narial rope. Today parks have properly manufactured swings from renowned toy manufacturers, with lots of safety features. Anything less than that will be rejected not by the kids but by their mothers.

The Primary stage

Kids in their primary school are busy attending tennis classes or soccer coaching. They are driven in the morning by a car to the school bus stand from where an Air-conditioned school bus picks them for the school. The school with AC classrooms and a proper cafeteria is a dream school of all mothers. In our times, DTC used to be our school bus and a temporary tin-shed canteen used to serve dosa or bread-pakora. Sometimes, my taste bud memories reminds me of the bread-pakora of those times.

Kids in this category should be seen the maximum, outdoors playing games. But surprisingly indoor activities like playing a game on mobile, Instagramming, chatting with friends or finishing a school project takes away their playtime.

The Secondary stage – Getting ready for the great expectations orbit

Life for kids who enter their secondary school (Class 9^th onwards) starts revolving around tuition classes. It can be for studies or sports. In our childhood, we couldn’t even think of paying a coach for teaching us sports. Also, there was hardly any coaching for Hide and Seek, Gulli-danda or Stapu. It was all self-learning. It was competitive and a great way to make friends.

The Senior secondary stage-The orbit of great expectations

Once the kids step in the senior secondary section, life becomes torturous for them. Their entire future is on stake. Playing takes a back seat though few may pursue their passion for sports like cricket, soccer or tennis. But the percentage is very low.

Their life revolves around the 4 corners of a square. On one corner is the school where they focus on the study subject. It can be Economics, Science or Arts. On the 2^nd corner is the tuition classes they attend for either JEE, NEET, CLAT or a foreign university. The 3^rd corner is to study at home and do the preparations. The 4^th corner is to stay in touch with the world (friends) on their mobile. Life becomes boxed and there is no time for outdoor activities or games.

Establishing the communication link

Once the kids have successfully cleared their 12^th class board exams, clarity emerges in terms of what line they will select. With time, a huge choice has emerged. Compared to Engineering, Medical, Law or NDA of our times, the choices are unlimited today. New fields like journalism, theatre, psychology, anthropology and so many more have emerged.

My only prayer is that our kids should land on their final destination moon with firm feet, unlike Vikram which landed on its side. Once firmly landed, the communication channel between the kids and the children should get established. And it is this communication channel through which kids will finally inform the parents that their great expectations have been met. Unfortunately, we lost Vikram as it couldn’t communicate with the Lander.

If you have liked the story you can enjoy more by reading similar stories on the following link:

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