Open your heart, Open the door

My grandfather almost missed his own wedding. The story behind this is actually pretty funny. He was still very young, about seventeen maybe and somehow thought a game of football was more important than a wedding. About an hour before his wedding, he met with the village football team whose goalie was at home with a bad bout of diarrhea. They asked him if he could act as a substitute and he happily obliged. Never mind the young bride and her family that were going crazy waiting for him.

The player’s gene got passed down to my father. As a kid, he spent less time at home and more time fraternizing with monkeys on trees. When monkeys and fruits got boring, it was time to pick up bats and racquets. Today, he proudly declares to the world that he spent at leats five out of his first twenty years playing dome sport or the other.

The, it was ,my turn. As kids, I and my friends ‘invented’ all sorts of games. The ones I remember clearly are Advertisement (one of us had the den and the rest of us had to get past him by saying the name any commercial product beginning with a letter of his or her choice) and Chocolate (a variation of hopscotch but with a different grid which resembled a giant chocolate bar). But then I entered my teenage years and in the ten or so years that had elapsed between my childhood and late adolescence, something had clearly changed, and it wasn’t just my ability to invent games. Tall buildings had come up. The Japanese and Americans made a big business out of video games. TV went from bland black-and-white to addictive technicolor. Trees had been razed and so monkeys were off our friend list. In fact, our friend list was not in our mind but on a Facebook page.

So was it possible for me to miss my wedding for a football match or play all the time?

The question, seemingly simple, actually has many answers. Some would say that some of the abovementioned tall buildings are premises of sports clubs, and if I wanted to play, I should just go and join one of them. In the wake of India’s brilliant performance in the Commonwealth and Asian Games, it is clear that sports in India are moving towards a brighter future. Plus, judging by the participation in all the marathons, maybe it’s true that people love to use sports and physical activity to work for a social cause. Considering all this, is it fair for me to say there is no scope for me to play?

It is. You see, the viewership of one IPL match does not match the number of people playing cricket themselves. People are happy to pay for a gym membership but somehow find it impossible to play a game of football with friends. Children and teenagers are so addicted to video games and the Internet that the outdoors has taken a backseat. Plus, the government seems to be so busy raising malls in the cities that parks and gardens have slipped it’s mid.

The last resort for those who really want to play outdoor games is school. It’s true that schools and sports clubs are promoting sports, but do they do it without bringing in a tinge of competitiveness into the players? It’s hard for me to decide whether it’s possible to go back to a time when ‘playing’ was about rushing out into the open air and indulging in a simple game of hide and seek. With the amount of academic pressure students face these days, it is also no surprise that some parents forbid their children from playing when they hit their teenage years.

Now, I have a question for you- do you know what Don Hatachi Fugdi, Khurghodi, Bhorbhendi are? A few days ago, neither did I. But now, I have found out that these are the names of outdoor games played by people in India in the olden days. It is while playing these games that our ancestors managed to create the India we live in today, so why do we say that children won’t be able to have a bright future if they enjoyed outdoor games? Having given my message to the parents, I also have a message for the children- chuck your play station away, switch off the TV, and come out of the house. If you can’t think of a game to play, just make a grid and start playing hopscotch. Very soon, you will be revisiting happier times of your initial childhood, when you invented games by yourself and life outdoors was more appealing that cramming notes to get marks or staring at a screen flashing bright pictures.

The outside world is calling me and I must go. I shall now walk outdoors and play a mindless game of chase. I hope you will too.