Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Paandi vs Play Station


Raj pulled a tissue from his bag and wiped away his sweat. He adjusted the airconditioner to its maximum. Though he had managed to leave his office earlier than usual, he had had a tiring day nonetheless. It was such a relief to step into the cool ambience of his car from the scorching heat outside. As his driver maneuvered the car through the thick traffic, Raj opened his office file and began to go through some papers. As the car turned into a signal free street, Raj put back his file into the bag and looked out of the window. Déjà vu.


Dirty knees. No shoes. Brown torn shorts. Matted hair. Parched throats. Red sweaty faces. Fresh air. Mayhem. Excitement.


Some boys were playing on the mud piled in front of a construction site. One guy stood by the corner of the road winding thread around his top and then let it go in a swift snapping fashion. The others around him exclaimed ooh's and aah's. Another young fellow was rolling his cycle tyre with a long stick and seemed to race with the car. Few girls, threw stones and were hopping on some sort of a matrix* neatly drawn with a piece of brick. They quickly ushered one another to the side of the road as they saw the car coming.


Suddenly, Raj jolted in his seat as his driver honked the car loud. His driver was desperately trying to overtake an overloaded autorickshaw carrying school children. The automan literally stood on the pedal trying to move his rickshaw forward. Raj was stung with anger at his driver, but simply gestured him to stop honking and wait until he got enough space to get past the slow vehicle. When he finally reached home, Raj for a moment thought he had either entered a battlefield or an INOX theatre playing a war movie. He was wrong. It was his 10 year old son, seated by the edge of the chair and ever so sincerely engrossed in his Play Station. His son was too absorbed in the game to even notice his father. Raj felt a lump in his throat and a surge of guilt. Raj slid his hand onto a game CD in his bag, a gift from one of his colleagues for his son's 10th birthday. He wished it had been a top. Raj pushed the CD back into the bag. No. Not this time.


He told himself, 'Never underestimate the power of denial.'


* That's the best I could describe the street game 'Paandi'. I loved playing it! :D


30 comments:

Karthik said...

Hmmm missing your childhood?? or missing the PSP?? =P

Seems internship is keeping you busy.

dakaltiz said...

wow... u know wat ? my fav one is flyin kite... maanja podromnu viral ellam ore cuts thaaan...
playin goli, bambaram...seven stones...etc etc... r lots a fun... which the next generation will probly miss...
gud 1 prithz..

brute said...

BOO ...firstu...

Archun said...

haha! naice post...why suddenly this new craze for blogging as a story of a third person?? But I have to admit that itz aawesome! paandi!! how I miss playing that!! I'm sure they'll fine us here if we draw up 'the matrix' on the road with chalk..hehe

Subramanian Ramachandran said...

hehee..title loooks more cute now... and story wow.... romba nalla flow, narration, nostalgic ah sooper ah iruntathu....

but enakku antha last two lines contradict ah iruntha mathiri therinjathu..

>>Raj pushed the CD back into the bag. No. Not this time.

>>'Never underestimate the power of denial.'

:) appuram prithzuuu..enna ipalam answering to viewers panrathe illaiya.. :) ?

Anonymous said...

i miss that game of drawing some huge squares n throwing a stone n hopping on one leg to collect it ! man,we had more fun than the current gen. with all their PS2s and Xboxes n video games..sigh..

barbi bharadwaj said...

heh that clearly reflects the childhood memories. it was an awesome time. buying chalk piece and drawing boxesa ll around, with plastic clips as the coins.

amazing post!!!!

Unknown said...

"Controlling the temptations and utilising the opportunities given are the sure ways to success".
-- "Ecstasy Re-lived Preethi" :)

Unknown said...

nee matrix'nu sonna andha game'ah Tamil'la "Barfi" nu solvaanganu ninaikren. Right'ah?

Unknown said...

Nice post from u as usual. :)

Unknown said...

Deja vu dhaan po! Nyabagam varudhey, nyabagam varudhey! :)

Post frequently plz. :)

Ramya Shankar said...

Orey nyabagam !
I still love to play paandi ! U got me all nostalgic pree..

BTW,isn't paandi called hopscotch in English ?

Heidi Kris said...

Paandi rocks! We called it aeroplane giving it two wings and a rest place for both the legs ;)

G3 said...

Default statement :-)))

One more cute post from Prithz :-)))

Vidya Natarajan said...

nice post
well surely these days kids no longer play in the scorching heat..the prefer to play inside in the play station in a much cooler ambience of their home ;)

KK said...

I hate kids playing video games :)
So Go Paandi Go!!! :D

Vaazhga paandi... valarga athan dabbakal :)

@Ramya - yep, its called hopscotch in english...

Ash said...

Jeez! Reminds me of street cricket i used to play in Hyd and the comp games i played much later.

And power of denial... I understand it completely...

Arunkumar said...

Nice post girl.. liked it :)

//
I hate kids playing video games :)
//
saga, same here !!

Mithr said...

ah! You have a very great sense of writing.. I can almost instantly associate your style to mine.. I love to reflect my incidents in the stories carved out of characters with Special names.. Very interesting reads...

gils said...

same blud..say no to video games..but inthapost poata kozhandha ivlo sentiya paandi miss parenu solitu sada sarva kaalamum kompooter games thaan veladum thieryumo... :)
naan title pathutu nanda loduku pandi vachu edo storyo nenachen..hmm..but edho mahesh manjarekar movie rangeuku iruku...nadakatum...meen mutta podratha paatha kadha nalla ezhutha varumo? :D :D

Mark IV said...

well well, raj's parents must ve thought their age dancing dolls and contraptions were better toys than the kite or the top. and raj's kid will one day realize that his son does not have fun with his friends on his playstation, instead just hanging with virtual pals!!!!

times change...

Kausikram Krishnasayee said...

i thought i commented here...where is my comment?

Unknown said...

Nextu postu plz. :)

Anonymous said...

awesome blog..never knew you were into bloggin until bumped accidentally into this. cool stuff!

Vinod Ramamoorthy said...

First time visiting ur blogspace ..

great blog ...

We seem to miss the best things in life with the technology keeping us busy !!

Ganesh Ranganathan said...

sweet post....next do a post on I spy and Kabaddi and Kho-Kho

Unknown said...

@ vinod r iyer

//We seem to miss the best things in life with the technology keeping us busy !! //

Yes, rightly said! :)

Unknown said...

Busy playing Paandi, huh? Seekram vandhu edhavudhu postu!

Harish said...

Wow....sema nostalgic.
How we all go back in time and think about the pleasant times???
Its amazing how the human mind can go back to anytime in history involuntarily???
Awesome work gal... keep em coming...:-)

prithz said...

@ maddy:
Hehe! Both i guess :D
Intern keeping me goddamn busy.

@ dakaltiz:
Hey! How did i miss those. Used to fly kites in hyderabad and wow! Seven stones! Super game!

@ brute:
Hard luck! :(

@ archun:
Hehe! Tks! I bet they will. :(

@ rsubras:
Well, i dunt think its contradictory. Raj for once is ready 'not' to give his son what he wants. That's basically the line of thought.

Hardly finding time. Ellam zebrafish pandra sathi.

@ sangs:
I wish there was a good balance of these two worlds. I miss those games too!

@ barbi:
Hey! Tks! Glad u liked it :)

@ bsk:
Quite a nostalgic feeling. Well, adhu paandi dhan. Idhu enna barfi? Ennaku thenga burfi dhan theriyum.

@ ramya:
English madam! Tks! Adhe dhan :)
Me too wants to play paandi :D

@ heidi kris:
Yea! Its got that kinda shape. :)

@ g3:
Tks g3!! :)

@ zanychild:
Yea! Physical activity and social interactions are goin down. There is a need for balance i guess.

@ kk:
Hehehe! Enna man, Paandi laiyum politics ah! Thangala!

@ ashwin:
I remember our HYD kite flying n cricket games at your place. Awesome days! Miss them :(

@ arunkumar:
Tks Arun!

@ fafs:
Tks! Its amazing to know that yo can relate to my pieces and enjoy them as well. :)

@ gils:
Hehehe!!! Romba dhan nakkal man u! Indha kozhandha saruku marathulendhu NFS varaikum ellam valaiyaadum :D
Meen ennatha kutti podrathu. Kenja vendhiyatha iruku. Kashtakaalam!

@ mark iv:
Well, yeah! That's quite possible too!

@ anony:
Tks! BTW, so i know you. Wud be great if u cud reveal ur identity :)

@ vinod r iyer:
Yeah! Rightly put and tks! :)

@ ganesh:
Hehehe! Vitta cheat codes laam poda solluvinga polarke!

@ harish:
Well said! Memory is such a killer :)
Glad you liked it! :)