It's playtime kiddo..

A kid was walking back from school wearing a crumple-free-surprisingly-white-at-the-end-of-day shirt and a spotless pair of socks. Curious to know his technique behind achieving a dirt-free day at school, I engaged him in a conversation. What came out was a sad tale. The school he studies at resembles a multistoried three star hotel with a small courtyard and a playground that’s as big (or rather small) as a basketball court and their P.T. (physical training) periods are taken away by greedy lecturers. And he is just in 6th grade.

This little incident made me reflect upon my schooldays when my friends and I were those free-spirited kids having the most amazing of play times (now, don’t go about imagining the following scenes in black & white; it was still the colorful 90s) . Thanks to our school’s huge playground which set the platform for all the fun. Additionally, it was a blessing in disguise to be studying in a school which was not so famous for its academic rigor.

Our typical day at the office looks like this - we usually come to school half hour early before the morning assembly at 9, so that we can manage about 20 minutes of play. We use the 10 minute break at around 11am to squeeze in about 5 mins of short but energizing games. 50 minute lunch break deserved only a 15 minute for the food and rest was allotted to playing. Talk about planning your day efficiently!

The most played game used to be the ‘broken-chain’ game which was a modified version of the ‘catch’ game where the person who is caught also becomes one of the catchers (it’s like the zombies). The number of catchers keeps increasing until the last person is caught. And who could forget that big Gulmohar ‘waitees’ tree which when touched makes you immortal from getting out. Hide and seek was a favorite too. Initially, the idea of playing hide and seek was revolting - you know being a soft game and all. But once we realized that hiding or blending in a ground filled with hundreds of similarly dressed students, hide-and-seek turned out to be an interesting proposition. It was literally finding needle in the haystack. We also came up with a new team-based format of hide-and-seek which went on to become quite a rage.

Come exam time and cricket becomes the first choice. With writing pad as the bat, heap of bags as the stumps and rolled up paper tightened by rubber bands as the ball, we play the softball version of cricket. Our moms always viewed us suspiciously when we leave home early for exams (we claim that we have to gets our doubts clarified). But since most of us in the group managed to finish in the top 10 in the class, those suspicions stayed just suspicions. These play-times also used to be excellent ice-breakers for newcomers. Running around the ground aimlessly to catch each other worked wonders on our relationships. Though there have been innumerable fights, we always had an amicable resolution.

Sometimes, we ran into serious trouble. Once, I ran so fast that my pants split at the back and I had to let my shirt out the entire day to cover the embarrassment. The teachers weren’t friendly either by frequently ordering me to tuck in the shirt. I also remember the day when my friend searched for a missing button in the entire ground as he was terrified of the impending howling from his mother.

The most affected parties in this entire setup are our mothers. They weren’t so fortunate to have the aid of a washing machine or a maid. On those days, “Dirt is good” is the kind of campaign that would have bought the entire mother community on streets striking for a ban on the advertisement on account of polluting the juvenile minds. When we return wearing a shirt that absolutely has no resemblance to what it was like in the morning, we discovered that mothers could actually be quite unkind (even though the bashing showered upon us was like rain on seasoned buffaloes). I never understood why the shirt had to be white in a school. Changing it to something like brown would have saved a good deal of trouble for all the parties involved, except of course the detergent manufacturers.

The amazing sports culture in our school also fuelled our aspirations. Rivalry between the houses is analogous to that of Hogwarts (I mean it!). The annual sports day is filled with anxious moments.Great days, those were. Seriously!

Sport is the best form of education that can teach team spirit and the ability to treat failures in sportive way. Education, as a lucrative business, has forced the opportunists to offer only a part of it and to gladly leave behind the finest part – Games & Sports, which by the way makes education a complete package. I wonder if schooldays of current generation would be as memorable as ours. Schools with ridiculously small grounds, PT sessions that almost always never happen and increased focus on soft skills, have become the current trends - especially in cities like Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Mumbai. Maybe, studying in a government school won’t be bad option after all.

Google map of Donbosco, Peravallur, Chennai