Impact of Games in Life

The common indoor games that we indulged in
hot afternoon’s of summers. It used to be a great fun and we played with our
siblings, cousins and the elder members of the family too played with us. I
hope still people of 80’s remember them though in fast paced world, no more it
is been played rather few games are now played in virtual game rooms.

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Ludo; Chinese Checker; Raja, Chor and Sipahi; Criss-cross;
Clapping Games; Scrabble.

Times changed, family disintegrated and
these and many more games too underwent changes or more of them is extinct now.
In our times, the games that we played required number of heads to play and a
big space to sprawl. The number in families shrank to four and more walls were
built in open spaces, so the games Hide & Seek, Blind Man Bluff etc.
gradually was outdated and new games stepped in the world of technology, like
Video games, computer games and games played in virtual rooms and there was no
need of a friends group, people started playing all alone in leisure times and
got addicted to it.

The impact that set in was interaction
among family members and friends went to minimal and people started avoiding
and interacting with people. The kids too became introvert and irritant. The
major drawback I find in kids of today are they have become more self-centered and the fear of losing makes them uncomfortable and impatient.

The children of today are more intelligent,
I must say but they have lost precious little things. They can’t accept
failures or resentment, they don’t wish to share things and they get upset
easily. They don’t exchange their feelings, it gets bottled up within.

Many will ask, how I am saying this…friends,
this is my judgment that I have concluded comparing the kids of our time and the kids of today.

In our days, we lived in joint family and
there used to be guardianship at all levels, rigidity differed from person to
person but we stayed in close vigil. Other than parents, other elders of the
family had right to scold us, spank us or stop us from doing wrong. Nowadays,
parents are the only guardian of a child and they are so busy that they cannot
monitor the kids at all time, further the rules of spanking changed to scolding
that too a mild one. Punishment disappeared from scene and the kids are free to
exert their power in indulging in wrongs…or I feel they are too young to judge
right and wrong and there is no one to tell them to differentiate between right
and wrong.

The games that we played in groups too had
some positive impact on our behaviour, through games, we tasted the fruits of
winning and failure and it gave us an impetus to yearn for success. We too felt
bad on our failures but we never carried a fear to lose rather we enjoyed and
celebrated our failures. Nowadays, interaction on the playground is negligible
and the kids of today can’t accept failures easily and that is also one of the
reason of rising suicide cases and depression because they don’t know to accept
failures and one jolt in life leaves them devastated and they lose hope.

In our times, playground was also a place
to express our feelings and we shared the good and the bad things in groups and
laughed out loud so there was no bottling up of feelings and no ill feelings
stayed inside. It boosted our energy and intensified our spirits and made us
peppy in approach. We knew the fervor to celebrate.

I feel people should encourage their
children to mingle with their friends and use their peppy energy in a positive
way to keep them happy and healthy. Instead of running to gym, if we run
towards play field, the cases of depression, suicide will go low and people will
feel more happy and energetic and light at heart.