My Thousandth Scrap

Well this is not about the scrap that I receive in my account of social networking site. So although its sounds that way, it is mixture of lot of other thoughts which are directly or indirectly related to it. I recall, while doing my schooling, we had nice lesson from eminent footballer Edison Arantes do Nascimento best known as Pele. The title of lesson was “My Thousandth Goal'. Topic itself was so interesting that I used to read it like Bible. Pele describes the days and football matches in his life where he was on verge of scoring his thousandth goal.

I remembered the times when we were graduating. Going for outdoor games was as mandatory as our syllabus and we never left it for option. Games kept on changing as per season. While it was mostly cricket in summer holidays, the fall was mostly packed with wide range of indoor games like table tennis, badminton and outdoor games like football. Whereas these internationally acclaimed game required some costly props to play, Desi version of these games and also desi games were quite cheap. Some of them like Kabbadi only required strong body and bare feet. Getting bruises on the body was the only thing to be proud of in otherwise very strong gang of your friends. It didn't affect our Education. In fact some of us were not bothered of running two business side by side Academics and Sports. School sport was much awaited event in an academic year. Talking hours with your friend on some railings was as mandatory as having food. In fact it was food for mind and recreational activity between games and studies. It was probably the times when obesity was still limited to White Collar Jobs and not seen in schools and colleges.

Not long after we passed out, things have changed drastically. Technology moved fast at the speed of light. Physical games are slowly being replaced by computer games. Youngsters speak about the version of computer games rather then bruises. Finding a gaming zone is easier than finding a friend to play a game. Walking bare foot on ground is alien. Rather there is different set of 'Joota' in our homes too. I have seen youngsters walking on their toes when they are asked to walk bare feet. Sports is not as popular as before and bruises are cured with creams and lotions. Even I saw an advertisement on TV about CD's with popular desi games. Having a social networking site's account elevates your status. And remaining in a touch is possibly chatting using computer chat programs.

All this in interesting as well as funny. Technology advances are better and they change one's life. We are not limited to railings and bruises but world is at finger tips. Distant friend is no longer in a distant memory, he is just a chat away. Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and their subsequent generation are all set to change our day to day life. Technology changes overnight and people still manage to keep pace with it. And if you feel, you did not do something you wanted to do, you still have an option of reincarnation using technology..second life. Someone told me about the advertisement in one of the western countries, which said “Life is Short, get divorced”. Now how funny is that? For people of my age group not as much as it sounds.

Recently one of my acquaintance was boasting his Rs 2 crore flat when we visited his house. It was filled with amazing best of breed gadgets. It had view of Sea on one side and best part of city on other side. Market, School was stone throw away. So was the Bus Stop and Railway Station (although he hardly uses them). After all it was next to busiest street in the city. But one thought made me proud about myselft, his 4 year kid didn't have the play ground or even a small place to be termed as playground. I felt 0.1 crore richer.... he was grossly poor !!. I have decided, I will not boast my thousandth scrap.