The Kid Inside

I just spent the whole of the last 48 hours playing Ludo, Snakes and Ladders and Uno with my friends Nidhi & Palak, and it was one of the best days in the recent past that we spent together. I mean what can be better than playing Ludo all day. Oh I’m sorry I forgot to mention two of us are 18 years old and one is 19 years old, also all three of us are on the threshold of second year college. Weird? I don’t think so.  Here’s why. There is a kid inside each one of us and we have to pay him regular visits just to keep him alive.

   It was refreshing. The only worry on our otherwise fully occupied mind was to get a 6 or 1 on the die to start the game, or to get a “draw 4” in our hand of cards so that the other one would suffer. We forgot all about stupid “moot problems” (and to those of you who don’t know, I am not referring to the Hindi moot problem but to a moot court problem, so don’t let your imagination run wild!) or about  MUNs or about college attendance and assignment. We never really knew they existed. We travelled back into time to the good old days where just getting one over your friend in Ludo or earning more than him in Monopoly was the most sought after achievement. As I was intensely concentrating on our game one of my companions cut the other’s “geeti” and I noticed a very childish smile on her face.A fight happened between Nidhi and Aman over some stupid rules of the game and we stopped playing, fights like these are better than having the usual fight over who said about who to who! about  I wondered that do a majority of us take life too seriously? Are we too focused on our studies and careers? Someone once said that too much of anything is bad. Do we need to pay the kid inside more frequent visits? We do. In the speed of life these days we are losing our very soul, our childish innocence. That childish smile seemed long lost

Anyway this blog is getting too serious and will defeat its own purpose. Returning to Ludo, I being the “champ” I am won yet again. Nidhi took snakes and ladders against all odds after she slipped from 94 to 64 twice! Some achievement I must say. I say to all you readers, play a game of Monopoly every once in a while, or if you were a nerdy kid then perhaps you should prove your worth in Scotland yard. You will enjoy it.

  The basic point is keep that kid alive, watch an episode of Tom & Jerry or Pokemon. Visit your old school, ,meet your teachers and childhood friends, visit long lost places see old pictures. The happiness that childhood memories bring can’t even be bought by Mastercard. There is a kid inside you walking down high school hallways, walk with him. He’s inside  humming old hits sing with him. Go along for a ride with him to places you cannot even forget if you tried. Do all this and then when you come back to “reality” you will be refreshed more focused and will have better view of this beautiful worry free life.

  Lastly for those of you who think this is “un-cool “, tell me what can be more cool than playing Ludo with you girlfriend? They don’t make them like that anymore. Food for thought.