As I dragged my self out of my Sunday slumber to attend my 10 year old neighbours birthday party never had I imagined that I was about to embark into a totally different world of the children of today.
As we walked in to this popular pizza eatery, the atmosphere was celebratory; the kids were playing the age old musical chairs conducted by the event manager of the chain. As each of the kids were out after every round, they had to come out and do a punishment, either sing a song dance etc.
The first boy to get out, a 10 year old, who I developed an instant liking to due to his very intelligent brains, sang a popular Sean Paul song Temperature. I was amazed to know that he knew the entire lyrics of the song. Later when I chatted with him, he told me he knew the lyrics of many English numbers, he listens to a lot of Sean Paul nos . I was so zapped, I still remember as a 10 year old I had no clue of music, or an artist .
Another 8 year girl gets dismissed from the game, as a punishment she is asked to dance like Shakira, that is the punishment suggested by the children present there. Initially the girl is shy but in a matter of minutes when the music starts, she gets into the swing and her steps go exactly like Shakira from her latest video.
In another game, the birthday girls parents and grandparents also join in. when the parents get out, the children instantly demand that they should also be given a punishment. The birthday girl suggests the parents dance, and my smart 10 year old friend along with 2 other girls recommends them to do a ball dance or jive . I don’t think I even knew what a ball dance or jive was till I even reached college. Of course the parents were very sporty and they danced beautifully to some popular number
As I was expressing my shock at the changing era of birthday parties and children to a young mother sitting next to me, she narrated an interesting incident of her friends 7 year old daughter who had short listed 3 potential candidates as her husband from school. She told her mother that she had short listed them, because one of them was strong, the other always came first in line and third one comes first in class. When her mother remarked that this it was too early for her to get married or choose a life partner, as girls got married only after the age of 25, her reply was that she wanted to finish one of the important works earlier only, copied her mothers dialogue in gujrati( Ek Kaam patavi devano ne ma) good to finish one work . Another mother at her son`s school who is a gynecologist was telling her, when she tried to educate her son about reproduction process, the son coolly told his mom,"Mom you don’t need to tell me about this, I know how babies are born". Times had really changed, the young mother infect invited me to come one evening at her place, and she could narrate even more such anecdotes since she has gathered many in her 7 years of motherhood
After the birthday cake was cut and the games were played, the kids settled down for a grub. Our generation bday parties of samosa , wafer and Rasna were replaced by the pizzas, garlic bread and coke. I joined the kids on the table, thinking this would be an interesting experience for me to learn from generation next.
10 year olds take on :-
Movies- All the kids watched all the latest movies whether it was Dhoom, KANK or even Nishabd. The kids almost agreed in unison that they liked to watch romantic movies and action films. A 10 year old boy tells me that he had watched Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Main Ho Na at least 50 times on his personal DVD player. But now he loves to watch all the horror movies
Idea of day out – Playgrounds or gardens were something no one wanted to go to . They all liked to either go to In orbit mall or to watch a movie. Amusment parks were still ok .
Clothes- I asked the kids if they picked up their clothes, or they parents did. Most of the kids liked to pick up their own clothes. I asked them how did they know what was in fashion or not. Did they look at the clothes in movies and buy or otherwise. The birthday girl who is undoubtedly the smartest of the lot replied” Didi we are not so dumb, we have a sense of style, we know what looks good and what is in fashion, we don’t need movies to tell us that.”
Games- None of the girls liked to play with dolls, or play doctor doctor, or house, house. They liked to play Hide n Seek or practice the latest steps of some dance number. Dancing was really in. Boys liked to play video games or watch movies at home, no one liked any toys
On girl friends/ boyfriends - Obviously since I was talking to such a grown up set of children, I couldn’t resist asking them whether they had girlfriends or boyfriends. This is interesting. The three boys in the group immediately pointed at each other stating that they had girlfriends. My intelligent 10 year old friend tells me that the guy sitting next door has a girlfriend, but she has moved to London and he writes to her and all. With a little blush on his face, the boys says that no there is nothing like that, it was just that they were teasing him a lot so he just said that the girl in London was his girlfriend, she was just a friend.
My intelligent friend also refuses all the rumours about being linked to the girl who lives in the next building stating, that she is not my girlfriend but a girl who is a good friend of mine. She was new in school and she didn’t know anybody, so I became her good friend and this people started teasing me with her. Obviously our smarty pants couldn’t resist asking me the question, so he asked, "Didi you are asking us, what about you, you are so old, don’t you have a boyfriend?."
As the kids bid good bye to me, for a moment, I really wondered how times have changed, today’s children know so much more, It seemed like a different world had grown up when I was away.
