Couple of weeks back I was visiting my uncle’s family in Pune. With my mind pretty much made up to enjoy the 3 day long weekend. The laziness had taken over me completely.
There seemed nothing much better than lying on the couch, with TV remote in one hand – lazily switching between the channels and a large mug of hot cocoa in another. While abiding by my pledge to chill out, I was moodily surfing through the various channels. Well, honestly it was more of button pressing and less of interest in shows. I then encountered "Mahabharat" (the old one, the one with "Main Samay hoon..." and not the shit that Ekta Kapoor is serving the Indian audience these days). Apparently, Fox History has taken interest in airing the age old TV Show. It used to be one of the shows that kept me glued before the TV screen during the childhood days. I never used to miss even one single instance of it… starting from the chants of the Bhagwad Geeta shloka – “Yada yada hi dharmasya…” to the end of the casting display. So it was but obvious that my finger stopped pressing those buttons. I sat there enthralled and excited. Though in the times like nowadays, those TV shows look stupid with age-old animation techniques, weird makeup and fancy dresses, but I still found my eyes stuck at the screen.
Either I was so intently watching the saga or my kid cousin is so expert in tip toeing her way through her scattered toys that I didn’t realize that she was just standing next to my ear. I here give her all the credit for having such mighty screaming voice that can tear away something inside one’s head totally apart. She screamed and screamed and screamed till I switched off the TV and looked at her in complete despair. Alas! Her screams continued. And when I was looking at her with an “Oh 2-year old… please tell me what you wish for… I would die fulfilling thy wish” kind of an expression, my aunt came to my rescue and familiarized me with the mannerisms of the self-imposed most important being in the family – my cousin (yes the 2 year old who converses in her own gibberish, thinks she can break the wall with her little fist, the toy breaker etc. etc… phew I can’t stop at listing her qualities… and before anyone of you points your accusing finger at me, let me clarify that I loved each one of the little tyke’s tantrums). Anyways, the point was that it was time for her favorite cartoon show and I was not letting her watch that (At that time… with a split headache I so deeply wished that Oh Lord, please give the power to converse to each and every child as soon as they are born… please).
It turned out that the show was “Ninja Hathodi”. I don’t know about you guys, but it was the first time I ever heard of this show and found the name quite amusing. Had heard of Ninja Turtles and as far as I could figure it out “Hathodi” was a word of Hindi language that meant Hammer. I couldn’t make out head or tail of what was going on. After Googling about it a bit, I realized it was not “Hathodi” but Hattori. The actuality of the show is some what this:
“10-year old Ken (Ken'ichi) Mitsoba is an average kid who goes to elementary school, and struggles with his studies. Meanwhile from ninja land aka Land of the Ninjas, a little ninja named Kanzo Hattori comes, and befriends Ken'ichi. Hattori is now a part of the mitsoba family along with his brother Shinzou, and his ninja dog, Shishi-Maru. Hattori helps Ken'ichi with his problems, and constantly keeps an eye on him, as a good friend” – Taken from Wikipedia
“Amusing things, kids watch these days” was the first thought and then I was zig zagging amongst the favorite comic and cartoon characters of my childhood days – Chacha Chaudhary, Pinky, Billu, Naagraj, Super Commando Dhruv, Ducktales, Talespin, Mickey, Tom n Jerry… but then all of them are amusing too. My parents would have thought the same thing about what I used to watch and I guess I too must have given them similar headaches quite many times. There are new names now – Hattori, Pikachu, Ben 10, Richie Rich, Popeyye, Naruto, Xiaolin and list continues.
Old are the days, but similar are the ways. The Gen Y (I am not sure but I think that is what the kids these days are called after the era when we were termed as Gen X) is busy whiling away time on the TV, Computer and Xboxes. One of my 7-year old cousin (yes, yes… I have lots of kid cousins) did not know what are games like “Ice-Water”, “Nadi-Pahad”, “Help”, “Chain” etc. I was aghast by his response; these were the games we loved in our primary school days.
Phew… after reading all this cribbing from start to this point, I feel like a old grown granny of some sort. NO… NO… what the heck happened… where did I loose my sanity? I guess I am still sane… the only problem was that it does give a feeling of growing old when one reminisces about the personal childhood favorites, as they are now extinct and no kid talks about them. They have new things to muse over and pass their time with.
