Resurrection of interests

Looking back at myself, as a kid, I used to collect marbles. Lots of marbles, then came plaster of paris balls (called gota), we used to trade those things, play with it for the whole summer vacations. This was probably the stone age. Then came the copper age, we collected rods and played by inserting them on wet grounds in monsoon. When the rods came, we believed that the marbles were very lame and so uncool. Rods soon lost touch too, as we all got new bicycles. Brand new cycles, wash it everyday after the evening gets over. Washing the cycles too got boring and stopped after I got the cycle repaired for the inevitable puncture. As we grew older, the side wheels got off. We now rode fast and rode fast enough to burst open a rash on the knee every other weekend. Mom's always giving that extra beating for not having bath after the evening playtime.

Then I came to Mumbai, we were still kids. Following cricket, we found this new trait. Cricket Cards. Cricket cards free with every Center Fresh Chewing gum. Damn, we were crazy after that shit. We used to buy 10 each day and though were never able to chew all of them, we sure busted all our pocket money on it. The basic thing was that the cards were in numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, ..... 100. We collected all the cards from 1 too 100. We were the proudes brothers in the society. We were everyone's envy. I got cards from the farthest medical shops. When ever we went at any relatives place, we used to go straight to the utility store and ask, "Center Fresh Cricket Cards hai kya ??? "
Shopkeeper said, "Haa ... Hai naa"
"Batao konsa hai"
Shopkeeper, "Ye lo"
Puts the bunch of cards in our hands. We select the cards we desire. Keep doubles of the rare cards. Count the number of cards. And then ask him to hand over the number of chewing gums.
We had the best deals in the whole school and society. Until one day, a guy came by and showed me a cricket card with the number 586. I was so shit spooked by it. For a moment I thought, it was a trick. But then it was no trick. Every other guy had the same card. Erlier there were 1 to 100. Now the number 586 was seeming very spookey. Just the thought of eating another 500 center fresh made me dizzy. I told my brother about it. We mutually agreed to stop colecting the cards and not to take them to school hence forth. It was a clever fluke decision because the nex week we had bag checks and kids with Center Fresh Cricket Cards were given a REMARK with red pen. And a REMARK is the worst thing that can happen to you at that age. The one with the RED pen means that it's chronic. And even diseases like Chimaira are curable in front if the Red Inked Remark.

We pated the 1 to 100 cards on a small notebook and opened it on weekends and cherished it for years to come. Then the gum started to get cranky and the cards started falling off. So we removed all the cards from the book and traded with a small kid who we knew was infatuated with the Center Fresh Cricket Cards.

Then we saw one day, that the Times of India also printed out a weekly newsletter on Cars and automobiles. Modern cars, racing cars, the Lamborghini, the Ferrari, the Mercedes, the BMW. Damn so many of them. We then made a scrap book of all the cars that came on Speed - Weekly newsletter on cars. We even bought glossy magzines from pasti ki dukaan and cut pasted the stuff on the scrap book. That too subsided with age. Then came the age of Tazos. Get one free with every pack of Lays Chips. We even bought a special star treck tazo file to keep the tazo's in one place and to show it to some one to trade it for the Looney tazo collection.

Stamps and coins were on and off. Never lost touch on either of them. Collect them now as well.

I always look back and think, "How dumb of me to do that !!!"

"Was that me collecting those center fresh cards ?"

"I think it was my brother ... "
But it was me.

Today, I feel that I was a moron doing all that. But nevertheless, I am repeating the same thing all over again. I go on Orkut. I hang out there throught the day. On yahoo, on facebook, on forums ... doing what ? Selecting iLike and iMovies. Buggers, it makes me feel as if I m doing the same thing all over again. Just the medium has changed. All the things are same. The cricket cards and tazos have become looney applications on Orkut and Facebook. The reputation has become the number of scraps and the number of friends. Nothing has changed. Nothing ever will.

And thats the end of the line. I feel that adults would behave like adults, but if the old fox comes disguising under the skin of a sheep, no one will know for the first time ... it's years after that they realise how stupid they were.

Its not stupid, its noobish.