Undercurrents #7: Playtime

6.15pm, 30th March, Marine Drive

I’ve just finished work. I don’t fancy going straight home. I peddle round the corner once again to the popular hangout of Marine Drive. It has the sea wall on one side and low rise art deco buildings on the other, separated by a pedestrian walk way both sides and four lanes or road between.
I choose my spot and settle down on the hot concrete sea wall, the sun starting to slip behind the land across the bay. Something about staring out to sea makes me feel reflective, I pull out my dotty paged note book. But it’s great people watching — the constant passing of chai or bhel puri wallah’s, the occasional passing tourist clutching their camera, the tightly interlinked couples seen canoodelling wherever you look. For some couples this is the only time they get to be together, blending into the anonymity of the crowd.
Street kids start to pass a small girl, around 7 I guess, stops right by me. She’s selling single red roses. I smile but say no. Her even younger follower, a little boy, he must be 5, comes up beside her, whimpering, the familiar clasped hand out in front of him beckoning towards me. Unfortunately this has become all too familiar scene, not that it makes it easier to deal with the more it happens.
They loiter longer than normal.

I do something I haven’t done before. I push my notebook out ahead of me. I draw a small smiley face and pass the blue biro over to the little boy. He’s not sure at first. But takes the pen and mimics my drawing. He’s smiling now too. Then comes a stick man. A house. The concentrtion he’s putting into it is like a magnet — more kids start to huddle round. I get another pen from my bag, a red one this time. I hand it to one of the newly joined boys — PJ it turns out — he must be 9 or 10. He tries to draw my bike, you forget how hard they are to draw.
And before I know it, they aren't interested in selling me their wares or at all interested in what I can give them. They’re just enjoying being kids — they've just been given licence to play.

end

_______________________________
Cultural Undercurrents
What might this story tells us about the invisible forces at play in society?

-Street kids are a common feature of life in India’s cities. They’re often selling things or begging, not necessarily because they want to but that is what they know and what they’re told to do. But they’re just children really — they’re curious, they love playing and learning. My small encounter suggests they’re not always given that space to just play .