#play space

[thegikitiki]

Family Room Decor, 1960

[christineshanshanhou]

WONDERLANE | 04.23.25

[avenuecanyons]

Buchanan Street Mall, San Francisco, early 1970's.

[sulagna-sivprava]

Fading laughter and dirty shoes!

Playing with friends was the ultimate source of joy, it was one of the most highly awaited moment of the day. I recall how I waited for the clock to strike 4 and immediately ran out to play. “You are not going to play” was the one line I dreaded the most. I hated heavy rains for the same reason, I didn’t know what else to do with my evenings! still remember how I and my friends went on to convince the parents of a punished or grounded friends! Indeed, everyone even most of us in our early twenties would agree that childhood was the most beautiful period of our lives!

This reminds of the one of the most thoughtful songs by Late Jagjit Singh – ‘

“Ye daulat bhi le lo

Ye Shaharaut bhi le lo

Bhale cheen lo, mujhse meri jawani

Magar mujhko lauta do bachpan ka sawan

Who kagaz ki kashti, who baarish ka paani”

However, what made it even more beautiful was the place I grew up in, be it the defense colonies of Goa or the town of Berhampur in Odisha. Many wouldn’t even have heard of Odisha, let alone Berhampur! However, it was then, a peaceful town, devoid of any traffic, pollutions, far from the glitters or a city. The scene today, is a bit worse than what it used to be. Thanks to ‘urbanization’.

We shifted to an apartment in Bhubaneswar, (capital city of Odisha) a couple of years back. The area where my apartment is something, I would describe as a ‘concrete jungle’. The only things visible outside the window is buildings and a dusty road. This is quite in contrast with place I grew up in. We never had closed boundaries to play in. We cycled and ran around the colony, on the roads – everywhere we turned, there were green patches of land. We never required an AC too, our houses and terrace were filled with plants and flowers of different varieties; enough to keep us cool in the hot summers.

It breaks my heart to see children play inside closed walls, unable to hit and kick the ball with might, scared that it might enter the other apartment’s boundary. I wonder what memories of playing and running around would they recall? Would they ever remember the joys of running around barefeet, the joy of breaking that curfew boundary imposed by parents, which was usually the main road following the colony – on grounds of safety!

It makes me wonder how playing cricket and basketball on PS4 can even seem an inch closer to the feeling of throwing a ball and running to catch it!

We need to ask ourselves this very basic question- ‘What kind of childhood are we promoting?’ A one that is devoid of one of the simplest yet greatest pleasures of running around bare feet, of feeling the wet dew touching our feets? Is our idea of urbanization killing the very basic rights of children to be able to play?

I am not going to provide statistics of how many play areas are there in our cities and how many ought to be, neither will I talk of the benefits of play, as all of us already witness the tangible reality every day and clearly none of us remain oblivious to the repercussions of the same.

I hope that, as a society we take cognizance of this issue and influence the local government to do so, thereby allocating specific lands for parks and play spaces in every residential area. Only then, would we be able to revive the fading sounds of children running around and the sprinkles of laughter that they spread.

[thegikitiki]

Backyard Playspace, 1981

[thegikitiki]

Indoor Play Space, 1973

[putrefaction-punx]

Example of a small transitional gender-neutral kids' room design with gray walls

Alexandra