Saturday, October 2, 2010

spun

He stood on the portico watching his son spin the top that had kept him entertained for hours as a kid. That piece of wood with the little metal rod below that had years of usage shown all over its once neatly varnished self. He noticed the interest had slowly reduced and a new toy somewhere knew it was his lucky day. In a matter of seconds that top was left on the table next to his attention span. Where have all the wood shops gone? What would a kid do if a block of wood and other tools were given to him, like they were to me?

We have spoilt our offspring. Consumerism is ingrained now .Everything has a faster and an easier method .The ability to create a piece of you from a block of wood or some clay has been swapped with the ability to know which toy is better and which row of the market it is in. Toys R Us need a makeover and should start with their name .It should say “Toys Were Us”. Now they are just pieces of plastic produced in large quantities in a sweat shop somewhere which have no attachment except for the screws.

He walked into the house and cleaned the string, wound it around the top and spun it with all the skill he had. It turned out perfectly and spun like a ballerina in a big recital. That’s where the line had been drawn .The brouhaha of being the consumer and the reach for plastic hadn’t taken over completely, there still stood a little boy proud of his creation and already thinking of another. He wasn’t yet the CONSUMER par EXCELLENCE.