A nation ‘POKEMONED’ and ‘TAZOOED’

I am a father of a 19 year old medical student and a 13 year old boy and neighbour of a 12 year old boy and God father to over 1000 twelve year olds – I am a gynecologists practicing in the city of Agra.             When I was young about 12–13 years old I remember those days vividly - we were "Phantomised", "Nandanised" and ‘Champaked’ and of course Archie, Betty, Veronica & Jughead played a big role in our lives - but what was important in our lives was besides studies was :- flying kites, cricket, hockey & football. We did not have the small screen and the cartoons and no POKEMON and no TAZOO. The chips were dried and made at home no "lays" no "uncle chips" and no freebees inside. Life was generally good as we could cycle to school twice a day without the fear of being hit by a silly black & yellow three wheeler "pig" like polluting vehicle.               What bothers me now is the culture erosion of our children - They have no idea who "Kumbhkaran" was and why "Hanuman" burnt the Lanka or how Ganesha has an elephant head or when was Jesus Christ born.               The children today know what Pokemons are - I don’t and I did try to read, see and ask my 13 years old. Pokemon I thought was a out of world Creature - an alien (well alien he or she is who has attacked "Mera Bharat Mahan") and Tazoo that silly small rounded or even rectangular plastic plate with pictures of Pokemon and Pikachu - ya Pikachu - whatever he or she is - well I thought tazoos were for flicking in the air like air missiles by hand or rubber bands or by latching two grooved tazoo together - I am not wrong on this - That’s what my son Keshav says but he adds we don’t do that with tazoo. "Don’t". "Then what do you do ?" “Well it is like money", "Money"; Ya plastic money" - exchange, who ever has the maximum tazoo is the boss - a kind of leader in the class - schools are at a loss of explanation to how Pokemon and Tazoo has creeped into their history books.               There was a checking in class 6 yesterday and 138 Tazoo were recovered in a raid carried out by the vigilant staff. They found them in books, Tiffin's, socks, shoes, under the collar, in folded shirt sleeves in pockets - to my horror, the kids were happy not to loose so many tazoo but were happy as they kind of hid almost 150 tazoo’s in underwears which went unnoticed. So they actually saved 150 Pokemons from the vigilant teaches. "Father look into under wears tomorrow - that's the new home of Pokemons in shcool".               What is pokemon - plant, creature, alien, spacecraft - I am still unable to understand. "DAD they are creatures who live on earth and have power" - "POWER ?" What kind of power can this imaginary ghost have - POWER ! Yes they have, as they seem to have conquered the Indian kids and we are today a Nation Pokemoned and Tazooed. By Dr. Narendra Malhotra