Anecdotal recall : The Contra playing incident

Ages and echelons have passed since this anecdotal incident, but it still lives fresh in my memory. I think it was around 1992, during the summer holidays, when Gaurav @⁨Gaurav Khandelwal⁩ and I made a secret getaway to the Mina Market near B Block of Indira Nagar to have some fun playing the erstwhile superhit video game "Contra".

Life's fun quotient in those times, as we may all recall, was just about sneaking into video gaming parlours. We'd sit before a big belly picturetube TV, holding a remote, perched on a leg-height pedestal stool. It cost a small fortune—Rs 5 per hour—to play. The game, being as absorbing as it was, went on for a couple of hours, maybe two or three.

But the real drama, which still lingers in my memory, wasn't in the game, but in the aftermath. We parted ways, each heading home. As I entered mine, my mother was sitting, looking furious about where I'd been for so long. Unable to tell her the truth for fear of a worse scolding, I tried to get away with a simple lie—that I was at Gaurav's house. One sharp slap hit my face as she told me Gaurav's mother had come to our house, looking for him, and chatted with her for a couple of hours.

In my mind, my mother was just trying to outsmart me to justify her punishment, because our mothers hardly knew each other. Unable to prove her wrong, I took the pain of the slap and sat down quietly.

Later that evening, I met Gaurav during sports time. I took a somewhat humiliating step, telling him about the plight I faced at home after our video parlour adventure. Gaurav looked at me with great empathy and sorrow and said he'd received a slap too—when he told his mother he was at my house, and she countered that she'd visited my house and sat with my mother for over a couple of hours, both mothers waiting for their children to return! 

😄