How 'Trying' Keeps You Going-Tantras Taught by Video Games.

When we stare at the life of an individual through the eyes of a 50-year old person, we find that the video games that they dedicate their lives for is actually a time 'eater'."Good for nothing-" is a phrase we can easily recollect.Oh yes-I remember my 8th standard geography teacher who perennially used it to 'motivate' us.In India, motivation works in a reverse manner.You put down a person to pull him up.To be surprised, it actually works.So like a middle class Indian boy,I too had a PC at home with minimum specs.

Tantra 1: The minimum specification of the mumbo-jumbo inside your steel box, sitting inside the computer cupboard, voices out something very important-Crisis management.You cannot install those high end games which were played by your 'rich' peers.We managed to eke some medium range games into our systems, letting them burn their energy and scream out through their fans to engage ourselves in those adrenaline rushing hours.

1. With those low end speakers and faulty keyboards, we managed to find happiness.We did find happiness in small things through adjustments, didn't we? Joysticks were a luxury during those times.
2. Most of us started with a gift from John Romero-Dangerous Dave.Then we moved to Road Rash,NFS(1 and 2) and then to Counter Strike.Scan through the minimum system requirements of these games and you would be happy to fall in line with my thoughts.So we made the most of what we had.
3. Did we get the original versions of these games?Since we know the answer, we need not discuss it here.
4. Dial up internet and the games ruled the world.You know that it's a lie.The dial up games did not give us the happiness we were looking for.But we still played them.And we were satisfied.

Tantra 2: We did find methods to play these games without letting our strict parents know about it.They would be the happiest people on earth if you were planning to sit in front of your study table forever.FOREVER!Computer games were your poison back then.We stole time from your very busy school and tuition schedule for it.

1. We made booby traps at doors and gates to warn us when our parents came home.When it triggered, we would shut down the PC and cover it up with the 'dust proof clothes' alias old bedsheets.The fascinating fact here is that this process is faster than the Russian blitzkrieg.Time management could be juxtaposed with animosity there.
2. We could multitask while playing games.We would ensure that the boiling water still boiled, sky shined as it did earlier, grandparents kept shouting at us as they used to do it earlier, phone kept ringing as it used to ring and various other things remained as it should be. We never bothered. We were concentrating on our games. For that moment we would call ourselves as the paragon of a proper focused person.
3. We sacrificed food at marriage functions, family functions, parties and movies to play the games we loved.We were ready to sacrifice THINGS for our thing.So food wasn't better than these games. Now this is where I find pride in the long way we travelled as we were good at sacrifices back then-something that only exist in the Indian flag these days.
4. We would bribe the maid with an extra piece of bread or allow them to steal 'unnoticed' from our houses so that we can keep ourselves going into the world of arcades.

Tantra 3:These games were possessing algorithms which would make us fail, fail and fail. Yeah, we would pass the rounds only after constant trying.We never gave up. We used to beat around the bush to get to our prime target.Gameplay really made us strategic.

1. Studies concur to the gamer's argument that his/her brain develops with the games and the gameplay strategies.Maybe that is true. These are things that our family would not agree to. But deep down in our heart lies the answer. We got smarter through these games.
2. Kill us, jibe us, cut us open. But we press a button and we are back to normal. Revival happens if we want to. A big lesson that we can took into our minds was this. Anything can be undone if we think differently. Of course these games made us think a lot. Remember the RC helicopter and the bombing of the construction site?
3. We celebrated internally. We never threw a party after finishing a game but we did find jocundity in that. Yes. We fixed ourselves a glass of wine under the aegis of our imagination. Some of these celebrations helped us forget that 37/100 that we scored in our mathematics exam the previous day.

Tantra 4 :The endless conversations we have had at our schools, debates and discussions did shape us up. We had the panache to go and engage ourselves in a conversation about a subject we had dwelled deep into.Moving our hearts along with the wind of our passion became food for our thoughts. We made bonds through games. We travelled miles and miles on our bicycles to get that DVDs which would give us a challenging game to spend our summers.

1. Cheat codes played an important role in our life.Speaking of which, a game called Dues Ex, was played by a friend of mine on my recommendation. In between his busy schedule, pursuing M.S in mathematics at Belgium, I'm sure he'll remember some of the cheat codes we discussed and compiled back then even now.
2. Research, research and too much research.We were ready to dedicate a lot of time drilling up into those sluggish dial up networks to read about the strategies and gameplay in order to fuel our passion.
3. Getting recognised as a gamer equalled the Oscar moment for us.We were keen on doing the incredible and getting acclaimed for it. Didn't that pull us into the league of tight competitions? We defined our arenas and we selected our opponents and hence we worshipped success. It was made pragmatic by our own efforts.

We knew that these things were bad for us.But we need to review this perception.We believed this widespread theory because we were taught so.If we observe,we know that we got certain prowess we possess now from these 'art forms' called games.Let alone the thought process. Most of us have played in the past and we do not play these games now. Even though we are ready for a game, we will not bother to bring it into our region of consideration. I don't think PUB-G created a stir in the minds of us-the retired gamers.We had our time and it is all gone. Of course we do consider ourselves as the second generation of gamers.We know that there are legends who played used to play at the arcades. Perhaps they would have had a different skill-story to tell y'all. We still have a chance in signifying our presence in front of the legends. To all PC gamers of 90s and early 2000s, we toast this.