Online games and WhatsApp video calls keep these youth going through the lockdown

This is how few youngsters in the neighbourhood are spending their time during this lockdown.

20-year-old Sai Govind, an accounts student of Vivekananda College in Luz was just finishing his final year project when lockdown was announced. Says Sai, “Lockdown was announced when I was working on my final semester project. All portions for the semester were completed. It was almost time for the final exams to start. That was when the college had to close to avoid the virus spread, ” he says

Now staying at his apartment in Mundagakanni Amman Kovil Street, Sai says, online games, and WhatsApp video calls have replaced outdoor games for him. “As we are no longer able to play cricket at Mandaveli’s Alphonsa ground, most part of my day goes into playing PUBG, watching movies on Netflix and chatting with friends through WhatsApp video calls.”

“I also spend some time in completing my project and study for semester exams. But, we have no idea when the exams would be conducted.”

Sai and his friends have also come up with a new way of celebrating birthdays. “Usually we would order a cake and visit the birthday boy’s house to celebrate birthdays. Now as we cannot do that all of us friends plan to individually record a video wishing the boy for the birthday and merge it into one. Later, we plan to present the video as birthday gift online.”

Sruthi Sekar, a student of School of Excellence in Law, Taramani, is juggling between assignments, online Bharatanatyam classes, and video chats this lockdown period

Says the 22-year-old resident of Nadu Street, Mylapore, “After lockdown, I miss meeting my friends the most. So we make video calls almost twice or thrice every day. Playing online games like Plato and Psych too excites us.”

Other than chatting with friends her day is packed with completing assignments for College. “Our professors are regularly sending us assignments to be submitted via mail. So I do that in the mornings. Besides this, I have also started learning to cook from my mother. In the evenings, I spend an hour taking Bharatanatyam classes via Zoom or Google Hangouts.”