Do Chennai Kids Play "Cops or Robbers"?

I grew up in a quiet and forgettable suburb outside one of America's most corrupt cities. In those halcyon days I spent a lot of time romping through vacant lots and undeveloped pieces of land with my best friend Charlie playing "cops and robbers". Now I am much older and have forgotten some of the things that used to fascinate me when I was a kid. Instead of spending weeks on end shooting my friend with an imaginary pistol, I scan the papers and marvel at all of the real crimes that run through this city. I know that if I were going to play those same games now, they would look a little different.

I imagine that here in Chennai the children must play "Cops or Robbers" instead. It's a slight variation on the old theme, but has a much more enthralling story line. To play the kid has to first grab a copy of the Deccan Chronicle (the best paper for this sort of game) and just by looking at the headlines decide what scenario to follow for the day's festivities.

A particularly mischievous group of children could choose "Six Pondy cops get life for gang rape" off the front page. In this game they get to pretend to be licentious cops who bring in local girls in order to question them about crimes their cousins had committed. During the investigation they get to go just a little too far and leave their informant in a mess on the floor. Afterwards the children get to sit behind desks for the next 18 years (in kid time this is much less) where they get to remain free of jail time and commit similar crimes until they hit retirement age and go to jail. The only problem with this game is that you have to play with girls (yuck), and who wants to do that, anyway?

Another popular game could be drawn from a story a few pages inside the main fold: "Gambling clubs run by city cops." In this game children get to set up various gambling establishments and exchange bribes with other teams of children who play the part of fat-cat politicians on the take. The robbers in this story are actually customers who use the dens to fence stolen goods and launder money. It's not so action packed as the other games, but could be a side endeavor if they finish the first game and need to think of a way to spend the two decades of freedom before their court date.

But if neither of these stories sound action packed enough, they could opt for a more traditional game called "Escaped prisoner shot". In this game the two teams of children start off in a car (in this case use a cardboard box and paint it up real special) and while the police team eats lunch, the prisoner team escapes and everyone starts to play hide and go seek. The prisoner team gets to choose if they want to go down without a fight as they flee for their lives through crowded city streets, or fight back with what they have. The article suggests that one prisoner could pretend to have a knife while the police have shotguns- that way when the police catch the crook and shoot him they can claim it was self defense.

With so many great games to choose from every day, it sort of makes me wish I were a child all over again.