India, Jan. 24 -- Imagine it is the 90s or the early 2000s. School bags are thrown into a corner, uniforms changed in a hurry and the only deadline that matters is reaching the ground before sunset. Streets echo with laughter, arguments and the thud of a rubber ball hitting the wall. Childhood, back then, lived outdoors.

For many children of that era, evenings were not planned around screens but around play. Gully cricket matches stretched endlessly until a broken window or an angry neighbour ended the game. Hopscotch squares drawn with chalk marked permanent territories on the street. Hide and seek turned entire neighbourhoods into playgrounds where every staircase and parked scooter became a hiding spot.

Winning or losing mattered, bu...