The Gen Who Lived Beyond the Screen

The Gen Who Lived Beyond the Screen - Parth Singla (GD Goenka Public School, Fifth Grade)

Once upon a time, in a bright, humming city called Techtonia, lived a boy named Gen. Gen

was smart, curious, and funny. But there was one thing everyone said about him: “Gen never

looks up.” That’s because Gen loved screens—tablet screens, phone screens, laptop screens.

He even had a smartwatch with games on it.

In Techtonia, most kids were like that. Every morning started with a scroll, every meal was

watched with a video, and every night ended with a glowing face staring into a glowing

screen.

One day, Gen’s grandma came to stay. She was from a quiet village where trees still

whispered secrets and people still talked face-to-face. On the first morning, she smiled at Gen

and said, “Let’s go outside.”

“Outside? But Grandma,” Gen said without looking up from his tablet, “there’s Wi-Fi here.”

Grandma didn’t nag. She simply said, “Come find me under the mango tree.”

Gen ignored her. But after an hour, he noticed something strange. The Wi-Fi had slowed

down. His game kept freezing. His tablet buzzed: "Low battery."

“Huh,” Gen muttered. “Fine. I’ll go outside… for a bit.”

He shuffled into the garden, blinking like he’d never seen sunlight before. Grandma was

there, sitting under the mango tree with a basket of chalks, leaves, and old buttons.

“Come,” she said. “Let’s make something that doesn’t need charging.”

At first, Gen thought it was silly. But soon, he found himself sketching leaves with chalk,

creating button faces on stones, and building a tiny house of twigs. He laughed. It was weird.

It was messy. It was fun.

That evening, Grandma said, “You looked up today. What did you see?”

Gen thought for a moment. “I saw the sky. I saw an ant carrying a crumb ten times its size. I

saw my own hands do things, not just tap screens.”

From that day, Gen made a rule. Screens were fine—but only after his “Real World Hour.”

That was one hour each day with no digital anything. Just him, the outdoors, and his big

imagination.

Soon, his friends joined in. They played real games. Built real forts. Even wrote stories

together. And guess what? The Wi-Fi worked better too (Grandma had been sneakily turning

off the router before).

Techtonia changed. It didn’t turn into a forest or a quiet village. But now, its children lived

with their heads held high, looking up at the real world—not just down at screens.

And Gen? He became known as “The Gen Who Lived Beyond the Screen.”