In a tizzy, over tazzos!

So what is it about tazzos that drives kids wild? The Loony Toons.. well, they get to see them live8217; on TV anyway. Sports heroes8230; they are not the ones Indians are familiar with. Actually, how many children know exactly what game Michael Jordan plays? So what8217;s the catch? It probably has a lot to do with the power of bargaining, and that turns kids into tazzo junkies.

Four-year-olds have become adept at swapping four tazzos for a 3-D one. Or, as is the trend these days, at circulating their collection. So while one child keeps the 100-odd tazzos for a week, the next week, it8217;s the other guy8217;s turn. And heaven forbid if something goes wrong in this weekly swapping!

That8217;s the time when even parents enter the fray and fight like mad bulls over a silly tazzo. Be it from the Loony Toons lot, Space Jam, Batman, Master tazzos or the latest lot of Star Wars. But for the kids, it is one game in which they are in control. And to a five-year-old, that8217;s a lot.

Come to think of it, this, in all probability, is the only thing that has the ability to wean your child away from junk food. Though it all begins with a demand for a packet of chips, the kids may end up throwing away the Rs. 10 packet on the floor and enthusiastically pulling out that one inch of cardboard! Right, every dark cloud does have a silver lining!

Besides, tazzos have become a status symbol of sorts. 8220;You know, Yashu has 52 tazzos and I have just 26,8221; states my son, as though it were an Olympic record Yashu just broke.

The mania would have continued had it not been for the time when the neighbour8217;s kid asked mine to jump from the fourth floor in exchange for his entire collection of tazzos. That was the time I declared tazzos illegal and banned their entry into my home. The others? They8217;re still collecting, much to my kids8217; chagrin.