Srinagar: Amid growing public concern about the side effects of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), a restaurant being run on the theme of the popular online game in Srinagar has become a new heartthrob of Kashmiri youth.
PUBG is a 2017 online multiplayer battle game developed and published by PUBG Corporation, a subsidiary of South Korean video game company Bluehole. The game inspired by the 2000 Japanese film Battle Royale has become popular particularly among the young.
It has taken the gaming sector by storm with over 100 million downloads in India and over 200 million downloads. Parents across the country have sought a complete ban on the game on the plea that it promotes im-moral conduct such as violence, murder, aggression, looting, gaming addiction and cyber bullying. WHO has warned that the side-effects which can be caused with PUBG addition include depression, insomnia, migraines and headaches, spondylitis and even substance abuse as a result of compulsive disorder.
However, unmindful of the hazards, the mobile game has become an instant hit in Kashmir too where there are hardly any avenues of entertainment available to the youth.
<any youth of the Valley have been attracted to ‘Winner’s Dinner’, a PUBG-themed restaurant and café set up by a group of friends in Srinagar’s Raj Bagh area.
The place is decorated with camouflage clothes and war room tables, even the pans have been specially designed based on the game. Its walls have been covered with the images and maps of PUBG.
‘Winner’s Dinner’ has toy guns, helmets and armoured jackets. Most of the people who visit here wear them to take pictures. They also take selfies with the waiters who are dressed in military fatigues as well.
In PUBG ‘chicken dinner’ is served to a person who wins a game. He or she actually is not served any chicken dinner but it is just like a title the winner gets.
At ‘Winner’s Dinner, ‘chicken dinner’ is a popular meal served to guests, apart from other food items that have been named after different levels of the game. “Kashmir got its ‘chicken dinner’ for real and the PUBG fans couldn’t have asked for more,” said Mr Moazzam Meraj, one of the three friends who managed to set up the restaurant cum café in just three months despite all odds including initial opposition by their parents. He added, “The theme-based café is attracting kids and adults alike to visit and feel the thrill”.
