“Dad, I want a footlong paramesan with some mayonnaise sauce
and a cookie” said a kid (approx. 8 years old) when I had been to a fast food
joint. Then I reminisced my appetite back when I was a kid.”Ammassss, churmuri”
was what I recalled.
When I witness this shift between the generations, my mind,
subconsciously sets forth for the quest of finding answers and gets lost in the
labyrinth of inexplicable situations. I have seen tremendous transformations in
the childhood which we lived and the one that today’s kids are going through.
Marble holding hands are transformed into a tablet flaunting
hands. Now all the children need to remember is their facebook password. Online
games have replaced the good old gully
cricket and PSP’s have denied access to playgrounds. There was an air of
innocence back then; friendships were not built on materialistic basements but
transparent understandings.
With an ambition of cracking the IIT
right from their childhood, the children are not exposed to the milieu that we
were during our days. With no holds barred life, we grew up in an environment
that was undemanding and stress free and I think we have not messed up with our
life- everything is hunky-dory.
“My son Adi has a tennis tournament
at 10am and a keyboard class later at 1. After which he goes swimming and later
attends his tuition classes at 6.” Said Mrs. Sharma to which Mrs. Kulkarni
replied “My daughter lost the first place in her class by a whisker even though
she had missed her tennis practice and painting classes”. Agreed that every
mother wants her child to be a next Navratilova or Michael Phelps, but do they
really care about how much impact their aspirations are going to make on their?
With a plethora of responsibilities
and ambitions, the kids today are on their foot every moment of their lives.
They have become oblivious to all the fun they deserve. Though this sacrifice
may reflect on some aspects, but to what point and purpose?
Childhood is that phase of our life
which defines our personality and if they carry the burden of such huge
aspirations now, I can only wonder how their adolescence will be!
Though I might seem to be a staunch
opponent of the trend, but I don’t have any reasonable doubt in arguing that,
although this lifestyle might ostensibly seem to reap success, but it is
degrading the quality of life these kids deserve.
