Yesterday, while I was driving past Ameerpet, I saw a bunch of kids in rugged old clothes staring at the sky, amused. They had such wonderful, excited smiles, I couldn’t help but notice. When I saw what they were looking at, a big smile made place for itself on my face. It was a jet plane! Oh, as a kid, I used to get so excited seeing a jet leave its white trail in the blue sky. As a matter of fact, I still do.
That’s when it struck me how important childhood is. And a rush of thoughts came to mind as I rode till Parade Grounds.
(Ameerpet…
Child marriage and child labor are definitely wrong. They're wrong because they steal away a person’s childhood and make them form impressions of life that are hard to let go of; Because, for a child, innocence is most important and if that is lost, she can neither learn nor understand anything that life teaches. But how about making children go to so-called schools that make them study from 8AM to 8PM? Isn’t that like telling them, ‘I don’t care how much or what you learn, I just want to see good marks in your report card.’? Those schools don't even have a playground, forget about extra-curricular activities. You’re making the child lose the whole point of education and learning.
Once, when at a family gathering, one of our relatives was asked why she had not brought her son along, this is what she said: “Oh, what should I say? This boy is so irresponsible and immature; I just locked him up in the house so that he learns a lesson.” The kid, her son, by the way, is 7 years old. Seriously, I’m almost 21 and I don’t call myself a mature person. I’m still growing up; I’m still learning; and I still have so many more things about life to discover, and this woman expects a seven year old to be responsible? I mean, she’s the mother, she’s supposed to teach her children the right things in the right manner. And out of all alternatives, she finds locking up the kid alone at home the most appropriate? Now, you tell me who’s irresponsible and immature?
Some people don’t even wait for their children to learn things in the normal process of growing. They just want to dump all their (mostly useless) ideas on them and assume their job is done. For example, at another gathering, when my cousin(who is a 10 year old boy) and I were playing and I beat him, a relative comes and says to him, “You got beaten by a girl?” and laughs, pointing a finger at him. For heavens’ sake, I’m ten years older than him, I’ll obviously beat him! My poor cousin fell for this useless prejudice of girls being weaker then boys and got embarrassed. It’s one thing to bring up a boy like a boy; it’s absolutely another to bring up a boy like a man! This person I just told you about is the above-mentioned woman’s husband. I pity the children; but I sure hope they are more mature than their parents.
Of course, there’s always the argument that I’m not a mother and I wouldn’t know anything about bringing up children and all the challenges that come with it, but I can say one thing: I have awesome parents who have brought my sister and me up so wonderfully that it’s almost like the best lesson in parenting for us. In our home, it’s like four friends living together. Honestly.
…… Parade Grounds)
Now, you must be wondering why I was even thinking of all this.
Two reasons: One, everybody around me talks about generation gap and I have been stung by the generation bee! Seeing those children on the road following the jet plane's white tail, I was overwhelmed as it reminded me of my own childhood. Otherwise, have you seen the kids of this generation? They get amused watching dumb cartoon channels (Made in Japan, Made worse in India). But, all this was not about them. It was about people belonging to one or two generations above mine.
Two, Hyderabad roads! Read about it here.
That’s when it struck me how important childhood is. And a rush of thoughts came to mind as I rode till Parade Grounds.
(Ameerpet…
Child marriage and child labor are definitely wrong. They're wrong because they steal away a person’s childhood and make them form impressions of life that are hard to let go of; Because, for a child, innocence is most important and if that is lost, she can neither learn nor understand anything that life teaches. But how about making children go to so-called schools that make them study from 8AM to 8PM? Isn’t that like telling them, ‘I don’t care how much or what you learn, I just want to see good marks in your report card.’? Those schools don't even have a playground, forget about extra-curricular activities. You’re making the child lose the whole point of education and learning.
Once, when at a family gathering, one of our relatives was asked why she had not brought her son along, this is what she said: “Oh, what should I say? This boy is so irresponsible and immature; I just locked him up in the house so that he learns a lesson.” The kid, her son, by the way, is 7 years old. Seriously, I’m almost 21 and I don’t call myself a mature person. I’m still growing up; I’m still learning; and I still have so many more things about life to discover, and this woman expects a seven year old to be responsible? I mean, she’s the mother, she’s supposed to teach her children the right things in the right manner. And out of all alternatives, she finds locking up the kid alone at home the most appropriate? Now, you tell me who’s irresponsible and immature?
Some people don’t even wait for their children to learn things in the normal process of growing. They just want to dump all their (mostly useless) ideas on them and assume their job is done. For example, at another gathering, when my cousin(who is a 10 year old boy) and I were playing and I beat him, a relative comes and says to him, “You got beaten by a girl?” and laughs, pointing a finger at him. For heavens’ sake, I’m ten years older than him, I’ll obviously beat him! My poor cousin fell for this useless prejudice of girls being weaker then boys and got embarrassed. It’s one thing to bring up a boy like a boy; it’s absolutely another to bring up a boy like a man! This person I just told you about is the above-mentioned woman’s husband. I pity the children; but I sure hope they are more mature than their parents.
Of course, there’s always the argument that I’m not a mother and I wouldn’t know anything about bringing up children and all the challenges that come with it, but I can say one thing: I have awesome parents who have brought my sister and me up so wonderfully that it’s almost like the best lesson in parenting for us. In our home, it’s like four friends living together. Honestly.
…… Parade Grounds)
Now, you must be wondering why I was even thinking of all this.
Two reasons: One, everybody around me talks about generation gap and I have been stung by the generation bee! Seeing those children on the road following the jet plane's white tail, I was overwhelmed as it reminded me of my own childhood. Otherwise, have you seen the kids of this generation? They get amused watching dumb cartoon channels (Made in Japan, Made worse in India). But, all this was not about them. It was about people belonging to one or two generations above mine.
Two, Hyderabad roads! Read about it here.
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