The Childhood

THE CHILDHOOD

Today, I had a discussion with some friends about ‘Our Childhood’. Stories, laughter, pranks and a lot more stuff was shared. At the mere end of the discussion we hit the topic ‘The Childhood of Today’s Generation’ and all three of us got a bit disheartened and worried. I was thinking about the same thing for quite some days and finally today I got a chance to discuss it.

 When we speak about our childhood we talk about playgrounds, we talk about the cartoons, we talk about the dire waiting for our favorite shows, we talk about the things that were disclosed to us in our teenage, we talk about being extremely crazy about things. In short, we talk about ‘Being Us’. But when we look at the ‘geNext’ the harsh reality we see is the children getting exposed to many areas very early, that they are growing at a rate faster than ever, but somewhat in an unknown direction. It’s a matter of concern for everyone of us because these children are going to be the next ‘YOU and ME’. Today children are brought up as if they are going to be soldiers in war. They are being prepared for the rat-race, or simply, as their parents say, for ‘The Ultimate Future’. Getting a reality check is also very simple, just peek into the bag of a school going child. The number of books is more than we have ever read, the weight generally being around 15kgs making us realize how much has the ‘weight of expectations’ burdened him and the entire children breed. Children’s world of dreams are being invaded by the nightmares of EXPECTATIONS.

I see that the curiosity of exploring the world is very high in children. There curious minds are always searching for something new around them. They get attracted to anything very easily depicting the innocence in them. It’s being observed that kids are getting involved in many unwanted things due to these curiosities. This is happening because of the exposure to wrong environment at tender age in which our media and television are playing a key role. It’s the reason of the frustration in them that they aren’t able to handle, which in turn is deeply affecting them.

Another observation states that, there are very few KIDS in existence today, the KIDS race is on the verge of extinction. The infants are evolving directly into teens leaping over the childhood phase. The little innocent smiles are getting fewer, the honest funny pranks are getting lesser, the crowded playgrounds are getting deserted, CHILDHOOD is getting lost somewhere.

Realization is said to be the key for change. Now as we have realized, Let’s amend what we have done and encourage what they can do. Let’s try to put a smile on the little innocent faces and try to give CHILDHOOD back to the children.