Life is a boon....

Recent times have witnessed quite a few cases of suicide mostly by children of the age group of 10-18 years. There are varied reasons of course but the most common is due to facing some kind of punishment. Whenever they are punished may be at school or even at home they can't take the humiliation and follow the easier way out. They end their lives.

Having self-respect is always commendable but their's are not shaped properly. They can't understand the difference between humiliation and their own good. But being exposed to the world of television and internet their personality have developed very differently. They don't understand the distinction between themselves and a grown-up. And this is definitely not their fault. Today's lifestyle have breached the gap between a grown-up and a child. That is why they react if their mistakes are pointed out. I'm not talking in favour of corporal punishments in school. They should be banned because sometimes as we have seen in many cases instead of punishing and rectifying their mistakes children are tortured brutally. But on the other hand children should be taught to understand their mistakes. They should understand that their formative years should be guided by a specialist in the field.

In school a teacher should always be the person a student would look up to. I'm not talking about exceptional cases but generally a teacher is there to guide the students. If a teacher punishes someone that is always for his own good. But if the student takes this as a humiliation and goes home to commit suicide then there is no point in rectifying somebody's faults. If this goes on, teachers will overlook the mistakes of a student and this will happen out of fear. Ultimately this would lead to serious consequences when the person grows up.

If a student then goes astray the school would be held responsible for not teaching the students the ethical values. Then what would the teachers or the parents do? There should be a way out of this. Children should be taught to be restrained. They should understand their own good. This can be done in various ways. Firstly they should be taught that teachers and parents as well as all elders are more experienced than they are and they know perfectly what is good for the children. If someone scolds them then there must be a reason for it. A respect for elders should be imbibed in them. They should also understand how important life is and one single failure or humiliation is not even worth a reason to end it. Children should become strong at heart because if they can't take these little challenges it would become impossible for them to lead a whole life where problems never take a backseat.

Lastly they should be given time and their problems should be given importance. Loneliness is the root for all these problems. They should understand that until and unless one falters, one can never succeed. These little faltering steps would ultimately lead them to their dreams and the first steps are always very difficult. If they learn to move on with these petty difficulties the challenges of the big outer world would become easy to handle.

A Thought...

Now the Kolkata Metro can boast of a few air-conditioned rakes. Few days back I was fortunate enough to board one. It is really good and the first thing that comes to the mind is that "Oh my God, is it really Kolkata?!!" It is not surprising to feel like this if one compares Kolkata with the other metropolitan cities. After that day I've boarded it nearly four times but still I can't get out of that thrill.

All these four times as soon as I got down from the train I texted all my close friends. And we just can't stop talking about this. But my two and a half year old niece did not find it thrilling at all though she can't express properly. What I could make out from her expression is that "What is there to be so much thrilled and surprised? It is just a normal air-conditioned train like an air-conditioned room." Air-conditions are no more a luxury. Every single house has atleast one. Things have changed a lot over the years. Things of luxury have become things of necessity. Nowadays children don't even waste a thought over things which used to awe us as children.

Accumulation of wealth in the hands of certain sectors have definitely led to this. Even today if we board an air-conditioned train we text people to share our enjoyment. Children may be just 8-9 years younger than us are so drastically different. I somehow can't relate our childhood with them. Few days back while I was helping the same niece of mine with her meal I tried to tell her a story about fairies. But she was not at all interested. Instead she was interested in the television. I gifted a storybook to my brother who is 9years of age but my aunt told me that he is not interested in reading. I can see that they lack imagination. Whenever they are told to write a simple essay for example on a cat, they seek the help of the essay books. This is very alarming.

These children pick up things very fast. They know how to use nearly all the electronic gadgets but they don't have the childhood fantasies. If someone does not know the age it has become difficult nowadays to distinguish between a child and a grown-up because children don't behave the way they should. They have not learnt to compromise, they get everything they demand, they are not brought up the way they should. Fast lifestyle is taking its toll mostly on the children. Parents can't give them time and they try to fill that void by succumbing to their demands.

I think it is high time we should stop and think whether this is the right way to bring up our future generation. Should'nt we follow the dictum "everything has a time" and act accordingly. Getting everything much before before time will actually harm our society' our lives' our children in the long run..