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ShareBanglore: A couple of years ago, I visited a school I had studied in as a teenager. School hours were over and there was some sort of music practice going on in the hall; the security guard was reluctant to let me in, not surprising in today's world of heightened security.
"Why do you want to come in?" the guard asked. "I want to see the school and I want to show my husband around," I answered. "Why do you want to do that?" he asked again. "Because I studied here," I replied.
Reluctantly, the guard issued me a visitor's pass. 'When was it that you were here?" he asked making conversation."Twenty-five years ago," I said.
The guard's astonished face made me smile. "Well," he said, "Welcome back."
It is as much of a shock to me when I think that it is twenty-five years now since those long-ago school days. As children, we were accustomed to hearing older people say things like, 'In my time' or 'When we were children' and now, I find myself in the same position in time as those people.
I, sometimes, find myself wondering how much things have changed since those days in the eighties. I have a strong suspicion that things have changed very rapidly indeed; in fact, I have a feeling that this new generation -- our children -- have been subjected to the maximum number of changes in the shortest possible time.
Children's Day is around the corner and I asked my eight-year-old about it. "Do you know when Children's Day is celebrated?" "Yes," my eight-year-old answers. "On the fourteenth of November." "Do you know why it is celebrated?" I persist. "Because it is Jawaharlal Nehru's birthday and he loved children," pat came the answer. I dig deeper. "Do you think we should have this special day for children?" "Yes," a surprised look. "Children should have fun."
Ah, fun! I look around and I find that this is the key word nowadays as far as children are concerned. In my home, my son is accustomed to hearing weightier words such as responsibility, integrity and keeping-of-one's-word frequently. But all carers of children these days -- parents, teachers, coaches -- are fighting a hard battle, for all around us is the mantra of rapid, if not instant self- gratification. The advertisements on television say so, the hoardings on the road say so, even some books, films, cartoons on television say so. The makers of toys certainly say so.
I do not want to be a spoil-sport; just because my generation had to work harder, focusing less on pleasure than on work, I do not wish the same for our children. Our time was a less abundant one: we had a fraction of the toys and the self-distracting electronic gizmos that children today have. But we had books and friends and cousins and picnics by streams not yet polluted by frightening chemicals. And I think we had fun. Yes, I am absolutely sure we had fun! We did not have to rush through peak hour traffic on the way back from sports coaching, we did not have to worry about walking down the road alone to a friend's house.
If I could have a wish-list for our children on their special day, Children's Day, I would probably wish for these few things:
* Lots of fun, but fun blended with an awareness that this is a privilege not to be taken lightly.
* Opportunity to achieve whatever it is they want achieve and the determination to make it all possible.
* Wisdom to supplement the tremendous amount of information they are privileged to receive these days.
* Generous hearts that will stand them in good stead in these remarkable times.
* Safety and security, especially for the less fortunate among our children.
And of course, these wishes go out to all children, not just the ones in our homes, but the ones on the streets, in shelters, in orphanages, wherever they may be.
The writer is the author of a collection of short stories titled Next Door
