Among all the phases of my life I place childhood at the top, the major reason for it - it was genuine. I didn't do a thing that I didn't like. I never had to decide on how to live - I just lived. There was never pressure to conform. There was never the pressure to belong. We didn't have identity crisis's. We were too busy having fun to notice all that.
Life was simple back then. We had the cartridge based video games, we had cartoon network, we had bicycles and more than all this we had friends - not the kind where you see at school and then say good bye for the day. We had friends who hung out everyday! But more than all this we had spaces - we had grounds and we had parents who gave us a free hand to go out and explore the world, play a sport and were not worried about one falling down and getting a few bruises. Parents did not feel that their kid going fishing in the local march was "dirty". It was fun for him and that's all that mattered.
I was recently at a relatives place and they had bought a new bicycle. It was spanking new - state of the art technology induced hi-fi one. My bicycle when I owned one was a simple old machine with a few metal bars, a chain and two wheels. This cycle had gears, It had funky colours, ergonomically designed seats and what not.
All fine and good - what one didn't have now was the company to ride with. Riding by itself is undoubtedly a fun thing to do;but when you do it with a bunch of like minded buddies, the experience, I can promise, is exhilarating! And then comes the issue of where to ride. The roads are too busy, there isn't much space where one can actually ride carefree - you always need to be alert. And not to mention the mind set today's kids have about sweating and getting dusty.
When I was at the age where I owned a cycle me and my gang of friends discovered new places, new routes and small hidden getaways that we owned exclusively to ourselves. We found challenging trails;often far away from our homes, and equally often without our parents knowledge of where exactly we went. They asked where we were headed, we would say we were going cycling and that's it - it ended there.
I feel a little sad for today's kids. They are deprived of a sense of adventure. They do not makes buddies like the way we did - not they they wouldn't but the circumstances don't permit them anymore. Today's kids do not have the time for the birds and the trees and the brooks. The pressure to perform, the pressure to have additional skills, the need to "excel" exceeds all that is supposed to come naturally to them . And the worst thing about all this is they are blissfully unaware of all this - they are lost in their i-pads and i-phones, their smart phones and game boxes. Ignorance is sometimes really bliss.
Life was simple back then. We had the cartridge based video games, we had cartoon network, we had bicycles and more than all this we had friends - not the kind where you see at school and then say good bye for the day. We had friends who hung out everyday! But more than all this we had spaces - we had grounds and we had parents who gave us a free hand to go out and explore the world, play a sport and were not worried about one falling down and getting a few bruises. Parents did not feel that their kid going fishing in the local march was "dirty". It was fun for him and that's all that mattered.
I was recently at a relatives place and they had bought a new bicycle. It was spanking new - state of the art technology induced hi-fi one. My bicycle when I owned one was a simple old machine with a few metal bars, a chain and two wheels. This cycle had gears, It had funky colours, ergonomically designed seats and what not.
All fine and good - what one didn't have now was the company to ride with. Riding by itself is undoubtedly a fun thing to do;but when you do it with a bunch of like minded buddies, the experience, I can promise, is exhilarating! And then comes the issue of where to ride. The roads are too busy, there isn't much space where one can actually ride carefree - you always need to be alert. And not to mention the mind set today's kids have about sweating and getting dusty.
When I was at the age where I owned a cycle me and my gang of friends discovered new places, new routes and small hidden getaways that we owned exclusively to ourselves. We found challenging trails;often far away from our homes, and equally often without our parents knowledge of where exactly we went. They asked where we were headed, we would say we were going cycling and that's it - it ended there.
I feel a little sad for today's kids. They are deprived of a sense of adventure. They do not makes buddies like the way we did - not they they wouldn't but the circumstances don't permit them anymore. Today's kids do not have the time for the birds and the trees and the brooks. The pressure to perform, the pressure to have additional skills, the need to "excel" exceeds all that is supposed to come naturally to them . And the worst thing about all this is they are blissfully unaware of all this - they are lost in their i-pads and i-phones, their smart phones and game boxes. Ignorance is sometimes really bliss.
No comments:
Post a Comment