Will you take me to Park today?”

These days, everything happens at a express speed, like 2 minute noodles. Even growing up. Talking of Kids, seems like they have matured fast and act as adults. They just don't wanna play outside or take up any sport for that matter as entertainment. What they want is the Mobile and the over-used laptops. They are truly the generation next kids as per phraseology. Nothing amiss, aren't there a time for everything?

During our teanage, we were so much like kids - below average unlike today, who dealt with outdoor games more like football, cricket, kho kho, gulli-danda, hatthi and indoor games that mostly amused us was carrom, antakshri. We used to yell and screem, get dirty and sometimes even fight, pluck roses from neighboorhood, and get occasional threats from them. It was mor fun and there was total involvement. The complaints that cornered us was, we were always out of the house despite mums strict notice to be in before getting darker.

Mobiles and Laptops were not seen and only images were there connected to big labs with tentacles like wire hanging around them. It was not meant for kids at all. T.V and Videos used to seldom attract our basic minds, as they were out of reach. I hardly remember watching a complete movie in a TV, we use to watch movies only in theatre which was more fun. Days, when we were stranded, were only at the examination phase and when most of the subject teacher strongly put a demeanor against our promotion to next class. Going to school was a routine which never was disturbed. We used to walk a mile to reach school, many a times laden with heavy baggage of books which hardly use to bother us. School was a place where we could meet friends and have fun while getting educated. Getting proper education was of utmost importance but we made sure we got our daily fill of sports. Today it is a compulsion of parent more than kids, being educated in top schools. Today the kids are more advanced in the way they are, a boy in class 6th for that matter knows what to wear, how to impress, how to flutter his wealth and state of affairs and to discuss on issues that were not at all our concern at that point of time. He know the total functionality of gadgets like mobile, gprs, bluetooth, video sharing, orkut, mms and the latest...

In reality, nothing practically has changed except outlook, still the babies are born as the way they are, naked and tied to the umbilical cord, the doctor still slaps their butt to ascertain that everything is okay. What has changed is the outlook of parents towards their kids and the definition of “best” - rather giving the best. Every parent in the whole universe would like to give the best for their child and nothing wrong in that. From the moment the child is conceived to the moment it enters the world, he/she is given the best possible care and protection according to the social strata of parents. Nothing wrong in that again, that is the time when the child needs the maximum care and protection to cope up with the worldly matters. But what about the time when the child is around 5-6 years old, when he is able to understand things and get an adequate grasp of surrounding.. When he is able to share things and put up a redressal. I have seen parents scrubbing their heads together, running behind the child with a glass of milk or breakfast in morning. The foundation of spoiling your kids begin there.....Today we make most of our time in the living room, before the TV getting addicted to soaps or scoops that is timely forecasted. A frustrated child is remorsely handed over the remote of TV rather than taking him out, without being bothered about the visuals he is painstakingly watching and putting on is juvenile mind. Aren’t we kind of exposing him/her to nudity/porn at a very tender age? When the child starts going to school before the bag a mobile phone is thurst into his hand so that he/she can call mom or dad in case of distress. But are we not responsible to check the messages they share with their buddies.. or the privacy is more important. Is there a time for that scrutiny at all. No, Mom and Dad are too busy in their own lives to check on that matter. Today every wish of a child is granted and if a child wants to play he is provided with a computer or a video game to sit and play in the house. But has anyone taken care to check if the child is actually playing a game on the computer and not surfing malicious content? Todays life is complex, parents are very busy in amassing wealth for future, and they are so busy that that they can’t spare a few minutes in a day to talk to their children and do discuss with them actually what’s right and what’s wrong? All these grants in form of expensive gadgets and toys are nothing but an alternative provided by parents so that the child doesn’t demand much of their time?

In a busy meeting with the board member, my friend who was sitting alongside, is awakened by a distressing ting of SMS. I could see him replying to the message "Will you take me to Park today?" Not today. Its a demand, the child still is in need of the company of parent. Time is the benefactor and the doer, somebody said. But aren’t we as a parent ruining all our efforts by not giving their kids the time they need. ? Will you take me to the park today?” The stress beneath the syllable Will you... is pregnant with unborn desires, a desire for your warmth and hand-holding. Isn't it so !! Then the big question is do we have time for our children? If the child tomorrow says, okay “I am ready to give up all gadgets, videos, tv-shows, sms and the laptop then would you play with me!! Aren't we to blame ourselves, in the making of misleaded youth of tomorrow, led astray by the hands that were destined to nurture.

Kahlil Gibran truly said in his sacred prophecy, that

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let our bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Don't curse and predict the future.. but change yourselves, change is inevitable. Please sit with your sibblings, have a little patience, share with them and let them share their thoughts with you too. Occassionaly hold them as the potter while shapping the pot, give them clarity of thoughts, vision and appreciation. The best you can give them is nothing but your TIME, rest all other things are subject to destruction, death or decay.. Understand and act before it is too late. Make them a good and responsible citizen of tomorrow, just the way, your parents did.