21ST GENERATION PARENTS- GO OLD SCHOOL!

How many of you readers believe that technology has by far been the greatest boon to the human race? For sure it’s made our life much easier than it was. The virtual world, thanks to the Internet, has got us closer to communities across the globe. As predicted by one of the world’s famous media theorist, Marshall McLuhan, the world has truly become a Global Village.

But as we have read and heard, where exists good, there exists evil too. I believe that technology and Internet have brought along with them some far reaching disastrous consequences which is causing the human race to drift apart. People prefer to be connected to virtual world while living in an isolated capsule. In other words, we humans are on the verge of becoming emotionally handicapped.

This post might seem like the typical write up where I’m going to give you the pros and cons of technology. It’s not so. I’m going to speak about a much more crucial topic, which if not addressed and acted upon immediately, will transform humans into technology slaves.

So where do I begin? Let's start with the title of this post. Old-School is an adjective in the English language which refers to anything that is from an earlier era and looked upon with high regard or respect.  With regard to the post, when I speak about old-school, I refer to the way children were brought up back in our days. I’m speaking of a childhood devoid of technology.

Today I see a lot of parents, the techno-savvy ones in particular, providing different kinds of hand held gizmos to their young ones to keep them busy. When I visit public places, whether it be a movie theatre or a restaurant or even the park, I notice a lot of parents hand over their mobile phone or tablet to keep them from creating a ruckus while they can get a particular chore done or may be just hand around with friends. What seems like an easy way out may cost heavily on a child’s progress and brain development. In this way, the seeds of distraction and emotional detachment are sown right from the start. The same child who according to his age, should be playing with toys and going outdoors, gets accustomed to the virtual world where if he makes a fuss, he will get his share of entertainment through mobile games and cartoon videos.

I would like to share a personal experience about a similar incident which happened to me in the recent past and infuriated me beyond words. Just about a month ago, I along with my husband had gone for our usual temple visit to our native place. Sitting a few metres away, was a young couple along with their daughter who might have been around the age of 3. While I was praying, out of nowhere I heard Sunny Leone’s song “Paani Wala Dance” playing in the background. It was totally unexpected, especially at this very divine village shrine.

My immediate reaction was to tell whoever this person was, to stop playing the damn music and let me pray in peace! As I turned towards the direction of the sound, what do I see? The same little girl operating a mobile phone, absolutely loving the music without even knowing what the song meant. To make things worse, she was cuddled up in her mother’s lap who was totally cool with what was happening. Even the father was being completely ignorant about the situation and the surrounding. Irresponsible to another level! In spite of being furious, I politely asked the mother to stop the music. She gave me a dirty look but stopped playing the music immediately.  Within a span of 2 minutes, the music started playing again. That’s when I realized what a big problem this was. Parents are choosing the easy way out. Instead of talking to their child and making them curious about different topics, they choose to completely shut out their creativity and pacify them with technology.

Parents are supposed to set examples for their kids to learn and follow. Are these really the examples children need to follow? Kids of my generation never had gizmos till the age of 17. I remember my childhood playing outdoors at the park with my gang of girls, sailing paper boats in the rain and reading books written by one of my favourite childhood authors, Enid Blyton. And not to forget Tinkle Digest, Panchatantra and lots more! Even TV viewing was limited to 2 hours a day. This is what I mean by old school.

I sincerely request all parents out there to inculcate the right habits in their young ones and do the right thing. Bring them up the old school way and see what a bright future they would hold.

WOMAN & THE WHEEL

WOW! Its been ages since I’ve been wanting to start a blog but it just wasn’t working out! Writer’s block as we like to call it.  As I was googling out some blog sites to be a part of, Blog Adda came to my rescue. I must say, I totally love the Write over the Weekend (WOW) initiative as it gives that tad bit of a push, which well, I definitely needed. Here goes my first blog post.

Kill the Cliché is the prompt of the week, so let’s get down to business. What’s a cliché? The dictionary meaning states it as that stereotyped expression or sentence or phrase which has been used and abused over time and is absolutely irrelevant. In other words, wahi ghissi piti line jo sunke kan pak jaate hain. So, according to me, a typical cliché of our century, especially in India is, “Ladies can’t drive” or “Ladki hai, gaadi chala payegi kya?”

Some of you may not agree to categorize this as a cliché, but look at it closely. Today, women walk head-to-head with men in every possible field known to the world and we still choose to push them in a category which states that if you are a woman, you’re just not a good enough driver or worse, you’re not capable enough to even drive.

I’ve been driving from the past 6 years and haven’t looked back since. And one huge motivation for me has been my mother. If she hadn’t to push me to drive, I would’ve ended up like those frightened lot of girls who dread even touching the steering wheel. Interestingly, I have observed so many males get frightened of the fact that their female counterparts will be driving them around for the day. Is it even necessary? I truly believe that it is the duty of men to encourage and support the women in their lives to go ahead and drive and also teach them if need be.

    

Women today are seen at the forefront, confidently driving school buses as well as cab services in different parts of the country. Today we also see a boom in driving schools started by women and for women, which provides an impetus to this initiative. These women and many more have embarked on the journey of women empowerment. And driving is just one such cause. These are women who are examples of why such typical clichés must be rooted out immediately.  This blog is shout out from every woman in the country who wants all the people to cry out loud, kill the cliché and say, YES, WOMEN CAN DRIVE!

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.