The Childhood Within.....

Some one asked me to write in a more placid manner… not to set fire to the paper. Also the individual in question mentioned that if at all burning is all that I intend to do then I should seek refuge in more domesticated topics that create awareness in the mind and not elsewhere.

So here is an attempt on that. Since each of the posts are dedicated to someone or something (believe it or not it’s the spirit of the person or the thing that makes me write; not the topic…) I dedicate this one to my own blog to the inabominable spirit of childhood in me that refuses to leave (-:

What is the biggest advantage of being a child? To be catered to from head to toe, to be the centre of the world and you-asked-for-it-and-its-there syndrome. There is always some one whom you can look up to on matter beyond scrapped knees, no matter how much the world or the biological clock tells you that you are a “Complan Boy/Girl”. It’s far more advantageous to be a child but alas we all realize it when its too late.

Today most of the kids do not have parents who tie them to their apron string 24*7. Both parents working, the MNC culture, the new lifestyle. The one that boasts of making the world a smaller place may have brought the satisfaction that “everyone/everything is just a click away” but it has made our hearts colder and distances larger and inevitably “childhood” shorter. But none the less to make up for their guilt of not having enough time with the family parents let the money speak on their behalf. When I look at the generation just 10-15 yrs younger to me I find the generation gap even almost the twice than what exists between us and the earlier generation. Makes me think of those time and distance problems in Maths. If a train crosses a pole in this many seconds how much time it takes for it to cross the next pole when the distance between the 2 is given. Assume the train to be the next generation approaching and us as the first pole and the second pole as something futuristic. Not that I’m old or crazy or a to be disciplinarian who believes in the motto of “A spank a day keeps mischief away.” For a moment even I’m tempted to take away that word “generation gap” from the passage above. I even laugh at myself thinking “generation gap…indeed. What the hell am I talking about?” But another part of me fights back in earnest. It says, “Mind you generation gap doesn’t only mean a difference in perspective, it a term beyond that”

Look at today’s kids. Born out of internet…well almost if parents could their seeds across to each other as an attachment. The way they carry themselves with poise, confidence and jargon often puts me at shame. The way in which Swani Khera has portrayed “Sexy” 9 year old in “Cheeni kum” scares me. Are kids actually like that?? Do they wear their attitude on their sleeves and can they talk about anything under the sun to a 64 year old. My mother would have disclaimed me had I even 2% of what she is. Not that I belong to a conservative family. Neither that I never argued with mom trying hard for her to see my point, about friends and outings. I did, not once or twice, but several times. But not like the young lady in question. ? There was always a limit. We may have laughed off her antics calling it a light hearted movie. Easy to do…infact that’s exactly what I did. But some great Bollywood fan and a too be parent must have gone home and named a new born as “Sexy”, thinking the name is in vogue. Remember how we had a sudden upsurge in the population of guys named Rahul in the nineties, thanks to the King Khan and his crazy fans. Some young thing goes home post “Cheeni Kum” and when an unsuspecting eternally comparing parent comments “Why are you so naughty…Cant u be like her? Did she ever run around crashing into things like you do?” .The child driven by the parent’s retort and in her own desperate attempt to “be like her” starts thinking like her, doing like her.

I am even willing to accept that maybe today no kids are like that; thus nulling what I said about the generation gap above. Ok the movie is not inspired by any real life stories or characters and any resemblance is purely coincidental. But thanks to our love for reel life which we see as a “dream to be true, some day in my life, no matter what comes” and not as a pass time we end up producing more “Sexies” or should I say “sexier”. Whatever. “Sexy” may have died in the movie but for millions of her real partners she rises like the phoenix, with all “beyond her year’s” maturity. But at the same time, watching adult movies, and talking brazenly to adults. Remember the good and bad coexist. They thrive together and not in the absence of each other as our short sighted looking at only one perspective mind intends us to believe. What else do you suppose is the beginning rift of a generation gap??

No, I’m not against “Cheeni Kum” the producer, the director or Swani Khera. That’s just an example I took. The latest one; I could think of. Children have to be children. Let them enjoy their age without any false pretensions before they are caught in the grindstone of life. After all once you grow up 98% of things said and done are untrue, false or results in someone else being unhappy. When was the last time you did something when everyone in question was happy and satisfied to the hilt? Childhood provides that rare opportunity to be clean of any sin and be the apple of everyone’s eyes. Then why that hurry to grow up?? To be a part of this big bad world? After all a time gone by cannot come back. It is not raining even if you are standing below a shower during dry season. A shower is a shower and a rain is a rain. They do not replace each other. Ever.