RAYEES AHMAD KUMAR
Childhood is the crucial and most delicate stage of human life. Doctors advise parents to be extra cautious while nurturing their children at this stage. Psychologists and educationists demand keen vigilance of children at childhood stage for it acts as a cornerstone for his overall personality development during later stages of life. Litterateurs and poets have composed articles, write-ups and poems to describe aspirations and tendencies of this stage and the innocence associated with it which in later part of human life is seldom observed. Now let me compare the childhood which we observed some three or four decades ago and the one which we currently feel in our own heartland the valley of Kashmir, which due to it’s charming beauty has earned the sobriquet the paradise on earth. Decades ago, in absence of mobile phone, smart phone and other electronic gadgets, our children would rely on black and white colour television at night hours to relax after a day’s tiredness.
Their day would start soon after taking pink salt tea prepared by their moms on traditional chulas. A rice or wheat flour bread, baked on the pan would please him and satisfy his hunger. It was followed by doing the school home task like writing some lines neatly on both sides of a wooden takhti, preferably in English and urdu language. Their mother would soon ask them to eat cooked rice prior to leaving for the school. At school they would interact with their fellows, discuss about the evening and night hours spent at home with their parents and siblings. It was the time when they would share the eatables in classrooms, help each other in understanding terms and ideas. During recess times, they again would return home to have mid day meals as free MDM in school wasn’t served then. After 4:00 PM they would again assemble in the nearby playground to enjoy some physically playing games like cricket, volleyball and Kabaddi. During winters they enjoyed snowy slopes, frozen water bodies and would sometimes wrangle by throwing hard rounded snowballs towards one another. During autumn season, our children in valley used to wake-up early in the dawn with the intention to gather walnuts under trees fallen during the night hours. Winter’s another fascinating feature for the children was the story telling by their grandparents who would close their eyes only after hearing a couple of interesting stories. Sometimes they would demand a cup of Kehwa before going to bed or sweet Suji or Gajar Ka Halwa which their mother used to prepare without showing any indifference or objectiveness.
Now the things have altogether changed. Children of contemporary times aren’t attracted towards physical games. Instead the presence of smart phones, laptops and other electronic gadgets are consuming their most of the precious time. They spend less time on their studies and more to watch rubbish stuff through internet. Parents have to make more efforts now to send their wards to schools as they have become screen addicted. They prefer online and mobile games over the physically played ones. Instead of taking traditional pink tea during morning and at afternoon, two times cooked rice alongside some well prepared vegetables at their home, they prioterize junk foods and other fast foods unhygienically prepared in hotels and roadsides. Instead of widening the real friend circle which would come to their help in distressing times, our children now are increasing their number of friends on social media which at times prove to be disastrous. Book reading which previously was considered a sacred hobby, is now declining among our children with each passing day. Reading a book now seems to be a boring exercise to our digital age children. Morality has almost vanished among our contemporary children, as they aren’t taught the ethical and other moral values by their parents, teachers and other elders, the moment they are taught so, they start arguing. Instead of imitating the real ideals in life and trying to develop their personality, they are running a rat race of increasing their fan following on social media. To impress more people on internet, they become YouTubers, TikTok players and make some nonsense reels to expand their viewership. Instead of making judicious use of modern technology, they are hell bent in harming and disadvantaging themselves by recklessly using it. Instead of showing affinity with his parents, siblings and other relatives, our children nowadays are lured by the fake characters on internet. Through internet they long to become millionaires, as famous as a celebrities and keep themselves aloof from the real life situations which makes them more like a machine than a sensible human being. Celebrating traditional and local festivals which were previously the main source of get-together for the extended families to share pleasures and grief, is now holding no value for our children as digital technologies have completely changed their priorities and preferences. To make the lives of our children better, colourful and vibrant, we must immediately hold the rope of our rich legacy strongly in order to add values, ethics and rationality in their lives. Further to develop them as civilized future citizens, we must reshape and polish them according to the lines of straight path.
(The writer hails from Qazigund Kashmir).
