A broken voice, sagacious advice

thethoughtmeal1 Comment

Broken“>
In her late 80s, feeble, quivering as she lay on her bed with the radio playing next to her.  At her foothill, all the necessary arrangements have been made to take care of her daily chores, as she is not mobile. As I sit next to her in the evening every day, she talks a little but shares valuable outlook. One day, in her broken, shaken voice, she narrated the story of broken dreams. In a gloomy voice, she said, how badly she wanted to study and become the “Headmaster” of the primary school in her village. The dream to serve the society as an educator flourished in her when she was a little child. Soon, her dreams started to dwindle when she married my Grandpa at the age of 15. She left her parents, village, and dreams, behind. She was vested with the onus a new family consisting of six members. Her dreams got lost in her in-law’s dream to see a grandchild play in their lap, her husband’s dream to expand his business and house, her parent’s wish to see her lead a happy married life. By now, she had begun to search for happiness in her new family’s dreams, as her own dreams faded away. She accepted everything that came her way and embraced all that life threw at her. Now, being in the last phase of her life, all she regrets is being unable to achieve her dreams, the broken dreams as she recalls them. Had she not given up on her dreams and tried a little harder to achieve them, maybe she would have no regrets in this life. All she wishes now is to accomplish those broken dreams in her next birth and be known as the “Headmaster”. With that, she taught me a very important lesson- “Your dreams should be your priority”. Not all dreams can be achieved, but we should never stop trying, no matter what. Every day, when I see her, I am reminded of my dreams and how hard I should work to achieve them.

Toys to Tablets:The lost world of play

thethoughtmeal16 Comments

It was a sunny day. The Sun was on the horizon, making the sky look like a beautiful bride draped in pink and orange.  As I listened to Puth’s tracks, my mind was already doing some calorie Vs workout calculations. Suddenly, my attention was drawn to a cute little girl dressed in a red floral frock, hair neatly tied into a ponytail. The tiny tot was trying to enjoy the see-saw ride, all on her own. She sat on one side, then stood up pulling the saw, got down and ran to the other side to reiterate the process, trying hard to uncover the joy associated with the game. I looked at her in a pensive way, a pang of sympathy overshadowed me. I was flung to my childhood memory lane. A sense of gratefulness and fortune soared in my heart as I cherished those memorable days I spent playing on the slides, the swing, and the roundabout, to name a few. How eagerly I waited to finish my homework so that I could play Blind Man’s buff, Conkers, Hide and Seek, Colourman, and many more.

A gush of thoughts started doing rounds on my mind when I glanced at the bench next to me, to see a kid sitting next to his mother, engrossed in playing cookie crush on his mom’s mobile.  At once, I was reminded of my 5-year-old nephew and a bunch of kiddie cousins, whose eyes are glued to their respective mother’s cell phone for a majority of the time they are awake. Their conversations with me majorly include questions like, “Which games do you have on your phone?”, ” I want to watch Lego Batman on Youtube”,  and so on and so forth, unlike our conversations with elders those days where we used to recite rhymes, short stories, prayers etc. to them, simply to get appreciated. A major study by experts at Harvard School of Public Health found that children who used their smartphone for more than 5 hours a day had a 43% increased chance of getting obese. Intense use of gadgets also had a significant effect on children’s sleep. Such kids also tend to become less sociable.

Is this a catastrophic failure of our so-called ” luxurious lifestyle”? Have we become victims of pester power a little too early? Is it the paranoia of our child getting infected by the germs present in the soil or the air? Does all work and no play not make Jack a dull boy anymore? As elders, have we failed to show this beautiful play world to our kiddos. Are we heading to a world where toys are replaced by tablets? Are our childhood games facing an existential crisis? We all wish to have playful giggles around us, and not thick spectacles keeping to themselves. It is time for us to analyze the state of affairs of our gadgetophilic kiddies more reasonably.